To the Nines

Abstract

Missy finally made it up to her room. She felt exhausted and overwhelmed. She spread out her homework and books across the comforter on her bed. She read the flyer from Ms. Jameson with details about the math club and Saturday’s competition. Then she flicked the blue piece of paper describing the math event like a Frisbee. It flew the length of her bed and then floated down to land upon her pillow near the end of her bed just as Pi entered the room. Pi surveyed the available space on the bed and leapt up. He pranced around, stepping on all the papers and books on Missy’s bed, then nudged away the flyer with his nose and settled himself on Missy’s pillow. Missy eased herself onto the bed and used her phone to snap candid shots of Pi. Pi cleaned his fur and ignored Missy completely.

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Missy finally made it up to her room. She felt exhausted and overwhelmed. She spread out her homework and books across the comforter on her bed. She read the flyer from Ms. Jameson with details about the math club and Saturday’s competition. Then she flicked the blue piece of paper describing the math event like a Frisbee. It flew the length of her bed and then floated down to land upon her pillow near the end of her bed just as Pi entered the room. Pi surveyed the available space on the bed and leapt up. He pranced around, stepping on all the papers and books on Missy’s bed, then nudged away the flyer with his nose and settled himself on Missy’s pillow. Missy eased herself onto the bed and used her phone to snap candid shots of Pi. Pi cleaned his fur and ignored Missy completely.

Missy slithered back down to floor level trying not to disturb Pi. She knelt on the floor with her elbows leaning on the foot of her bed. Something stirred inside her and she made her decision. She felt excited and worried.

Missy texted AJ, Megan and Kim. U There?

YEP AJ responded. Heading out to soccer practice.

I’m here :). Megan texted adding her usual sideways smile, opting to never use the graphical version of the emoji.

Missy sent her three closest friends a picture of Pi with the math club flyer by his front paws to warm up. Then Missy posed with Pi positioned in the background and Missy peeking over her math notebook, which was covered in math formulas and fashion doodles. She snapped the selfie and texted it to all of her friends—mathletes and fashionistas alike. Missy wondered what the other Figures and Icons would say. AJ was her best friend, after all, and always supported her.

Guess who’s subbing on the math team this weekend!?

Wow! That’s super. AJ answered with a series of smiley faces. Catch you after practice.

Kim finally responded with a row of happy emojis and a photo of her own thumbs-up.

You’ll be great! Danny texted along with a close-up photo of his own face winking into the camera, which spurred a round of other selfies imitating emojis. Danny had a way of cheering Missy up, no matter the situation.

REALLY?!? Mahdavi jumped in. Our design star is a math whiz too? Who knew!

Satisfied and feeling more at ease about her decision, Missy held her phone out and posed for a selfie with her tongue sticking out and responded to all.

Super! Kate answered. Missy laughed, knowing Kate was responding to her original news and certainly not to her last selfie. Kate was too buttoned up for that.

Missy smiled, relieved that her friends did not call her out for being a freak and a math geek. Their responses genuinely seemed to support her participation in the upcoming math competition.

Abruptly overcome with excitement, Missy abandoned her phone and her homework and headed to her closet. Finding the perfect outfit for the Math Olympics suddenly seemed more important than anything else. Six pants, four skirts and twelve tops means one hundred and twenty possible outfits!

Missy pulled out her favorite pieces and tossed them on top of the books on her bed causing Pi to hastily take his leave. She arranged three combinations, added accessories and shoes, and snapped pictures of each. She narrowed it down to two pants’ outfits and one skirt outfit to choose from.

Missy pictured the auditorium and the table arrangement and quickly tossed the skirt to the floor beside her bed. From the mezzanine, she knew you couldn’t see any legs beneath the table, but she wasn’t sure about the view from the main auditorium to the stage. She rearranged the tops and ­accessories and eliminated one top, adding it to the skirt on the floor. She retook her photos and posted them with the hashtags possibleOOTDs and mathfashion.

G-ma knocked on the open door. “Really cute,” she commented on the outfits as she stepped inside Missy’s room. G-ma looked at Missy standing in the middle of her bedroom surrounded by books, papers and items of clothing and looking disheveled herself. “Miss Melissa, you feeling OK?” she asked.

G-ma stepped over a heap of papers by the door and sat down on the chair beside Missy’s bed. Pi strolled back in and weaved himself through her legs. G-ma petted the cat who promptly pointed his nose in the air and squeezed himself under Missy’s bed.

