The algebraic equation was giving Lilly fits. No matter how many times she went over it, she couldn’t figure out what to do with the missing variable. Eyeing the equation she’d copied down from the textbook she’d found at the library, she realized she was going to need to erase the figures she’d written and work through the whole thing again. One way or another, she was going to figure this out. She had to, so she could get to the harder problems she’d discovered in the back of the book.
After making sure that Mrs. Mast was still occupied with a group of little kids at the front of the classroom, Lilly pulled out her eraser and got to work.
“What are you doing?” Katie asked.
“Nothing.”
Ignoring her comment, her new friend leaned closer and peered at Lilly’s paper. “That ain’t our homework.”
“I know.” She covered it up with her palm. “It’s nothing. I was just playing around.”
Katie wrinkled her nose. “With a bunch of numbers and letters? You sure have a strange idea of fun.”
Embarrassed that she was doing algebra for fun, Lilly tried to laugh off her friend’s statement. “I know. I was just bored. Like I said, it wasn’t anything. What’s going on with you?”
Katie blushed. “Nothing.”
Lilly noticed that Katie didn’t have her homework out on her desk. “You better get your papers out. When Mrs. Mast gets done meeting with the little kids, she’s going to come this way and start collecting our work.”
“I don’t have it done.”
“Why not?”
“My daed put up a tire swing last night over our pond. Me and my brothers swung on it all evening. I was planning to do it after I got in bed but I fell asleep.”
Lilly had never not done her homework. However, she knew better than to say anything about that. Katie was like a lot of girls their age. When they got to be thirteen, they started caring less about school and more about what they’d be doing when they graduated.
Because of that, Lilly concentrated on Katie’s story. “Why did your daed put the swing over the pond?”
“So we could swing over the water and jump in, of course.” Her eyes glowed. “It’s so fun.”
“I bet.” It took some effort, but Lilly did her best to sound interested and not jealous. Katie had no idea how blessed she was to have parents and siblings. She only had grandparents and an uncle who couldn’t farm worth beans.
Of course, the moment that thought ran through her head, she felt guilty. From the moment she’d arrived in Charm, her grandparents and uncle had bent over backward to make her feel at home. They’d held her when she’d cried and talked about her mamm and daed for hours whenever she wanted. They’d also allowed her to have the space she needed to adjust.
Katie was all smiles now. “Have you ever done that?”
“Hmm?”
“Swung into the water. Have you done it?”
“Nee.” It sounded scary.
“You should come over one day and go swimming.” Looking concerned, she said, “You can swim, right?”
“I can swim.” Not very well, but she could float. And she could hold her breath under the water. She had a feeling that wasn’t near good enough to jump from a swing into deep water, however.
Katie looked relieved. “I’m only teasing ya. My parents said you came from Florida. I bet everyone practically grows up in the water there.”
“All of Florida isn’t next to water, you know.”
“I know that. But—”
“And that was my uncle who came from Florida. I’m from Berlin.”
“Oh, jah. Because your parents died.”
Unable to respond to that, Lilly nodded and stared back at her paper.
Peter Schlabach, who so far hadn’t said all that much to her, scowled at Katie. “Wow, Kate. You sure know how to pick the wrong thing to say.”
After peeking to make sure Mrs. Mast still wasn’t nearby, Katie glared at Peter. “Shut up, Peter.” Then, before he could volley an angry retort, she turned back to Lilly. “I’m sorry I said anything. I shouldn’t have brought up your parents.”
While Peter muttered something sarcastic under his breath, Lilly simply nodded. She knew her friend hadn’t intended to be mean. She was simply a blunt girl. It wasn’t her fault that Lilly felt embarrassed. She hated being different.
After fishing around in her desk, Katie stood up with a sigh. Then she walked to the back of the room to sharpen her pencil.
Lilly was just about to open up that textbook again when Peter slipped into Katie’s empty seat.
“Don’t pay her any mind,” he said quietly.
“It’s okay. It’s not her fault that I’m so sensitive.”
“Sure it is.” When she gaped at him, he smirked. “Believe me, Katie always says the wrong thing. She’s been that way her whole life. I tell you what, she’s really good at it, too.”
Even though she knew she shouldn’t, Lilly smiled. “Danke for that.”
“You live off of Route 557, right?”
