[Nine Days Later, Monday October 24th; Fall Music Festival: Saturday, November 19th]
"Dean - eraser," I quickly whispered, holding my hand out as he set the eraser in my hand and I cleaned off my paper of my confused trials of division.
"I still don't get this." he muttered as I set the eraser back on the edge of his desk.
"Me neither," Jungkook said quietly, setting his pencil down as he sighed and leaned back in his chair, stretching.
"I've tried nearly every number that exists - why aren't any of these factors?" I asked to myself, redrawing the table I had just erased. Jungkook tapped my shoulder, then pointing at Joy, who had just walked back into the room from where ever she was before. Dean noticed too, making a whisper-yell towards her as she sat down in her seat that was a few rows away from us.
"Joy," he began quietly, getting louder when she wouldn't turn around. "Joy... Sooyoung-" he hissed, finally making her notice all three of us looking intently her direction. She widened her eyes a little, asking "What?" as we all pointed towards the papers on our desk. She made a little laugh as she stood up, casually strolling towards us. Mrs. Ray didn't care if we helped each other, as long as she stayed quiet and didn't bother her. (Great teacher, I know.)
"What seems to be the issue here, children?" she asked, kneeling down next to our desks.
"I don't get any of this." Jungkook stated with no shame, running his hand along the entire paper. Dean gave a nod of agreement, so she then looked towards me.
"Me neither." I whispered with a little shrug. She made a sigh, then scooting towards me as she pointed at a question.
"This one?"
I nodded, then putting some numbers on the xy-table. "I've tried all of these and none of them are factors."
Joy only glanced at the numbers I had written, then hit the top of her mechanical pencil on her knee as she began writing on my paper.
"'P' over 'Q'" she began as she quote, "'P' is the constant factors and 'Q' is the leading coef.'s factors."
"Cough?" Dean asked, leaning over to see what she was writing.
"Coef. - Coefficients, honey." she clarified as she turned around, then writing it on his paper too. "Then use synthetic and factor theorem."
Jungkook made a scrunched up confused face. "Too many big words."
"Syn-theh-tic." Joy said slowly, stretching out the word. "Easy division. 'Fact-or', theorem."
"You're just repeating the words, Joy." Jungkook sighed, picking up his pencil and finally starting to draw a table.
"Pronouncing things correctly are important, Jungkook."
"Mhm, sure. So is being able to do this worksheet - and I seem to have that under control, don't I?" he asked sarcastically, twirling his pencil with raised eyebrows.
Joy lightly smacked him in the shoulder. "If you think positively, that'll probably help out too." She shifted her weight to her other side, leaning towards me to see my work. "Yep, so then so both plus and minus those numbers."
I scribbled a little 'plus or minus' sign in front of all the numbers, then listing them all out in my table. "Cool," she breathed before looking towards Dean's paper.
"Rona," Jungkook began, "Are you going to be at our table at lunch?"
"Maybe, I'm not sure yet." I replied, looking up as I scribbled the number down and reached over to open my calculator. I turned towards him as I took off the cover. "Why?"
Jungkook simply pointed at the scribbled-on paper that laid on his desk, asking the question with only his facial expression.
"Right, sure." I smiled.
"Cool, you're the best." he grinned, leaning back in his chair a little as he picked up the paper to observe it. "Because right now I could explain rocket science better than this."
~~~
"C'mon guys, help me out," I sighed, calling over towards the boys. It was lab-day in Mrs. Carter's class and the others happened to invite me into their group. Yeah, invited me into the group so I'd do everything.
"Guys!" I nearly shouted, though they were only a few feet away. Jin glanced over, standing up to walk over to the microscope that was set up at our station. I gave him a look that asked where the others were, but he gestured a little to the table with his head.
"Ireum, ireum (name, name)," RapMon said with a big grin, then pointing at Suga as they sang together, "Sorry, bae,"
"Oh God," I whispered under my breath, still picked up on by Jin.
"Bareum, bareum (pronunciation, pronunciation)!
"They've been working on all these new songs recently - I swear they're going to change up our entire music style a week before the festival." Jin sighed, glancing through the microscope and drawing the slide on his paper. "Namjoon, Yoongi and Hoseok have all been working on so many song projects - they've got Hoseok's old dance routine almost mixed already, Yoongi's always writing tons and tons of songs through the night, and now this? They've been obsessed with just the sound of the word 'bae' for the entire weekend." He laughed as he multitasked, turning the knob on the microscope. He quickly looked back up at me.
I gave a little nod, remembering the almost finished product and recording they had made for J-Hope's old dance routine beat and poem that they'd shown the past weekend.
