22 Late But Presen

DJ claimed the seat next to James, and Liza claimed the seat on the other side of DJ. James took a sip from an innocuous-looking bottle he'd brought with him.

DJ wrinkled his nose and his face contorted in disgust as he caught a whiff of the bottle's contents. "Please tell me that isn't your specialty smoothie."

James grinned, took another sip, and said, "Yep!"

DJ shuddered and shifted so he could get as much distance as possible between himself and James' smoothie. James' disgusting energy smoothie. "I can't believe you're drinking that stuff during class. Next to me."

James smiled and laughed, "You're the one who sat by me." James took another drink, closed his bottle, and deliberately placed the bottle next to DJ.

DJ glared at James, "Sometimes you're really annoying."

James grinned at DJ. And DJ watched James for a moment. Then, when Professor Pele entered the room and James glanced at the door, DJ struck. He snatched James bottle, horrible smoothie and all. Then chucked it as hard as he could. The bottle struck the classroom wall, left a dent, and landed perfectly in the trash can, with a small leak.

In return for DJ's effort to save the class from James' smoothie, he received two glares. One was, of course, from James and the other was from Professor Pele who DJ had narrowly avoided hitting.

"I see DJ is already working hard on earning himself extra after class work." Professor Pele slammed his books on the desk at the front of the classroom. "I will only tell you once so listen well. You're in teams now. That means the rules have changed. Any punishments one member of your team earns is a collective punishment. That doesn't mean you split the punishment, it means you all receive it. On the other hand, rewards are treated the same way," Professor Pele smiled and said, "And the thing I'm sure you'll enjoy the most is you get to take tests as a team."

Some students cheered and others watched their cheering teammates with worry.

Professor Pele continued, "DJ since I haven't assigned any work yet, you just earned your team 20 problems from chapter 3. They're due next time we have class."

James grimaced that was going to suck. DJ tried to make his impressive frame smaller and hide under the table. Earning his teammates more work was definitely not part of the fun plan. At least Calc class was only once a week.

♢ ♢ ♢

The classroom door creaked open just after Professor Pele had finished his review on derivatives and had written a simple problem on the board.

y - 3a - 3 = 14 - a cubed

Professor Pele turned to catch the person attempting to sneak into his class. As the student's form became visible in the doorway Pele realized he knew this student and he knew them well. Pele crossed his arms and glared at the intruder, glared at Kyrie. "Trying to sneak in late."

Kyrie paused in the doorway and blushed a bit. "Sorry, sir."

"You've earned your team 30 more problems from chapter 3."

Kyrie glanced at DJ, Liza, and James. He was unsure how to handle this situation. Maybe if Centra had been out of the infirmary she could have passed on some advice.

"Not taking your seat? Are you volunteering to take the derivative of the problem on the board?" Professor Pele said.

Kyrie fidgeted with the ribbon on his left hand. "No, sir. I'll go take my seat." Kyrie glanced at Professor Pele as he made his way towards Liza. He wondered why Pele looked so familiar. As Kyrie walked past the trash can near the doorway, he sneezed at the strong smell coming from it. The very familiar smell. He glanced at James for a moment. Why would James' throw away his smoothie?

Professor Pele ground his teeth at what he believed to be Kyrie's continued reliance on James. It was time Kyrie learned to stand on his own. "Come work the problem on the board."

Kyrie paused and glanced at the problem.

y - 3a - 3 = 14 - a cubed

"Why? He's probably way ahead of us in math like he is in everything else," Masaki said with a sneer. His finely tuned bully senses had told him this was an opportunity to help make someone even more miserable. And, it might just be an opportunity at revenge for Kyrie showing him up in Math class.

"Kyrie. Come," Professor Pele said.

Kyrie let go of the tiny bit of ribbon on his wrist and cocked his head sideways in wonder. Why was this Professor's voice, and his last command, so familiar? He turned and walked back to the front of the room, past the trash can, and stared at the problem.

y - 3a - 3 = 14 - a cubed

After confirming he had no idea what to do Kyrie said, "Uh, what am I supposed to be doing?"

Professor Pele responded "Take the derivative of y with respect to a."

Kyrie took the whiteboard marker from Professor Pele and continued to stare at the problem. The only thing he understood was that he was supposed to do something involving y and a. But even that meant nothing to him.

Professor Pele ground his teeth and looked at Kyrie. "I know you're smart enough to easily solve this problem Kyrie."

Kyrie grimaced as he realized why Professor Pele was so familiar. He used to be Kyrie's private tutor for Mathematics. Unfortunately, Pele was also Kyrie's last tutor for mathematics. And that lesson was several years ago, on division.

"Uh, Professor Pele I haven't done mathematics in a while. Could… you help me?"

Pele crossed his arms and watched as Kyrie shifted uncomfortably in front of him. Pele slowly asked, "Exactly how long has it been since you attended a mathematics class?"

Kyrie grimaced, "Uh since I was eight."

Professor Pele closed his eyes and tried not to explode in rage at the child in front of him. It was not Kyrie's fault that his education was so heavily skewed towards combat and survival. But it was his parents and clan's fault. The clan Pele had once been a part of. The clan that he had taken his baby sister and left. They left because of the clan's abusive behavior in their obsession with combat. An obsession that had run to the point of getting several children killed and creating this scarred mess of a boy. And Kyrie was just that, a boy. A boy in need of help.

Pele opened his eyes and said, "We need to start by isolating the y. You can do this by adding 3a +3 to both sides of the equation. You add it to both sides to keep the integrity of the equation."

Kyrie nodded and did as he was instructed.

y = 14 - a cubed + 3a + 3

"Next we'll use the power rule and take the derivative of y."

Before Pele could continue, Misaki shouted from the back of the class, "He missed the first part of class do not make me sit through this shit again."

Pele turned to glare at Misaki, "You just earned your team 30 problems from chapter 3 as well. It seems after class work is not enough to get this class to behave. If this continues, I'll have to come up with something better." Pele paused for a moment as he looked each student in the eye. "Misaki, while rude, is correct. Kyrie, take your seat, your teammates will help you catch up."

Pele turned to the board and finished the problem.

y = 14 - a cubed + 3a + 3

y' = -3a squared + 3

Pele continued class and moved on to his lecture on integrals.

Once class was over Kyrie fidgeted with the ribbon on his wrist and glanced at James. "Why's your smoothie in the trash?"

James glanced at DJ, "Someone threw it in thrash."

DJ grinned, "Someone had to do it."