I look up at him. “I minus four from each side?”
He winces, giving a slight head shake.
I look back down at the messed-up number. Why not? We minused the seven. Why the heck is there a minus near the four? It always confuses me when they stick minus in front of numbers. What does that mean?
I tap the -4X. “Add four to each side?”
Milo chews his lip, waiting for me to try again.
I scrunch a hand into my hair. “Help me.”
He circles the -4X. “When a number is attached to the variable, it means…”
“Oh,” I draw out the word as it dawns on me. “They’re multiplied.”
An elated grin expands on Milo’s face. “Yeah, Jamie, you’re right.”
I take my pen and fill out the next line before Milo does. I need to divide. “Therefore, X equals minus two.”
“Woo. You got it,” Milo cheers, lifting his hand across the table.
A flutter of happiness bursts into my chest. I feel totally lame for feeling so giddy over a stupid math problem, but look at how happy it made him. I give in and connect with his hand in a high five.
“Sounds like things are going well,” Aunt Maddy says, approaching the booth with nervous enthusiasm.
“She solved the equation on her own,” Milo replies.
“No way, Milo did most of the work,” I say.
“But you got there in the end,” Milo says, still grinning.
I smile back and turn to Aunt Maddy. “It does feel really good to actually understand what I did.”
Aunt Maddy smooths my ponytail. “I’m so proud of you, baby.”
“Usually, I just copy what Mr. Pritchard wrote on the board and call it a day. But maybe I can actually get this stuff.”
“Of course you can,” Maddy cheers. “It’ll just take some time. I just need to mop and then we’ll go. Maybe you guys will have time to work on more problems?”
Milo nods. “Kai’s not here yet, so I’m in no hurry.”
“Excellent,” Aunt Maddy says and walks away from the table.
Milo leans forward. “You should feel proud of yourself. You’re gonna get this stuff.”
I nod. “Thanks, Milo.”
Even though I struggled a lot with the next two problems, at least I didn’t have to help clean up the cafe with Aunt Maddy.
“When did you want to work on your coordination?” I ask while Maddy mops away from our area.
Milo turns a slight shade of green as he packs his bag. “Any time there aren’t other people around the fields.”
“I also need to make sure Coach Anders isn’t around. I promised him I wouldn’t touch a soccer ball outside of team practices.”
Milo frowns. “I’m not getting you into trouble, am I?”
I slide out of the booth. “Chill. When I’m helping out my tutor, I’m sure he’ll be cool with it. I just don’t want to chance it.”
