Copyright © 2001 by Conor Reidy. All rights reserved.

"See ya later Mike!" shouted my friend Tim from a few yards away. "You played a great game!" And with these words Tim vanished around the corner and I was left alone in the jungle called a school yard.

As I trudged up past the jungle gym, swings, and slides, I could only think of one thing. I wasn't concerned about the time, nor joyous over the wonderful game I recently won with my home run in the ninth. No, I was concerned about the math test that was the next day. Percents, interest, discounts, additive inverse, multiplicative inverse: just too much math! And if I did not pass this test, I would be kicked off the baseball team.

As I came to the very back of the yard, I sat down on what the tiny kindergartners had so funnily named the "Red Monster." And as I was just falling into a pit of self-pity, I noticed a big, red ball rolling towards me. However, there was no wind, and no one was in the school yard, so no one rolled it.

Now, totally immersed in curiosity, I jumped off the Red Monster and went to examine the ball. The ball looked almost like a circular index of my subjects in school. On the ball there were pictures of history, composition, english, science, grammar, and the dreaded math. "Rrrrrr, math, I hate it!" I shouted at this cruel practical joke. But with these words, the ball started to spin. Slowly at first, but then faster and faster. Absolutely frightened by this, I stepped backwards slowly.

But with my forth step backward, the ball blew up, and I shielded my face with my hands "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Why are you yelling?" said a calm, British voice.

"Who--Who's there? Come on guys this isn't fun..." But I couldn't finish my sentence. The fog was clearing and as it did, I saw a miniature dragon. Just about my size, he had a blue blazer on with a tacky tie. "Who...what are you?" I shouted with fear.

"Why, I am Mr. Smokey, part of the DHK--Dragon Help for Kids. Now what seems to be the problem?"

I was stunned. Dragon Help For Kids? Who ever heard of that? I had billions of other questions, but what came out was "Why?"

And instantly, Mr. Smokey answered, "I am here to help you with your math."

"How did you know?"

"You shouted it at my home, remember?" "Oh, right."

"Well, let us begin, math is really quite easy..." And Mr. Smokey continued to explain math, from geometry to percents and beyond. And he explained it so well, and did it with baseball terminology, like "If there's a man on first and on third, and %25 of the crowd wants a home run, what is that %25 as a fraction?" And so on.

And when Mr. Smokey had finally finished, I completely understood math, and I was definitely going to pass the test. Who knows? Maybe I would be the first human in the DHK!

THE END.