Researching With the Jock {BWWM High School Romance}

Prologue

Resting my cheek on my palm as I stare blankly at the orange and green M&M's dancing with a man in an animated commercial advertising M&M's, I stand up from the floor to eat my hamburger and French fries from McDonald's daddy has bought for me, Carolyn, and himself while mommy and our sister, Diane are at a local nearby park.

"Conjunction Junction" from Schoolhouse Rock! comes on and I begin singing along to it. While I'm eating two fries each, I notice the paper that is laying lifeless on the table to observe some of the math problems that are marked with red X's on this Redd fellow's homework. He's probably my dad's student. I lean forward at the math problem on Redd's homework and turn my attention to the book that my dad brings with him when he goes to work. I skim through pages and pages of examples for each problem. Going back to the page that I was on, I walk to my bedroom since mommy has a no-running in the house policy to get a piece of paper and my personal calculator. I pick up the red pen and write the math problem on my piece of paper.

-4x + 8=16... what does x equal to? With my hand pressing on the current page I'm in to the page of examples on how to solve the x. When the equation has a minus, turn it into a plus and the plus turns into a minus. The example has a plus sign, so the number after the equal gets added and then, divide the given answer with the number with an x. X equals the answer. So, eight minus eight is zero and sixteen minus eight equals eight. -4x over -4x as well as turning on my calculator to start off with eight divided by negative 4x, I get the answerof negative two. X equals -2. The more problems I solve on my piece of paper, the more I become intrigued with solving for x.

I look back at the examples page to discover an interesting equation; 5 (a + 3) a=0. 5 and the letter a in the parenthesis become 5a+15 because when there are parenthesis in the equation, that indicates multiplication and then you multiply the number that has a letter with a number. When it comes to the lonely letter equaling to zero, I write the number one beside the letter a as it results in adding 5a and 1a that gives me 6a-15=0. The minus is now a plus. Fifteen plus fifteen is thirty just as zero plus fifteen equals fifteen. Fifteen divided by three is five.

"Vivian!" A gentle baritone voice calls.

"Yes, daddy?" I turn my head around to face a man with toasted brown complexion that goes well with an afro like the Jacksons as well as a chevron mustache. My sister, Carolyn stands beside him with her hair done in two puffs and a pair of glasses like me. "Do you and Carolyn want to go to the park?" Dad queries.

"No," I shake my head. "I want to stay here and do math instead." I say. My father furrows his eyebrows in confusion. "Kiddo, why do you want to stay here when today is such a beautiful day to go out to the park and get some fresh air?" He walks to my direction and takes a seat on the couch beside me. He notices that the math book is open and takes a gander on my paper full of equations that I have done. He picks up a piece of paper and his eyes scan on the equations and answers of me finding the x. "Vivian Anne McKeaver, you did this?" Dad queries, sounding astonished in the tone of his voice.

"Uh-huh," I nod.

"What did she do, daddy? Is she in trouble?" Carolyn runs to us with her standing between us. He puts the paper down on the table.

"Your sister is a smart cookie, sugar bear!" He chuckles and picks up Carolyn to spin her around as she begins giggling. He then places Carolyn back on her feet and picks me up to spin me around too. I start giggling in amusement.

"Vivian, you are so smart! How did you know about Pre-Algebra?" Dad inquiries.

"I noticed that you were marking on Redd's paper and I decided to go through the equations and examples in the math book to help me understand the different math than the easy math." I answer. "Vivian, with you doing this kind of math, you could go to college!"

"Daddy, I want to go to college, too!" Carolyn exclaims.

"Oh, yeah? What do you want to go to college for?" Our dad queries to Carolyn.

"I want to go to college for music! I want to sing like Diana Ross and Donna Summer." Carolyn replies confidently. Our father chuckles amusingly.

"You girls can be anything you want to be as long as you work harder and smarter. Be passionate with what you desired to be when you girls get older. And always have faith in what you do to reach to the ladder of success." Dad counsels.

"Okay, daddy!" Carolyn and I agree simultaneously while we nod our heads. The door opens and I turn around to see our sister marching with her brows lowering and her fists clenching. I take notice that our mom is doing the same thing, too. "Patricia, take a look at what our daughter just did!" Dad calls and mom takes a look at the piece of paper that my dad looks a while ago. "Our daughter is the little Marilyn vos Savant and smart kids know how to solve a problem. We need to start our savings fund for the girls to go to college when they grow up!" Dad cheers. The door slams, causing dad's smile morph into a concerning frown.

"Now, what's wrong with Diane, honey?" Dad inquiries, holding her hand in his.

"Diane is upset because she didn't want to leave her friends at the park. I told her that she would see them again tomorrow." Mom tells.

"You go talk to her." Dad encourages and mom does what he wants her to do by going to the room that my sisters and I share. But before my mom is heading off to our room, the approach of fondness in my mom's voice avails. "I'm so proud of you, honey!" She leans forward to place a kiss on my head.

"Thanks, mommy." I smile before I look up and peer at the rural scenery with the sun beaming at the trees and grass with slight breeze blowing at the leaves of Sagle, Idaho in a seventy eight degree weather where you go on a hike and fish on Sundays after church service. And to be honest; it is quite rare for a four year old to be a neophyte of a different type of math that my daddy teaches in middle school. I don't know anyone else who has the same intelligence as me with the IQ of William James Sidis.