(no subject)

[x-jubilee.livejournal.com]

Jubes is sitting at her desk trying hard to figured out her blasted Algebra homework, crumbling piece of paper after piece of paper. SHe slams the books closed, papers and all and stomps out the door and onward to Dougs room. Without bothering to knock she slams open the door, stalks over to his desk and throws her book down on it. "I give up, I can't do it!"

"Well, not to sound like a self-help book, but if you think you can't do it, then you can't."

Jubes lets out a huge sigh and slumps to the floor. Leaning against the desk she looks up at Doug. "But why can't I do it? What's wrong with me? No one else is having this hard a time with their math homework."

Doug pushes his chair back and looks down at Jubes, trying to concentrate on seeing her as someone who needs math help and not a very distractingly pretty girl. "From what I'm reading in here, Marie-Ange is, too. Besides, everyone has strengths. Not everyone is good at math. I happen to be good at math. But I stink at history, and biology, and stuff like that."

"Yeah I know Marie-Ange is having problems but I bet she's not doing this bad." Looks at the floor and toes the carpet. She hestitates. "Why can't I just be able to do math? This seriously looks like another language to me."

"Well, even for those of us who are okay at math, it still takes practice, and there's always new stuff to learn."

"meep...Always new stuff?" She puts her head into her hands. "Do I really need math? Can't I just get by without it?"

"To some extent, I suppose you can. But algebra can be helpful in real life, even if you're not a big science nerd like me. Calculus, now that's not all that useful unless you're a geek. But algebra has plenty of real-world applications."

"Okay, I guess there won't be anyway to talk my way out of taking it then. Because we all know Professor X is all about the real-world application of the things we learn." Recites this last bit of mantra in a sing-song voice. Jubes looks up at Doug and finally asks "So can you help me?"

"I'll give it my best shot, anyway. Don't know how good a tutor I am, but there's only one way to find out, huh?"

"This is true. So can you start now or would you like me to let you finish your own work?"

"Oh, I've just been kind of tooling around on the computer. Most of my homework's already done. No time like the present."

Stands Up and pulls a chair over. "Okay, well the only thing I understood was that x can be equivalent to anything. After that I'm lost"

"Okay, the first thing you probably want to understand is the difference between constants and variables."

"Ummm, okay. So what are they? Cause I really kind of zoned when Professor Summers started to explain it all."

"Constants are actual numbers. Like 3, 62.5, or pi."

"ACK!! PI??? What the hell is PI?? "

"Pi is a number that is related to circles. The area of a circle is equal to pi times its radius squared. Pi is what's called an irrational number, because it can't be expressed as a fraction. It's approximately 3.1415."

Jubes flips through the pages of the assigned homework and looks at Doug. "No where in the assigned homework pages does it say anything about Pi."

"Well, I'm getting a bit far afield. I have a tendancy to do that. Sorry. That's geometry more, anyway. But my point is that constants don't ever change value. They're...well, constant."

Jubilee sighs, "Okay, let's just stick to the assigned pages here...and the math I'm currently in."

"Right. If I start to babble again, warn me." Doug looks over at Jubes, grins and winks.

Jubes nods. "Will do. I might just have to poke you really hard in the arm. Agreed?"

"Yeah that works. So anyways. Variables. Variables are things that can change value based on the parameters of the function they're in. The most common variable name is x. It's usually the thing you're trying to solve for."

"Okay, so like Mari-Ange said: x can equal anything?"

"Yeah. It's like...I think it was Rahne who said it. It's like those fill-in-the-blank sort of questions. You're trying to figure out what goes in the blank. You're trying to figure out the value of x that makes that particular equation work out."

"Okay, I think I'm getting it. Let me try this one," points to one of the easier looking homework problems-- 3x=9. "Basically I just figure out what makes 3x equal to nine? Prof. Summers said that when a number is right next to a letter that means multiplication, right?"

"Right. So what value of x would make 3 times x equal to 9?"

Jubilee nods and mumbles to herself, "Okay so what I'm looking for something mulitplied by 3 results in nine..," bites her bottom lip then realization dawns on Jubilee's face. "DUH!!! Three! So x is equaled to three!?"

"Exactly." *smiles*

Jubilee flashes Doug her biggest grin and just about knocks him over as she gives him the most unexpected hug ever.

Doug carefully hugs back and tries not to hyperventilate due to being hugged by pretty girl.

"Amazing. An hour ago I thought i'd never be able to get any of these." Jubilee looks down at her book and jots down some more problems and then hands them to Doug. "Correct?"

Doug looks at the problems and answers, "Yeah, these look right to me."

"Yes!! Okay let me do the rest and see how it goes." Works through about five and then is stumped. "Ummmm Doug, why is there a subtraction sign in front of this one?"

"In front of?" He looks at the book. "Oh. Okay, that's a negative sign."

Jubilee cocks her head to the side and arches an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Negative numbers? Any of this ringing a bell?"

"Umm, they're the opposite of positive? But how do they work?"

"It's like subtracting, sort of."

Jubilee scrucnhes up her mouth, "Sort of?"

"Well, you're not really subtracting from anything. Um. Here, give me the problem and I'll see if I can't explain it better."

"Okay. -5x - 6x=55"

"Okay. The first thing you want to do is combine the two x terms. What would -5 - 6 be?"

Jubilee looks at Doug and begins to mumble to herself, trying to work it out on her own. She doesn't want to appear hopeless dumb and out of the loop. "How do you subtract a negative number from a positive number and one that's larger?" taps her pencil on the desk "I think Prof Summers said soemthing about making the subtraction to addition? Would that make it -5 + -6?"

"Yes. So what would that be?"

"Negative eleven then." Jubilee looks at her paper and writes down -11x=55. She looks back at Doug. "What about dividing by a negative?"

"The negative carries over. So what would 55 divided by -11 be?"

"Negative five?"

"Very good!"

"Wahoo!!!" Jumps up to give Doug another hug, oblivious of how tense he bacomes when she throws her arms around him.

Doug tries not to tense up and repeats to himself She's just being friendly, she's just being friendly...

Jubilee sits back down not noticing how red Doug's face became all of sudden. "Okay, so it seems I have about six more problems left. Think I can do them?"

"It doesn't matter so much if I think you can do them, it matters that you think you can do them. Confidence is important."

"Okay lemme try. Cross your fingers." Jubilee sets to work, knits her brow and dives right in.

Doug nods in agreement, sits quietly and crosses his fingers for good luck.

Jubilee hestitates before the last problem, looks at Doug and sees his fingers. She grins at this and goes ahead with the last problem. She hesitates before writing the last answer, looks it over and then slides the paper to Doug.

Doug looks at Jubilee, keeping her in suspense for a few seconds and breaks out into a grin. "Perfect!"

Jubilee jumps out of her chair and perfomrs her *Victory Over the Evil Math Homework Dance*

Doug grins at Jubilee's enthusiasm.

"I never ever thought I would be able to do those problems. Well at least not earlier. You are the bestest of best people Doug!!"

Doug blushes. "I try. All it takes is a bit of practice and paying attention when you're being taught." He grins to make it clear he's giving her a hard time about zoning out on Mr. Summers.

"Well I was tired. Okay I think there may be some ice cream hidden in the freezer---I spied on Bobby when he was putting away his last batch of 'Jamie's Special Cookie Dough.' Let's go find it."

"Um, sounds like a plan to me." Doug allows himself to be led off.

Jubilee grabs Doug's hand and tugs him to the door. "But if he asks about who took it, you know nothing."