He wasn't the kind of boy you'd call "nerdy" from the get-go, or the kind you would imagine to be obsessive with pocket-protectors; and other such clichΓ© sorts of definitions of what a "geek" should be. Though, by no means was Avery Wolfram a normal teenage boy.
I first met Avery in my AP precalculus class my senior year quite by accident. But before I get into that, let me describe myself for you. I'm considerably tall for a female of my age (18), around 5'10 or so; with long, auburn hair. My build is somewhat toned, yet still leaves a bit of meat on my bones (in respective proportions). In other words, I have somewhat of an hourglass form, nice sized bust (if you do say so myself), and thankfully a toned waist in contrast. As you can safely assume, given my hair colour, my skin is incredibly pale, but is speckled with a plethora of freckles. Avery, on the other hand, was only a few inches shorter than I, with a darker, brownish-black sort of hair tone. His eyesight was not terrible, but had to have glasses for reading, and school work. He generally wore them constantly, since his head was always stuck in some book or focused on his assignments. Avery was the sort of boy who could have more friends if he worked on it, but never really felt it necessary. His goals were fixed toward achievements in academic excellency, not in getting the most votes for prom king.
I never really understood math, and always had a bit of difficulty with it. The course was thrown my way, not by choice, because of my grade in the previous class. I had always done my homework, which was what kept my grade afloat, and understood the concepts; yet some things just didn't click. Our instructor generally had his room open for lunch, in case we were in need of assistance with an assignment, or in need of clarification on a particular theorem or postulate.
We had just begun a new chapter and the entire first section confused me beyond my wildest expectations, even when I had taken 4 pages of notes on the section alone.
"Professor Addison, will you be in here during lunch period today?" I asked my 40-some old male instructor after our class bell rang.
"I'm sorry, Clover, but I have a meeting that I need to be at." He spoke, in a voice that clear indicated that the meeting was not something that he was looking forward to. But inspiration struck him quickly.
"Mr. Wolfram, could you come here, please?" Mr. Addison voiced across the room, where Avery Wolfram sat in his chair, adjacent to the window, finishing up today's homework assignment.
"Yes, Professor?" He replied, rising from his seat to approach us. I had never really noticed him before, other than he was the one always raising his hand to answer questions, or to volunteer to solve a problem on the board. Avery was a senior as well, and it showed in the way he carried himself. He was no longer the confused little freshman that most of us were in our first year; he was much more comfortable with his surroundings (especially in his favourite subject's classroom).
"Since you generally stay in here during lunch, I was going to ask if you could help Miss Wilson with her assignments while I'm at my meeting." Professor Addison voiced, as he began to gather his things from his desk and storage closet.
"Sure, I've finished my things; it will give me something to do." Avery replied with a nervous, geeky smile.
"Excellent." Our instructor spoke as he made his way out the door.
After the door was shut (to mute the noisiness of the hallways), I took a seat next to Avery, book and graphing calculator in hand.
"What is it that you're not understanding?" He began, as he scooted his desk closer to mine.
"Well, it's those stupid exponential and logarithm functions. It's just not sinking in."
"What you have to keep in mind is that it's only numbers. Yes, the theorems, postulates, and all, they matter, but when you get down to it, it's just numbers." Avery spoke, without lifting his head up from my book. He turned around to grab a mechanical pencil from his desk and began to scribble in my book these insane formulas that I did not even know existed.
"Whoa, okay, hold on there." I ejected in a halting voice as my hand reached out to stop his from continuing his writing. "I can hardly do this--" I said, pointing to example problem one, "and you're throwing all of this, at me." I laughed, gesturing toward the mess of numbers and exponents he scrawled onto my blank textbook space.
I didn't quite realize that I had been holding his hand for more than about 30 seconds, when I blushed embarrassedly and released my grip on his slightly callused palms. There was silence for a minute or two,
"Thanks for doing this, I know it's somewhat of a bother--" I began, only to be interrupted,
"It's nothing, don't worry about it." He reassured me as he glanced up from my textbook to give me that nerdy smile again.
Lunch period was about an hour or so long, and after a while, I began to slightly grasp the concepts Avery was trying to get across to me, and soon my thoughts strayed away from math.
"Is this was you do during lunch each day?" I asked, as I shut my book and slid it into my backpack.
"Well... Yes." He spoke in a voice that almost sounded ashamed.