Escape artistry

4. The mathematician (then)

It all changed for Tobirama during a math lesson around six months after he arrived.

He had turned fifteen by then, while Izuna was still thirteen, having been born later in the year. They had kept their nocturnal meetings, never saying anything, nothing changing at all except for the fact that they now had to bring their duvets up so as not to freeze too much.

On this particular day, the boys were calculating with percentages. As the boys did their tasks, he walked in between their desks.

And suddenly, he stopped at Tobirama's desk, took his notebook and held it towards the light.

The entire classroom fell dead silent. All were looking at the scene in front of them, and Izuna could see how eager they were for something to go wrong for Tobirama.

Tobirama was biting his teeth together and was looking down.

"What is this?" the professor asked.

At first, Izuna felt dread clench at his heart; the professor sounded mad. But no...  That was not it. The professor wasn't mad, or angry, or disappointed. He was...

Well, he was in awe.

He put the notebook down in front of Tobirama again and pointed.

"When did you do these?" he asked.

"Just now, professor", Tobirama asked, clearly uncomfortable.

"And today's tasks? Can I see them?"

"No, professor."

The other boys sniggered.

"And why is that, Tobirama?"

"Because..."

He mumbled something that wasn't audible.

"Speak louder, please, Tobirama", the professor said kindly.

"Because I did them two notebooks ago. I don't have that notebook with me. I finished them last month."

The classroom fell dead silent, but it was a different sort of silence this time. It was a silence of awe. You could hear a pin drop.

"These are highly advanced university level calculations you have there, Tobirama", the professor said. He went to the blackboard. "How about this?" He scribbled down a row of, to Izuna, incomprehensible nonsense, with symbols Izuna had never seen, as well as some as he recognised as Greek letters. "Will you come forwards?"

Tobirama seemed to hesitate. Then, he stood up and walked to the blackboard incredibly slowly, like a wild animal approaching a human holding out something edible they wanted.

He took the crayon from the professor's hand and started calculating.

His hand flew over the blackboard, creating row after row of complex symbols and letters and numbers. He reached an answer, which I didn't understand at all, and encircled it.

"Is this correct, professor?"

The professor took off his glasses comically slowly, and then, equally slowly, sat down on the desk.

"My God..." he said.

Izuna overheard the mistress talking to the professor that day.

"Delightful! I had no hope in getting that boy adopted how strange it is. But if what you say is true, I won't need to give him to the streets when he turns eighteen! I will send him to college with a scholarship not only paying for his fee, but for the cost of his living as well!"

"A talent like that would be wasted anywhere but in a university", the professor agreed.

"He doesn't read quite well", the mistress says. "But there are scholarship based purely on mathematical skills, aren't there?"

"There are, miss", the professor said.

The mistress sighed.

"I wish the same thing went for boys who are the other way around. Who can read but have no talent in calculus. We have... certain boys who struggle."

By certain boys who struggle, Izuna knew the mistress meant him.

"Maybe", the professor said, taking a bite of his dinner while Izuna looked down into his milk glass pretending he wasn't eavesdropping. "in a future Russia, there will be as much value put on cultural achievements as mathematical."

Izuna felt a sting of something then. At first, he thought it was jealousy that the mistress, who was so certain there was no real future for Izuna, even if she never said it out loud, was so certain that Tobirama would be successful. But no. That wasn't quite it.

He wondered what it was throughout the rest of the evening, pondering. Why was he so uncomfortable?

Then, it struck him. He wasn't jealous of Tobirama's potential future. He was afraid he would be left behind.

That night, when Izuna's inner clock woke him up, he didn't go up to the meeting spot empty handed. He brought with him his calculus book, the one that Tobirama had clearly already finished, as well as one of the book of the week for literature class, Moby Dick.

As he climbed up, Tobirama must have sensed something was different, because he looked at Izuna as he climbed up. He never looked at Izuna when he climbed up.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

It was the first time they had spoken since their first night together here, other than their nightly agreement that they should try to get some sleep.

"How come you're never afraid it's someone else but me? One of the others, who would tell on us? Or one of the professors or the nannies or even the mistress herself?"

"I hear it", Tobirama said as if it was the most natural thin in the world. "You move leisurely. Like an elven."

Normally, Izuna would have hated being compared to something so girly. But when Tobirama said it, it didn't sound so bad.

He sat down next to Tobirama, who had now caught sight of the books and was looking at them with a frown.

"Here's the thing", Izuna said. "I'm a good reader but a bad mathematician. You're a good mathematician but a bad reader. We can exchange services."

"I do your homework, you do mine?" Tobirama asked with a smirk.

It struck Izuna that he had never seen him smile before. It wasn't a full-on, face-changing grin, but it was something that made Izuna feel special.

"No!" Izuna burst out and laughed. "No, I mean, we could learn something from each other. How long are we here each day? Two hours, considering the tolls of the city church bell. So for one hour, you teach me maths, and for one hour, I teach you to read. Deal?"

Izuna bit his lip, waiting for Tobirama's answer. He didn't want to tell Tobirama how desperately he wanted this. Before, he hadn't really cared what happened to him. But after hearing the professor and the mistress talk, he had realised he would have no real future if he didn't change anything. He was never going to be adopted by a family that could pay for an education, and if he didn't want to end up on the streets while
Tobirama went to university, he needed to get a scholarship.

Finally, and to Izuna's heart-wrenching relief, Tobirama nodded.

"Okay", Tobirama said.