it?â
âOf course. Itâs great when I canât sleep. All I have to do is open it up, read a few words and Iâm out like a light .â
She starts getting annoyed. I seem to have that effect on Mum without even trying. âWell, I pay good money for your schoolbooks! The least you can do is use them properly.â
She wields the iron like a weapon, flattening my school pants like theyâre being run over by a steamroller. Iâm glad Iâm not wearing them.
In my room I take the maths book from my bag. The parts of a triangle have many interesting relationships , it says.
I snigger. How many triangles do you know have relationships?
Normally, Iâd stop reading right there and start sleeping. But not tonight, thereâs too much at stake. Do it for Ashleigh, I think.
The book tells me about perimeter and area, and about congruence. Do you know that two triangles are congruent if the sides of one equals the sides of the other? Well, I had no idea, but I do now. And the weird thing is, triangles arenât that hard. As Belinda says, they only have three sides.
I study like Iâve never studied before â at one stage sticking matchsticks between my eyelids so I stay awake â and I master eve rything except the challenge questions. Hopefully, Relfy is too lazy to make up any of those.
Afterwards, I find it hard to get to sleep. Iâve got acute triangles and a cute girl on my mind, not to mention a thick maths book under my pillow. Iâm hoping the answers will seep into my head overnight.
Then I realise the real reason why I canât sleep. Itâs the matchsticks, Iâve forgotten to take them out!
Once I do, Iâm dead to the world before I can count to ten degrees.
*
âReady. And ⦠begin!â says Mr Relf, pressing a button on his stopwatch.
Youâd think he was talking about the start of a race, not the start of a stupid test. Although this time the test isnât as stupid as usual because I actually understand it. If you know the right formulas, maths suddenly becomes a lot easier. Especially when all the formulas are written on the tops of your legs.
I hardly have to look at my legs, though, âcause I remember most of them. It must be because I slept on top of the textbook. Question one asks me to find the area of a triangle and, by using B à H ÷ 2, I do it easily.
In fact, I find the whole test pretty easy-peasy, except for the challenge question. I have no idea what itâs on about, but luckily Brains is sitting diagonally in front of me. I cup my hands against my forehead, making it seem like Iâm full-on concentrating. Which I am. Iâm concentrating on seeing what Brains has written. Heâs pretty good at covering up his work so Iâm not sure if I cheat perfectly, but I do my best. Thatâs all I can ask of myself, really .
Gavinâs beside me and heâs getting nearly everything wrong, the dummy. Heâs written that similar triangles have the same father but a different mother. I start to laugh.
âRoss!â says Mr Relf. âStop copying off Fox or Iâll rip your test in two.â
The bell rings and Relfy collects our tests. Right before he does, I have this sudden urge to write my own name on the top. But then I think of Ashleigh.
Gavin and I hang back after class.
âWell, this is something new,â says Mr Relf. âWhat do you boys want, some extra homework?â
âWe were wondering if you could mark my ⦠umm, Gavinâs test now,â I say.
âIâll do it on the weekend.â
âItâs just that weâve got this bet, sir. Gavin thinks heâll get an A.â
Mr Relf laughs. âWell, it wonât take long to settle that.â He takes the test out. âHmm,â he says, as he ticks question one. âHmmm.â He gives another tick. And a few minutes later: âHmmmmm. This is incredible,