Heather and The Game

"Carl, will you please stop staring at the screen?" inquired Heather, a white Gelert, as she thwacked her brother's head. That was all he did. Stare at the screen on his game system. Heather really didn't know how he did it. Wouldn't your eyes hurt? Who would want to put up with that? She really didn't think anyone would, but her brother was plain proof someone would want to put up with it. What a weirdo.

      Carl snarled at Heather's comment. "Hey, Heather," he questioned in an annoyed tone, "ever heard of homework, bozo? That way I can have some peace and quiet chomping snow blocks in my game while you have to do work. That'll make you shut up. I need to concentrate. I'm doing homework right now, too, you know."

      Heather sighed. "When will he learn?" she thought. Heather replied, "It doesn't count as homework if it's a video game, Carl."

      Silence. Heather hated that about her brother. He never responded because he was playing games. He was obsessed with the daily dare. She didn't understand how anyone could love a game so much. She always lost to Abigail's high scores anyway. Heather felt so jealous when Carl received a bunch of toys from the scores he had beaten. She'd go up to her room so she didn't have to look at them.

      Meanwhile, Heather sat down on their family's sunny little simple yellow couch. She picked up her notebook. Might as well do her homework before dinner, which by the way was Carl's favorite; Chicken Cordon Bleu. She started scribbling out answers to her confusing math homework. She didn't get it. "How can my brother be the best math student in the class if all he does is play games?" she pondered. She couldn't get the problems to work in her brain. She hated division. It was so hard, and it was just plain boring computation. At dinner, she picked at the plate of Chicken Cordon Bleu that was placed in front of her. Her mother, Marianne, asked how school was going. Carl explained about the A+ he had gotten on his report card in math.

      "What did you get on your report card sweetie?" Heather's mother asked.

      "Bs in English, Social Studies, and Physical education, a C in Science, and a D- in math," Heather murmured. Her mother stared at her in shock. Her jaw dropped open, speechless. Carl pretended he dropped something on the floor and crawled under the table. It was silent. Not like that was new to Heather. Finally, her dad changed the subject.

      "So, Marianne, what activities do we have tomorrow?"

      Her mother got herself together and wiped the worried look off her face. "Well, I have a business meeting, the kids are free, and you have an important lunch conference with your client, remember?"

      "Ah, right. I completely forgot," he admitted. Heather quietly asked to be excused and her mother nodded. "Heather, honey, I think you may need a tutor," she declared. That was how dinner ended.

      The next morning, Heather packed her Illusen lunchbox in her hasee backpack. She and Carl ran to school. Heather dreaded the coming of math class. At least it was her last subject. But unfortunately, English breezed by, social studies whizzed by fast, P.E. was short as it was, science was so quick Heather forgot she even had it, and before she knew it, it was time for math. Heather slowly opened her locker, stalling so she didn't have to go to math quite as soon. Then the bell rang and she walked slowly to the math room. In math, Carl got all his answers right on homework, and Heather only got two. Heather was so frustrated.

      "How is he so smart!?!?" she screamed when they got home from school. She slumped up the stairs to her bedroom. "Why me?" she cried aloud. If she got another bad grade on the quiz coming up in math, she'd have to be held back! What was she going to do? Just then, there was a knock on her bedroom door. Heather didn't answer it. She just sank deep into her red beanbag. Carl opened the door and shuffled in. There was an awkward silence. Again. Heather turned her tear streaked face away from her twin brother.

      He sat down on her bed and calmly said, "You know, Heather, I know something that will help you with math. It sure helped me." Heather turned her head to look at him.

      "I don't think anything can help me! I'm a wreck!" she sobbed.

      "Why don't you give it a try?" he asked. "It will be fun."

      Heather let out a long sigh. "Fine," she responded blandly. Carl led her downstairs to the playroom.

      "Carl!" she whined, "I don't wanna play a stupid video game!" Carl ignored her and started up his game system. A game called Maths Nightmare popped up.

      "UGH! A math game!" exclaimed Heather a she plopped down on a chair. Carl ignored her again. Heather was so fed up with him. How could he make her play a math game? He knew she was horrible at division. She had to admire his determination to help her though. Nobody else had tried to help her, not even her parents. They were always "too busy".

      Carl explained the rules to Heather, "Now, you have to complete the division problems before time runs out."

     Heather groaned. She grabbed the game controls from her brother and hit the START button. She looked at the problem. 20 divided by 5.

      "That's easy," she thought, "The answer's 4." She typed in her answer. Next problem. "36 divided by 6. Well, that was 6 of course!" Okay, next problem. "48 divided by 8. Uh, I think it's 4. Wait, no, 48 divided by 4 is 12. Hmmm. Oh! I've got it! It's 6!" Correct! the words floated across the purple and bluish-black colored screen as all the sheep jumped over the fence. She did it! "Hey, I'm getting the hang of this!" she pointed out to her brother excitedly. Carl's grin took up half his face. By the end of the night, Heather was a math master.

      The next day at school, Heather got worked really hard trying to remember all the answers from the game that were on her division quiz. She went over every problem and double checked her work. The teacher finished grading the quizzes ten minutes after Heather turned her paper in. Heather crossed her paws, praying to have an A. The teacher announced that there was one 100%. It was Heather's quiz! Heather couldn't believe it! She squealed with joy. The teacher grinned.

      "Good job, Heather," she said, congratulating her.

     Heather couldn't wait to show her parents her A! On the way home Heather thanked her brother. She smiled at him. " Maybe your games aren't so bad, Carl," she said with her quiz in her hand. And for the first time since Heather could remember, Carl laughed and gave her a big high five. She embraced him in a loving hug. "Thank you so much!" she cried. Heather never had math problems ever again!

The End