{"id":556,"date":"2023-11-23T10:48:40","date_gmt":"2023-11-23T10:48:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/?page_id=556"},"modified":"2023-11-29T10:00:45","modified_gmt":"2023-11-29T10:00:45","slug":"chapter-twelve-homework-blues","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/stories\/chapter-twelve-homework-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"Chapter Twelve – Homework Blues"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was sunday afternoon, mommy was baking as usual, her boyfriend was working on his computer, which was also\u00a0especially<\/em>\u00a0normal. Boo meanwhile was sitting at the dining table surrounded by a huge pile of books. Boo was also chewing her pencil, frowning and using her pigtails to pretend that she had a beard.<\/p>\n

Boo was working on her homework. As usual this meant a lot of research, probably far more than any other nine-year-old girl with pigtails in the country.<\/p>\n

The homework that was puzzling her this weekend was maths.<\/p>\n

Her teacher has asked her students to give examples of numbers written in Roman Numerals.<\/p>\n

She totally understood how it worked<\/p>\n

I=1
\nV=5
\nX=10
\nL=50
\nC=100
\nD=500
\nM=1000<\/p>\n

Counting to ten was easy<\/p>\n

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X.<\/p>\n

But after that, it all got a little bit complicated.<\/p>\n

Converting numbers to and from Roman Numerals was giving her a headache. She decided that the Romans were silly, but she worked her way through her conversions, then started to look for examples of Roman Numerals in use today.<\/p>\n

The first example that she could think of was their use at the end of TV programs, for programmes made in 2014, the year is always represented as MMXIV. She couldnot think of any more, so she asked her mommy.<\/p>\n

\u2018Well Sweetie, many films are labeled with roman numerals, part 4 is usually labeled part IV\u2019<\/p>\n

and \u2018King and Queens too\u2019 added her boyfriend, \u2018Henry the Fourth was labeled Henry IV\u2019 .<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh yes\u2019, added mommy, \u2018and the Olympics\u2019. \u2018Also, sometimes four is represented IIII not IV\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2018But also there is a watchmakers four \u2013 IIII \u2013 many Swiss watches use this as IV looks messy ,it was mommy\u2019s boyfriend \u2013 he had a head full of useless knowledge. Boo rolled her eyes, again.<\/p>\n

They came up with a few examples and Boo worked them all into her homework, then looked for old coins that had George IV on them. She photographed these and printed out the photos to add to her homework.<\/p>\n

Eventually all of her homework was done, she helped her mommy bake yet another batch of cupcakes. This time it was lime cupcakes with orange icing. Then she spent a little time beating her mommies boyfriend at a computer game.<\/p>\n

Again.<\/p>\n

Because it was late on a rainy Sunday afternoon, because they had already had ice-cream earlier and because it was the middle of winter, there was not much else to do before dinner, so she decided to check up on her dragon.<\/p>\n

Boo was a very lucky young lady, she had a dragon a real, live, living, breathing,\u00a0fire-breathing<\/em>, dragon that lived in her bedroom. \u00a0Boo was a little worried about him, he had been a little off-colour recently. She really hoped that he did not have a cold, as last time he sneezed he had shot fireballs from his nose and the resultant chaos had made the evening news.<\/p>\n

She packed her school bag and headed for her room. As usual she approached him carefully, with some dragon snacks, this time two bags of Smokey Bacon crisps. As usual he opened his eyes and munched the snacks in very short order. \u2018Thank You Boo\u2019.<\/p>\n

The dragon sniffed a little.<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh no\u2019, said Boo, \u2018do you have a cold ? \u2018<\/p>\n

\u2018ugh, no, I\u2019m fine\u2019<\/p>\n

The dragon snuffled, then sneezed lightly. A really small fireball flew from his nose, straight into Boo\u2019s school bag. There was an ominous sizzling and then a waft of smoke.<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh no, my homework !\u2019<\/p>\n

A small plume of smoke emerged from her bag. Boo was mortified, she knew that her homework was gone, she knew that it was not the dragons fault, but her homework. It was gone\u2026<\/p>\n

\u2018Oh no, I\u2019m sorry, that was not deliberate\u2019 apologized the dragon.<\/p>\n

Boo just stared at her dragon a small tear rolling down her cheek. She had spent hours on her homework and now she had to start from scratch.<\/p>\n

She had a thought, \u2018Dragon, I need to re-write all of my homework, which is going to take hours, but I have less then an hour before dinner and then it is bath time, then mommy will want to read me a story and then I need to sleep because it is school tomorrow.\u2019 Can we go somewhere for a few hours and return right back here and now again \u2018, Dragon had a way with time, he seemed to be able to ignore its presence and just move around in it as he fancied.<\/p>\n

The dragon blinked his piercing green eyes. \u2018Where do you want to go ?\u2019<\/p>\n

Boo thought, she explained that needed some peace and quiet and \u2018maybe plenty of Roman reference books and perhaps a nice desk to work at, too\u2019.<\/p>\n

The dragon thought for a moment, \u2018Well, the best place for that is the Senate House Library in London\u2019, he paused, it is a pretty quiet place, we could spend a couple of hours there and they have a whole lot of Roman literature, maybe we can get some ideas there\u2019.<\/p>\n

