Lucky 13

A quick story about my zombie who shouted "Apple!" for the answer to a math question.



I noticed that she couldn't subtract, at all. She could go through all the motions of subtracting like crossing out numbers to borrow and writing new ones above, but she never got the correct answers. But she close. Strangely close.



I took her out of class, just the two of us, and went down to the Fishbowl. I started with small problems and again she was really close to the correct answer. I watched her while she subtracted. She was moving her fingers and counting to herself. I asked her to count out loud so I could hear her.



She said, "17, 16, 15, 14, 12, 11..."



"Whoa! Try that again."



She started over and missed 13 again. I had her try starting at other numbers, counting backwards, and she skipped 13 every time.



She was completely confused why I was so happy about this. I think I probably scaredher. I told her that whenever she was bored she should look at her number line and count backward from twenty putting her finger on every number. I told her to ask her family at home to listen to her count backward. She was still confused, but said she would.



Two days later she was subtracting perfectly. Yay me! Yay Apple Girl!