Quinn and Felix

Chapter 3 - Strangled Donkey

"Organisms in our ecosystems each have their own niche. A niche is a role an organism has in its own community."

Mrs. Reynolds walked over to Felix's desk and tapped him on the head with her dainty finger. "Wake up."

He rubbed his good eye and slouched into his seat. "What is a niche, Felix?"

He looked around confusingly and then fixed his eyes on Mrs. Reynolds.

"A green lady who flies on a broom?" The class giggled.

"No, wrong, wrong, wrong! It's niche, not witch! Now copy down those notes!" She looked him in the eye. "And I better not catch you sleeping in my class again, understand?"

"I think we all know who the witch is," I heard Poppy whisper.

He nodded and began to write. I almost felt pity for the boy. He can barely stay awake, in fact, he's falling back asleep right now, he always has some kind of bruise or gash on his face, and all of the teachers in this entire school are most likely fed up with him.

I sit right across from him in the front row, where all the good kids sit. Or, the ones she needs to keep an eye on. If Gabe were in here, I bet he'd be in the very front like the rest of the misbehaved students.

Mrs. Reynolds clasped her hands together. "Time to change! We'll finish notes tomorrow."

Everyone immediately left the room, except for one boy and one girl. Felix and I. His head was resting on top of his fist, deeply asleep. How does he do it?

I need to wake him up before he gets in trouble. I grabbed my book bag and...whacked him. A little too hard, actually. He bolted upwards, eyes wide. Before he could see me, I ran out of the room and into math.

I wiped a bead of sweat off of my forehead and sat down at my desk.

"New unit!" Mr. Bricks exclaimed. "Money!" The class groaned. Money is the most boring possible thing to even think about. It's also very difficult. In fact, I was never good at math, and neither was my mother.

"Look on the bright side. In the future, when you have an income and your own job, you will know how to add tax and rates! Now, isn't that great?" Everyone shrugged. "And you will learn this. Poppy, would you pass out the papers, please?" Poppy is the teacher's pet. Mostly with Mr. Bricks, though.

She handed them out one by one, making sure to crumple mine a little before she gave it to me. Thanks, Poppy.

"Drake, read the first question on the board, please."

Drake adjusted his glasses onto the bridge of his nose.

"Sally bought a pair of shoes for $49.00. There was a 5% sales tax on the shoes. How much did Sally have to pay for the shoes in total?"

"Exactly, Drake. Exactly. How much did Dr- er, I mean Sally, have to pay? Well, I'll show you!"

He walked to the board and grabbed a blue expo marker. "First, write down the amount of money for the shoes." Mr. Bricks frowned as he realized his marker was nearly dried out.

"Then, this is the easy part. Remember the rule. Change the percent into the decimal. But remember, you have to add the one hundred to the percent if the word problem says total. There you have it! Now, all you gotta do is multiply the decimal with your money. And the answer is..."

Poppy shot her hand up.

"Yes, Poppy?"

"$51.45!"