Slapshot

Chapter 26: A Study Party

"What is this?" I ask, smelling it.

"Come on!" He chuckles. "3...2..." We both drink what's in the glass at the same time.

"Ooh." I say, my face twisting when I'm done. "That's strong."

"That's the point." He says. "Did you like it?"

"I'm not sure." I say. "Let's... do our math."

I moved my chair so it was over beside his, examining where in the textbook we were. I read over the content, preparing to try and reteach it to him, but with his elbow on the table, head resting on his hand, he didn't look focused.

"Do you not wanna do this?" I asked him. "I don't wanna teach to a wall."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." He shakes his head, running his hand through his hair. "I just keep thinking about our game."

"I know, but you have to focus on this." I sighed.

"How about this." He starts, sitting up. "You teach the lesson to me. Then you ask questions. For every question that I get right, you take a shot. But for every question that I get wrong, I have to take a shot."

"Seriously?" I raise my eyebrows, trying to contemplate if this would be a good idea or not.

"Yes." He laughs. "It'll motivate me to focus."

"Fine." I agree.

Cam stands up. "Let me pick out some drinks." He walks back over to the cabinet, pulling out four more bottles and leaving them on our table. "I'm ready to learn." He smiles, all his attention now on me.

"You're gonna need your calculator." I tell him. "Now, let's learn about rational functions." I say over-enthusiastically. I'm surprised at how well he listens for the next 20 minutes as I try and take what's in the textbook and explain it, making it easier to understand. It also helped that this was a concept we talked about last year, so I hoped maybe this unit would be a good one for him.

"Okay, first question." I smiled, closing the textbook. "How would you find the vertical asymptote?"

"Ea-sy." He grins. "In the equation, you set your denominator to 0 and solve for x. Pick your drink babe." He chuckles, pushing forward two bottles. One was red, and one was clear. I picked the red one, reading the word Strawberry on the label. He poured it for me, right to the top, and I took the shot.

"Does this mean I have to ask harder questions?" I ask playfully.

"No, no, we're just starting." He says.

"How do you find the horizontal asymptote?" I ask next.

He stops to think. "It depends on which degree is bigger, the numerator or the denominator. I don't remember which one is for which, though." He tells me. He was right.

"I don't know..." It was a pretty half-assed answer.

"Oh, c'mon! I'm still right." He says.

"Fine." I pick the clear drink this time, pouring it myself and taking the shot. God that was strong.

Our little game continued on like this until I had asked around 15 questions. I had taken majority of the shots.

"Next question." He smirks, leaning back and crossing his arms.

"I can't." I say. My head is swirling to the point I feel it may fall off. God, I didn't want this to happen.

"I'm too... I think I'm drunk." I mumble, looking up at him.

"I think you are, too." He chuckles.

"I feel weird." I say, letting out a short laugh at his face. He stands up and goes to the fridge where he takes out a beer, cracking it open and taking a sip.