As illustrated in the figure above, in the frame xOy, we have a line l :x-y-2=0 and a parabola C:y²=2px(p>0)
I let my pencil whirl around the knuckle of my thumb and re-read the sentence for the third time, try to make sense of it in connection with the figure that shows a sideways parabola on a nearly blank coordinate system.
Then I swallow the yell that's bubbling in my gut, press my lips together just a bit harder, draw my eyebrows together, and try to focus on to the first actual task.
Given that l is a tangent of C, find the equation and
throw the pencil against the wall, then ball up the sheet of paper in front of me you and throw it as well, get up, sing, shout, possibly throw up your breakfast all over the professor's desk and then cry.
I clench my jaw so hard it hurts my molars.
I
know
I can absolutely ace this test. Math has always been easy for me, it came as naturally as dancing comes to other girls. But I feel like I'm unable to breathe in this room, let alone think or find a bloody equation.
The professor looks at me over the rim of his glasses like he knows I'm about to implode, like he can hear the ticking clock counting down inside of my head. Or maybe he is merely waiting for my whirling pencil to clatter onto the desk or the floor.
His words are still echoing through me.
"The next one to make a
single peep
will be
banned
from this examination!"
Three other students have been caught cheating. The first one had a crib written on her thigh --
high
on her thigh. Everyone giggled and some boy catcalled when the teacher called her out, and then there was chaos. The other two were competent enough at talking without moving their lips, but couldn't manage a whisper low enough. As the two culprits were leaving the room with their shoulders hanging, a murmur rose among the other examinees.
Professor Montgomery went off like a gun.
"Enough!"
His hand had come down on his desk with a deafening smacking sound.
"No one will make another
sound
! No one will leave this
room
!
None of you
gets a hall pass! If I hear you
breathing
too loudly, I
will
fail you. Do
not
test me on this!"
Montgomery has
had
it,
someone behind me had murmured derisively into the silence between his sentences, and the professor's gaze had swung over into our section of the classroom, causing people to duck their heads and hunch their shoulders.
Fifteen minutes later, I can still feel the professor practically boiling behind his desk, waiting to explode like a volcano himself. His sharp eyes are zipping across the room, not missing a thing, ready to pick up the source of every sound, howsoever small.
Not allowed to make a single sound, and therefore almost unable to move, I, too, feel ready to combust. This examination is the most important one of my life, I know that, but I just can't focus, can't get over the tension that--
In the chair directly to my left, the student shifts his legs around and his chair creaks.
Professor Montgomery and I both look over to him -- Brad or Matt, I think, his name is -- but the teacher's eyes travel onwards when nothing else happens.
My eyes stay glued to my classmate, though. Matt, I think. Matt Keane. Upper middle to top of the class. He's the quiet and calm sort of guy, always carries a book.
I can see underneath his table.
I can see the tent in his pants.
Matt Keane has a boner,