Falling for math

7. My insanely gorgeous math teacher (part 1)

Time was moving fast. Time had always moved fast when Hailey and I were together. And for a while, after I had lost her, time had stopped moving. Now, I couldn't see time move. It felt like it was moving without me, too quickly for me to follow.

That's how I found myself only a few weeks away from the math competition. Everything with Miss Rose was back to normal and now more than ever, she gave me an endless string of math exercises, articles, and books to read. I was grateful but it was still more math than I was used to. Yet, I found myself with math books sprawled across my bed on a Saturday night. My mother was worried I was overworking myself to avoid feeling like I had done in the past but this time it was different. I was burying myself in math books because I enjoyed it. Especially now that I had Miss Rose's guidance.

However, there seemed to be a downside to this situation. Now, I couldn't do anything math related without thinking of my beautiful math teacher; or as Lea had called her at the beginning of the year, my 'insanely pretty' math teacher.

Speaking of Lea, now that the competition was approaching, I had been receiving more calls and texts from her than I was used to. Lea had also been selected for the math competition and she was more stressed than usual. That's why this past week, Lea had gotten into the habit of calling me at any given time to ask the most ridiculous math questions. Questions she had —without a doubt— the answer to but was convinced she had forgotten how to do basic math. When she called me in the middle of a Tuesday night with another ridiculous question, I knew I had to do something to ease her stress. Don't get me wrong, I loved math, just not in the middle of the night. That's why I created a math test based on the previous years' math competitions for her to take. And of course, she had done brilliantly. It had restored some of her confidence and I was glad I had been able to help since she had been so welcoming to me from the moment I had first started here. I was pleasantly surprised to realize that with Lea, I had made a real friend.

**

One day, when I arrived at school, that nice woman from the administration office informed me the principal was waiting for me in his office. At first, I looked at her confused and wondered if she had me mistaken for someone else. Lily Parkins did not get called into the principal's office.

Yet here I was a few minutes later, patiently sitting on a comfy chair outside the principal's office. All this waiting was making me nervous. The man I had barely ever seen had requested my presence in his office immediately, making me miss a class and he couldn't be bothered to be on time. Besides, it wasn't just any class I was missing; it was HER class.

So, in addition to being nervous, I was annoyed which made me even more restless than usual. 10 minutes later, when I had gathered enough courage to knock on the door, the principal got out of his office with a charming smile on his face.

"Miss Parkins, please, come in. Sorry to have kept you waiting, I was on the phone with one of our board members."

"That's okay, sir." I answered politely even though this man's office was the last place I wanted to be right now.

"I called you in here so we can have a chat about the upcoming competition." The man said while sorting out his messy desk. When I heard the topic of the meeting, I was instantly filled with dread because that could only mean one thing: he knew. What Miss Rose had asked must have tipped him off and he knew. In the back of my mind, I was aware that him knowing would most likely be of no consequence at all but having to talk about it brought back so many difficult memories that I wanted to avoid it at all costs. Before I could find a way out of this situation (I was not against pretending to faint), he went on.

"As you know, this is one of the most renowned math competitions and you are attending a very prestigious school." He paused and I was starting to see where he was going with this. "Now Miss Parkins, I took a chance on you. Usually, we don't let students join our school at the end of their high school cursus but you're a very bright student. I did you a favor, this school will definitely help you get into MIT, wouldn't you agree?"