The Answer Is Forty-Two {Bartholomew}

Bartholomew had to admit that math wasn’t his favorite subject – that was pretty much all of the sciences, but maths were involved in the sciences, and so he had to learn it. He could see the point of it – it made sense to know these things in life, and now he wouldn’t have to take this class for his upcoming sophomore year. That was certainly nice. The brown-haired boy tapped his pencil on his open textbook, trying to puzzle his way through one of the more difficult problems, which involved taking out cube root and then raising the whole thing to the power of one-fourth. He flipped the pencil back around and started to write out a few steps that would lead in the right direction.

After a few minutes, he realized he had skipped a step and groaned inwardly as he flipped the pencil over once again and erased some of his work. One might wonder if Bartholomew ever did anything that wasn’t related to school, and if you asked him, he would tell you that he liked to go to the greenhouses. However, since his major was Horticulture, that didn’t honestly count as ‘anything not related to school.’ But school was the best answer to forgetting Ashton and the mistakes they had made together – it was logical, since he would need what he was learning later in life, and it kept him busy. And besides, he enjoyed learning. He would be fine.

Just fine.

Wait, maybe if I just took out the root by cubing it, then I could – whoa! Bartholomew’s thoughts were interrupted by a foot kicking out at his desk. He turned around in his desk to see the culprit, and saw an Asian boy with bright yellow hair and tight-fitting clothes. He noted that the textbook on his desk was not open and he hadn’t done anything but write in some Asian language – Bartholomew could never tell them apart. The boy apologized, and so Bartholomew turned back around. He had lost his spot in his thinking, but that was ok – he’d get back there. Now that he didn’t have any more distractions thinking about Ashton and his desk wasn’t being kicked anymore, he could finish his work. He was focusing on the cube root and trying to remember the steps they had been taught earlier, when…

“Did you know they give F pluses to people here?” The boy behind him asked suddenly.

Bartholomew gripped his pencil more tightly as his concentration was broken yet again, and struggled to keep his voice calm. “I did not know that, but I’m trying to work here, so I’m not interested right now. Sorry.” There was no need to get angry, some people just weren’t as dedicated. That was all. He just had to leave it at that. He took a deep breath. Now about this root…


Summary:

Bartholomew heard the boy behind him say something, but he didn’t catch it and it wasn’t any of his concern. What was of his concern was this cube root problem. He was a quick learner, generally because he faced problems in a very logical way. He liked having steps to follow and ways to tackle problems, which was why science and math were things that made sense to him, although the latter was generally less enjoyable. Nevertheless, the brunette tapped his pencil against the paper. The cube root could probably be cubed, which would cancel out the root and then leave him with a simple problem. Perfect. He scribbled the answer onto his paper, feeling rather proud of himself.

“Ne,” Bartholomew heard the boy behind him while he tapped his foot against his desk. The Horticulture major stifled a groan. He had to be calm. Calm, Bartholomew, calm. He told himself silently as the boy continued. “I’m going to be honest here. I don’t get math at all.” Bartholomew brightened a little bit. Well that was a problem that could be solved, not like the idle chit-chat which had been attempted earlier. Still, he wasn’t sure how he felt about the blonde behind him. Pushing these thoughts aside, Bartholomew steeled himself with a deep breath, and then turned in his chair to face behind him.

“Well, maybe I can help you. What are you having trouble with?” He spoke as calmly as he could, though it came out a little clipped. He could imagine booting this boy out of class so that he could learn, but he couldn’t choose his classmates, unfortunately, so he would have to deal with it. It couldn’t be all that bad, could it?


Summary: