A little preview for a Luca fanfic I'm sitting on, where Luca begins school and learns he's in over his head. The drawing belongs to Chelsiegeorgie.
Luca stared at the pre-algebra problems with a rising sense of dread. Maybe the textbook’s cover and the first page were misprints? He flipped to the second page, and the third, only to find more of the same. Oh carp.
He had expected basic multiplication and division – the things his mother had planned to teach him before Alberto had made his way stealthy appearance. But numbers surrounded by curved lines and fused with letters? Rational numbers? Putting equations in slope intercept form? He may as well have been reading hieroglyphs.
Were the other kids unprepared too? Right now, they were chatting up a storm about calcio try-outs, who had the most amazing summer vacation exploits to share and the latest fashion trends for the upcoming fall and winter. But could it be that in a few minutes, they would discover their textbooks and then howl in anger about how the teacher had skipped ahead in the curriculum?
Luca was about to ask Giulia that when an odd-looking man – bearded, half-bald, and with a pointy chin – appeared in the doorway. The chatter died away instantly. So did the enthusiasm. Now that was class was starting in earnest, most of the students looked like they’d made a dreadful mistake coming here.
Mr. Aregio locked eyes with them, wearing a perfectly neutral expression. “The eager young minds of tomorrow. At least that’s what I intended to say. But the only thing you kids seem eager for is more summer vacation.
He brushed his fingers over his beard. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
He went to the board and wrote down ‘PRE-ALGEBRA’ in super-sized letters.
“Pre-algebra is like all branches of math, really. It’s a basic survival skill. It will follow you in whatever career you end up choosing.”
Mr. Aregio paused, perhaps for dramatic effect.
“But it should also be fun. And so, in this class, we’re going to be playing lots of games.”
Luca saw the girl sat to his left sit up straight in his seat, and a smile tug at Mr. Aregio’s lips.
“Let’s get down to business. I’m going to give you twenty problems to solve. If you get 15 out of 20 correct, you’ll be exempted from homework tonight.”
He jotted down some hieroglyphs on the board: (2,1) and (-1, -5)
“I’d like someone to write me an equation of the line that passes through these points.”
Behind Luca came the sound of many more students righting their postures.
Six students raised their hands, including Luca and Giulia. Four of them did so somewhat half-heartedly, while Luca positively cringed with fear. Meanwhile, Giulia was wriggling like a fish. Nonetheless, it was on Luca that Mr. Aregio’s eyes settled.
“Ah yes, the sea-monster! Come on up here.”
“Actually sir,” said Luca, in the most polite voice he could muster, “I’m not sure if I can-
“Solve the problem alone? Not a problem! We’ll do it together.”
Luca had little choice but to shuffle his way to the board and pick up a piece of chalk. He hadn’t the faintest idea of what to do next.
“First, find the slope using the given points” prompted the pointy-chinned man.
You should have bought back the vespa, a voice whispered in his head. Now it's too late.
Luca fought to keep his cool. If Mr. Aregio could walk him through the problem, he might yet avoid public humiliation. Or anything worse, like getting expelled. “Um…how do I do that?”
“You’ll want to put the points in fraction form.”
He guessed, from the way Giulia’’s eyes were flickering with concern, that his answer would set Mr. Aregio off, and it did.
“Oh come on, Luca, that’s second grade!” shouted the teacher.
Luca swallowed hard. His voice dropped to a half-whisper. “Yes sir, but, um, I haven’t learned about them yet.”
It took a seeming eternity for Mr. Aregio to respond. The sight of several students tittering through their hands made the time stretch longer still.
“My dear Luca” the teacher asked finally, “how much math did they teach you under the sea?”
