Chapter 3

A Simple Equation

The next day was our first day of Geometry class. The first thing the teacher did was hand out our books. Geometry for Enjoyment and Challenge. Yeah, right.

I quickly realized Piano Fingers was in my class. "Should I sit next to Piano Fingers?" I whispered, shaking the Magic 8 Ball again.

Most likely.

I took a seat next to her. Piano Fingers smiled. The way I saw it, Piano Fingers was lucky to have someone sitting next to her at all.

"Hello, class. I am Mrs. Price and I will be your Geometry teacher this year. Now turn to page 13 in your books," our teacher instructed.

I took out my book and turned it to page 13. I already knew how to do proofs from Jimmy's old textbooks, most of which he never laid a finger on, so I started working on our homework while Mrs. Price explained what to do.

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. "How do you do #7?" Piano Fingers asked. Her voice was soft and she spoke in a vaguely Middle Eastern accent.

I turned back to #7. "Well, 20 plus 70 is 90, right?"

"Yeah," Piano Fingers said. She started drumming her fingers on her desk.

"So you can use addition to prove this is a right angle. Then you can prove this angle is right because those segments are perpendicular."

"So they're congruent because they're both right," Piano Fingers completed.

"Exactly."

"Thank you," Piano Fingers said. "I have one question: why do you always call me Piano Fingers?"

"Because I don't know your name," I explained. "Also, you drum your fingers a lot and it kind of looks like you're playing piano."

"My name is Samina and that's how I practice when I'm not at home."

"Samina. That's a pretty name."

"What's your name?"

"Isabelle."

Mrs. Price came up to our table and said in a harsh voice, "Girls, please don't talk."

"OK, Mrs. Price," I said.

Samina and I worked separately for the rest of the period. I finished quickly and had some time to work on the rest of my homework. If I was lucky, I wouldn't have any homework that night.

We sat together at lunch again, but we didn't talk. It became clear that she didn't want to be friends with me, and frankly, I didn't really want to be friends with her either.

Sometimes I wondered why I ever decided to use the Magic 8 Ball for everything. But that was easy: it was because it was the only piece of Papa I had left. I wanted to hold on to the Magic 8 Ball, since I had lost the keychain so long ago. I swore when I shook the Magic 8 Ball, Papa was still there with me.

There was still a problem I had to solve, one I had created for myself.

Solve for x.

Isabelle + Samina = x

This should be simple enough, right?