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Archie snorted. “I’ve never dumped the guys for a girl.”
“You and Patty ate lunch together for two months last year,” I reminded him.
“We had a project and it was literally the only time we could work on it,” he retaliated. Then he stuffed a fry in his mouth.
“Whatever,” Jake said, the nudged the burger. “Eat. I don’t care where Coop eats lunch. His loss.”
But Jake didn’t argue with me. They’d all had their girlfriends and there’d been plenty of times they’d individually or en masse disappeared down the dating rabbit hole.
“I’m not sure I’m burger hungry.” I held up the other half of my sandwich, only Archie snagged it then took a big bite.
Ass.
I punched him in the shoulder, and he winced, coughing hard a minute later. Served him right if he choked on it.
Bubba snickered. “Don’t take her sandwich next time, idiot.”
“I was trying to help,” Archie said with a wince, rubbing his shoulder. “Did you take up boxing this summer or something?”
“Or something,” I said, keeping it vague. The burger was not what I wanted, but I was still hungry.
“What did you do this summer, Frankie? We saw you at my party and at work,” Bubba nudged my leg with his foot. “But Coop said you were really busy and that stuff with your mom wasn’t great.”
Jake focused on the food in front of him, but Archie and Bubba looked at me expectantly. Apparently, Jake hadn’t shared his theories with them.
“Just stuff, things to figure out. Didn’t get to visit the colleges, but I did some virtual tours. Did you get the calculus questions done?” I’d finished my section before school because I’d been too tired to deal with it the night before and there weren’t that many.
“Most of them,” Bubba admitted. “I think the last one had an error in the question itself.”
“A typo?” Cause that happened. I hadn’t read through chapter one, because we covered the subject material the year before. Relenting, I took a bite of the burger and tried not to sigh. It was actually pretty good, and it already had ketchup on it. I didn’t eat burgers with anything except ketchup and cheese, and not always the cheese. Jake wore a small smile as he took a bite of his own and I bumped his shoulder lightly. “Thanks,” I muttered then reached for my bag to dig out my calculus book.
“You’re welcome,” he answered easily enough. I flipped through the book to the chapter one study questions, then read the last one on the list. Chewing the second bite of the burger thoughtfully, I frowned. Aware of the quiet around me, I kept my focus on the page.
On the third read of the question, I blew out a breath. “It’s a trick question and a really badly worded one.” Shifting to slide a leg under me, I pushed my food to the side to set the book on the table, and then leaned half over so the book faced Bubba right side up.
“This line here…” I tapped it. “It’s an if/then true/false question. The problem is the variables aren’t the same and they are asking if the functions are the same—which they seem to be, but are they really?”
Bubba frowned. “They’re not because the variables aren’t.”
“Bingo. Everything looks the same, but that one variable—unless it turns out to be equal to the same thing, which we have no way of knowing, thus it has to be false.”
“I hate trick questions,” Bubba stated, with a shake of his head.
I chuckled and sank back onto my seat before I reclaimed the burger. “Well, all you have to remember is if even one variable is off, then it’s not going to work. Functions can be the same—x can mean 3 times a variable plus 3 and y can mean 3 times a variable plus 3, but the variable decides whether the function actually equals the same.”
“Got it.” Bubba nodded. While he always asked for math tutoring, and we’d been exchanging study time for the last few years, he was an excellent student. Once he grasped a concept, he never lost it.
No sneaky variables would get past him again.
“You two still getting together after school?” Jake asked.
“As far as I know, so you are relieved of Bubba driving duty.”
Bubba snorted and Archie snagged more of my fries. Jake nudged his other packet between us then exchanged a slice of pizza for Bubba’s abandoned Pop Tarts.
Archie mumbled his thanks before he poked me. “You’re coming to the senior launch party, right?”
“That the one you’re planning for Saturday after next?”
