Chapter Text
There once was a little man named X who didn't know what he was worth. He went and asked his friend 4 to help him find out. 4, a man who loved simple algebra, was more than glad to help X learn his value again. So 4 took X to the playground so he could teach him how to find his value again. However, 4 didn't want to confuse X if X found out that he was anything other than 7. You see, 4 had previously shown his value to be 7 before, but because X was a variable, things can change. So 4 sat X down on the grass and said,
"Look X, I know it's hard to not know your worth." He saw X look down in disappointment before continuing, "You spend 10 minutes finding your value one day only to find our that you're no longer worth the same thing the next." X looked close to crying before 4 said "But that's what makes you so special X! As a variable you have the ability to change and become new things! I never get to experience that as a constant." X looked up and smiled at 4, but then looked confused.
"But then what happens if I multiply myself with another X?" 4, eager to begin teaching some new algebra, squared X. X screamed and started frantically waving his limbs around.
"Shhh shhh, it'll be okay, quadratics are just another part of who you are," said 4. X stopped squirming around after a bit but asked
"What did you DO?!"
"It's middlementary my dear X, I multiplied you by X! You are now X times more valuable than you were before!" 4 kept blathering on about the smaller nuisances that no middlementary student would be able to get.
"B-but why is that TWO flying above my head???" X interrupted. 4 stopped talking and glared at X for a second before snapping back into teaching mode and answered
"It's not flying above your head, it's hovering right above your left shoulder to tell everyone that you are squared!"
"Will it go away?" X asked hesitantly. 4 replied
"Only if you find your square root. Now lets go find it."
"Alright." X said, still a little nervous. So the two set off to find a good place to work out X's square root, 4 explaining what it was the whole while.