if (CaliforniaMathCurriculum != NewYorkMathCurriculum) {
give(stupidPlacementTest, Panu);
}

if (stupidAdaptedProximity <= 10) {
failTestHard(Panu);
}

Who gave placement tests? Counselors. Who was a waste of oxygen Adapted? The Mansion's counselor. Panu's head had felt like an Unexpected Error the entire test. Also he had maybe given whole number answers to all division problems, but that was because they hadn't specified if numbers were int or float, how was he supposed to know?

In conclusion, it was everyone's fault but Panu's that he was currently sitting in Basic Math for Babies, along with the other children--shudder--his age. He had been in the class for two weeks (minus 19 minutes each day, which was how late he always was).

Today was his first test.

Subtracting decimals.

Panu would maybe have hit his head against the desk, but his brain was his best asset (when Adapteds were not giving him lobotomies), and a concussion was not worth it. Instead, he did this:

12) What is 0.6-0.43?

0.6-0.43 = ∫x dx + y, where upper bound = lower bound = y = answerOfStupidProblem = 0.17.

…

22) What is 10.1 – 3.93?

10.1 – 3.93 = e^(i π) + 7.17 = ifYouCan'tSimplifyThisProbablyYouShouldQuitJob

…

He was one of the last students to turn in his paper, but he was probably the most satisfied with his work.

Shin stared at the test he was grading. It sat on his work table, belligerently smiling at him, all insouciant-like.

Had he actually written that? Like, that. Right there? Instead of actually answering every problem, the kid had written something snarky. Every problem. Some of them were kind of funny, if Shin was being honest and putting the lack of respect for his job aside, but... the lack of respect for himself was far more troubling. The lack of respect Panu had for Panu. Not for he, Shin, himself.

Lots of students didn’t respect teachers, especially the really smart ones. And the dumb ones. He could understand that. But a lack of respect for one’s own damned self? That was worth him calling on Panu the next day, after class.

“Panu,” Shin said carefully. “Can you hold on a second?” Students we’re filing out. Some noticed, but most didn’t care because, hey! Free time! Class was out!

He’d shared some of the answers with his wife while he’d been grading at home. She’d thought some of them were pretty clever, if rude. They’d both agreed Panu would need to be told that such answers just wouldn’t do.

He watched the young boy’s reaction, calculating measurements out of habit as the kid stood in the middle of the green lines of his vision grid. How Panu reacted would give him far more than the triangle eyes could of the young man’s measure. ... Har har. Puns. He mentally reprimanded himself for that.

For the whole next class Panu did-not-fidget. Even though their tests had not been handed back yet. Probably the teacher just hadn't graded them yet, maybe he hadn't even looked at them yet, teachers could be very lazy. He just sat quietly in his desk, and stared through the school's lawn cameras while Mr. Tetsuya taught (much more sophisticated than low-tech staring out the windows), and finished his homework within two minutes of it being assigned because that was the physical limit of how quickly he could read the problems and write answers. Computing time was minimal. Floor(timeToActuallySolve) = 0. Once, a girl sitting next to him asked for help solving her own problems, but he had no idea how to explain and when he tried she had heard 'logic gates' and then gotten that glazed look to her eyes like maybe she was blind too, and had nodded a lot, and then turned to ask someone else when his words had sputtered to a stop. So Panu had put his head down and watched cat videos instead, and no one else had tried to talk to him, which was exactly and perfectly fine. He did not want to associate with children, anyway.

>> “Panu, can you hold on a second?”

The Finn's shoulders jumped maybe a little. But then he sat up straight and put on his best look of do-not-care. (And ignored the girl he had-not-helped as she shot him some kind of look, but his phone was not turned right, and he could not see what kind of look it was.) (She left just as quick as everyone else so probably it was a stupid look, like the boy on his other side who'd chanted you're-in-trouble under his breath.) (Hopefully that boy could read Indian, because it would be hard to change his phone back to English if he couldn't.)

He waited in his desk until everyone had left. The teacher stayed at his desk too, and for a second Panu contemplated having a who-will-stay-in-their-desk-longer battle, but then his shoulders slumped and he stood first and walked to the front of the room because the quicker they started this the quicker he could go flop down face-first on his pillow and not socialize until dinner.

His phone hung from its holder around his neck, its camera giving him a view of the teacher's desk, his chest, and most of his face (except the hair, but hair didn’t usually emote).

"May I help you, Mr. Tetsuya?" he asked, which was smartest conversational opening. Much smarter than I see you are so impressed with my test that now you will give me extra credit, or maybe let me graduate from stupid high school math completely.

It was probably for the best Panu and him hadn’t had a battle of wills. The Asians entire power set was built around will. Willing razors not to cut him when he wore them. Willing razors not to cut others when he flew them by them to buzz their heads. Willing himself to keep his focus while he flew on something created entirely out of brain juju, at 55MPH about 100 feet in the air. Panu wouldn’t have stood a chance. Or maybe he would have. Shin didn’t know. He didn’t know that much about the young boy’s powers.

The Asian hadn’t dug too deeply into Panu’s student file. Every student has a file. The details of their mutation are usually highlighted, if it’s important. If the student thinks it’s important. If the student deigns to share the details of their mutation with the general public. And even then, the exact details may be obscured.

People might not want to explain every little detail. Some powers are complicated! For example, Shin’s own. When someone asked him about his power, Shin had two settings. Jaw dropping levels of detail nobody asked for... or simple and concise. People are like that. So whatever Panu had on-file, it was better learning it from the source. People lie. People omit details. Sometimes, people feel like they’re good enough they don’t need to dumb things down to explain it to the huddled masses asses. There was no way for Shin to be certain which kind of person Panu was. Unless he asked.

