This is a waste of time. I'm hopeless. I've always been hopeless." April muttered, dainty hands clutching her head amidst waves of auburn as she rested on her elbows against her desk.

"You aren't hopeless." Fin corrected firmly from his seat next to her. "You are incredibly intelligent and capable. You're just struggling a bit, thats all."

"Im in remedial math and struggling. How is this not pathetic?" She grumbled, embarrassed. It had taken a lot of tears and frustration to begin with to even consider asking for help...but she was desperate. She knew she could trust Fin not to crack jokes, so she had asked him to try and help. Not that she thought the others would be cruel, but she knew it was a sensitive subject for her.

"You aren't pathetic, really. Lots of people have trouble with math." Fin insisted. "There's no shame in struggling, April."

"I-I think I need a br-"

"There you guys are! Bren and I are running out to get snacks and wanted to know if-" Chad stopped, noticing April slumped over her desk as hair hid her face, though he though he heard a sniffle. "Hey, is everything cool in here?" As soon as he expressed concern, Bren's interest sharpened as they pushed past to get a look.

"Everything is fine." Fin informed. "April and I are just working on some math homework. We're just about to take a break." Ignoring the obvious attempt to consol them from Fin, Bren moved into the room, trying to get a look at the math in question.

"You know, I'm taking a couple courses for my business degree. I'm sure I can help." They offered, only to see April look even tenser.

"I-Im fine. You three go on. We can do this another time, Fin. Thanks for helping." Bren frowned as they all heard the thickness to her tone. She obviously was upset over something, but what?

"Look, April, I'm sure its advanced shit but maybe I can still be a bit helpful-"

"It isn't." It was practically whimpered, and this time they all heard the sniffles. "I-It isn't and I'm stupid and its hopeless."

Looking to the others for a moment, they gently started rubbing a hand across her shoulders in soothing circles.

"April, we all know that's bullshit. You're one of the smartest people we know. It's okay to need a little help, ya know."

"Yeah." Chad chimed in, trying to be supportive, but not quite sure how to help since he also wasn't the greatest with math.

"You don't get it. I...this should be basic and I can't do it! I-I know how but it all comes out wrong and I can't remember anything, even with my notes!"

Spying a notebook nearby, Bren reached for it. "Can I take a look? Please?" Receiving a miserable nod, they carefully took it and started flipping through the pages of meticulous notes. Honestly? They were perfect. Step by step, textbook worthy notes, in fact. Except...every time she showed an example equation, things on the page kinda...slid? Not a ton, but enough it was noticeable. As well as the copious amounts of spots where you could tell something had been erased.

"Its...its the quadratic formula." Bren realized, carefully reviewing the notations in her meticulous handwriting, which noticably didn't slant and slide like her equation did. "Its perfect in your notes, though? A bit wobbly-looking, but correct. Same with the listed steps and all."

Chad's brow furrowed, noticing something as he looked at it over Bren's shoulder. Specifically where the papers kept having eraser smudges in each formula.

"Hey, April...weird ask, but do you mind trying again while I watch?" He ignored everyone's questioning gaze on him like he wasn't making sense. He was used to being the subject of confusion. "Just to test a theory."

April hesitated, but nodded, copying over the first homework question from the textbook she had been struggling with. After watching her slowly work through it, Chad grinned before merrily informing: "Oh, you're not stupid. Your brain's just broken." Everyone stared at him with shock and/or disgust.

"The fuck is wrong with you?!" Bren spat, looking furious while putting an arm around a teary-eyed April. Fin glared, mouth in a rare, firm line of anger. Chad watched them all, confused at the reaction.

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"What? She's not stupid. Her brain just isn't working right. What's wrong with that? She just needs accommodation, probably." Fin watched Chad closely for a moment, realizing he really wasn't cracking an uncharacteristically cruel joke.

"Its the delivery. Try again, with more explanation on what you mean and why you think it." Chad shrugged,but complied.

"She keeps accidentally flipping positive and negatives, writing the wrong number, and everything is slanting instead of lining up neatly. My bet is you have trouble with multiplication tables, as well." April stared, confused.

"How...how did you know that?" He simply pointed.

"Your scratch paper. If you weren't using it, you used your fingers. My friend did the same thing. Same goes for the other stuff. You're not stupid, you've probably just got dyscalculia."

