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Here is another draft with the same idea:
“Austin?” Ashley asked in the cutest voice she could squeeze out. I looked up and smiled. “I know I’ve asked you a hundred times, and I’m sorry sorry sorry…but will you help me out with the homework?” I chuckled and grinned, “Ha ha, of course,” That was a typical day in Pre-Cal class. Whether it was Ashley, Alicia, Jesus or Carlos, someone was asking me for math help and I was happy to give it. And it was fun. But what started as politely lending out my skills for the better of my classmates turned into something different: from commensalism to mutualism. I’m not quite sure when it started, but I remember when I realized it. It was a particularly strenuous day of work for me. The grading cycle was coming to an end and people needed to turn in all of their missing work, which meant that I would be doing a lot of impromptu tutoring; happy as a camper. I was helping Alicia out with geometric sequences and, as always, it ended with me simply doing the work. She was cute. When I was done, I waited for someone else to come to me their questions, but everyone was too busy making my work look like it was their own. At this point I usually went on to play scrabble on my phone or text my girlfriend at the time, but for some reason, as if I had no say in it, the following words spilled out of my mouth: “D-Does anyone have any questions?” At this point quite a few questions were running through my head, the foremost being: Why the heck did I just ask that? “What?” said Carlos, giving me a look that was half confusion, half disgust. “I was just asking if anyone had any questions…you know about math. Never mind,” I muttered in a semi-embarrassed voice. Cheeks rosy and face hot, I pulled out my phone and started “playing scrabble”. I was thinking. Thinking about why I asked that question. It didn’t take me long to figure out that I wanted to do more problems. All these feelings were flying through my head now, what I liked about math, what I wanted out of math. I had always had a thing for math, but I never realized how unique I was in this affection. I mean, all through elementary school when I was asked what my favorite subject was I answered enthusiastically “Recess!” but now, now I was a math nerd. And I loved it. I loved solving things in ten different ways, and making a function out of every set of numbers given to me. I loved it, but more importantly I was good at it. Rarely did I ever get a challenge when it came to math. I wanted to get challenged, I wanted to get stumped, I wanted math to punch me in the face and not relent. I wanted, and still want, to be bewildered by math.
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