When Panu came up to his desk, Shin had to make a judgement call. Did he try and act stern, and potentially scare Panu away like he had with that green guy? Did he try and act chummy, to get on Panu’s good side and be his best friend? Or did he do something else.

Shin did something else. ”Hey Panu,” the Asian said. ”I was wondering if you could answer a few questions for me. I try and learn about my new students, so I can teach them better, but files aren’t great for learning about people’s actual personalities, and standardized tests don’t always tell you useful information.”

He paused, and decided not to say something like ‘People can test wrong and be placed wrong... and that might influence how they handle things. And blah blah blah, are you handling class alright? I am concerned.’

Instead, he said ”Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Your powers?”

His question was a bit invasive, sure, but he wanted to help. Calling someone out on purposefully fudging a test is not helping.

>>> "...and standardized tests don’t always tell you useful information.”

For a moment, just a moment, Panu thought that next the teacher would say I see that you're in the wrong class, let's fix this.

This moment lasted 0.581 seconds, the time it took the math teacher to open his mouth again.

>>> ”Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? Your powers?”

From here out, Panu would have a new rule: he was not allowed to be hopeful until a minimum of 1 complete second after people started talking. It was stupid to not give them time to disappoint him.

He took in a breath and let it out and didn't even try to look like he was meeting the teacher's eyes, because it would just be fake anyway, and he was getting tired of being fake for people.

"My power is technology. Basic component of technology is math. I do not need your class, this is just school counselor trying to keep me out-of-trouble-and-busy. I will sit and I will be quiet and I will not cause trouble, but if I am in baby classes than do not be surprised when I finger paint on tests."

The silence that followed Panu’s statement easily lasted longer than 1 second. Yeah, Panu needed help. The attitude was nothing but infuriating. Shin was better than that, though. He wasn’t about to let a teenager goad him into an angry retort. Besides, the kid was so wrong it hurt. And, they had common ground.

His tone was a cheerful one when he said ”I see!”

”I honestly get where you’re coming from, Panu.” He continued briskly. ”Our powers are kind of similar. Aside from all the barriers and stuff, my power lets me read all the measurements of the things around me, and do the math easily, as fast as a calculator. And that guidance counselor definitely turns my brain to mush when she’s near, rendering that side of my power useless.”

“You probably took the test, and without your powers, you couldn’t breeze through the math, right? So you did your best, and tested low, because the stupid guidance counselor got in your way and if she weren’t there, everything would have been cake?” He looked at Panu innocently. Most certainly not like he were baiting the trap.

>>> ”I see!”


Panu had many doubts about that.

>>> ”I honestly get where you’re coming from, Panu.”

More doubts.

>>> ”Our powers are kind of similar. Aside from all the barriers and stuff, my power lets me read all the measurements of the things around me, and do the math easily, as fast as a calculator."

...Less doubts.

>>> "And that guidance counselor definitely turns my brain to mush when she’s near, rendering that side of my power useless.”

...Many less doubts.

>>> “You probably took the test, and without your powers, you couldn’t breeze through the math, right? So you did your best, and tested low, because the stupid guidance counselor got in your way and if she weren’t there, everything would have been cake?”

Many many more doubts.

This was trap. It had to be. The Finn toyed with the phone that always hung around his neck, which maybe looked like nervous fidgeting, but was actually Tactical Repositioning of Camera. He looked at Mr. Tetsuya through his real eye while his stupid blind organic eyes looked somewhere down at the desk and he tried to see where in the man's expression the trap was. The teacher looked completely composed, with maybe just a little bit of eye-twinkle that probably was lens glare, but the Finn did not trust him at all.

Even if the man's power did sound maybe-similar. It was not as good as Panu's, of course, but if he could do what he said, then he knew how stupid this class for mutants like them. It was like taking goldfish and throwing them on the floor while lecturing them on how to swim.

And how Mr. Tetsuya described the Stupid Adapted's power was exactly like how it felt for Panu, except somebody had put nails in the brain-mush, and they stabbed at Panu's skull from the inside anytime he tried to do something and realized that it was part of his power and not just a normal thing.

But no teacher ever called another "stupid" where students could hear. Not unless they were 120% Setting A Trap. Because if Panu did not agree, then he was lying. And if Panu agreed, then he was calling another teacher stupid. There was no binary solution to this, and he had to answer soon because he was taking way too long to say anything which probably was making him look stupid (or paranoid) (but mostly stupid).

"Is this part where you tell me virtues of learning to do math without mutation, and we pretend that if ever my powers are not working than biggest problem I face is basic addition? Or is this part where you tell me how I can test out of class?"

The eleven year old's hands were very tight around his phone as he watched the teacher's face.

Trap, evaded. The mouse had avoided the yummy cheese. And the cheesy conversation about the importance of basic maths and doing things the hard way. He’d evaded that, too. There was no way the Asian was walking into that one after having been called out on it before he’d said a thing.

His face, it stayed placid. He wasn’t thrown off his game. This wasn’t his first difficult student, and it would not be his last. The Finn was smart. Shin liked smart students. He liked to see them reach their potential. And if Panu were as smart as he sounded, then doing what he suggested would be stupider than an adapted.

Shin smiled. And he arched a brow. ”What would be the point of testing you into a higher math class, if you could just pull the answers up off of google?” He said.

”If you’re ever in a situation where your powers aren’t working, Panu, math or history or geography answers... or that Home Economics recipe you’ve got open in a separate mental tab.” (Because who needs paper, that’s bad for the environment). ”Are going to be the least of your worries.”