She settles into her chair and gazes at her assignment. Factoring and Simplifying. That's easy enough. She smiles. She can do this stuff in her sleep. She had considered just skipping out on the homework since she didn't plan on being Allison by the next morning anyway, but considering how simple the work is, she opted to go ahead and fly through the work sheet.
She gazed at the first problem...
x^2 * 25 = ____
This stuff is easy...
9x^2 * 16 = ____
all you have to do is... is just...
64x^2 * 9 = ____
Her mouth began to dry out as the problems began to get harder.
6x^2 + 8x + 12yx =____
What does that even mean?!
5yx^2 + 15xy^2 = ____
She shakes her head and goes back to the simpler problems at the start. "I'm just out of practice, there is no reason I shouldn't be able to do these..." Again her eyes turn to the numbers, and she begins to puzzle out what they mean.
x^2 * 25 = _____
"Ok So, 5 times 5 is 25. So... I think this is it?"
She writes her work and her answer. "(x+5)(x+5), x = -5"
She stares a few moments. "Yeah. That's it. That looks right." She sighed. This was a lot harder than she remembered... Wasn't she working with much more complex operations only yesterday? Had the transformation made things harder? She growled as she got to the next problem. While she's puzzling away at it, a cracking voice sounds out behind her.
"You got the wrong answer on that first one."
"What?"
"It's... Well you got the wrong answer. Look." A tall and lanky boy scoots his chair over next to her. He's got a bit of a dorky look to him, but John can tell that underneath the messy hair and acne, he's actually a fairly handsome guy... not that she cares, it's just an observation.
"If I do the math on what you wrote out, I get ' x^2 + 10x + 25 ' see? You messed up something in the middle step.
John stares at the first problem in silence. "Wait... So, It's negative?"
"Yeah!"
"Oh yeah! Duh... thanks!"
John changes up her answer... "(x-5)(x-5), x = 5"
The boy stammers. "W-wait. Not exactly." He pauses, then scoots over to her and writes. "(x-5)(x+5)" on the sheet. He smiles, then begins to explain. "See, that way..."
John interrupts his suddenly. "OHHH. Oh my god. Yes. No, I get it now." She jots down the correct answer and sighs. "Thanks."
The boy smiles."Sure thing... Do you.. uh. Do you need help with the rest of them?"
John looks over the questions one by one and slowly begins to nod. "Y-yeah. I think I probably do. It's not hard... I just need, like, a refresher to help me remember."
"Yeah! That's understandable, I'll be happy to help" The boy shoots him a big beaming grin and John returns it just as happily. She's certainly frustrated that this is turning out to be so hard, but at least she's not alone in her struggles now. The two of them lean in over the worksheet and get started.
A fluttering fear goes through John's belly more than once as she finds herself needing an explanation for even the simplest things. Couldn't she do these things in her head yesterday? But now she's having to follow through the (very long) step by step process that the boy teaches him. It's more than a little disconcerting and she can almost feel a cloud on her mind compared to how quickly she processed things yesterday. She scoffs on the inside and bites back her fear with frustration. This work isn't hard! She insists. It's just... She needs a refresher...
The boy, at least, was very pleasant, and John really enjoyed working with him. It turns out that he and John had many of the same interests, and once the worksheet was done they had more than a few conversations about various video games and cult classic movies. The two ramble about some of their favorite old scifi's, and the great signature moments that they loved the most. They share stories from online gaming, and even laugh at a few inside jokes. The boy concludes the conversation by stating. "You know, I didn't know girls, or well... more preppy girls, liked this type of stuff."
"What! Why do you think I'm a preppy girl?"
"Oh come on! You're always hanging out with the cheerleaders and dance squad, You're really fashionable, and you used to date Zane. He's the stereotypical jock" he laughs nervously.
"Well... Maybe." John goes quiet as she realizes he doesn't really know that much about Allison."Wait... How do you know all that anyway?"
The boy stammers "I-It's kind of obvious. I mean, I just pay attention to people around me."
John accepts the explanation as reasonable enough though before she can speak, the bell rings. "Oh! Lunch time I guess. I'm Allison by the way."
The boy smiles. "Joshua!" He offers his hand, which she takes in a clumsy shake.
"Do you want to sit together at lunch, maybe?"
"Oh! I... I'd really like to, but I have band next period. We have last lunch, not first."
"Aww... Ok. Well. Still I'll see you around!" John packs up her homework and strolls out of the library to lunch. "Joshua" She concludes "Is a pretty nice guy! I guess I never knew him since he's a junior not a senior." She makes her way through the lunch line with relatively high spirits all things considered. Being a girl isn't turning out to be so bad after all, at least not for one day. It's a shame that she has first lunch now instead of last. Not only does Karen have last lunch, but she would have liked to hang out with Josh more! She'll have to remember him when she changes back that night.
