Braedey Martin and the Chocolate Factory

Chapter Six: One More Chance...

The next morning, Valka and Mary were welcomed by a drained, emotionally distraught, and saddened Braedey Martin as he came down the stairs. The two women now knew he had heard everything, and it was a big loss for him. Valka walked over to Braedey, and gently hugged her son, Mary gently patting his head, while the young brunette cried into Valka's shoulder.

"Shh. It's okay, Braedey." Valka whispered to her son, hugging him a little tighter. "It's okay. We're here for you."

Mary knew Charlie wouldn't be feeling any better, and his folks were supporting him as best as they can.

Soon, after Braedey finished crying, he decided to go for a small walk to Charlie's school to see if he was okay. Sure, he would've decided to stay at home, but he thought to give Charlie support after all of this madness. He soon met up with the young blonde boy, the two of them sharing a brotherly-like hug, and headed off to school. The two showed small smiles, and arrived at the school.

"I've decided to switch Friday's schedule to Monday. Which means Friday's test on what we learned during the week will now be Monday before we've learned it." Mr. Turkentine told his class, while Braedey was standing to the side. "Since today's Tuesday, it doesn't matter. Pencils ready! Today, we are going to learn about percentages. For example, let's take the recent unpleasantness. Suppose there are, and you each opened, a certain number of them. That number is a percent. Understand?" He first pointed to a raven-hair girl with braces. "Madeline Durkin, how many Wonka Bars did you open?"

"About 100." Madeline replied, as Mr. Turkentine wrote this on the board.

"There are ten 100's in 1,000, therefore, you opened 10 percent." Mr. Turkentine calculated. "Peter Goff, how many did you open?" He asked a redhead boy.

"150." Peter replied, and Mr. Turkentine wrote this on the board.

"Charlie Bucket. How many did you open?" The teacher asked Charlie.

"Two." Charlie replied bluntly.

"That's easy." Mr. Turkentine stated. "200 is twice..."

"Not 200." Charlie called out. "Just 2."

Everyone looked to Charlie in question and confusion, all of them wondering why he said only 2. All except for Braedey, who's only had one Wonka Bar, so the two of them were in the exact same boat.

"2?" Mr. Turkentine questioned in confusion. "What do you mean, you only opened 2?"

"I don't care much for chocolate." Charlie replied.

"I can't figure out just 2! Let's pretend you opened 200." Mr. Turkentine suggested out loud, as Charlie mentally sighed to himself. "If you opened 200 Wonka Bars, apart from being dreadfully sick, you'd use 20% of 1,000, which is 15 percent half again..."

~*~*~

Soon, school was out. Braedey and Charlie were currently walking down the street. The two boys were still feeling bummed out they didn't find the last Golden Ticket. Braedey was also feeling a little down on luck for Charlie not even getting a stroke of luck.

Braedey then noticed something on the ground. He knelt down to take a look, which got Charlie's attention, and he saw Braedey had found a $20 bill. The brunette looked to the blonde, then handed him the dollar bill to Charlie, and the two of them head off to Benny's candy store.

"I'll wait for you outside." Braedey told Charlie, who nodded, and headed off inside. As Charlie does so, he heard the Comms going off. He pulled out the Bluetooth, and contacted the gang. "Hello?" He began.