Boo grabbed her backpack from under her bed, jammed her bobble-hat on her head, made sure her pigtails were secure and in less than ten seconds, they were flying at high speed into the evening sky.<\/p>\n

Boo loved to fly, but flying into the sunset on the back of her dragon was a new experience for her, the reddening sky, the wind whipping her pigtails and the heat from the dragon beneath her made her squeal with delight.<\/p>\n

All too soon they flew through an open window.<\/p>\n

Boo was amazed at the library, it was nothing like the one that she visited at school, in the center of the room, rows of desks with\u00a0 individual reading lamps were lined up in rows along with high chairs and even computers.<\/p>\n

Boo ran up and down the isles of books, plucking volumes on Roman History and mathematics and even on the fall of the Roman Empire. Her dragon followed her and carried all of the books that she had selected.<\/p>\n

With the books piled high, she set to work.<\/p>\n

She explained how the system worked counting from 1 ( I ) to ten ( X )<\/p>\n

I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX X<\/p>\n

Then she wrote<\/p>\n

A smaller number in\u00a0front of a larger number means subtraction, all else means addition. For example, IV means 4,\u00a0because it stands for 1 less than 5, VI means 6 or 1 more than 5. .<\/em><\/p>\n

You would not put more than one smaller number in front of a larger number to subtract. For example, IIV would not mean 3, as there is a rule that is followed where\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0simple to use III.<\/em><\/p>\n

You must separate ones, tens, hundreds, and thousands as separate items. That means that 99 is XCIX, 90 + 9, but never should be written as IC. Similarly, 999 cannot be IM and 1999 cannot be MIM.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then she showed how fifty-one \u00a0is LI.<\/p>\n

How her birthday would be July XXVII.<\/p>\n

How her Aunty was born in MCMLXXIV.<\/p>\n

She then found a picture of a roman centurion who had a sash with Roman Numerals, which she translated to \u20181200\u2019. She pulled our her sketch pad and sketched the soldier in pencil, then labeled the sash and added a translation on the bottom of the drawing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While she worked, her dragon snoozed at her feet, snoring small smoke rings as usual.<\/p>\n

After about an hour she decided that she was done, so she woke her dragon with a granola bar and a packet of his favorite Smoky Bacon crisps.<\/p>\n

\u2018OK dragon, lets go, I think I have enough.\u2019<\/p>\n

However the dragon had other ideas, \u2018let\u2019s go and hunt down some examples of Roman Numerals in use today, maybe you can sketch them and add them to your homework?\u2019<\/p>\n

As they left the library it was quite dark, but as usual as the dragon flew, he somehow turned the clock back and before long they were landing right next to the Los Angeles Public Library.<\/p>\n

Boo looked at the cornerstone, it read AD MD-CCCC-XX-V.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

She scratched her head a little and consulted her notes \u20181925\u2019, she exclaimed\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Very good\u2019<\/p>\n

Boo sketched the corner-stone and the corner of the building and added that to her notes too.<\/p>\n

From there they traveled to many other places around the globe, each Boo would sketch the corner or date stone and she would add the sketch to her homework package.<\/p>\n

Eventually Boo was getting tired and they were rapidly running out of dragon snacks, so they headed home. Once more the skies darkened and they arrived moments after they had originally left, landing lightly in Boo\u2019s room.<\/p>\n

She rushed into the kitchen and grabbed several bags of crisps and some granola bars and quickly fed her dragon. Hungry dragons are a very bad thing indeed after all.<\/p>\n

\u2018Mommy, I\u2019m starving\u2019, Boo realised that she had not eaten anything other than half of a bag of smokey bacon crisps for hours.<\/p>\n

\u2018Wash your hands and sit at the table, it is nearly dinner time, we have your favorite tonight, roast lamb\u2019.<\/p>\n

Boo was sure that she could hear her Dragon drooling and smacking hims lips, smokey bacon crisps are one thing, but roast lamb is a whole order better.<\/p>\n

The following morning she handed her homework in, not only had she managed to write over two thousand words, she had included seven sketches. Her teacher flipped through the papers and smiled. When it came time for Emma to hand her homework in though there was a problem.<\/p>\n

\u2018My dog ate my homework\u2019.<\/p>\n

The teacher blinked.<\/p>\n

\u2018No really, my dog ate my homework and I did not have time to re-do it\u2019.<\/p>\n

The whole class laughed.<\/p>\n

Boo smiled to herself, \u2018A dragon incinerated my homework and I still made the time to do it all again.\u2019<\/p>\n

A few hours later, Boo got yet another A+ with four gold stars for her homework\u2026..<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was sunday afternoon, mommy was baking as usual, her boyfriend was working on his computer, which was also\u00a0especially\u00a0normal. Boo meanwhile was sitting at the dining table surrounded by a huge pile of books. Boo was also chewing her pencil, frowning and using her pigtails to pretend that she had a beard. Boo was working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":67,"menu_order":120,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-556","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":686,"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/556\/revisions\/686"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/67"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nealon.uk\/dragon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}