“Now if we do the same with negative two times negative two—” She drew a line two blocks to the left side from zero, then two blocks downward from zero. She shaded in the area. “It’s still a volume of four. See?”
“Yeah. But I still don’t get it.”
She scoffed. “To tell you the truth, neither do I. Did you order the pizza yet?”
“Yeah. While you were getting the drinks.”
“Okay, let’s think of how multiplication works. Two times two means two sets of two, right?”
“Yeah. And two sets of two would be four.”
“Good. And you understand why two times negative two is negative four?”
“Yeah, of course. Two sets of negative two would be negative four. That makes sense.”
“Good. It makes sense to me, too. So really, all we need to do is figure out why negative two sets of negative two equals positive four.”
“Yup.”
“Okay, no problem.” Kathryn rolled her eyes. “Would you like to know about the existence of God or the meaning of life? That might be easier.”
Brett laughed. Oh, he had an attractive husky laugh. She sighed.
“Do you have any math homework you need help with? Maybe when the pizza comes we can tackle this question. I work better on a full stomach.”
Brett laughed again. “Me, too. Yeah, here’s my homework assignment. Can you check it for me?”
Kathryn went through the problems with him and found he had done a pretty good job. Just as she finished helping him with the corrections, the doorbell rang and the pizza arrived.
“The iced tea’s gone, and Deb doesn’t have any pop. We should have ordered some Coke,” Kathryn said.
“No problem. Ice water’s fine.” He winked. “She does have ice, doesn’t she?”
Kathryn’s heart skipped a beat. He’d actually winked at her! “I think so. I’ll get us some. And some plates and napkins. Give me a sec.”
“I’ll be right here.”
When she returned Brett had already polished off a piece of pizza.
“You must be hungry,” she said.
“Always. Here.” He handed her a piece. She took a bite and set it on a plate.
“So I’ve been thinking,” he said.
“About what?”
“About our positive and negative problem.”
“This is really bugging you, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. And I have no idea why.”
“It bugs me too, and I know exactly why. Because I like to know why. Evidently you do, too.”
“I guess so. I never really thought I cared about math. About anything about school. I guess I do.”
“That’s not a bad thing, Brett.”