"You guys could totally perform at FMF and then immediately release a mini-album or something." I suggested a bit too loudly, suddenly met with shushing from Jin. He glanced around to see if anyone had noticed, then gave a little nod.
"That's the plan if we get these songs done by then." Jin whispered. "We've only got four weeks left, and Namjoon really wants it to be a full one."
"Then you'd need a lot of songs..." I trailed off quietly. Jin gave a little nod, pointing at himself, then towards the two who sat at the table singing their "bae" rap.
"I suggested maybe compile most of the album with a solo from each of us, but-" Jin began, and I immediately perked up.
"Really?" I nearly cheered, "That'd be so cool! I'm sure everyone would like it-"
"But, they said it may take a long time, especially for us members who don't know the ins and outs of composing." Jin continued with a little sigh. "You know, secretly I believe all of us have been working on - or at least have thought of - our own song writing. I'll bring it up with everyone next time we all have a meeting. I wouldn't want to tell the younger ones that they'd get a solo on this next album when it hasn't been confirmed."
"Right," I nodded quietly. Jin scribbled the last little line onto his drawing, then gesturing me a little closer.
"To be honest, I have a hunch that Taehyung has been working on something for a while now that he hasn't told us about. He's all go-lucky on the outside most of the time, but I've seen through him at random times. I really want to see what he's been working on, if anything." Jin whispered, then glancing back at the guys who sat at the table.
"Hey! Are you gonna come look in the microscope or not?" he shouted towards them, giving them a large gesture over. Suga gave RapMon a little pat on the back as they both got up, grabbing their papers and joining our current working group of two.
~~~
"Today we're splitting the class up," Mrs. Minji began after clapping to get our attention. I made a surprised and suppressed shout as Lyra nearly jumped on top of me from behind, my arms naturally moving back to hold her legs up from slipping back down my back. This girl.
Lyra made a loud giggle as she shifted her weight around to grab onto my shoulders. "Lyra," I breathed through gritted teeth, "What's with this?"
"I'm preparing you for push-up tests," she said from above me. I could almost sense the wide grin on her face. "Or for dance in general. Muscular strength is important."
"Y-yeah, so is a working spine." I faltered, throwing her up a little as I tried to move my hand. She quickly gripped tighter around my neck. "Also don't choke me-"
"Lyra!" Mrs. Minji shouted, startling both of us. "Get off the poor girl, you're gonna break her."
"I'm helping, Mrs. Minji. Rona needs muscular strength - right?" Lyra argued playfully, looking back at me.
"Uh huh," I sighed, rolling my eyes with a smile. She held out a hand for a high-five, answered by my own.
"Anyways, we're going to have anyone in the music festival practice in the other practice room while the rest of us continue practicing the same as last Friday." Mrs. Minji informed, "Lyra, be responsible and get the dance, as much as you can, coordinated. Work on the bridge and ending today too."
"Sure," Lyra nodded, suddenly seeming professional. Grace appeared next to me, listening to Mrs. Minji and Lyra too. "We can get that done, right guys?" she asked, turning towards everyone on the FMF team that happened to be standing as a group around her. We all gave little nods, replied to by her tired sigh.
"Well you guys are awfully assuring-"
"WHOO!" Chanyeol jumped up, making me jump. Grace couldn't help but laugh at the few inches I had gone up as J-Hope and Isabella joined him.
"Of course we can!"
"Let's do this guys!"
Too cheerful for ten in the morning-
"Gettin' it done!" Jimin shouted as J-Hope patted him in the back, the shout seeming to come straight from the older's hit. Suho made a soft laugh, seeming embarrassed by the three boys around him shouting. Isabella gave J-Hope a fist bump as their little cheer-off ended, followed by a lot of laughter. (Recently I'd say they're getting along a lot better. It's like Isabella somehow dropped the grudge, but I've never asked either of them why.)
"Alright kids, shoo shoo," Mrs. Minji laughed, sweeping us out of the classroom. Lyra grabbed her phone and a cable Mrs. Minji had given her and lead us to the next door practice room.
"Okay guys," she began as she pushed open the door and turned on the light, walking towards the speaker across the room. She plugged her phone into the machine, making a little click. "Let's start with the pairing stuff, cool?" she asked as she messed with the wires that connected to the wall.
"Yeah, let's get that done then go back to the beginning and try running it through." J-Hope said, walking over to Lyra and watching her attempt to plug in the wires. He quickly reached down, pulling two fat black wires out and giving them to Lyra, who wrapped them around the other side of the stereo.
Did they get it? I wondered, trying to see if they had finally gotten the machine plugged in or not. I looked around at the room, but everyone had their eyes on the two who tried to get the song set up. I found myself glancing at Suho, and just before I looked towards the next person he turned his head my direction.
And his concentrated, tired expression turned into a small smile.