The Square Root of Nine Thousand and Sixty Four | Teen Ink

The Square Root of Nine Thousand and Sixty Four

October 10, 2018
By 20jkessler BRONZE, Downingtown, Pennsylvania
20jkessler BRONZE, Downingtown, Pennsylvania
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Jenny Fisher was always the outcast at school as a child.  She hardly had any friends because all she would talk about was math, and because she skipped 5th, 8th, and 10th grade.  She graduated high school at age sixteen with a 5.0 GPA, which was the highest possible. She was spectacular at every subject and hadn't missed a day of school in six years, and she only skipped then because she had the flu and her parents wouldn't allow her to attend school.  Many people were jealous of Jenny's high intelligence, but she was jealous of everyone else. She wanted to have friends and go to sports games and have fun, but she just didn't know how. She always ended up talking about school or some complex theory that nobody else understood.  It was her first day of college at Harvard and she was excited to get a fresh start. She told herself she would be fun and make friends, but that wasn't as simple as she thought it would be. She walked into her dorm room which consisted of her and a roommate who she hadn't met yet.  She admired the walls which were a light tan neutral color, and she got frustrated when she realized that the corner of the wall wasn't a perfect ninety degree angle. Normally she would announce this, but she wanted to be everyone else's definition of normal for once. Her roommate was sitting at a desk painting her nails, and when she realized Jenny was in the room she turned around and greeted her.  

"Hi, my name's Chleo, are you in dorm 105?"

"Yea, my name's Jenny.  Did you know that the square root of nine thousand sixty four is ninety five point two?"

She quickly realized that naming math equations wasn't a good way to make friends, and got embarrassed.  But she couldn't help it considering she always stated math equations when she got nervous. Her new roomate got slightly creeped out and went back to painting her nails after a one word answer.  Jenny put her suitcase down on her new bed and decided to go to the student lounge and try to make friends. The student lounge was covered in bean bags, couches, and tables. Jenny saw students doing work and talking and decided to go talk to them.  She took a deep breath, careful not to name any random facts.

"Hey, I'm Jenny, may I sit with you?"

"Sure," one of the boys at the table told her.  

She sat down and listened in on the conversation they were having, they were talking about how much of a joke high school was and how complex Harvard would be.  Jenny tried to assert herself in the conversation, but she didn't know what to say and had terrible communication skills. A few minutes later she moved to another table with a guy who was doing his work in silence.  She sighed, knowing she failed at being a normal person and making friends. She put her earbuds in and turned on her favorite music, classical beethoven music. She worked on a math equation that hadn't been figured out yet as people around her were talking and having fun since classes didn't even start until the next day.  A minute later she got a slight tap on the shoulder and took her earbuds out.

"Yea?"  She asked.  

"What are you working on?"  It was the boy sitting across from her, who seemed extremely interested in what she was doing.  

"It's a math equation that no mathmatician has figured out yet."  She said, expecting him to leave.

"That sounds cool, do you want help?"

She's never been asked that question before, she didn't even expect anyone to care let alone want to help her.  She moved across the table to sit next to him and show him what she was working on. She introduced herself before they started.

"Hi, my name's Jenny."

"Hi, I'm Mark.  Did you know that the square root of nine thousand and sixty four is ninety five point two?"

"No, but that's really cool."  Jenny said, realizing she just finally made a friend.



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