I have a Secret

Chapter 5

Seth Pov.

Crap, I thought as the last warning bell rang. I was late to math and Mr. Sykes already had it in for me.

I peeked into the math classroom and noticed Mr. Sykes back was turned. This was my chance! I quietly walked into the room and slid into the seat next to Beth. She was shaking her head at me and mouthing, Where were you?

Slept in, I mouthed back as I took out my calculator.

"Good morning everyone. Today we are going to talk about integrals from last night's homework; this topic will be included on your test on Monday. Please take out your homework from last night and pass them up," Mr. Sykes said.

Yes, I thought, he didn't notice me.

"Mr. Khan I will see you at detention today after school, here at three o'clock. And please do be on time, I wouldn't want to assign another detention for being late twice on the same day," he said frowning while I heard people laughing quietly around me. Without missing a beat he went back to his lecture.

Awww, I spoke too soon, man this guy is good. And then I remembered I had a doctor's appointment today. I had to leave during lunch. There was no way I could make it to detention not to mention I would have to miss practice.

"What's wrong?" Beth whispered

"I have to be somewhere right after school today," I whispered back as Mr. Sykes began droning on about indefinite and definite integrals.

"For what?" Beth whispered, "I thought your football practice doesn't start until after four thirty?"

"No, it's something I promised my dad I would do. He's coming to pick me up," I replied vaguely.

Beth just gave me a confused look and I opened my mouth to explain.

"MR. KHAN! What is so important that you have to interrupt my class? Please do share," Mr. Sykes boomed.

I jumped in my seat. "I'm sorry sir it won't happen again." I was beginning to understand why everyone was so scared of this guy.

"Yes, it won't," Mr. Sykes said, "because you are leaving my classroom."

I could not believe my ears, he was kicking me out?! Was this guy for real? I looked around and saw people looking at me sympathetically while a few footballers were smirking, but no one looked surprised. Apparently this kind of thing happened a lot. Mr. Sykes tapped his foot impatiently and pointed towards the exit.

"Wait," Beth called out. "it was my fault. I asked Seth a question about the problem on the board. He was just helping me."

A few gasps could be heard echoing through the classroom. Mr. Sykes paused as he inspected Beth's face for any hint of a lie. Finally he asked, "What was your question Ms. Mark?

"On the homework I was very confused about why the definition of the integral is like that. Where did that equation come from?" Beth stammered out.

Then he turned to me, "Mr. Khan what was your answer?" My brain turned blank, I was confused. Where was he going with this? Next to me I could see Beth looking at me apologetically.

I had to wing it. I tried to remember what Dad had said about integrals. "I explained to her that there is a proof which explains how the definition of the definite integral was derived," I said cautiously. I had no idea if that was the answer Mr. Sykes was looking for.

Mr. Sykes didn't respond right away, nor did he react. Instead he stared at me, eyes squinted ever so slightly. The room was absolutely silent and I wanted nothing more than to look away from Mr. Sykes boring eyes. But somehow it seemed like it was a test, so I kept my gaze firm.

"Care to demonstrate Mr. Khan?" he said motioning to the board. All eyes were on me. Slowly I stood up and picked up the white board marker. The scent of expo made me think of dad when he was attempting to solve another one of his crazy mathematical theorems. Change in x is equal to b minus a all divided by n my hand automatically wrote. And it was pretty simple math from there on out. So the limit and the integral from a to b go there, I muttered softly, resulting--and there it is.

I stepped away from the board. Mr. Sykes took one look at the board and said "Please have a seat."

"Mr. Khan where did you learn this?" Mr. Sykes asked.

"My dad used to be a math professor."

"I see" Mr. Sykes said quietly with no emotion. I didn't know whether to be relieved or to be scared; at least I was still in the classroom. The class broke out in a hushed chatter.

"There is a tutoring session during lunch on Thursday and I am need of another student tutor. Are you available during that time Mr. Khan?" Mr. Sykes asked.

"I can make it," I replied.

Mr. Sykes nodded his head, "Good, and as for today I will not be here after school."

With that he went back to the lesson like he didn't just spend fifteen minutes of class time talking to me.

I sat down surprised and relieved. Maybe this Sykes guy wasn't so bad after all. But my relief was short lived as I thought about the appointment scheduled in just a couple of hours.