Maybe In Another Life

Chapter 30

1 - 2cos² α = tan α - cot α
sin α cos α

"Verify the identity." The professor's voice boomed from above her.

Mavis looked up to see the balding man give her a dour glare over the rim of his oval glasses as he pointedly walked away.

Soren was in AP calculus and so was Dileini, so she couldn't copy off them. Only Persephone shared this class with her, but she was about as useful as a fork for eating soup.

Mavis copied the equation and stared at it hard, scratching borders around it. Hopefully the identity would verify itself.

She didn't understand what she was doing in this class. Where would such things come in handy? It would've been better if they taught them how to do taxes or survive post graduation instead.

"Pst hey, did you figure it out?" Persephone peered at Mavis's blank paper.

"Did you try to solve it?" Mavis whispered back, throwing discreet glances at her friend's paper in turn.

Persephone only sorted.

With a sigh, Mavis returned her attention to the identity. She solved a few of the initial steps then hit a wall.

"Alright, who's going to come up here and solve?" Mr. Lambert plopped onto the seat at his desk.

A few hands raised and the professor scanned his options. Instead of opting for volunteers, he targeted Mavis.

"Up Charpentier."

She remained seated, looking around at her classmates for help. She should've known camaraderie wouldn't be a common virtue in juvie.

Mavis wended her way among the desks to the board. Mr.Lambert didn't at all look phased by her procrastination. In fact he seemed rather amused by the scowl on her face.

A fight or flight response went off in her head when he stood. Though she wasn't any shorter than he was, Mavis took a step back but held his stare. The professor was approximately the same age as her father, not particularly burly but with a belly full of beer.

"The time wasn't enough for me to solve it." She announced, chin up.

"Then you'll have to pick up where you left off on the board." He smiled at her.

Embarrassment was no novice to her. She'd dealt with ostracism and nasty looks and whispers her whole existence, proving herself to be a fool in-front of a class full of delinquents was insouciant. So Mavis wrote what she knew, and dusted the remnants of chalk off her fingers.

"Good now continue." Mr. Lambert leaned back onto the desk.

"I don't know how to." She said with a shrug. A few whispers arose behind her, but she payed them no mind.

"Sure you do, just-..."

His words faded off like some distant echo and Mavis suddenly felt a void.

There she was, standing in front of the board, face utterly blank, palms sweaty, a sort of vacancy to her.

She felt like her soul slipped out of her body and she was watching herself from the side. Everything fell silent and she felt a static numbing to her.