Math Blasters

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar was not a terrible student. Most of his grades were somewhere between very good and adequate. However, there was one class that consistently drove his grade point average down. 

That class was math. 

Whenever he looked at numbers and equations he could swear that they began to rearrange themselves before his very eyes, turning into incomprehensible gibberish. He couldn't focus on math problems for very long without ending up with a dreadful headache. 

Unfortunately he needed to study for math, or he was in very real danger of flunking out of the class. He was a little bit intimidated by Mr. Deulane, so he hadn't wanted to ask the teacher for help. And although Dev could probably have given him some pointers, his friend had sports practice. 

So he had asked another student who was in his math class. Damien seemed to have a solid handle on things like class work, so hopefully he could help Sunar grasp their math work before the assigned test next week. 

Maybe. 

He had brought along his notebook (which had many more doodles than actual, relevant notes) and his textbook, and he frowned between both of them while he waited for Damien, wishing that he could remember what his doodles were supposed to signify. 

Probably just that he was bored. 

That was not helpful. 

[Damien Johannes]

The bell rings signifying the end of classes for the day and almost at the same time Damien's head hit his desk. School was finally over, his brain was jam packed with semi useless knowledge. He could not think of any reason why he would ever need to use a jaurand, or whatever it was. "English can be so dumb sometimes." He muttered to himself. He glanced at the clock above the door and sighed, he wouldn't be able to head right back to the dorms he had to tutor one of his classmates, Sunar. Good kid, great at life and most schooling but his math skills are best left to the imagination. Damien agreed to help him out a bit since there is a math quiz coming up.

He packed up his stuff and made his way to the student lounge where they agreed to meet. Damien could see Sunar sitting with his work out on the table in front of him, he could tell the boy was struggling just by the defeated look on his face. Plopping down in the chair next to Sunar he spoke, "So, hows the work coming along?" He swiftly pulled out his own class work and continued to finish up what he wasn't about to do in the class earlier. He put pen to paper and looked up to the struggling boy.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar looked up at the sound of Damien's voice, shoulders visibly sagging with relief. 

"You made it!" He greeted the other student. The question about his progress elicited a frown, however, and he glared down at his work. 

"Not very well," He admitted, stabbing his pencil at his notes viciously. "Are you supposed to do the figures in the parenthesis first or last?" 

He asked this question of the teacher at least once a week, but no matter how many times he received an answer he couldn't seem to remember when he had actual math problems in front of him.

[Damien Johannes]

Damien patted Sunar on the shoulder closest to him and pointed out on his paper how the equation worked a way he needed to do, he also gave a cute little acronym People Eating Menicing & Dangerous Animals, Silly! "A friend of mine told me that one a while ago, I always thought it was cute so I made sure to remember it for later use." He explained a little more about what he needs to do and gave him a few examples, to see if me was about to do it himself with minimal assistance.

Damien left Sunar to his work but was still observing him out the corner of his eye in case help was needed. The pen in Damien's hand moved across his own paper with ease and within minutes he was done, putting his papers aside to use them as a sort of tutors manual.

His eyes bounced around the room for a moment and found a small soda machine in the corner, he stood, silently moving is chair so not to disturb Sunar's studies and walked himself over to the machine to purchase a bottle of Mountain Dew and a 7-up. After the sound of 2 thuds hitting the bottom of the machine, he picked up the drinks and sat down at the table carefully sliding the 7-up towards Sunar as to not to interrupt him in his work.

Damien leaned back slightly in his chair, took a sip of his soda and remained quiet until he was needed.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar nodded seriously at Damien's explanation, repeating after the other boy. "People eating menacing and dangerous animals, silly!" 

That sounded memorable. 

Probably. 

He turned his attention to his equations, attempting first one question...then a second question...then a third question...

And then he began to add little arms and legs to the numbers. 

"Oh!" He exclaimed when he noticed the 7-Up, "Thanks!" 

He rummaged through his pocket for change, and came up with three pennies. "....I'll pay you back."

[Damien Johannes]

He saw the 3 lonely pennies that were in the boys hand. Damien laughed to himself and gave Sunar a quick smile, "Don't worry about it. Next time you need help you can pay me back with a cup of coffee. How does that sound?" He took another sip of his drink and then peeked over to Sunar's paper to see how he did. His skill at math was perfectly fine but remembering the process of the equations were the problem, and Damien would see that just by observing his classmate and his work. With some time and practice and will a little bit of luck he should do just fine in the coming test.

Damien sat back again in his seat and started to think about what he could do tonight before lights out. The shape of a sandwich popped into his head, he might go and get himself a sub for dinner. He thought about it but wasn't to deep into his thoughts to ignore Sunar if he had any questions for him.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar thrust the pennies back into his pocket. "Deal," He agreed. He could surely manage one cup of coffee in exchange for help with math homework. Assuming, of course, that this single session did nothing to improve his math skills -- and, given how abysmally he tended to perform in math classes, he doubted it would. It might take more than one extra study session to pick his grade up to something more acceptable than merely scraping by. 

He began another equation, but halfway through he decided that the seven was a very nice beginning to a face. He drew two very sad eyes, and a pointy little nose. 

"Thanks for helping me," He added, his face buried in his work. 

[Damien Johannes]

Damien watched as Sunar started back at his school work. He looked away for a moment to took a long pull of his drink, he swung his head back around and looked blankly at the little doodle and then back at his face to see what was going on in his little head. He finally spoke up, "Ay, bro. We here to doodle or to learn. Gotta get your head in the game, brother." Damien wasn't mad in the slightest but did want to get his point across that he would fail his class if he didn't focus on what needed to be done.

[Sunar Chugani]

"What?" Sunar blinked at his paper. Oh, right. He supposed that he was doodling instead of math. Well, who could blame him, really? Doodling was much more fun! However, he had specifically asked Damien to spend time with him helping.

Maybe, just maybe it was wasting Damien's time to ask for help only to draw instead.

"Oh. Yeah...math." His tone was full of regret as he returned his attention to the equation he was supposed to be working on. "We're definitely here for math."

[Damien Johannes]

"It's cool, it really is but your class work is more important than doodling right now." He pointed to his papers, "Once you have an assignment done completely, doodling can be your reward for completion." Damien can understand Sunars interest in drawing, he was really good at it. "Think of it like your own incentive program, Step 1: Complete your work, Step 2: You get to do something fun." Damien opened his drink but didn't drink yet. "Kinda like video games, you do a mission and you get rewarded for it. Same principles. You know what I mean?" He took another long sip from his drink hoping Sunar understood where he was coming from.

[Sunar Chugani]

Sunar set his shoulders in a determined pose. "That's very sensible," He complimented his classmate. It was such a good idea, and he couldn't believe he hadn't thought of it before (probably because he was not sensible.)

He took a deep breath and although it took a great deal of willpower he managed to finish a whole two math problems without a single stray beginning of a doodle.

"Math takes too long," He complained as he began a third math problem. "Who has time for this, anyway?"