Within The Bonds

60: Uprooting Storm

As the clock on my study table ticked the completion of thirty minutes, I mentally establish two things; one: Jack is a math genius of some sort, and two: he sucks at teaching!

While I struggle to calculate the value of 'x' on paper this idiot has already done it in his mind—without a single glance at the answers at the back of the book.

This frustrates and fascinates me at the same time. But the completion of the half-hour is particular important to me as of this moment for reason beyond my personal annoyance towards my idiot brother.

Mentally sighing when I notice no new text on my phone, I'm assured that this is my best shot at getting the message through to the others. All I need now is for Jack to think before acting.

"You have another five minutes to give me the right answer," Jack reminds me like clockwork as he has been doing for the past fifteen minutes.

"Almost done," I mumble as I scribble the formula, I see fit and cross-check the previous method with my current one to see where I went wrong.

'A little while longer' I convince myself not wanting to take any chances that might get either of us in trouble.

"Is your tattoo written in Greek?" I ask as my mind and eyes wander away from my worksheet.

As frustration envelopes me and my eyes glue themselves to the intricate work of art on his forearm that is on clear display with his short sleeves tee-shirt.

"You don't get the concept, do you?" He remarks dodging the question while pulling me back to the source of my frustration.

"The concept was put down by an idiot what do you expect?" I scoff in a low murmur.

"I understand it," he replies back shaking his head in disapproval as he studies my half-completed work.

"Exactly," I add which only earns me a glare from him. Sticking my tongue out at him as my comeback, I try to focus as he explains the entire problem again.

"So, basically all I have to do is cross multiply these terms to get the value of 'x'?" I ask in disbelief once realization strikes me.

"Once you simplify the terms, yeah," he clarifies nonchalantly with a shrug and at this exact moment, I feel the sudden urge to find my algebra teacher and smacking him upside his head!

Propping his legs on the edge of my desk he leans back in the chair he's occupying with his hands folded behind his head supporting it his eyes closes in relaxation.

Hastily making the necessary changes to my equation and finally formulating its right sequence, I grab my calculator and compute the rest.

Copying down the value of 'x' I reckon from my calculator; I clear it and punch in a bunch of dots and dashes that make up the Morse code.

I knew well enough that typing out a plain 'SOS' would do me no good and only cause alarm which might backfire on me and my plan. So, I do the next best thing.

"Hey is this right?" I ask propelling my calculator towards his vision rage.

A frown makes a quick appearance on his face but is gone before it can be fully noticed. Still looking at it with a nonchalant expression, he doesn't give me away.

"Yeah, you got it. But you have to explain your work in words at the end of the problem," he replies and I nod catching his hint.

My message through small basically translated to the same as the message I wrote on paper previously and tried slipping to one of them only shorter.