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“So,” Henry clears his throat before patiently asking,”Maxine-“
”For the fourteenth time, it’s just Max,” Max corrects him, her legs criss-crossed as she sits opposite Henry 10 feet away in the entrance of the cave.
“Sorry, I’ll get it eventually.” Henry says, his posture straight as he sits on his knees on the grass outside the cave, he offers a small smile as he looks up at Max in the cave.
”Max, what is….. the main reason Alexander Hamilton never became president?” Henry continues.
”Uhhh… some newspaper came out which showed he had an affair — dick move by the way — with…..” Max clicks her pen rhythmically trying to come up with an answer.
“What was her first name? Her first name is very important and according to this question you have you write three paragraphs,” Henry tells her.
”I don’t know, why do I need to remember her name? History has never cared about women before.” Max points out, her back slumped as she rests her elbows on her knees and her chin on her knuckles.
”Maria Reynolds. Her name was Maria Reynolds, write that down and highlight it,” Henry orders.
“Can we change the subject?” Max asks, bored.
”If you’re considering doing AP history you’re going to have to-“ Henry points out.
”I don’t care, let’s just move on to something else,” Max interrupts, slightly exasperated.
”Fine,” Henry says curtly, he puts down the book and picks up another one from the pile in front of him. “Let’s move on to Math.”
”Actually I think that’s a Physics book,” Max corrects him, picking up the same book from her pile in front of her.
“Physics is Math. Hence, it’s a Math book, look at all the Math symbols on the front,” Henry reasons, now irritated.
“No it’s not, Physics is a science,” Max jabs back.
”It’s a Math!”
”It’s a Science!”
“It’s a MATH!” Henry yells the last part, his sweet voice deepening into the Vecna octave. His brief anger thrusts his body into morphing into Vecna.
“Yay, now we have the gruffalo voice again,” Max mumbles.
”What was that?” Vecna asks.
”Nothing,” Max replies quickly,” just look at the first page,”
”…. Oh,” Vecna’s anger dissipated immediately upon reading: Our third science book on the branch..
“Anyways,” Vecna (who is now just slightly grumpy) continues,” go to page 36. Do question 1 and 2,”
Max grabs a copy and flips open a new page.
“What’s the date?” Max asks.
”Just do the question,” Vecna replies in a huff.
”Jeez okay,” Max mutters. She does the question in silence for nearly a minute before she hears a low hum coming from the monster.
”Are you…. humming the tune to Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer?” Max asks, looking up from her copy.
“It was one of the techniques from our group therapy session last week,” Vecna replies,” I’m humming it while thinking gentle, comforting thoughts. Right now I’m imagining killing all of earth’s population while I relax on a cosy, spiderweb-hammock.” He chuckles as he closes his eyes and hums once more.
Max rolls her eyes but doesn’t respond, focusing on finishing the question.
“I’m done,” she says a few minutes later,” the velocity is 6.4 and when the 2 extra particles collide it creates a pressure of 13.5,”
”That was fast,” Vecna says, now calm once more but he hasn’t revered back to Henry.
“So…. is that the correct answer?” Max asks
”I don’t know,” Vecna responds plainly.
”What do you mean you don’t know?!” Max asks again, confused.
“I never graduated high school. I don’t even think I even took this class. What is a velocity?” Vecna asks now, curious.
“So you’re telling me that you devised this whole, evil plan to collide another dimension into Earth-“
”That was shared with you in confidence in our group therapy, you know the rules, nothing leaves the secrecy circle!”
“There’s only two of us in the group therapy!”
”No there’s not…… Barbara is also there, and for the record she would NEVER tell our private experiences outside our session
“Barbara,” Max finger quotes,” is a HALF SKELETON SURROUNDED BY VINES!”
”And?” Vecna says, not seeing the problem while Max looks at him, fully exasperated now.
”Anyways,” she says, getting back to her point,” you’re telling me that you created this WHOLE PLAN to smash the worlds together,” her hands fist-bump themselves and mimic an explosion,” —since the Upside Down is a wormhole apparently— which would require complex equations and calculations. Yet— you NEVER TOOK A PHYSICS CLASS?!”
“Well I did reach into the mind of a physics professor once,” Vecna defended himself, embarrassed
”And did you retain any of his physics knowledge? Or did you just use this man to get all of these books here to this memory then torture and kill him?” Max asks with the condescension of a teacher asking a student did his dog really eat his homework.
“That’s not the point,” Vecna responds quietly, blushing fully before getting back to the Physics question,” We have to figure out this equation!”
“I’ve figured out this equation already, I just need to know if I got it right.” Max exclaims.
“How do I check if you got it right?” Vecna asks.
”Wow, I don’t know, hummm maybe CHECK THE BACK OF THE BOOK?!?!” Max sarcastically answers.
”No need to be rude,” Vecna responds, feeling a little hurt and making a note to bring this up in the feelings-portion at the next group therapy meeting.
”You are correct, Max,” Vecna says as he sees the answer at the back of the book.
“You can do question 4 now as I forgot to steal the special spin-y thing,” Vecna says.
”You mean the compass?” Max asks.
“It tells you way is North, South, East and West TOO?” Vecna perks up, interested.
“Nevermind,” Max says. She starts the question and to her surprise, in the corner of her eye she sees Vecna grabbing a pencil and attempting it too.
They do a few more physics questions, mainly math-based. Vecna ends up making his own notes as he has Max explain to him basic algebra concepts. Eventually, three hours has passed of Max now teaching Vecna.
“I’ll be leaving now, next time we’ll do geography,” Vecna announces, standing up and collecting his books via his powers.
“You know, YOU’RE supposed to be the tutor here,” Max points out.
”…We’ll call it a study group,” Vecna says, before walking away.
Max sighs, before manually picking up her books and heading back into the cave.