Page 15 of Shattered Silence Duet

“Holy crap, that’s crazy!”

I jerk back at that, my stomach twisting. I don’t want to be seenas crazy.

“No, Sweetheart, I meant that in a good way. A great way, like you’re crazy smart!” He smiles at me.

“Mr. Miller, are you feeling so confident in your calculus skills today that you don’t need to pay attention?” Mrs. Pinkins stands right in front of our desks, surprising me with her closeness. There’s a teasing note in her voice.

“Hey, Mrs. P—I think Mina is like a math genius or something. Give her a hard question!” Max pushes his notebook and pencil toward her.

I’m not sure he’s right, but the thought of solving a hard question excites me. She writes out a question that doesn’t seem too hard and turns the paper toward me. But panic freezes me. I’m not supposed to be able to do this, my mother told me to stick to my coloring books. It’s one thing if Max knows I can do the math, but I feel like I could trust him. Mrs. Pinkins will probably have to let the administration know if I’m actually able to do the curriculum, and I can’t afford for my mother to find out.

I look down at the paper, then push it back to her and go back to coloring the tiger, pretending I don’t understand what they are asking me to do.

“That’s alright, just try to keep your chatting to after class, shall we Mr. Miller?” Mrs. Pinkins says as she turns away from us and heads to the front of the class.

“Yes ma’am,” Max says, sounding disappointed. I hate disappointing him, but I don’t want everyone to know my secret. I feel Max’s eyes on me and it makes my stomach clench. I don’t want him to hate me.

When Mrs. Pinkin writes a harder question on the board, she asks a male student in the front row to go up and write his answer on the board. I watch as he starts to write down a bunch of numbers, clearly working on the answer.

I risk a glance at Max and he raises his eyebrow at me in question. I sigh, before leaning towards him and using my purple pencil crayon to writefifty-sixin his notebook. He looks at me for asecond before his eyes move back up to the front. We both watch for a few minutes as the guy continues his equation before finally reaching his answer: fifty-six.

“That’s right, David, good job, you can take your seat,” Mrs. Pinkins tells him and I chance a peek at Max. A smile slowly spreads across his face as he looks at me.

“That’s my girl. Don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret for now,” Max whispers happily before throwing his arm around me in a side hug. His arm lands right on my injury, and I wince, pulling back as my hand shoots to my arm instinctively to protect it.

“Oh shit, I’m sorry. Are you okay?” he asks, his voice full of worry.

Just then, the bell rings, signaling the end of the period and saving me from any sort of explanation. I ignore his question and start packing up my stuff. I sense Max watching me as I pack. He holds out his hand, and I take it. He seems to relax, his shoulders sagging slightly in relief, then pulls me into the hall.

As soon as we exit the class, Jasper is waiting for us. Max passes me off with a quick goodbye as he stares at me with questions in his eyes. I turn away and let Jasper lead me to chemistry. As we walk, Jasper pulls out his phone, reads something, types out a quick reply, and pockets it again. He glances at me, looking me over, but doesn’t say anything until we get to class and sit down.

“Hey, Angel, are you okay?” he asks tentatively.

I nod and give him a small smile.

He looks at me like he’s expecting me to say more, but when I don’t, he just nods and pulls out his textbook, placing it between us. I pull out my coloring book and stare at it. Why did I let Max know I could do the math? I was supposed to be playing down my intelligence and pretending like I don’t understand. That’s what my mother expects of me, and I’m not sure what she would do if she found out what I’m capable of. I have a feeling if she knew I could write and potentially communicate with people, she wouldn’t let me leave the house again, and I really don’t want thatto happen. I’ve had a little taste of freedom and don’t want to give it up.

Class goes a lot like yesterday, except I already know what Mr. Yang is teaching today. He has the class work on the questions in the book for a while. I continue coloring since I already answered all the questions yesterday when I was in the library.

At one point, I start watching Jasper work through the answers. He seems pretty good at it, but eventually, I notice him make a mistake. I hesitate, unsure if I should tell him. It’s not a test or anything graded, so I don’t think it’s considered cheating.

Hesitantly, I lean over and point to the question he got wrong.

He frowns and looks at me. “What is it?”

I shake my head.

“No?” He thinks for a second. “Do you mean I got the answer wrong?”

I nod, feeling nervous about his reaction.

He looks back at the question, reviewing his work. “Oh! You’re right. I got the wrong number here.” He looks at me, like he’s trying to figure something out. “Do you know the answers to all of these?”

Oh my god, this is like math all over again. I tentatively nod.

“Can you do other ones in the book?”

Another nod.