"When you substitute the zero, what will be the y co-ordinates?"
"Zero comma six!" Everybody choruses.
Everybody but me, that is. We are having further math class and I don't understand what the teacher is saying. What makes it harder is that I can barely see the board. The thing is, during my private lessons, further math was easy for me. It was all logarithms and surds. That's easy. But, it turns out we only learn about that for the first three weeks. Now it's week four and we've moved on to polynomials. Which I do not understand. Sure the addition and subtraction was easy but everything else is not.
I look around. Everybody is either staring at the whiteboard or scribbling in their notebooks. The only thing more frustrating that not understanding something is being the only one that doesn't understand.
"Does everyone understand?" Mr Chinedu, our further math teacher, asks.
"Yesssss." Everyone says. This time including me.
"Are you sure?" He asks again. "All of you understand?"
Nooooooo!!, I want to scream.
But I don't. If everyone understands it and I say I don't, it will be dragging everyone back. Some people might even be irritated with me. Maybe someone can explain it to me later.
"Yes, sir!" I join my class mates to say.
"Good. Then we will have a test after this next example." He turns back to the board.
Oh no.
That explanation? I'm going to need it right now.
I survey my options. Joy is sitting behind me and I know she understands it, even without asking. But she doesn't have much of an inside voice. If she starts explaining it to me, both of us will get punished for sure.
Farida is sitting beside me. Call me proud if you want, but I wouldn't really like to learn from her.
Emmanuel is sitting in front of me.
Even worse.
He changed his seat after he became class captain. I guess he's going to be serious about it. Tito was only too glad to go to the back.
I can't look any further. Everyone else is too far away. These are my only options. Farida. Emmanuel. Joy.
I tap Farida. She owes me anyway. I voted for her.
"I don't really understand. Can you explain it to me?" I whisper.
"Which one? Example three or four?" She asks, not needing to lower her voice. Her normal voice is already almost a whisper.
"Everything." I admit. "Please start from the beginning."
"Okay," she says, not a hint of arrogance in her tone.
Wow. I guess I wasn't being fair to her by judging her so harshly.
She walks me through several examples, pausing when Mr Chinedu turns to look at the class and continuing when he faces the board again. I actually start to understand some of it. Not all. Just a little.
"Okay, so then how do you find the factors?"
"You multiply the one you're given by the polynomial."
What? That doesn't make sense.
"Noo," Emmanuel twists in his chair to look at us. "That's not correct. You divide the polynomial by the factor."
"No, Emmanuel." Farida gently argues, " Because then your answer will be a binomial."
YOU ARE READING
Muna Was Here
Teen Fiction13-year old Munachi Edozie is beyond excited to start senior secondary school. She has no idea what it has in store for her. Follow Muna as she navigates senior school with all its challenges and hurdles, makes new friends and learns that growing ol...
