Chapter 108 - Team Action First's Drama

Jun Le and Vivian sat in a corner and watched the others scream at each other. Danny could hear the yells from below. By the time he arrived at the indoor sports hall, he was already mentally prepared for a damage cost of at least five thousand dollars.

Instead, he saw an intense match of basketball.

Camila acted as the referee and yelled foul when Dragon kicked Teddy away. From the headband colours, Rebecca and teddy were a team while Dragon and Roy formed another team. Danny deadpanned. Was this what the calories from pizza and burgers were going to be wasted on? When were they going to study?

"What's going on?" he asked the two boys who weren't participating.

Vivan smiled. "They are competing to come to an agreement on whose strategy they should use. Rebecca said that focusing on core subjects was easier but Dragon and Roy claimed that they should work on the other subjects since the notes for the core subjects will be released soon."

Danny groaned. He needed another smoke. Studying anything would be better than playing a thuggish game of two-men basketball.

Jun Le grinned happily as Teddy successfully blocked Roy while Rebecca scored. Dragon screamed in anger at his loss. The blue team was completely wiped and Rebecca looked smug with her win.

"There, we won this fair and square three to two. We are doing core subjects," she panted.

Roy rolled his eyes. "I'm going to sit out on this. It's too easy."

Jun Le's eyes followed the high jumper with a sparkle. Whenever he met opponents who underestimated him, Jun Le would also have a similar look in his eyes.

While they rehydrated, Rebecca started lessons, taking special care to smack Dragon with a foam bolster she found in the storeroom. Camila tidied the place up for lessons and was pulling out stack after stacks of frisbees.

Danny watched as Jun Le approached Roy who claimed that core subjects were too easy.

"Are you confident to get a hundred?" he asked.

Roy raised his brow. Who was this pipsqueak?

"Hundred? I'm not Rowan. As it is, getting an A for core subjects would be easy. I'm only bad at history and language seeing as my brain refuses to remember things."

Jun Le nodded. "How about helping them out then? Rebecca can't handle this many people. Dragon alone needs two dedicated tutors."

Roy thought about it and Danny observed from the side. Whatever these kids were planning, he had to observe for a little while to see if it was safe and effective. Rebecca seemed to have something up her sleeve when she made Dragon look at the same formula and practice the same question over and over.

Roy walked over and took over the drills thanks to Jun Le's nudging. That gave Rebecca some time to help Teddy out. The chess grandmaster helped Camila to arrange the frisbee and took out some markers to scribble multiplication questions on scrap pieces of paper.

It was true that some people's mathematical basics were lacking but what exactly were they up to?

His question was soon answered when Rebecca gave Roy the green light to stop.

"Alright, we're going to play a game. Have you all remembered the basic timetables and formulas earlier?"

"Yes, ma'am!" they saluted and Rebecca nodded.

Jun Le stood by the side recording answers and scores while Camila and Rebecca took turns tossing the frisbees with questions at the bottom. The training involved being able to identify key points in the question and applying the learnt formulas.

Danny was impressed. He had to be sure to include this in his report. The counsellor thought that Vivian and Roy might have higher scores but when Jun Le announced the results, they were all surprised at Teddy's accuracy.

"I understand basic concepts but when the more complicated questions appear, I have difficulty applying the formulas."

Rebecca smiled. Dragon had the worst score but Roy and Vivian's scores were too different from Dragon's. Even though some of the questions were simple, Roy panicked and made the wrong decision.

"That was the first round. We're going to be training differently from the other teams. This involves memory, accuracy and speed. Those who didn't score at least seven out of ten, start doing frog leaps around the hall once. We will resume until you can all get seven and above."

Dragon didn't complain and accepted the punishment without complaints. Roy rolled his eyes and Vivian suffered by the fifth leap. Danny nodded and left silently. With Rebecca's authority, Camila's optimism and Jun Le's cunningness, this team might just stand a chance at passing the exams.

The learning method was unconventional but it worked rather well for Dragon in his opinion. The martial arts enthusiast was more fired up than before. Rebecca's explanation of algebraic manipulations somehow got through that thick skull. She was making more progress than what Jasper and Scarlet could manage within a month.

"If you want to be stronger, you must learn addition. Addition is strength. Multiplication is power. If I have two to the power of three, I'm taking the product of two times two then multiplying it by two again. It makes eight, not six."

The physical representation of power was written out and Dragon glared at it. "Addition is weak, multiplication is strong."

Rebecca nodded even though that wasn't always the case. In Dragon's dictionary, only the words 'weak', 'strong', 'power' and 'challenge' had the most impact.

"Subtraction is the opposite of addition. What would that mean?"

Rebecca thought for a while. "Addition and Multiplication are the training you do to strengthen yourself. Subtraction and Division are tricks you learn to weaken a strong opponent."

Dragon stared at the big number that Rebecca gave. It was indeed a formidable foe.

"Divide this by nine now."

The martial artist painstakingly separated eighty-one into nine groups only to come to the answer of nine.

"I did it," he told her.

The equestrian smiled. "Good. However, you take too long. You must solve it in five seconds or less. Another test. Camila, you join in as well. What if eighteen divided by two?"

Dragon was still drawing lines when Camila answered. "Nine!"

Shocked, the boy glared at her. "You're cheating!"

Rebecca stopped the enraged boy. "No, she's not cheating. She's better than you because she studied the mathematical scripture."

At the mention of a scripture, Dragon fell to his knees and bowed his head. "Please enlighten this lowly one. I wish to learn the ways of Math! At my current level, if I were to challenge the monster called exams, I will surely fail. Thank you for showing me how weak I am."

Rebecca indulged in the role play and gave Dragon a timetable to memorise. "Repeat this until you can recite it in your heart, in your dreams before you come to me again."

The frisbees were collected while Dragon memorised the timetable in various positions from handstands to horse stances. Roy tried very hard not to look at the idiot working hard. He was ashamed of his own inability to answer the questions and chose to study quietly with Vivian and Jun Le.

Rebecca yawned. She didn't think that role-playing would be so effective for Dragon. Maybe the boy was truly delusional and thought that if he trained for a hundred years he could blow down houses with just the wind from his punch. Scarlet had the strangest suggestions but Rebecca was glad she listened to her. Still, it was a little embarrassing to have someone bow to her.

She stole a glance at the martial artist who was reciting the timetable out loud and blushed. Maybe he wasn't that bad of a person if she looked past his immediate flaws. He was a disciplined man with ambition and dedication.