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Professor Said Mathematicians Failed 50 Years — But Truant Freshman Girl Cracked It in Class

Professor Said Mathematicians Failed 50 Years — But Truant Freshman Girl Cracked It in Class

Chapter 12

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They reached the edge of the quad where their paths usually split: Reese toward the broadcasting building, Ren toward the library."You know," Reese said, "my mom always says the loudest people in a room are usually the ones with the least to actually say.""Your mom sounds smart.""She raised four kids alone on a nurse's salary. She's had a lot of time to think about people," Reese said. "That's sort of why I stuck around you, honestly. First week of freshman year, everyone else was loud about everything. You were the only quiet person who seemed like she actually meant it."Ren didn't quite know what to say to that. "I just didn't have much to be loud about.""That's not true," Reese said. "You just don't waste words on nothing. There's a difference." She squeezed Ren's arm once and headed off toward class, leaving Ren standing there a moment longer than she meant to, turning that sentence over in her mind.That afternoon, between her last class and her shift, Ren called her grandmother from a bench outside the library, wrapping her coat tighter against the wind.Margaret Hartman answered on the third ring, her voice thin but familiar, warm in a way that made three hours of distance feel smaller."How's my girl?" Margaret asked."Tired," Ren admitted, "but okay. How was your appointment?""The doctor says my heart is stubborn," Margaret said, a small laugh in her voice, "like someone else I raised."Ren smiled to herself. "Did they change the medication?""They want to. It costs more, though."There was a pause. Ren did the math in her head the way she did math with everything now: quiet and automatic, numbers rearranging themselves without her even trying.
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Professor Said Mathematicians Failed 50 Years — But Truant Freshman Girl Cracked It in Class

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