Free Nobody Girl by Leslie Dubois Page A

her students would as well.
     
    Unfortunately, they didn’t. She showed them the cartoon on the overhead screen then erupted into laughter. Seconds later, she realized she was the only one laughing. Well, she and one other person.
     
    Delia locked eyes with Chase for a second before awkwardly looking way. Chase put on a pair of dark shades and slouched further into the chair trying to seem cool. She cleared her throat then proceeded to explain the difference between rational and irrational numbers and real and imaginary numbers to the students. They still didn’t quite get it. At this point, she was very happy for her dark olive complexion. That way no one could see her blush with embarrassment.
     
    She wondered why, of all the students, Chase was the only one to pick up on a math joke.  He really seemed to be an intelligent young man hiding behind a façade of casual popularity. She felt a little sorry for him. It was like he couldn’t be himself. He couldn’t reveal who he really was. He probably had more emotional damage in his life than she did.
     
    She wanted to help him. She wanted to reach out to him and let him know that it was okay to be smart. But then she thought about her own high school experience and how often she was ridiculed for being intelligent. Maybe he had the right idea. Maybe she wouldn’t have been such an outcast if she had made an effort to be popular.
     
    In any case, reaching out to Chase/C.J. was not an option. She didn’t want to lead him on and let him think that a relationship was possible. She couldn’t show him any special attention. She would have to draw out his intelligence another way.
     
    “Okay, let’s try something else,” Delia said once she recovered from the failure of the math cartoon. “I’m going to tell you a joke.” She cleared her throat again and sat comfortably on her desk. “Rene Descartes walks into a bar —”
     
    “Ms. Clark?” Angie interrupted. “Who is she?”
     
    Delia closed her eyes and sighed. How was she ever going to get through to these students? How had they made it through Algebra and Geometry without ever hearing of Rene Descartes?
     
    “He was a French philosopher and mathematician who lived in the earlier seventeenth century. His application of Algebra to Geometry left us with Cartesian geometry from which we get the Cartesian coordinate plane.” The entire class turned to stare at the sunglass laden C.J. Mitchell, the epitome of cool, as he rattled off these facts no one else seemed to know. “He also coined the phrase ‘I think therefore I am.’”
     
    A hush fell over the room as the students continued to stare at him. Delia wondered how he had come across such information and why he so readily shared it. In a class like this, he should be afraid of losing esteem with his fellow students for being perceived as intelligent. But, then again, the simple fact that he didn’t care who knew he was smart made him somehow even … sexier than he was before.
     
    Delia felt her body flush. She couldn’t believe she was letting herself be attracted to a seventeen-year-old just because he knew a few historical facts about one of her favorite mathematicians. But it wasn’t just that. When he spoke intelligently like he just had, his voice, his mannerisms, even the expression on his face transformed him from C.J. and back into Chase. Her Chase. The one that held her close and whispered Frank Sinatra lyrics in her ear as they danced in nostalgia bars on the cruise.
     
    She hated that he had this effect on her. She hated how, with just one word, one look, one gesture he could send her body aflame with memories. But she was the adult here and he was the student. She had to have control over the situation.
     
    Flopping into her desk once the bell rang, Delia took a bottle of water from her purse to help her cool down. She spent her entire free period pondering her situation. With each passing day she realized there was less and less