Yes, it certainly was pictures and numbers.
Though, to be more accurate, it was diagrams and formulas.
Isaura was doing trigonometry.
Alex raised an eyebrow at that.
Trigonometry was a branch of mathematics and normally studied when one was in secondary school. Typically, the syllabus of Secondary 4 - when one is 16 years old.
And Isaura, at 7 years old, was already doing it.
Sure, the questions were not written like the old boring exam questions, but it didn't mean that it was any less difficult.
It looked like a game of sorts.
Simple words were used to create a story and the diagrams were made into 'pictures'. The problem that Isaura was looking at had right-angle triangle drawn on the 'floor' and at each corner, a figure was drawn.
Seeing it like this, Alex could understand why Isaura didn't really realise what she was truly doing.
"Now that I have the Harry Potter glasses, I can do these spells even easier!" announced Isaura.
"Spells?" Alex asked.
"Yes, see," Isaura said, pointing at her screen.
"This is Rose," Isaura said, pointing at the person standing at the right angle of the triangle with her mouse pointer, "And Patricia, and Quinn."
"I am to help Patrician and Quinn with the proper spells in order to defeat Rose," she continued, moving her mouse to the 'P' and 'Q' corners.
"If it's correct, the spell is casted and Rose is defeated," Isaura said.
"There are also three types of spells, called 'sin', 'cos', and 'tan'," Isaura kept on explaining, "And for this one, I need to find the spells of sin and tan for Patricia, and cos and tan for Quinn."
"You find this fun?" Alex asked with a slight smile, a bit surprised at the ingenuity of the whole thing to keep the little one engrossed.
She leaned closer to Alex and whispered loudly, "Yes, except for the part when Teacher Krauss makes me write out the explanation."
She pointed, "See, the spell of sinP is QR/PQ right? But he wants me to write it out fully. It's so hard!"
"But now that I have these glasses, I can do it!"
Alex wanted to laugh a bit as he watched how Isaura seemed to punch at the keys angrily, then stated, "It's spelt hypo-ten-use, not hypotanese, Isaura."
Isaura's eyes went wide and she turned towards Alex, "Wow, Alex! You know the spells too?"
Then, she hit her forehead, "Of course you do. I just don't like the long words. Long words are hard."
Alex couldn't help but pat her head and said, "My sister, Ariel, feels the same way. Just practice everyday saying them and in your case, spelling them. It becomes natural soon."
Of course, he didn't tell her that Ariel was only three and her vocabulary was already quite extensive for her age.
Isaura put up a fisted hand and said, "Yes! I will work hard. I want to be cum…cum…"
"Cum laude of Hogwarts?" Alex asked.
"Yes! Yes! That!" Isaura said with a huge grin, "The best of the best!"
"That's enough rest now, Isaura," Teacher Krauss said while they were chatting, "Alex, would you like to do some Maths Olympiad questions?"
Seeing that Alex could understand what Isaura was doing indicated that this level of mathematics was within his grasp. Krauss was getting excited thinking about it.
Alex was going to shake his head and then stopped as he thought of something. He looked at Teacher Krauss and asked, "Is Isaura going to participate in it?"
Teacher Krauss shook his head, "Not right now, though most likely would be in the future. Why do you ask?"
Alex shrugged and replied, "I'm not interested now but if you need more participants for it once Isaura is entering, then I would. Someone needs to take care of her."
Krauss nodded, "That's all well and good, but there's no harm in doing the exercises until then."
Alex shook his head, "No, it's boring. I'd rather watch fighting videos."
Krauss nearly choked on his own saliva upon hearing Alex's straight forward statement that was delivered with a dead-pan face. It also took a lot of his effort to keep a stiff smile on his face as he nodded.
"Sure, sure, I understand," Krauss replied with great effort, "Off you go."
Alex nodded at him, and walked back to his desk.
Krauss leaned forward on his desk and observed the Fantastic Four from his table, noting that they went back to doing the mindless things as before.
He rubbed the space between his eyebrows and began thinking hard on how to cultivate interest in those bright kids. Isaura was easy - make it into a game and she delved straight into it.
