I drank 3 glasses of water with Acro's assistance on the table. I fixed my clothes when I could breathe normally again. I read the newspaper for the nth time 3 years ago wherein the legend about werewolves was stated in an article written by Ciarra. I've never seen her in person but because of her books, the people around me forgot about the existence of werewolves even in faraway cities. But that saves my time from the trouble hunters give me.
As a matter of fact, humans live more complacent than before this article was published. Ever since the day the strange light turned the night into day, I've never seen my kind again nor heard anything about them. I've never received replies from Dandeline regarding my letter to her.
"I miss her... I miss them... They're probably in the world where they belong now. And meanwhile, we're still here." I drank the 4th glass of water. "But I believe I am meant where I am right now! I only see it negatively," I consoled myself and proceeded back to my work.
I drove home with a heavy pocket while whistling on the road. I'm on the paved road to our house when I saw Hedwelch and Danteleon together with their tutor on the veranda. I parked the cart beside the garden and approached her,
"Ms. Dayana," I pointed at the two, "What's going on? It's not dismissal time yet?" Hedwelch has been frowning and pouting while looking afar and Danteleon is crying.
"That's right, but the teacher dismissed them since she found these two uncontrollable. Hedwelch chided the teacher about the task and he's a typical disobedient type in the class," she explains then I goggle at Hedwelch. "And Danteleon is crying because of the teacher's task too, he wanted to go home. So the teacher asked me to take them home and give you their homework." A laugh shortly escaped my mouth before I could shut my lips.
"What is this task?"
She gave me the book and showed me the folded pages. "It's only the basics of math and they're already reacting like this." She couldn't contain her laughter too. "It's normal for kids to adjust in school life, but I guess they're more teachable in training! I hope you can handle them."
"If I can't then none else. Thanks for taking them here and sound~"
"No problem!" Then she embraces the two sulking kids. "Your father will be your teacher for now, okay? Be good kids!" She reminded them and left.
Inside, I was reviewing their task in front of them whilst giving a second to squint at them, too. Not even once did they look at me. I slid the book on the table to them but Hedwelch slid it to Danteleon. "Alright, listen, it's easy than you think—"
"I don't understand it," Danteleon complains, eyes teary again.
"You can understand it—"
"Nooo! I don't want it!" He sways his legs underneath the table, shaking his shoulders, and weeping. "It's hard!"
"No. It's easy! You just—"
"I hate it! I hate math! It's hard!"
"Then we will make it easy~"
"It's not fun!!" He cries even louder over math. Meanwhile, Hedwelch is nonchalantly vandalizing the book by the quill.
"Danteleon, stop crying first," I said but he did the opposite. "Come on, look at you. Don't let math do this to you." I pulled the towel on his back to wipe his face, especially the catarrh. I groped for his ponytail in his pockets and tied his hair. Still, he's crying. I returned to my seat and said, "You have to learn this. Everything revolves around math. This knowledge will be to your advantage. Hedwelch, that's not how it's done." I snatched the quill from his hand. "Listen—"
"No. I'm not gonna do it," Hedwelch cut my words.
"You have to do this. It's your assignment."
"I don't care!"
"You should—"
"I DON'T CARE!" he screams at me. "It's so ugly!"
"What?"
"I hate math!! How can math help me every day!? NO, IT WON'T!!" His screech quivers my brain! He slams the table and walks away to the indoor garden.
"Is this how you treated your teacher...? Hed, where are you going?"
"I hate you!!"
"I am not math!" I heard the windchime of the exit. "Hedwelch, get back here or I'll confiscate your gauntlet!!" I yelled but his stubbornness prevailed.
To calm myself on my seat, I unleashed my silver claws whilst tapping it all on the table, silently. Danteleon cries silently in front of me too since he heard my parental authority. A few seconds later, I heard the windchime from the garden again. Hedwelch, without speaking, drags his butt back to his seat while furrowing his eyebrows—avoiding my glance.
"What's the first behavior I taught you two? hm?"
"..."
"Be teachable. Everything you ought to learn will be beneficial for your present and future. You can't survive by combat or magic alone. Remember our first training? It's only difficult because you can't do it at first. Now it's fun because you know how it's done, right? It's not always about what you want to learn, it's always about the mix of what you need to learn to attain what you want to attain, too.
"You can't understand math because you hate it, you hate math because you can't understand it. You have the choice between hating it or understanding it but the best choice you could make is to release the other and understand math. Once you both learn, you'll realize it's as fun as playing and training~ So don't be intimidated too much by math, or don't let math defeat you! This is also your battle, do you two understand?"
