Mackenzie | √

Chapter 18

By the time I got to class, Tanner was already seated on his seat and I didn't say anything to him as I sat beside him. I took out my note to look through and keep myself busy when Cole stopped at my table.

"Hey Mackenzie," he greeted and I looked up at him, already disturbed by his cologne. "I really need you to help out with my-"

I sneezed.

"Bless you," he smiled, "Yeah. I need you to please help with my homework from-"

I sneezed again and then, I tried to tell him I couldn't attend to him, "Look, I-" sneezed.

"Bless you," he smiled again.

"Are you doing this on purpose?" I heard Tanner ask. For a second, I thought he was referring to me, but when I looked at him, he was looking straight at Cole.

"What?" Cole asked.

"You see she's sneezing and you're smiling. Your cologne's killing her, so leave her side."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Mackenzie. I'll just come back another time," Cole said, stepping away from my side.

"Yeah, and with less cologne," Tanner told him.

"Are you okay?" Tanner asked, and I looked at him briefly, "Yeah, thanks."

*

Everyone watched Mrs Martinez as she wrote an equation on the board.

"Right, class! We're gonna do something now," Mrs Martinez clapped her hand once, "I give you and your seatmate ten minutes to solve the equation on the board together. Take note, that the keyword here is together."

Tanner and I looked at the board at the same time.

I started working it, Tanner watching as I wrote and then, I was lost. I sighed in frustration as I dropped my pencil on the desk. I looked at the equation one more time, but then, nothing could change. I had no idea what the ​next step was, but by the time I looked back at the paper I started solving on, Tanner had already carried on from where I stopped, so it was my turn to watch him.

"That's meant to be cos, not sine," I corrected him and watched him read what he'd written. I looked at his lips form a quick 'o' as soon as he saw his mistake. He cleaned it off and continued, looking very unsure of what he was doing. At the end, though, he got an answer, and while he looked totally uncertain of his answer, I assumed the answer he got was right, considering I didn't know it and he got an answer.

"Time's up!" Mrs Martinez announced.

I heard sighs, people dropping their pencils in frustration, and people​, of course, bragging that they'd gotten the answer. I could only hope Tanner got it.

"How many seats were able to finish?" Mrs Martinez asked, looking around and only six hands went up.

"Right. Keith, what did you and your seatmate come to?"

"479,461sqrt," he answered.

"Who came up with the answer?" Mrs Martinez asked.

"I did," Keith answered.

"You were close. It's wrong." She looked around again. "Tiffany, what did you and Dan come to?"

"1,365sqrt," she said.

"Wrong," she said bluntly, "Mackenzie, what did you and Tanner get?"

I looked at the paper, swallowing,
"471,625sqrt," I said.

"Awesome!" She looked so impressed, "Very correct! Who got the answer?"

"Tanner," I said at the same time Tanner said,"Mackenzie."