A Home That Wasn't There// Alex Gaskarth [COMPLETED]

chapter two

What felt like minutes later, I was finished with the first book.

So I went for the second.

"You know, you don't have to read all of those in a day." Alex said.

"I know. I just like reading." I said, flipping to the first chapter.

Books have always interested me. I love the smell, and the sound the pages make when you turn them. Or the fact that if you get angry at how the book played out, you can calmly put a book mark in it before slamming it shut.

Books are amazing.

"Hey Blake? Could you put the book down for a minute?" Lisa asked.

"Sure." I answered, taking a hair tie off my wrist and putting it in the book before closing it.

"When was the last time you went to school?" She asked.

"Oh, it's been about a year now. Dad wouldn't enroll me." I replied.

"Can you figure out this equation?" She asked, handing me a slip of paper and a pencil.

Oh, this is easy. I have to factor each binomial as a trinomial with a first degree term of zero.

I finished the problem in just about two minutes.

I slid the paper and pencil back over to her on the coffee table.

"Done." I said.

"Already?" Alex asked.

All I did was nod.

Lisa picked the paper up and looked at it, then looked at the answer on her phone.

"How'd you do this?" She asked.

"You take the equation in parentheses and make it into two. The 'x squared' is made into two 'x's and put into separate parentheses and divide nine by three. You'll get a positive and a negative three. That will make one set of parentheses into (x+3) and the other (x-3) then check by FOIL." I answered.

"Blake. How old did you say you were again?" Lisa asked.

"Thirteen." I replied.

"How'd you do that? That's ninth grade algebra." She said.

"It is?" I asked.

"What's the largest word you know, how to you spell it, and what's the definition?" Alex asked.

"What is this? Are you smarter than a fifth grader? And to answer your question, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconosis. Spelled P-N-E-U-M-O-N-O-U-L-T-R-A-M-I-C-R-O-S-C-O-P-I-C-S-I-L-I-C-O-V-O-L-C-A-N-O-N-O-S-I-S.

The definition is 'an artificial long word said to mean a lung disease caused by inhaling very fine ash and sand dust.' But, Silicosis is a form of occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust, and is marked by inflammation and scarring in the form of nodular lesions in the upper lobes of the lungs. It is a type of pneumoconiosis." I said.