Tiffany's Story- Day 2

Next day, the winter sky clear as a bell and ice coating the ground, she walks to school in clashing clothing- ratty denim shorts, falling apart tennis shoes, and a gorgeous new sweater. The neighbor’s dogs bark at her, birds fly away at her approach, and she has the sidewalk to herself like she normally does. This day, she chooses to take her time and stroll down her route, enjoying the solitude while she has it.

His voice dripping with sarcasm, Mr. Victorsonn says “Since you’re paying such rapt attention to class, Tiffany, why don’t you solve all the problems on the board?”

Without a word, she rises from her seat and glides to the chalkboard, studying the assortment of equations: half for her class, half for the advanced class that would be made to solve them in the morning. Tiffany gets to work, first on the problems meant for her class, and then on the problems “above her level”, not even bothering to work any of them out. She knew she shouldn’t show off, but her teacher hated her with a passion and she returned the sentiment. The thing he hated most was being shown up and the thing she hated most was having attention called to her; they both knew this, and rather than declare peace, he would attack and force her to retaliate. The bell rings and ends the day, saving him from having to make a response (and saving her classmates from a night of math homework, which they celebrated, not seeing they would just have double the workload on the morrow).

After study hall, during which she completed the homework Mr. Victorsonn would surely have assigned if he had the time, Tiffany goes to chess team practice. Despite being the only girl on the team, none of her classmates bothered trying to socialize with her; she had trained them out of such futile attempts. She is careful to keep the level of her game to the median level of everyone else, even though the coach treats her as invisible and leaves her to practice by herself. The sun sets, and it is night when she finally runs out of excuses to avoid going to her residence.