Books for Girls - 4 Great Stories for 8 - 12 Year Olds
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A Math Comp, of all things…
“You’ll be fine, Julia,” Millie said in her usual cheery voice. “Everything will go perfectly well tonight, you just wait and see!” I looked gratefully at my friend, very much wanting her to be right.
I had no time to focus on it any further though as there was still so much to do and to add to that, some of us had to be back in class straight after the morning tea break. A group of kids from our grade had been selected to enter a state-wide Math competition which just happened to be scheduled for the same day as the musical. This had been an oversight by our teacher who hadn’t realized that the musical was also on that day. But because she had arranged for the school to pay the administration fee for each of the entrants, we were expected to be there. She gave us the condition that if we wanted to have the day off class to help out with the musical, then we had to do the Math comp.
“It’s not fair,” complained Millie as we hurried to the classroom where the competition was to be held. “This wasn’t our choice! Why couldn’t it just be left to all the math nerds in our grade? Why did they have to include us as well?”
“I think they were short of kids to enter,” I replied. “But Math is my worst subject. I can’t figure out why they chose me.”
“Even though it’s your worst subject, you’re still good at it!” Millie exclaimed. “Better than me, anyway!”
“I thought this day couldn’t get any worse!” That was the last thought in my mind before I sat down to focus on the paper in front of me. Rolling my eyes and sighing with impatience, I decided just to do the work and get it finished as soon as possible. We had planned one last rehearsal with our dance troupe and I was keen to get back to the buzzing excitement in the hall. Attempting to ignore my throbbing leg as well as the pain coming from the lump on my head, I looked down towards the Math questions on my desk and tried to concentrate.