Algorithms

            “Ah, a new student, I presume?” Mrs. Dell identified.

            The student desks were lined up in a semicircle and faced toward the Smartboard with office desk neighboring it. Every desk was occupied by a student except a desk at the end of the line, which was next to Caden, so Mrs. Dell gestured Ethan to the empty desk. Caden watched Ethan settle on the desk next to him. Suddenly, Ethan ripped notebook open and grabbed a pen out of his backpack. He scribbled the same number from earlier in the morning. A temptation crawled in Caden, making him shift closer to Ethan and tilt his eyes toward Ethan’s desk. He wanted to know what number Ethan wrote down in his notebook. What made Ethan to write this? Does it mean something?

            Before Caden knew it, the notebook was clear enough for him to read. Ethan apparently filled the previous page and turned to new page; he just continued repeating the number and only filled a quarter of the page. The number was 847. Of course, Caden couldn’t understand the significance of the number “847”, so he whispered Veronica, who happened to be next to him, “I just saw what Ethan wrote on his notebook. It was like… millions of ‘847’.”

            “Check it out.” Veronica’s eyes directed his attention to the Smartboard.

            Mrs. Dell already jumped into a lesson in the first day of school; she was writing down an equation with lots of variables in it. Apparently, the whole equation equals 847, which was pure coincidence.

            “What? He knew what Mrs. Dell was going to write. He’s physic.” Caden was fascinated.

            “Or he’s just so smart that he figured out the equation before she could.” Veronica shot his fascination down.

            The class spent the whole of the time sweating over formulas for Algebra II class. They kept thinking, why did the algebra have to include so many letters in a mix of numbers? Why there were so many formulas to learn? Why this has to be so hard? They groaned as Mrs. Dell declared the tonight homework.

            “Homework in the first day of school. Classic Dell from the Hell.” Veronica commented.

            Everybody was already edging in their seat before the bell ring. When it rang, everybody was so quick to pool out of the classroom and desert Mrs. Dell. Everybody stepped in the hallway, but Caden stood in the hallway while everybody was on their way to their next class. He took in a moment to think about what Ethan wrote. He was sure that Ethan wrote the number way before the teacher even started to write down the equation, but it might be something outrageous to think about. This coincidence just can’t prove Ethan’s possible ability.

            Caden looked up to the clock attached to the ceiling. It was 8:47, just similar to the number Ethan wrote. His eyes, for some reason, nervously glanced at everywhere, and his heartbeat began to rise. Up ahead in the hall, two black dudes, who seemed came from the row of thugs in the cafeteria, stepped out from a classroom next to Mrs. Dell’s. They were ranting at each other until one of them threatened, “I finna kill you.” The next thing Caden saw was the threat victim, Theron, tackled the dude across an inch away from Caden’s side. On the floor, the threatening dude, Anthony, punched Theron to the floor and got top of him. Caden spotted Anthony’s hand sliding into his pant pocket. It was obvious; Anthony flicked a blade open in his pocketknife, but before it could thrust into Theron, Caden clapped on the blade to restrict its movement.

            A security guard appeared upon them with a gun pointed at them. They were frozen and silenced, figuring out what to do with gun pointed at them. Thankfully, the guard assessed what was going on between them and commanded, “You… drop the weapon.” Anthony dropped the pocketknife instantly. Finally, the guard grabbed Anthony to the wall and sent Theron and Caden sitting by the wall across them. The hallway was empty except the guard arresting Anthony while Theron and Caden sat on cold, laminated tile floor.