Part 2 of "In The Woods When First We Met"

214. If Billy Could Go Back

Billy had already finished his school work when Jane got home, but their parents were out and Prissy was still working with their tutor, so Jane had time with Billy alone.

"Billy," she began. "Will you help me with my homework?"

Billy looked surprised. "Why do you want my help?"

"You did this last year, didn't you?" She showed him her book.

"Yeah..."

"Then can you help me? Please?"

"Well, all right," he said. "Jack's coming over, though, so I'm not helping you with the whole thing."

"Oh, he is? That's nice."

When he didn't say anything in response, Jane asked, "Don't you wish you could still go to school?"

"I don't care," Billy said, shrugging.

" I know you don't care about school school. But just getting to be with your friends. ...That's the best part of school."

"I guess," he said, but Jane could tell he hated being cooped up at home.

"Well, it's nice your friends come over, anyway. How are things with Miss Winston? Prissy really likes her."

"I don't."

"Why not?" Jane asked, already knowing the answer- a student couldn't goof off and pretend to be working, if there were only two students there.

"She thinks she knows everything," Billy said.

"Does she know what you did?" Jane asked, surprised.

"I didn't do anything," Billy said, sounding mad.

Jane sighed, "Billy, stop saying that."

Billy moved on. "Of course she doesn't know- why would we tell her? Anyway, that's not what I meant. I meant she thinks she knows everything about school stuff."

"Well, she is a teacher. She even has two degrees."

"And she never lets you forget it," he complained. "What's your stupid assignment, anyway?"

"I have to do all the even-numbered problems."

"Teachers always do that so you can't copy the answers out of the back of the book," he said, irritated.

"I wouldn't, anyway," Jane told him. "How can you learn them if you just copy the answers?"

Billy was already annoyed with his sister. He pointed to problem two. "You have to cross multiply on that. That's what you're doing wrong. You were multiplying straight across, but the denominator isn't the same."

Jane sighed. "I don't like fractions."

"Why don't you pretend it's for cooking? That takes fractions, and everything always comes out good when you cook," Billy suggested.

"I do like cooking," she said. "I like cooking a lot. Maybe that will help."

Jane was so surprised at the compliment that she did not tell him that he should have said 'well' instead of 'good'.

After he gave her a small amount of help and a compliment, she felt a little guilty for striving to get him to leave town, but she remembered that it was all for a good purpose.

I'm not being devious, she told herself. It's better for him, too.

She worked on a couple more problems and then said carefully, "You know, Billy, I wonder if maybe you could come back to school."