Miscalculation



Miscalculation is the seventh chapter of the Main Story.

Note(s)
Any dialogue that is not being spoken in English is represented with italics and bold text.

Plot
Samantha walked through the hallway with Zack and Bethany, looking at all the students going separate ways, going into classes and into their lockers. Many gave her a look since she's the new kid that nobody's ever seen before. Bethany took her into a classroom, with other students sitting around socialising.

It was a very typical classroom, the tables were arranged in a horseshoe shape with a table at the front with a computer for the teacher. Next to that desk is a smartboard with a projector in the middle of the ceiling to project the computer screen onto it and a whiteboard on the other side. There was a long table at the back with three computers for students to use and a few soft chairs in the corner.

“Oh, you must be Samantha Clegg,” said the teacher at the front of the class.

“Yeah, I guess I am,” Samantha sighed, not used to being called that. Oviphomos don't use surnames, but Ellenseren made up one for Samantha to allow her to blend in.

“Well, welcome to Clear Bridge School! I'm Emily Walton, your new tutor.”

Samantha kept to herself until Emily called the students to sit around the table for registration. Samantha watched all the others go to their seats. Bethany waited with her until everyone else had sat down, then she brought Samantha over to a seat next to her.

“Alright, Alex Bailey?” Emily called.

“Here,” Alex replied.

“Samantha Clegg?”

“Uh, here teacher Emily,” she replied. Emily gave a brief look at being referred to like that, but moved on.

“James Jones?”

Samantha stopped paying attention as Emily called all the students' names.

“Alright, lovely. Now, we're going to be doing Maths this morning and we'll be doing independent travel this afternoon,” smiled Emily as she stood up and handed everyone their Maths books and a pencil each.

“It'll be working as far as you can go today, to see how well you can all do. Okay?”

Samantha sighed, although she was fairly good at Maths on Anoterra, she had a feeling that Maths on Earth would be extremely confusing. She opened her book at a random page and looked at the first question “Write the number 3,439 in words.” Samantha's face brightened a little bit, being able to read the words thanks to her translator, which causes her to see the words as if they are written in the Anoterran language. She wrote down 'three thousand, four hundred and thirty nine' in the her native language and continued writing answers in the book for quite a while. Bethany eventually glanced over at Samantha's work and was confused by all the weird symbols.

“Hey, are you writing in Japanese or something?” she asked. Samantha was confused.

“What are you talking about?”

“There, what does that say?”

“43, why?”

“It looks like you're writing in some alien language,” Bethany said softly.

Then Samantha realised what was going on. Her translator doesn't affect what she's writing, so what she has written is an unknown language to humans and Bethany was more right than she thinks she is. Samantha panicked and grabbed a rubber, starting to rub it out, but before she could rub out many answers, Emily came around.

“Book please,” she asked, holding her hand out.

“I-I just need to rub this out,” Samantha stuttered.

“You can do that next lesson,” Emily said as she Samantha's book, but was stopped when she saw the alien language written in it.

“Um, do you know how to write properly Samantha? I can't understand a word you've written,” Samantha looked down shamefully, her alien language was written in a book and she might have just blown her cover in the first lesson.

“There's nothing wrong with not being able to write, we can give you help with that in English class,” smiled Emily, thinking that Samantha was embarrassed about being unable to write properly. Bethany looked at Samantha, feeling bad for her.

“Go enjoy your break everyone,” Emily called once she got back to get desk. Nearly everyone got up and left the classroom to go outside, but a few students went over to the soft chairs to spend break inside. A knock on the door was heard as Zack came into the class.

“Hey miss, can I spend break in here?” he asked the teacher.

“So long as you don't start taking all the biscuits, yes, but this is your final warning,” she replied sternly.

“I don't take all of them!” he protested, “I just took most of them,” he muttered under his breath as he went over to Samantha and Bethany.

“Hello ladies,” he said as he grabbed a chair and sat across from the girls.

“Yes, hello Zack,” said Bethany in a dull voice.

“So what's we gonna do this breaktime?” he asked.

“I think we should let Samantha talk, introduce herself a bit. You okay with that?” she asked Samantha.

“Um.....okay?” she replied. There was a rather long pause between them.

“So, do you speak another language or something?” asked Bethany, breaking the silence.

“No! Just English.....I am bad at writing,” she quickly said.

“Oh, you and me both! I suck at writing!” laughed Zack.

“At least Samantha puts an effort into it. You don't even try,” said Bethany, giving a slight laugh.

“Oi!”

The three of them continued to talk with Samantha feeling somewhat uncomfortable, worrying about her Maths book. Zack continued giving humourous statements that Samantha sometimes found laughable, but Bethany generally rolled her eyes at them.

“Alright Zack, go back to your own class,” chimed Emily.

“Aww, can't I stay longer? I can do Maths too!”

“Zack, this is not your class, now go back to your class,” Emily said sternly.

“Alright, alright, chill out!” said Zack as he rushed out. Samantha and Bethany held in their laughter.

“Zack was always a class clown,” Bethany whispered as the rest of the students came back and sat down.

Emily stood up at the whiteboard and wrote down several Maths problems and showed various methods of working them out, getting each of the students to solve a problem.

“I just divide it by a hundred and then times it by how much percentage I need to know,”

“Well done Samantha,” smiled Emily, glancing at the clock. “Well, I believe that's enough for today, I'll let you go for an early lunch. I'll see you for registration.”

Most of the students, once again, rushed out without a word.

“Always in a hurry, we have an early lunch, I don't get it,” sighed Bethany, getting up and picking up her bag. Samantha did the same.

“I say we go wait for Zack outside his classroom, that okay with you?”

“Um, sure,” said Samantha as the two girls left the class and walked down the hallway, stopping outside another class.

“Hope I'm not making you uncomfortable or anything. I'm just trying to be a good friend to the new girl,” said Bethany.

“Uh, no, you're pretty nice. You're nice to be around,” said Samantha.

“Oh, I'm happy to hear that,” Bethany smiled as the students started coming out of the class, but Zack was nowhere to be seen among them.

“Tsk, has he got himself told off again?” sighed Bethany as she peeked through the window to see Zack sat by himself with the teacher talking. “Yup....it shouldn't be long.” The girls waiting for a full minute until Zack came out, not seeing them on either side of the door. Bethany gave him a shove.

“Boo. What did you do this time?”

“Nicole was joking around and I couldn't stop laughing. Let's go eat, I'm starving,” he said as he walked away, still trying to hold in his laughs. Samantha and Bethany shrugged as they followed.

Characters

 * Samantha
 * Zack
 * Bethany
 * Emily Walton (first appearance)
 * Alex Bailey (first appearance)
 * James Jones (first appearance)

Mentioned Only

 * Nicole (first mention)

Locations

 * Earth
 * Clear Bridge School