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Chapter 4
When I was a little girl, my mother used to tell me that change was imperative towards the well being of all humans.
“Everything changes. You name it, it probably has changed one way or another,” She used to tell me while I sat in the living room watching Oprah, seeing how that one woman changed the lives of so many people. “People are an excellent example. We change all the time. It may be your favorite color, food, or anything that small, but people change.” I soaked up her words like a sponge soaks up water, keeping with me her wisdom and kindness. I took heed of what she said, keeping my eye out for the small changes that occurred all around me, every day.
But now, after ten years of living with Jonathan, Lucas, and Lacey, I gave up hope that they would ever change. I mean, really, how long does it take them to realize that I am family, not a slave? That I’m a human being? Surely it should have taken them less than ten years. If they hadn’t realized it by now, I doubted they ever would. Huffing, I copied down another calculus equation into my notebook, trying to make sense of all the symbols, numbers, and variables, with no avail. Dang math, why do you have to be so hard? I looked at the problem again.
Find the derivative of f(x) with respect to: f(x) = x(x+7)(x+1)
I stared blankly at the page, trying to remember what my calculus teacher had said about derivatives. “Ugh!” I groaned as I banged my head against the textbook. Alright, I admit it, I got nothing. But who needs math, anyway, right? . . . Oh, who am I kidding. I flipped through the book to the index, looking up “derivatives” and then flipping back to page 327.
The derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes. It can be thought of as how much one quantity is changing in response to changes in some other quantity; for example, the derivative of the position of a vehicle with respect to time is the vehicle's instantaneous velocity. Conversely, the integral of the velocity over time is how much the vehicle's position changes from the time when the integral begins to the time when the integral ends.
I sighed, burying my head in my hands. Oh, yeah, because that tells me so much. Thanks for nothing, textbook. A hard pounding on my door brought me out of my thoughts.
“Hey, Ella, get your butt down to the living room now! Dad wants to talk to you!” Wow, so Lucas did know my name, or nickname. I’m so touched . . . NOT. “Now!”
I stood up from my desk and opened the door to see Lucas’s back retreating down the stairs. I scowled at it, making rude gestures as I followed him into the living room, where Jonathan was pacing and Lacey was comfortable seated on my sofa, filing her flawless nails.
“Yes?” I stood in front of my stepfather, not even bothering to be polite. He would treat me like crap off his shoe either way, so what was the point?
Jonathan stopped pacing, took a deep breath, and stroked the stubble on his chin, barely noticing my sign of disrespect. He held out a cream colored envelope to me, and I noticed fancy gold script covering the front. “This year, our family was invited to the Governor’s Masquerade Ball in the capitol. The party will be taking place next weekend.”
I snatched the letter from his hand and began to read what was elegantly typed upon the page.
To Mr. Jonathan Abraham Marshalls and family:
As you very well know, the winter season brings many things to us, including the snowy weather, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. The winter season also brings us the Governor’s Annual Christmas Masquerade Ball, which will be taking place on December 17 this year in our state’s capitol at The Manor Restaurant (see below for address and directions). We are hoping you will be able to attend, and we wish you a very merry winter season.
Signed,
Caroline Everheart
Caroline Everheart
Secretary
“Everything changes. You name it, it probably has changed one way or another,” She used to tell me while I sat in the living room watching Oprah, seeing how that one woman changed the lives of so many people. “People are an excellent example. We change all the time. It may be your favorite color, food, or anything that small, but people change.” I soaked up her words like a sponge soaks up water, keeping with me her wisdom and kindness. I took heed of what she said, keeping my eye out for the small changes that occurred all around me, every day.
But now, after ten years of living with Jonathan, Lucas, and Lacey, I gave up hope that they would ever change. I mean, really, how long does it take them to realize that I am family, not a slave? That I’m a human being? Surely it should have taken them less than ten years. If they hadn’t realized it by now, I doubted they ever would. Huffing, I copied down another calculus equation into my notebook, trying to make sense of all the symbols, numbers, and variables, with no avail. Dang math, why do you have to be so hard? I looked at the problem again.
Find the derivative of f(x) with respect to: f(x) = x(x+7)(x+1)
I stared blankly at the page, trying to remember what my calculus teacher had said about derivatives. “Ugh!” I groaned as I banged my head against the textbook. Alright, I admit it, I got nothing. But who needs math, anyway, right? . . . Oh, who am I kidding. I flipped through the book to the index, looking up “derivatives” and then flipping back to page 327.
The derivative is a measure of how a function changes as its input changes. It can be thought of as how much one quantity is changing in response to changes in some other quantity; for example, the derivative of the position of a vehicle with respect to time is the vehicle's instantaneous velocity. Conversely, the integral of the velocity over time is how much the vehicle's position changes from the time when the integral begins to the time when the integral ends.
I sighed, burying my head in my hands. Oh, yeah, because that tells me so much. Thanks for nothing, textbook. A hard pounding on my door brought me out of my thoughts.
“Hey, Ella, get your butt down to the living room now! Dad wants to talk to you!” Wow, so Lucas did know my name, or nickname. I’m so touched . . . NOT. “Now!”
I stood up from my desk and opened the door to see Lucas’s back retreating down the stairs. I scowled at it, making rude gestures as I followed him into the living room, where Jonathan was pacing and Lacey was comfortable seated on my sofa, filing her flawless nails.
“Yes?” I stood in front of my stepfather, not even bothering to be polite. He would treat me like crap off his shoe either way, so what was the point?
Jonathan stopped pacing, took a deep breath, and stroked the stubble on his chin, barely noticing my sign of disrespect. He held out a cream colored envelope to me, and I noticed fancy gold script covering the front. “This year, our family was invited to the Governor’s Masquerade Ball in the capitol. The party will be taking place next weekend.”
I snatched the letter from his hand and began to read what was elegantly typed upon the page.
To Mr. Jonathan Abraham Marshalls and family:
As you very well know, the winter season brings many things to us, including the snowy weather, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa. The winter season also brings us the Governor’s Annual Christmas Masquerade Ball, which will be taking place on December 17 this year in our state’s capitol at The Manor Restaurant (see below for address and directions). We are hoping you will be able to attend, and we wish you a very merry winter season.
Signed,
Caroline Everheart
Caroline Everheart
Secretary
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