Monster Math Equations

A fun short story about a girl named Audrey and the freakiest detention she'll ever have to sit through.

 

Audrey slowly scribbled her pen in her notebook, not knowing or caring what squiggles it made. Her mind was distant within the realm of her imagination, focusing on more important things than the task at hand. It was impossible to describe the amazing blankness that she was experiencing, and yet was so entertained by. Her pen ran dry now, and only made creased lines across the surface of her paper, but Audrey didn’t notice. A soft murmur invaded her reverie. She frowned softly. There it was again – its form was so vaguely familiar, but she couldn’t make it out. Her mind struggled to focus…

 

“AUDREY!!”

 

 

The girl started violently, so much that the ravaged pen was shaken from her hand. Her eyes looked around wildly as she blinked, trying to recover from her surprise. Finally, they locked with the eyes of her teacher – Mrs. Frelling. Audrey’s face was akin to that of a deer in headlights.

 

“Audrey, thank you for joining us,” said Mrs. Frelling, in that stern, but lilting tone that could only be hers. She turned sharply on her heel and began to stroll back to the front of the class.

 

 “Tell me, Audrey. What is the difference between a square and a cube?” Her back was still turned to the class. Audrey grinned, and the normal pace of her heart resumed. Easy.

 

“Well, a square is two-dimensional, and a cube is three-dimensional,” she replied triumphantly. Mrs. Frelling turned, and she was smiling too – but there was a glint of evil in her eye.

 

“Very good, Audrey… but the question at hand was actually the difference between the area formulas.” Audrey’s smile drooped. “Come see me after school today, and maybe I can help you stay awake and pay attention in my class.”

 

~

 

Audrey sighed as she exited Room 304, where she had just endured another mind-numbing lecture on the Civil War from Mr. Caydenn. Shelly and Melissa came towards her down the hall, but she waved them off glumly, and quickly informed them of her detention with Mrs. Frelling. They both held pity in their eyes as she turned and made her way across the campus towards Room 526.

 

Mrs. Frelling was sitting behind her old wooden desk when Audrey arrived; she had in her hands a thick paperback book, most likely a novel. Mrs. Frelling had a penchant for old romance novels, and often whipped one out in class to read as they toiled away at their assignments. And this is just what she meant to do. For on one desk that was pulled away from the others lay a foot-high stack of papers; and it was to this desk that Mrs. Frelling silently pointed to as Audrey entered, without lifting her eyes from the book. Audrey slowly approached the desk, and read a sticky note that had been placed atop the stack:

 

 

 

Her jaw dropped. She couldn’t even begin to think of how many sheets of paper there were. How long does she expect me to be here? she thought. But Audrey wouldn’t dare challenged the task, reminding herself that she was already in detention for daydreaming. She sat down at the desk and pulled the first sheet from the stack. There were at least a dozen black scribbles on it, where words had been omitted or replaced, or just accidental marks. Audrey glanced up at Mrs. Frelling. Still reading.

 

She sighed, unscrewed the spongy applicator from the bottle of white-out, and set to work. At first she was slow, taking care not to dab any wanted letters; but after the twenty-fifth page or so, she was going at lightning speed, in full momentum, and not missing a single spot. The piles of done and to-do were gradually beginning to even out. It seemed that she’d been correcting the pages for only an hour, but as she approached the end of her task, she looked up at the clock and saw that more than twice that time had gone by! She resisted thinking the phrase, “Time flies when you’re having fun,” as that definitely was not the case here. Audrey finished the last sheet of paper, adding it to the completed stack of now chemically-scented photocopies. Her parents would be getting home from their jobs any minute, and they’d be wondering where their daughter was. Her eyes darted to Mrs. Frelling’s desk, expecting to see her sitting there with her book finished – but Mrs. Frelling was not there.

 

Audrey stood up from her desk, turning her head to look all around the classroom. The teacher was no place to be found. She walked out into the hallway – and found herself in darkness. All the lights were shut off, and the doors at either end of the building were closed, as well as all the other classrooms. Outside, she saw the orange hues of the street lamps. What!? she thought incredulously. But even the clock said it’s only 4:30… She walked briskly to the end of the hall and tugged on the door: locked.

 

“Oh no!” Audrey was frantic. She was stuck inside, with no one there! She ran back to the classroom to use Mrs. Frelling’s phone – but it was shut, locked, and dark inside as well. She didn’t hear anyone close it…

 

“Okay, I’m starting to freak out now… Who’s there?” Her voice quavered. She was met with silence. “Come on, I’m serious! Stop messing with me!”

 

Down the hall, behind her, she heard a locker slam – her whole body twitched as she was startled. Audrey whipped around to look, and sure enough, it was open; the small tan door was hanging ajar. She frowned, frightened and confused. But what she saw next scared the crap out of her.

Dozens more lockers flew open before her – and some from the other side of the hall. And then… students began to come out of them! She wasn’t sure how; the lockers were so small. But anyways, the students weren’t the people she recognized. They walked slow, and hunched; and they had blank faces. They were like zombies. The zombie students all shuffled towards her, from all directions.

 

“Get back!” she cried frantically, scared out of her wits. Another locker opened next to her, and she screamed. “Get away from me!” The zombie students were closing in.

 

“…Auuudreeeey…”

 

She turned around at the sound of her name. Mrs. Frelling stared into her face, but with horrible, horrible white eyes. Audrey screamed. The zombie students joined in with Mrs. Frelling’s droning voice.

 

“Auuuudrreeeeyyyyy!”

 

“AUDREY!!”

 

The girl yelped; her eyes flew open. She was back in Mrs. Frelling’s classroom. In fact, all her classmates were there, as was Mrs. Frelling herself. And they were all staring at her. She was sitting back at her desk again.

 

“Audrey, thank you for joining us,” said Mrs. Frelling. Audrey frowned, confused. Was she having déjà vu or something…?

 

“Tell me, Audrey. What is the difference between a square and a cube?”

 

Audrey smiled, relieved. This time, she knew the answer.

Reviews

[PianoandPage]

a really fun short story. well written. made me care about the character. frelling sounds scary enough as it is! lol.

i loved the visual of zombie studens swarming out of lockers in a dark hall. good creepy writing there.

i agree that you could easily flush this out a little bit but as it is it is nice and readable.

thanks for sharing!

[Stef Outsiders]

this is brilliant, I love the title!
I enjoyed that everything was normal for a moment and then bam, she's being chased by zombies. So cool!

[LSS]

Its been a while since I've been in the cafe, and coming to your site and reading this wonderful story. You've outdone yourself again. I write alot of shorts, and yours has all the earmarks of true talent. You keep us readers on the edges of our seats and captivate us in the story itself, for we've all been there in the nether daydream land of oblivion or been caught out with our minds in some clouds. What a wonderful capture, keep the stories coming. Try a few, like I do, from personal life.
LSS

[Nickolaus A. Pacione]

Good start here, but I really think you can meat this one out some. I think work each part out into detail and then send it off to a couple magazines. I think this would work for Specficworld.com if you can get it to at least 3000 words.

[silent[rain]]

This was an awesome piece!!!!!!! It is also so funny and true...being in middle school..i hate math and it hates me back!!!...lol..Great job...

[Adela Muresan]

Hmm� An enjoyable piece :).

Ordinary events are good to out into stories - people like to read things that they know could happen to them.

A.M.