The next day, Anna dragged herself into homeroom and collapsed into her seat. None of the other kids had arrived yet, leaving nobody there but her, Mr. Woods, and their companions. She hunched over her math textbook wishing she was doing anything but studying. Even cleaning out Sweet Surprise's herbivore feeding trough after cows left it full of half-digested cud couldn't be worse than dealing with the alphabet deciding to show up to math class. Yet, she had to do it. The future of Sweet Surprise was at stake.

Even if her mom might not let her be a part of it anymore.

Mr. Woods set down the last of the different colored cards they'd be using for whatever game he had planned for them. "Did everything go alright with your audition?"

Despite Ichabod jumping on her desk and biting one of her cards, Anna barely glanced at him. She couldn't let the ferret's antics distract her, not now. She had to focus on math. "Yeah, I passed."

"You don't sound happy for someone who's going to be on TV." Mr. Woods scooped Ichabod into his hands, ignoring his protests as he pried the bright green cardstock from between his teeth. "I doubt Ichabod improvising a hands-on demonstration of the impact an invasive species can have on an ecosystem's resources would be enough to get you looking so down."

Anna cracked a tiny smile as Ichabod wriggled out of Mr. Woods's grip and dove into his desk in search of something else to play with. Yet, not even his goofy antics could stop her from sighing and hunching back over her notebook. "My parents got really upset with me 'cause I did badly on a math quiz after I kinda sorta worked on the recipe for my audition instead of studying."

"It must be hard for you to think about schoolwork with everything that's been going on with your family's bakery. Thank you for catering the retirement party, by the way. With how much everyone loved your desserts, hopefully you'll have more regulars soon."

"Thanks." Anna braced herself to start tuning him out. Here came the inevitable lecture about how she should have studied more and how irresponsible she was for not putting school before everything else. Adults never understood that she was responsible. She just cared more about Sweet Surprise than some dumb math quiz.

"Grades aren't everything," Mr. Woods said gently, "but even boring stuff like math has its purpose. I personally find photosynthesis as mind-numbing as a three-hour documentary about the history of yarn, but it's still an important topic for me to teach because it's a vital part of the ecosystem."

"But I already know all the math I need to bake." Fractions were one of the only units Anna always did well in, and if she ever had trouble, her phone was as helpful as any calculator.

"Maybe, but there's more to running a bakery than making the food. I'm no expert, but I imagine your family has to think about rent, repairs, publicity, and all sorts of other things that involve juggling time and money."

"I guess you're right. It is really complicated." She'd always known her family worked hard to keep Sweet Surprise running, but when Mr. Woods put it like that, Anna realized that she'd only ever helped with a small slice of everything they had to take care of. There was so much they hadn't told her about, much less let her get involved in.

"Pretty impressive, if you ask me. I can barely manage two ferrets, let alone a whole bakery!" As if on cue, Ichabod and Mabel threw themselves into Mr. Woods's trash can, wrestling over the remains of a breakfast sandwich. "Handling something like that requires a diverse skillset. Remember when we studied how each species needs several different adaptations to thrive in their environment?"

"A little." They'd covered that right before winter break, and by then Anna was a lot more preoccupied with planning how she'd spend her free time with her friends by the creek than worrying about how polar bears dealt with their much less fun winters. "But how is any of this supposed to help me?"

Anna gestured to the rows of practice problems she'd copied from her textbook. Unless she needed something to put her to sleep, those equations weren't good for much. The examples were supposed to give her at least some idea of what to do, but no matter how hard she tried, all she saw were way too many problems.

Mr. Woods grimaced at the sea of numbers as if he'd accidentally stuck his finger in wet gum. "They don't do a good job making math interesting, do they? One second." He whipped out a pen and scribbled down a problem of his own. "Try solving this."

Anna talked to herself as she read. "If we have 10 cups of flour but need to make two batches of brownies and some cookies and it takes that much per batch ..." Her pencil flew across the paper. "You'll have enough for three batches of cookies, but you shouldn't use that much flour for the brownies 'cause they'll be way too dense."

"Yup, you've got it! And now we both know why I always stick to Betty Crocker." Mr. Woods jotted down a couple notes on how she could have solved the problem more efficiently. "The thing with math is it's the hardest subject to make fun and engaging, but it's not impossible."

Things really did make a lot more sense when Anna thought about how math could actually be useful to her. There was just one problem. "I think this'll help me come up with problems, but how am I supposed to know if I get the right answer?"

"You'll definitely want someone to check them for you." Mr. Woods absently twirled his pen. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't your mom handle the bakery's finances? I remember her mentioning that at a parent-teacher conference."

"Yeah, but she doesn't have time to help me." Anna sighed. "I don't think she'd want to, not after I made her so mad."

"Couldn't hurt to ask since the worst thing she can say is no." Mr. Woods glanced at the clock. "Tell you what, though. You're always here nice and early, so I should be able to go over at least a few problems with you before the other kids get here." Ichabod emerged from the trashcan carrying a mouthful of scrambled egg, with Mabel chittering up a storm as she ran after him. "Assuming certain ferrets at least try to behave themselves."

"That would be great, thanks!" Anna released a breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding. At least that was one thing she wouldn't have to bother her mom about.