Chapter Six: The Dynamic Duo
Mrs. Beck greeted Allison warmly and told her to go on back to Brian�s room because that was where he was. Allison thanked her and walked down the hall to Brian�s room. She knocked on the closed door. A familiar head poked out. �Hey, come on in. While you rode, I started working on my math homework. You have math too, don�t you?� Brian asked as she sat on the floor and Allison began getting out her binders. �I think I�ve got it figured out, but it took a while so I only got half of it finished.� �Okay. Yes, I do have math. Caldwell�s your teacher, right?� �Yeah.� �I started it in class and I think I figured it out when I started in class. I got over one-third of it done so you could start our German homework while I try to catch up.� �Sounds good,� Brian agreed. They had worked hard for an hour when Brian�s mom brought them snacks. She asked how they were coming along and was surprised by how much they had completed. After Mrs. Beck left the room, Allison thought of something. �Hey Brian, do you remember on the first day of school, um yesterday I guess, how we ran into Neil and Tyler?� Brian nodded. �You know, I think they�re right. We are-at least in the case of doing homework-the dynamic duo.� Allison contemplated thoughtfully. �Sure. Whatever you say.� �But don�t you agree?� �Yeah, I guess that makes sense, but don�t go telling them that. I�m sure that would give them good reason to have a hay day.� �I wouldn�t even want to experiment to see what would happen. It probably wouldn�t be pretty.� They both laughed. ~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~ A few weeks later, an announcement was made for all 8th graders who wanted to be in Math Olympiad-the after school math club-to walk to the middle school (which was right next to the junior high) and sign up after school the following day. Allison, Brian, Jared and Sam all agreed that they would be joining. The next day, they met right outside of Jared and Allison�s last period class, language arts. Luckily for them, the language arts room, 119, had a door leading outside so they could walk directly across the field to the other building. Some of the kids who had been in Math Olympiad the previous year were making jokes about some of the things Ms. Lehmann had said such as �Oh crumb!� They also laughed about some of the stupid things that they drew or wrote all over the math packets. Sam had told a lot of the stories to Allison so she wasn�t left out of the fast-moving conversation. Sooner than they wanted, the small group made it to the middle school. They had to fight through the crowds of the departing 6th and 7th graders to get to Pack 700 (At the middle school, packs were what the different wings of the school were called). Jared and Brian towered over the younger kids and made a path for the others to follow them through. It took a while, but finally they made it into the center of the pack. Ms. Lehmann pointed out where the sign up sheet was and instructed for them to write their name and grade legibly on it. They made a somewhat single-file line and did as she said. Then they found tables and sat down in the chairs. Each table had four chairs at it so Allison, Brian, Jared and Sam made their own group. They were handed the math packets for that day and got to work. Allison was the person who wrote their answer for the problem(s), Brian and Jared did the main work and Sam helped Allison with the writing and the guys with parts of the work. Just like in the 7th grade, people did really funny but slightly stupid stuff while they worked.
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