xp_logs | Fred and Callie: Math Tutoring

In which Callie attempts to explain geometry to Fred, before they take a break.

Callie sighed as she glanced at her watch. The person she was meeting was late. Not terribly late mind you, only ten minutes, but for the girl who grew up in the mindset of being five minutes early to a meeting was on time (but still stretching it) it was a little irksome. Well, at least she had some homework to do to fill the time until (if) he decided to show up. So she opened her notebook on the library table and set to work. Hopefully he would be able to spot her, as it was pretty unlikely that he wouldn't. One of the benefits of being highly visible was that it was impossible to not notice a bright pink girl.

Fred moved into the room quickly. Well, quickly for a person his size. He scanned quickly, and spotted Callie. That had to be the person he was meeting. One, she had notebooks and other school supplies in front of her. Two, she was bright pink, and he was pretty sure the girl he was supposed to meet was bright pink. And three, she was the only other person in the room. He pulled a rolled up and worn notebook and chewed pencil from the innards of his large raincoat, and moved towards the pink girl, "Uh...Callie, right?"

At the sound of her name, the girl's eyes flicked up from her paper and to the boy standing before her. The school was small enough that she knew who Fred was instantly. Just the person she was waiting for. She quickly pushed her chair back and rose, offering a hand in greeting. "Yup. That's me. Nice to meet you Fred."

"Uh...you too," Fred was phased slightly by the speed and grace the girl moved, but moved past it quickly. He took the hand, careful not to shake it too hard, and released it, "So, uh, you're supposed to help me with math?" Fred asked as he looked around. It had been a long while since he'd tried to even open a textbook, and math had never been his best subject, so he was more than slightly nervous about even taking another shot at it.

"That's what I was told," Callie gave Fred a small smile. She new she was good at math, but it was still a little surprised that she had been asked to help the new student. Not that she was complaining, it was an honor really to be singled out like this. "Geometry right? Come on, grab a chair. I'll clear off this mess." She gestured to the papers scattered with numbers and symbols. "And we'll get started?"

Fred opened his notebook to a random page, which was covered in doodles of mushroom clouds and sharks and cowboys and other flotsam. He looked from his paper to his pencil, then to Callie, then back to the paper. After a few silent seconds, he looked down at his paper to hide his blush, "I uh...I don't really know what to do now..."

"Let me take a look." She slid the notebook over a few inches so that she could look a the problem. A few seconds later, she picked up her pencil and began to neatly write down the expression 'A=π(r²)' on his paper. "Okay so we're given that the area of this circle is sixty-four pi square units and we need to find its diameter. So the first thing we do is to write down the formula we have for the area of a circle. Area equals pi multiplied by r squared. From here we begin filling in numbers for what we know...." As she continued to explain how the problem was solved, Callie made sure to write out each step so that Fred would be able to follow along. Soon the page was filled with evenly spaced numbers (and one lopsided circle with its diameter drawn through it) leading to the solution of the problem. "So the diameter of the circle is 16!" She looked over at Fred, a hopeful; smile on her face. "Does that make any more sense than it did before?"

Fred looked from the paper to Callie, then back at the paper, obviously more than a little overwhelmed already, "Uh...I guess?" In his own handwriting, Fred aped several of the steps Callie had drawn out, but it was obvious it was just repetition rather than comprehension.

This was going to be more difficult than Callie initially thought it would be. But that was okay, she could do this. "Right. How about we take this back a few steps and attack this a different way?" She pulled out a clean sheet of paper from her own stash and began drawing and explaining about circles, hoping that what she was saying made some sort of sense.

Fred watched intently, scribbling shorthand notes on his own paper with every step Callie draws out. He attempts the problem again, but even with his notes it became obvious he would become lost in the equation. His finished product was no where near correct or complete.

"That's good. No really it is. I'm not just saying that, I promise." Fred may have made some mistakes, but at least she could follow them. And part of learning was making mistakes. "Want to take a quick break then look at it again?"

The young man had looked like he'd gotten a stay of execution the night of. He sighed, "Yes please. I can only look at this stuff so long before my temples hurt." He stood and removed a cigarette from a pocket on his jacket.
She stifled a giggle at the look on his face. "No problem. I could use some fresh air myself."

Fred made a slow dash for the door and, once outside, lit his cigarette. When he exhaled, he looked at Callie apologetically, "Sorry. I don't mean to be rude, I promise." Fred shrugged helplessly, "I don't really have a head for math. Don't really have a head for anything really..."

Callie stepped to the side, careful to avoid the cigarette smoke. Living in Europe meant that she was used to people smoking around her, although she still abstained from the practice. "No no no, it's totally fine. I know that I'm this total math and science freak so...." She shrugged. "It's easy for me. But I'm sure there's stuff you can do that I'm completely useless in."

Fred chuckled lightly, letting smoke plume out of his nose, "I can beat any point-and-click adventure game every made, and can take a hit fairly well, but other than that, I don't have them most marketable skills..."

"And soon you'll be able to add Euclidean Geometry to that list!"

Fred laughed louder that time, "I, uh, I'm really just shooting to pass, t'be honest..."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Callie assured him. "I'm going to head back inside now. I'll see you in a bit."

Fred flicked his cigarette away, "I'll come back in myself," he said. He followed the pink girl back into the mansion.