Don't Believe Everything You Hear

"Austin, I can think of one, just off the top of the head, good reason why you can't get this math," I told him.

"And what is that?" he asked, looking over my shoulder.

"This is a Geography book, not Geometry," I told him.

"Oops, I must have grabbed the wrong book on the way out of my house," he laughed a bit.

"You mean school?" I asked, laughing a bit.

"Yeah, what did I say?" he asked.

"You said home," I laughed a bit more, but called quickly.

"Woops, well you know, I enjoy living in school from time to time," he laughed.

"That might suck, especially since they hardly ever clean it," I scrunched up my face.

"That's true, I think they're too cheap to hire a janitor," he said.

"Have you ever seen one? I'd believe it," I told him.

"I don't know, well I'll be back in a second, I'm gonna head back to the school and get my Geometry book," he said.

"You want me to go with you?" I asked.

"NO!" He said quickly and loudly. "Um, no, that's fine, I'll only be a few minutes," he said again, in a calmer tone this time.

"Okay," I said slowly, looking at him weirdly. Before I had a chance to say anything else, he was out the door and running down the street.

"Honey, what was that?" I heard Mrs. Cook yell. I didn't even know she was here. I walked into the kitchen, and low and behold, there she was.

"Oh, hi, I didn't even know you were here," I said to her, chuckling a bit.

"Yes, I came home early, nasty bug going around, I didn't want to catch it," she said, I nodded. "So what was that noise?" she repeated her earlier question.

"That was the sound of Austin running out the door," I laughed.

"What did you do to the poor boy?" she asked. I rolled my eyes.

"I didn't do anything to him," I said. "He's just in a hurry to get back to the school," I said.

"Aww, isn't that nice, a boy who's dedicated to school," she sighed.

"Not quite," I laughed, "He forgot his Geometry book there," I said, "He's running back to go get it I guess," I shrugged.

"Why does he need his geometry book? And why was he here anyways?" she asked.

"He's needs help on his homework, which is why he needs his book," I laughed.

"Oh, got it," she said. "Where's Jonathan?" she asked.

"Um, school," I said to her.

"What takes that boy so long to get home?" she said.

"Well, I think he got a detention." I told her.

"What?" she said. "What did my baby do?" she cried. Not literally though. I chuckled a bit.

"Oh, I think he got into a fight or something," I said. Her face went pale. "I'm just kidding, he was just talking in class and his teacher got angry and gave him an automatic detention," I said. She sighed loudly.

"Oh my, you scared me for a second," she said.

"Sorry, I just had to do it," I smiled. She rolled her eyes a bit and went back to making food in the kitchen.

"Mom!" I heard being yelled, telling me that Jonathan was home.

"I'm in the kitchen sweetie, come here, I need to talk to you," she said. She turned around and I gave her a funny look. She just winked and I stood back to watch this.

"What did you need mom?" he asked, coming into the kitchen.

"Your school called and said that you got a detention today," she said. Jonathan gulped.

"Really now," he said.

"Yes, I'm so disappointed in you, I thought I raised you better than to fight with the other students," she said. I struggled to hold in a laugh.

"What?!?" Jonathan yelled.

"Don't raise your voice to me," she told him.

"Sorry, but I didn't get into any fight," he defended.

"Are you saying that your school lied to me?" she asked him.

"Yes, I didn't get into any fight, I swear, I'm being framed!" he yelled.

"Calm down sweetie, your school didn't really call, I know you didn't get into a fight," she smiled. "But you really need to control that talking problem of yours," she said.

"How did you even know about that?" he asked. I raised my hand. "Traitor, he laughed.

"Sorry Jonathan, but she pays better," I smiled.

"Okay! I got the right book now!" Austin said, running into the kitchen. "I'm good to go," he smiled.

"Did you like run there and back?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm in good shape from soccer," he laughed. "And my mom saw me walking and gave me a lift here," he laughed. I nodded and rolled my eyes, laughing with him.

"So what did you need help with?" I asked him.

"Geometry," he said in a 'duh' tone. I rolled my eyes again.

"Specifically, what did you need help on?" I asked.

"I don't know what it is,' he said, "I can't even pronounce it," he complained.

"Does it start with a 'p'," I asked him.

"Something likes that," he grumbled.

I looked down at the book and sighed. "Austin, this is stuff from like two years ago," I said to him.

"Hey, I don't remember math, I try to block it out of my mind," he said.

"All you do is A squared plus B squared equals C sqaured, it's called the Pythagorean theorem. It's evil, but it's simple," I told him.

"Simple to you maybe," he grumbled.

"All you have to do is take this length, square it, add it to the square of this length and make C equal to it. Then you take the square root of that and that should be your answer," I said, thinking more about it when I was through.

"Oh yeah because that sounds so simple," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Have you even tried it?" I asked.

"I told you, I can't even pronounce that," he complained.

"Just try the math part, and I'm sure you'll do fine," I told him.

"That's what they all say," he mumbled as he took out a piece of paper and tried the problem. It took him about five minutes to finally finish that problem.

"Okay, now let me see it," I told him.

He handed me that paper and I smiled a bit.

"You almost got it, now you just have to take the square root of that and you're in business," I told him.

"This assignment is gonna take forever," he whined.

"I'm sorry," I laughed.

"Why don't you ever have math homework?" he asked.

"Because I finish it during class, or in study hall," I told him.

"That's cheap," he mumbled.

"Just do your assignment," I said to him. He started working again.

An hour and a half later of him working and getting distracted, he finally finished his assignment.

"Don't you feel better now that you're done?" I asked.

"No, I feel like my mind has turned to jelly," he said blankly.

"You're so over dramatic," I laughed.

"Crap, is that the time? I've got to go!" he yelled.

"Why the hurry?" I asked.

"I've just got to go, bye!" he yelled and ran out of the house again.

"Austin is gone again I see," Mrs. Cook came out into the living room where he was previously working.

"Yeah, in a pretty big hurry," I said.

"That boy always seems to be in a hurry," he laughed, "But he's sweet,"

"Yeah…sweet," I mumbled so she couldn't hear me. She went back into the kitchen. "I think there's more to it though," I sighed out to myself.