"..."
"Now calm yourselves first and take your lunch." I came into the kitchen. "Come over here," I called. I learned how to make fried chicken golden brown over the past 5 years and it's totally fun to cook! But oftentimes I couldn't handle all the chores together with my business. Plus, these kids are a real-time challenge that I couldn't maintain the cleanliness of the house, too. They didn't follow me here in the kitchen. Instead, when I squinted at the dining table, both of them were gone.
Acro is the only one here on the table and when I ask her about the two, she just hoots at me. "You're a conspirator," I blamed. "Hah... How shall I make math more exciting for them?" I looked around the house, imagining what would be fun and colorful for them in relation to math until I smiled on my own.
I left the house going through the backyard even without my coat. It will be fine since the forest is isolated from the public. I came onto the treehouse where I could smell their scent, hike on the ladder, and come inside. "Hed—"
"Get him!!" To my surprise; my face was bombarded with powder, they shoot my head in a bucket, and pushed me from behind which made me fall backward! They locked me inside and escaped with their frenetic screaming while I'm struggling on the floor. I took off the bucket first and shook off the powder, especially that irritates my eyes.
"These... Little Devils!!" I jumped through the window down to the dried leaves. "You want me 'the monster'?" I hold the bucket when I chase them, leaves are tossed in the air as I pass by it. I caught up to them easily. When they felt my approach, they suddenly separated ways; Hedwelch to the right and Danteleon to the left. I shoot Danteleon's head in the bucket and he bumps into a tree. I chased after Hedwelch and caught him on his left leg in an attempt to climb a tree.
He's screaming, "Nooo! Let me gooo!!"
He was hanging on one leg until I tossed and caught him around my arm to my waist. "You're the instigator of this, huh? You're taking your twin into danger!" I said. Danteleon is crying in the bucket and it slid off of him when I carried him in my other arm to my waist. Both of them are protesting but none could budge my clenches. They pulled my pants down as resistance but nary that stopped me from arresting them.
Now I wonder how Uncle Cormelio survived from me.
We took a bath first at the same time while I taught them to count numbers by fingers. Then after our lunch, we had a little game. "What number is this?" I raised seven fingers.
"Five!"
"Seven!" Hedwelch got it right so I gave him a piece of marshmallow.
"How about this?" I raised five fingers in total with two hands.
"Two?"
"Five!" Hedwelch got it right again. But Danteleon is about to cry again so I asked him,
"How many is this?" I raised nine fingers. Hedwelch whispered the answer in his ear.
"Nine."
"That's right~" Then he got to taste marshmallows, too.
For my revenge, our next game is the opposite. I pumped powder on their faces whenever they got the wrong answer. We feasted on the Marshmallow before we proceeded to our next activity. We trace our foot on the paper, put numbers on each piece, and cut it. We glued the foot paper on the floor to count our steps to the bedroom, kitchen, garden, and exit. After that, they enjoy counting their steps around the house. They even draw for Acro, too.
"You're getting taller if your number of steps is getting shorter~"
"Like you? As big as you?"
"Yep."
We painted the stairs with colorful numbers so that they could remember every step. We painted measures on the doorway; on the side is a vertical line and on the top is a horizontal line. On top of the arch doorway to the indoor garden is a curved line. I also sketch the words 'even' and 'odd' beside the wall clock which points to its rightful numbers. At night, I taught them how to do their homework on their bed.
"Let's call it a day," I said when it was done. I closed the book and embraced them in my arms. "How do you feel about math now?"
"I still hate it but it's fun," Hedwelch answers.
"It's still hard," Danteleon expresses. "Are we going to school tomorrow?"
"Of course."
"Uuugh!" they react.
"Ms. Dayana will accompany you again."
And they rejoice. Thanks to Dayana my struggle with these two was lessened.
"Go to sleep. Count the sheep from 1 to 100 if you can't sleep." I kissed them on the forehead. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight, dad!"
I observed the house and recounted how we turned this into a math classroom. I'm counting today's income with Acro beside the lamp. And the result determined the condition of my business and it's falling down. I sometimes hate math whenever the budget falls tight enough to bring home a peanut! The breeze outside is extra cold tonight and there's no moon to gaze in the sky due to the thick clouds. Ants have their lines on the baluster. And I sipped the teacup of juice 'til the last drop whilst gazing afar, asking myself,
"When will she come back?"