Those four?
Krauss sighed.
This required a lot of thinking.
When Alex went back to sit at his desk, Aurora turned and poked him on the shoulder, asking, "Satisfied?"
She looked at him, and Alex nodded, knowing that she was asking him if his curiosity was satisfied. In turn, his reply was to her unspoken question as to what Isaura was skilled at.
"Mathematics Olympiad," Alex replied.
"Ah," Aurora nodded, understanding that it meant Isaura was good at maths and that she was being trained to participate in the Olympiad.
Then she studied him seriously, frowning a bit and then asked, "You?"
Alex pursed his lips, then faced her and asked, "You?"
Aurora crossed her hands in front of her chest, "No way. Maybe Ziad."
Ziad and Fleur, by this time, were just looking at the both of them with Fleur having her mouth slightly open.
"Can you guys at least speak in proper sentences so that normal people like Ziad and me can understand?"
Aurora laughed and waved her hand in front of her face, "Sorry, sorry. Isaura is training for the Mathematics Olympiad, and Alex will be joining. He's just asking if I wanted to participate as well."
"The way you guys are, it's like words are gold all of the sudden. What's with all the code?" Fleur said with a huff, crossing her hands in front of her chest in dissatisfaction.
"Trying to stop with the twin speech in public," Aurora said, "But when it's just the two of us, we subconsciously just use the most minimal of sentences, I suppose. We know each other too well and I guess, we find that more words are just superfluous and useless."
"If you ask me, between the way you guys were talking just now, and twin speech," Fleur said, "The latter is definitely better. At least it made it sound like you were talking rather than being all weird and stuff."
Aurora shrugged and Alex snorted, "We are weird. Your point?"
Ziad piped up, "Can't argue with that."
Fleur sighed, defeated, "True."
✿ Author posts on WN and neovel ✿
Back at the Smith House, Ariel was staring at her hands while pursing her lips. It was so tempting.
So very tempting.
That thumb of hers … Ariel sighed and told herself to be strong.
Then, she started getting agitated again.
Last year, Daddy and Mummy had a huge party.
What was it called again?
Ah yes. Wedding.
Something about Daddy owing Mummy something.
It was also the first time that she had been separated from Mummy for a long time. Even though she had her Grandpapa and Grandmama, and all her siblings, it wasn't the same.
Ariel was a bit worried if they were going to go away again like last time.
It was also the time when her thumb-sucking habit got worse and it was only now that she had managed to curb it a bit.
Unknowingly, she started sucking at her thumb again while she thought hard.
She didn't remember much of that time, other than the big party, and her missing her Mummy a lot.
"Rie," came a soft voice from behind her.
Ariel turned, her thumb still in her mouth, and saw Pip. When she realised what she was doing, she sheepishly took her thumb out of her mouth and wiped the saliva off her dress nervously.
"Please don't tell Daddy," Ariel said in a slight whisper, her eyes pleading.
Patricia, or Pip, couldn't help but think of the character, 'Puss in Boots' in the animated movie Shrek. When he would take off that hat and then look up at you pleadingly, and everyone melted.
She felt that way right now.
Patricia went to the sink, wet a piece of cloth, and came over to Ariel. Kneeling down, she took Ariel's hand and wiped it carefully.
"What's wrong, Rie?" Patricia asked, not answering her question.
"Nothing," mumbled Ariel.
Patricia didn't think it was 'nothing' as Ariel would suck her thumb when she was insecure about something. Still, noting that Ariel didn't want to say anything, Patricia chose to be silent and not press the issue.
Otherwise, Ariel was more likely to deny it and it would be even harder to get her to tell. So all Patricia could do was simply wait and hope that Ariel would tell her.
Or, Patricia could be more assertive if Ariel was to suck her thumb again.
Threaten her with the fact that she would tell Mr. Smith.
The moment she thought of that, she dismissed it.
She didn't like to make such threats and Ariel might stop trusting her.
But…
Patricia sighed.
Despite that, she still had to inform Mr. Smith about this.