“Jah. At my grandparents’ farm.”
“I live real close to you.” Staring at her intently, he lowered his voice. “Want to walk home together?”
Just as his question sunk in, Lilly noticed Katie returning to her seat and Mrs. Mast eyeing her and Peter curiously.
Lilly wasn’t sure why she did it, maybe she was simply trying to get him to move, but she nodded. It surely didn’t have anything to do with the fact that his brown eyes were framed by thick black eyelashes or that she felt like he didn’t notice anyone else in the world when he stared at her.
He grinned as he walked back to his seat.
When Katie took her chair back, she whispered, “What did Peter want?”
“Nothing.”
“Sure?”
“Jah.”
“Hey, want to help me do my homework?”
By now, Lilly knew “help” meant “do.” Darting a wary glance at the teacher, she murmured, “I better not. I don’t want to get in trouble.”
Since Katie didn’t look pleased, Lilly stared at the equation in front of her again. At the moment, that math problem looked a whole lot easier to solve than trying to figure out what she thought about Peter asking to walk her home.
Deciding at last to isolate the variable and then multiply, she pulled out her sharpest pencil and got to work.
Around her, kids talked and laughed. They shuffled their papers and complained about homework.
She concentrated on X and Y. Not Peter’s offer. Not Katie’s questions. Not the fact that she didn’t have a daed to make tire swings.
“Lilly, what are you working on?” Mrs. Mast asked by her side.
Drat! She hadn’t even realized their teacher had gotten so close. “Nothing.” Too slowly, she covered the equation.
Mrs. Mast pulled the paper off her desk and studied it. After a few seconds, she blinked, then frowned at it. “Where did you see this?”
“In a textbook.”
“Where? We don’t have anything like that here.”
Fearing she was drawing attention, Lilly lowered her voice. “The library.”
After studying the paper again, Mrs. Mast crouched down by her side. “Do you understand this?”
“Kind of.”
“Do you know what kind of math you’re doing?”
Lilly noticed that her teacher wasn’t frowning. Instead, she was smiling in an encouraging way. It made her feel brave. “Algebra?”
“Jah, you are,” Mrs. Mast said softly. “Did you, um, study algebra at your old school?”
Feeling more than a couple of the other students’ attention on her, Lilly shook her head. “Nee. I was just interested in it. So I decided to try teaching myself.”
“I see.”
Lilly pulled out her spiral notebook for math. Flipping it open, she showed it to her teacher. “I did last night’s homework. I promise.”
Mrs. Mast took the notebook out of her hands. After she scanned it, she set it back down on Lilly’s desk. “How long did it take you to do yesterday’s math assignment?”
Still feeling like everyone was listening, she shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Please be honest with me. You’re not in trouble.”
“It didn’t take me long,” she hedged.
“About how long?” Mrs. Mast pressed.
“Ten minutes, maybe?”
“Ten minutes!” Katie exclaimed, her voice high and incredulous. “It would have taken me at least an hour.”
Mrs. Mast turned to Katie and frowned. “Would have?”
“I never got it done,” Katie admitted.
“It took me longer than that,” Peter said. “Hey, Lilly, how come you got done so fast?”
“I don’t know,” Lilly said, feeling worse than miserable. “I’m gut at math.”
Mrs. Mast bent down. “We’ll talk about this later, okay?”
“Jah.”
Her teacher squeezed her shoulder before walking over toward a group of girls hunched over some flashcards on the floor.
Once their teacher was out of earshot, Katie leaned close. “Are you showing off?”
“Nee.”
She frowned. “It sure seemed like it.”
“She’s not, Katie,” Peter interjected. “She’s just smart.”
“But still—”
“And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Peter said. “At all,” he added a little bit more loudly. His tone was so sure and confident, it was like he was practically daring everyone in the room to argue with him. Then, to Lilly’s surprise, he grinned. “Actually, now I know who to go to if I ever need help with math.”
Lilly didn’t say anything, but inside, she was smiling. She wasn’t sure what had just happened, but she was sure it was something big.
Peter Schlabach, who was so cute, so intimidating, and so . . . well, everything, had not only just asked to walk her home but had also told the whole class that he thought it was good that she was really smart.
Just when she’d been sure that things were going from bad to worse . . . they’d gotten pretty good.
Maybe even better than that.