For the first time ever, the corner of Lee’s lips turns up; his eyebrows raise as he tilts his head down. “Is that a challenge?” he asks with a soft voice mixed with chuckles.

  “Yes, it is a challenge,” says the teacher. “If you manage to make the rest of the class understand this, I will apologise for having tricked you, by giving you the fourth-year test; if not, for the rest of the week, during lunch, you will help me.”

  Lee stands up and walks to the podium, then turning around, he smiles. “First, who plays Xeno-Clash? Let me see your hands,” Lee asks, as it is a popular game. Everyone lifts their hands.

  “Lee, you are supposed to explain algebra, not talk about some game,” says the teacher.

  Lee looks at the teacher and with a devilish smile says, “Algebra is all around us. It is on our daily life; you just have to look and notice.” Lee then grabs the marker and writes on the board, and speaks at the same time. “X plus four times twenty-five equals Y.” (x+4x25=y) He then looks at the class and asks, “Can anyone do this?” No one replies.

  “Lee, don’t you think there is something missing?” asks the teacher.

  Lee nods. “I was coming right to it,” Lee says looking at the teacher, then facing the class, he adds, “Like this, no one can do it; first, you must know the value of X or Y. Now if I say that the value of X is… fifty.” Lee crosses the X on the board and places a fifty under it.

  “Lee, those numbers are too big for us,” says a boy on the front row.

  “Are they?” Lee asks, and the whole class nods. “Okay, so imagine you are playing Xeno-Clash and have fifty of health, no shields mode, and you consume four drinks that give you twenty-five of health boost; how much health do you get at the end?”

  “One hundred and fifty!” I n no time, says almost the whole class at the same time. the teacher that was drinking some tea spits it out in shock.

  Lee looks at the teacher and smirks. Then turning to the board, he speaks while writing. “So, like you guys said, the value of Y is one hundred and fifty! Because four times twenty-five is the same as adding twenty-five four times, which gives us one hundred, plus the fifty of health we already have is one hundred and fifty.”

  The eyes of the whole class, hearing this explanation, grow wide with shock at understanding what seemed impossible moments ago.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  “Now, what if you have seventy-five of health?” Lee asks, crossing the fifty and writing seventy-five under it. “With a max health capacity of one hundred twenty, and the rest becomes shield, how much shield would you get?” He then after Y writes minus one hundred twenty equals Z (-120=z). “Once you know, lift your hands.”

  Slowly hands start to go up one by one; only a few students don't raise their hands.

  “Suhan, what did you get?” Lee asks, noticing that she has gotten the answer but has not lifted her hand.

  Suhan looks around and says, “So if ‘X’ is seventy-five, plus the one hundred of boost, it makes ‘Y’ one hundred and seventy-five, but if the max health is one hundred twenty, we need to take that from ‘Y’. ‘Z’ or shield would be… fifty-five?”

  Lee looks at the shocked face of the speechless teacher, then facing the class asks, “Did anyone get a different answer?” No one speaks, so Lee turns around and writes on the board. “Z is equal to fifty-five. Like I said before, algebra…” Lee taps the board and makes a circular motion with the pen. “It is in everything you do; shopping, gaming, anything… you just have to look.”

  “I can't believe I am going to say this,” says Miss Yan, holding to the table for support. “But congratulations, Lee; that was a very interesting way of explaining algebra. I might regret asking this, but, is there anything you would like to help your class friends understand?”

  “There could be one thing,” says Lee, and the teacher just takes a seat, bracing herself for whatever he might explain. “What if you don't know the value of X but you know the value of Y?” Lee then clears the numbers under X, replaces the twenty-five for seventeen, crosses off Y and writes two hundred, then erases the rest. Then looking back at the class, he says, “X plus four times seventeen equals two hundred. In this situation, you need to go backwards. First, you need to know what is the value of four times seventeen.” Lee then makes the equation under the problem. “We can do four times seven or seven plus seven four times.” The class shouts twenty-eight; Lee nods and writes the answer. “Then we do four times ten.” The class shouts the answer again and Lee writes it. “Now we add the twenty-eight and the forty.”

  “Sixty-eight!” exclaims the class in unison.

  “So we know that the boost is sixty-eight, and that it plus X is two hundred. So to go back, we need to do the opposite of the equation; plus is minus, times is divide.” Lee says writing on the board the new equation. “So we need to do two hundred minus sixty-eight equals X. Show hands when you got the answer.”

  This time students take a bit longer to lift their hands, but even so, the whole class lifts them with the exception of the more shy ones.

  Lee looks into the second row and asks, “Lexium, do you know the answer?” He asks a shy boy; the boy nods and lifts his book. “I can't read from here; you will need to speak it.”

  The boy swallows hard, then stands up, his face crimson. “I think the answer is one hundred thirty-two,” he says in a shy voice.

  “That is correct,” says the teacher. “Lee, please go back to your seat and everyone can pack your things.”

  “Miss Yan, what about homework?” asks the teacher's pet.

  Miss Yan looks around and says, “There is no homework; just study what Lee taught today.”