Fighting Shadows

Chapter 4 Evelyn

"House is h-o-u-s-e; child is c-h-i-l-d; and father is f-a-t-h-e-r."

"Oh okay."

"Good job. Okay, now let's do your math. Actually, what is your writing prompt?"

"Um. I don't know. I'll check."

She grabbed something out of her backpack and got a prompt on a piece of paper. The paper said You have to write or have somebody help you write a paragraph about a pet you have or a pet you want. If you don't have/want any, then write about why you don't want one.

"So are you going to write about...the pet you want?" I asked her.

"Yeah."

"What pet?"

"I don't know yet."

"Well, you have to decide."

"I know. Probably a dog, a husky."

"Okay, well, tell me if you need help."

"I probably won't, but okay."

"Let's do math tonight and then you can do writing later. Sometime tomorrow."

"Okay."

So she grabbed her math out of her backpack and said, "I know how to do this, but can you still check it when I'm done?"

"Yeah sure. Go ahead and start."

While she was doing that, I got out her clothes for bed, a t-shirt and shorts matching pajama set, and put on mine, a regular t-shirt and shorts. After I was finished changing, I went over and unlocked the door to our room. About 10 minutes later, Luna came in. She changed quietly and asked what we were doing.

"Homework," Sky replied.

"You almost done?"

"Yeah, I just have 3 problems left," she replied.

"Okay. But hurry up. It's almost 10:00."

"Okay, we will," I answered.

"I'm getting a snack before bed, do either of you want one?" Luna asked before she left the room.

"Yeah!" Sky exclaimed.

"No thanks," I answered.

"Okay, Sky, what do you want?"

"I don't know, surprise me or the same thing as you."

"Alright," she answered as she left the room.

"Okay, I'm done."

"Give it to me so I can check it."

She handed me her paper and I checked everything. 6+3=9, 9+4=14 no, but only one number off, 3+5=8, 7+3=10, 8+6=11 no, it's 14. I checked the rest of them, and she only got one other one wrong.

"You got three wrong. It was 9+4 and 8+6 and 7+7. The three answers above 10. I understand that because you were using your fingers, so it's okay," I told her. "I'll help you."

"Okay, how?"

"Like this so if I'm doing the problem 7+7 and run out of fingers," I held up 7 fingers and counted out 3 more, "Now I'm out, but I still have more numbers to add right?"

"Yeah."

"So I'm going to use your fingers too. Hold up your hands with 0 fingers up." She did just that, "Okay, now hold up your fingers as I count and point to them."

"Okay."

"1, 2, 3," I said as I pointed to my fingers, "4, 5, 6, 7," I said again pointing to her fingers and she held them up just like I asked. "Good job so what's the answer?" She counted all our fingers and questioned, "14?"