“Well, then!” G-ma said to Pi, patiently waiting for Missy to reply.

Missy looked up from her phone and noticed the mess she had created in her bedroom. “Sorry for the mess,” Missy said, scooping up papers and clothes and dropping them on the desk chair behind her.

“I’m ok, G-ma,” Missy started. “I want to help Ms. Jameson and the mathletes. I really do. I just . . .”

“What is it?” G-ma prompted her and patted the bed next to her chair. Missy sat down heavily on the bed.

G-ma raised her eyebrows as papers flew up from the bed. “Whoa!” she laughed.

“I don’t want to be a geek anymore!” Missy blurted out then jumped up again. She busied herself with picking up the outfits and accessories and hanging them back in her closet.

“Oh! Missy! You are a smart, generous and loving young lady,” G-ma said.

Missy stopped in her tracks and shook her head. “ARG! Please don’t say that I’m smart,” Missy complained. “I don’t want to be called smart. I just want to be me.” Missy picked up a shirt from the floor and a hanger from her bed and put the two together. She stacked a few hanging garments and lay them over her arms and started across the room.

G-ma stood up and crossed the room. She caught Missy in a hug as Missy walked back empty-handed from her closet toward her bed. “Oh, dearie, being smart is being you. You are a great problem-solver and a gifted designer. All that is something to be proud of; it’s not anything to hide or shy away from.”

Missy hugged G-ma back, then pulled away and went back to her work tidying up her room, putting clothes away and avoiding eye contact. She thought if she looked at her grandmother, she might cry. Eight steps from bed to closet. Two hands, two arms, two shoulders. Four trips to the closet and back. Sixty-four steps.

Missy looked at her feet, counting her paces. “You have to say that, G-ma. Besides, you’re not in middle school,” Missy said, nearly breathless from pacing, bending and picking up articles of clothing.

“You are right about that, dearie. I have not been in school for a long time, but I do know how you feel,” G-ma said. “It’s hard to be a unicorn. Not everyone appreciates the unique abilities and the special skills you have. They may be jealous or afraid, but that should never ever stop you from being the wonderful you that you are.” G-ma lifted Missy’s chin to look her in the eyes. “You are my unicorn,” she said and kissed Missy’s cheek.

Missy sat cross-legged on the floor and put her head in her hands. She felt dizzy and confused. She never thought of herself as a unicorn before, but she loved that image. “I am a unicorn,” Missy repeated to herself.

G-ma put her hand on Missy’s shoulder. “You should not hide your best parts to try to make other people like you,” G-ma said. “The world needs all your special talents!”

As if on cue, Pi exploded into Missy’s lap, sprawling across her legs and batting at Missy’s arms with his paws. G-ma leaned over and ruffled Missy’s hair. “Your dad ordered pizza for dinner,” she said. “Should be here in twenty minutes. OK?” She patted Missy reassuringly and walked to the door. G-ma left Missy’s room, and Pi leapt off Missy’s lap and followed G-ma out.

Missy stretched out on her bedroom floor and imagined a combined math and fashion competition where each model had to solve math problems at the end of the runway. She pictured Morgan and Kate dressed to the nines followed by Peter and some of the other mathletes, who in Missy’s mind’s eye were not nearly as fashionable. Each student paraded their way to a microphone at the end of the runway where they were asked to solve a complex math problem. When they answered correctly, the mathletes turned and walked backstage. She giggled at the thought.

Missy opened her eyes, sat up and started reviewing the math worksheets that Ms. Jameson had given her to prepare for the competition. Dressed to the nines . . . Missy thought about the expression and laughed. Fashion and math intermingled. No wonder she loved both so well!

FormalPara Math Hack: Division Tricks

Divide large numbers at top speed!

Divisible by 3 if the sum of the digits of the number are divisible by 3 (492 is because 4 + 9 + 2 equals 15, which is divisible by 3).

Divisible by 4 if the last two digits of the number are divisible by 4 (2676 is because 76 is a multiple of 4).

Divisible by 6 if the rules of divisibility for 2 and 3 work for that number (804).

Divisible by 9 if the sum of digits of the number are divisible by 9 (5922 because 5 + 9 + 2 + 2 equals 18, which is divisible by 9).

Divisible by 12 if the rules of divisibility for 3 and 4 work for that number (1068 is because 1 + 0 + 6 +8 = 15, which is divisible by 3, and 68 is a multiple of 4).