It was quiet for a moment before Bren spoke up, confusion obvious on their face. "Dyscalcu-what now?"

"Dyscalculia. One of my buddies back home has it. Its like the reading thing where the letters shift and move, but for math. Well, and instead of it getting mixed up on the way to your brain it mixes on the way out of your brain." He tried to explain. "He said his doc told him its like having a broken bridge in your brain, but only in the math spot. The information can't get in and out to well since there's no bridge there to make it to memory or recall or something. Dude just needed accommodations and was pretty solid. Went from Cs to solid Bs in a single semester of high school once he got em."

Everyone was quiet before he sighed. "Look, I'm not a doctor, but it's scary similar to my friend's work. Here." Motioning for Fin to move, he took the seat beside her at the desk and took her pencil. Once he made a grid on the paper and copied the starting equation over, he looked to April. "What's the first step to solve it? Check your notes if you need to. Don't fuss over the numbers, just tell me the first step."

She hesitated, but told him and he nodded. "Good. Okay, now pull out a calculator and use it to get your numbers. No more scratch sheet bullshit, just focus on if it's positive or negative during input." Once she quietly called out the numbers, he copied it down. "Good, now that the bits in parenthesis are out of the way, what now?"

"You...you multiply by the exponent."

"Exactly! Plug it in. Good. Next step."

"Multiply any numbers."

"Perfect. Next?"

"Subtract those."

"Mhm. Now?"

"Multiply them."

"Okay. Then?"

"Separate into two equations to solve."

"Yes, technically done but they want the alternative form. So punch it in and solve it into decimals."

"X=2.466 on top and X=1.216 on the bottom." She reported. They all looked to Bren who had done the problem alongside them in expectant anticipation.

"Yeah, same result I got." They announced, astounded. "Okay, so maybe April's brain is broken...but dude, what's the grid for?"

"Oh, that? My buddy says the grid helps his brain line it all up. Otherwise it slants like April's does and makes it hard to see what the numbers need to be doing. He's swapped over all his math notes and worksheets to graph paper. Part of his accommodation includes being allowed to do the work for tests and stuff on graph paper, as well, instead of the test sheet."

April stared, shocked. "It...it is easier to read like that." She admitted quietly.

"But look, April! You solved it! I just wrote it down and kept it from going wonky or you accidentally swapping signs or numbers." Chad pointed out with a grin. "See? You're not stupid! The bridge is probably just broken like my friend's. If you want, I can ask him about the diagnosis process and until we get that sorted we can pick you up a graph notebook and we can take turns helping on homework." He offered, only to grunt slightly at the sudden impact as she turned and flung herself at him in a hug, clinging tight as muffled thank you's poured from her.

After a moment, he wrapped her up in a tight hug despite the awkward position. "You're not stupid, April. You've never been stupid." He soothed, remembering the mini-meltdown his friend had gone through when explaining it to him after the diagnosis. "You're brilliant, honest. In fact, its impressive you got this far all on your own. Even got a fancy scholarship for being so darn smart!" He teased, squeezing her a bit tighter before letting go, seeing her wipe a few stray tears. "Now, go wash your face. We're taking a break to go gets snacks and graph paper!" He declared with a grin, shooing her off.

"You know, Chad...you're pretty smart, yourself." Fin mused with a soft smile. "I didn't even know that existed."

Chad just scoffed, waving it off. "Nah, I've just seen it before to know what it can look like. I could still be wrong."

"Yeah, but I've been up here for the last hour with her watching her struggle and I couldn't figure out how to help. You figured it out in just a couple of minutes and got her to solve an equation correctly in one go." He pointed out before giving one of his rare, full smiles. "You did good, Chad. Really good."

Bren nodded as Chad flushed and spluttered a bit in response before chuckling. "He's right, you know. You possibly just saved her scholarship. Just take the praise. You earned it." Standing, they stretched. "I'll drive."

"Shotgun!" The other two announced at about the same time, only to start bickering over who got it. Bren chuckled, crossing their arms.

"Neither of you gets it. April gets shotgun." Between the grumbles and over-dramatic groans and accusations of favoritism, they turned to go make space in the back seat.

Once they were done with the trip, they returned triumphant with snacks, as well as three shiny new graph notebooks for April.

And maybe, just maybe, a pack of good fine-line colored felt pens for Bren to sneak into her bag at some point to help brighten her notes. Not that they'd admit it, though.