Behavioural Tutor

29 // Beating the Calculator

The silence was deafening. No one knew how to respond. Why would they? Tommy had just solved an equation faster than Phil could even type it into a calculator. How could they respond to something like that? In retrospect, they probably should have reacted with something, because the silence only made Tommy feel more uncomfortable.

"I uh... wow! Tommy that's incredible – I never knew you could do that!" Tubbo was the first one to break out of the trance. Although Tommy was now glad they were now reacting, he didn't really know what was going on with Tubbo. Were they friends? Were they enemies? Before that moment, he didn't even know if they were on speaking terms.

"Thanks Big Man..." Tommy awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, really wishing that the others would have some kind of reaction rather than staring at him like he had three heads.

It was as if a switch had suddenly flipped; the once silent room was now bursting with questions, all aimed at Tommy. His head was spinning. Needless to say, he was very relieved when Principal Ranboo quietened the group down.

"Alright then, Tommy," Technoblade's voice just had some sort of calming aurora to it; Tommy didn't feel pressured or threatened when he heard the older boy speak, "do you mind if I ask you some more questions?"

Tommy hesitantly nodded. This was fine – he was fine. It was all okay. Everyone else in the room looked eagerly on, eager to learn the extent of Tommy's knowledge.

"15 x 37?"

"555" Techno moved on without even waiting for Phil to finish typing the question into the calculator. He already knew the answer himself – what was the point in waiting for the struggling senior to finish?

"That's right. 88 divided by 64?"

"1.375" Phil was struggling with the buttons, but Techno just nodded and moved on.

"What's the square root of 97 multiplied by the highest common factor of six and nine?"

Tommy went silent for about two seconds, before responding with "29.5465734054... probably? Maybe? I mean I don't kno-"

"That's correct!" An astounded looking Phil answered from the corner, holding up the calculator. Even Techno looked impressed at this (considering he didn't have the answer for it yet).

The room was so silent, you could hear Principal Ranboo utter a 'wow' under his breath. This was truly incredible. How was it even possible?

"Ooh! Ooh! My turn!" Tubbo jumped up and down excitedly, causing everyone to look his way. "Okay... uuuuuh – let's do 323232495 divided by the closest whole number to the square root of 69, multiplied by the closed positive integer to -395 squared!!"

Everyone looked a bit confused, so Tubbo was just about to repeat the random digits when Tommy answered "40404061.875... I think that's the answer.

After Tubbo repeated the digits a couple more times (and Phil dropped the calculator a few times as well) they reached the same answer as Tommy had.

"Holy shit man..." Phil was stunned.

"Ah dude that is cool!" Tubbo was impressed.

"I've been made redundant-"Ranboo was questioning his life choices.

"I must train for another 1,000 years if I wish to compete with that." Techno was loving his newfound friend.

Tommy said nothing. Tommy was freaking out. Now Tommy was hyperventilating. This pretty much sums up the rest of that meeting.