Less Than Three

On a day normally spent playing video games or tinkering with different pieces of machinery, One could find Dirk Strider sitting on the futon, waiting patiently for the announcement of John Egbert's arrival. Judging by the conversations with his younger brother Dave, Dirk was to tutor the little squirt in math. How silly. Math isn't that hard at all; at least, he's 84% sure anyway. So for now, he sits and waits, his gaze resting on the television, despite the fact that he's not very focused on the show. His trained ears are waiting for the knock, so that the two if them could go over John's work and notes to figure out what was going on.

Already already in his mind were possibilities that could be accomplished with some educational pushing. He'd get John's D up to an A in no time flat. Now he just had to wait.

...And wait.
And oh look more waiting.

John slowly shuffled up to the door of the strider apartment with a pout on his face. There were things he'd much rather be doing after school rather than spend a few hours with Dave's older brother, Dirk. The guy was weird; ridiculously smart, but still weird, and not always in a good way. It wasn't even John's fault he was nearly failing math. The teacher just didn't like him and she refused to explain things any other way, or to help him better understand how to solve the equations.

Studying with Dirk to bring his grades up had been dad's idea.

John sighed and reached out to gently knock on the door while adjusting the strap of his backpack on his shoulder. If he was lucky, no one was home.

Luck was not on his side, seeing as how the door opened, one Dirk Strider staring down at the brunette, wearing the trademark shades of the Striders. He didn't say a word at first, simply moving aside and gesturing for him to walk inside. After that, the door was closed, the taller male walking towards the coffee table to turn the television off. No need for distractions, especially on the first lesson.

"Anything specific you'd like to go over? Or perhaps maybe some homework you need to complete?"

Somehow, he concluded that this was all going to become very awkward the first time around.

"I already did my homework" John mumbled, taking his backpack off as he sat down on the futon. He pulled out a few sheets of notebook paper and set it on the table.

He nodded once at the other, moving over to the table to glance over the papers there, sitting down himself. "Maybe it would be easier if you pointed out exactly where the areas of your difficulties are." He mumbled quietly. He was tempted to pull his sword out of his sylladex, considering the high amounts of awkwardness in here. He swore, he'd be able to cut it with the blade.

"I just... Don't understand it" John admitted. "I haven't been able to understand it for several chapters now actually, and I've told my teacher like five times and tried to get help from her, but she hates me."

Giving a small and acknowledging hum, Dirk reached over and picked up one of John's papers, his hidden eyes looking over the written down information. Seems simple enough to him; but then again, not everyone has a knack for math like he does.

"Did you happen to bring your text book? It would make explaining things significantly easier."

"No, we only have a class set. All our work is copied down from the online workbook, which doesn't explain or give examples" John admitted

Ah, society. Making things a whole lot more complex than they need to be. "I suppose I can jot down a few questions to explain it." Thus he did, picking up a pencil while gently taking one of John's blank sheets of paper, writing down a problem. "Alright, and then we..." He mumbled mainly to himself, as he worked to the next step. "Do you understand what I just did?"

John looked up at him. "I'm not saying this to be rude, but I couldn't see anything through your hand. And no, I still don't understand it" he stated

He didn't say anything at first, simply silently looking over at the other male. After a few more uncomfortable moments of silence, he handed John the pencil and the sheet of paper. "I'll direct you through it then." He said, taking hold of another pencil. He pointed with the tip of the pencil towards one part of the equation. "Take this, and distribute it here." He instructed, guiding the tip towards another section.

"Okay, why am I distriputing it?" John asked, doing as Dirk instructed "I can't just know how to do it when its set up this way, I need to know how the equation works so that I know why I'm doing what I'm doing"

"Because there is a process to uphold here, and I'm showing you said process. Any other method, and it will make absolutely no sense and just lead to frustration. Just trust me and let me show you. You shall see the clarity in it soon enough." He mumbled softly as he guided the tip to another part of the equation. "Now, combine like terms here," then he guided it past the equal sign. "And here."

John made an annoyed noise but did as he was told. "Now what?"

"Now if you notice, you have two different parts of the equation here. One of which, being a variable." He gestured to the X. "Here. And we obviously need to discover the source of this. Thus, we solve for it. And we do that by multiplying here." He said, gesturing. "And dividing here."

"Okay, but what am I multiplying and dividing by?" John asked

"These." He gestured. "You have to multiply these first." He wrote out the equation after multiplying the numerals. "Then you can divide here." He said, gesturing. "And there you have it."

John nodded. "Okay. I think I have this one now." he mumbled "what about equations that are set up differently? Can I see one of those next?"

Dirk's mouth twitched lightly with a barely forming smile. Yes, good, progress. "Of course, John." He said, a little louder than his previously quiet tone. He moved down the page to some empty space to write out another problem- this one in a different format. "Are you having trouble with this kind of problem as well?"

"Yeah. But now that I know how to do the other one, let me try this one" He replied. "Then I can show you some of my old tests and you can tell me how stupid I am when you see how bad I am at this stuff" He frowned in concentration as he slowly started working his way through the problem.

"I wouldn't call you 'stupid', John. Just...misinformed. Especially since your teacher seems to be failing at her job." He said softly, resting his elbows on his knees, watching John work the problem out. He'd wait to see if he could solve it by himself before he would nudge him in the right direction.

Finally John sighed and showed Dirk what he had gotten. "Is it right?" he asked

Dirk took hold of the paper, looking over the math work a couple of times. He finally gave him a light nod of approval, a slight smile on his face. "Yes, exactly."

"and I did the work right?" he asked in surprise

"Indeed you did." He said with a slight smile. "Why don't you try another problem?"