[ WP ] A kid doodling in a math class accidentally creates the world 's first functional magic circle in centuries .

Everyday ass the bell rang to signal the end of homeroom, the same thought passed through my mind *'Whelp... Another day in paradise'*. While the sentiment was n't audible, the sigh was. At least today would mean one day closer to graduation. Dad always said that once I graduated high school he'd let me work for him at his carpentry company full time. I'd been helping him ( of course only as a member of the cleaning crew ) on weekends for just about as long as I could remember; at sixteen I was already more skilled than most of his crew anyways. But rules are rules, and you ca n't be in the union without a high school diploma or a GED. At least I could cruise through the morning block on auto-pilot... math had always come easy enough. I only had to pass after all. 
 
 Almost as soon as he began writing on the white board I began absentmindedly doodling. Keeping with the subject matter, mostly geometric shapes flowed out of my pen. I half listened to Mr. McKedy explain why radians are a'better' way to measure angles, but my mind wandered aimlessly as my hand doodled. I looked anywhere but the clock; the punks passed a water bottle ( probably full of vodka ) between them, the jocks joked in the back, a few girls gossiped back and forth on a folded sheet of paper... another day in paradise for sure. 
 
 Finally I broke and glanced at the clock. At least almost an hour had passed. While on the thought of passing I looked at my notes and realized that I had n't actually taken any; all that was written on my wide rule was an intricate design near the upper left hand corner. I barely remembered drawing it, but I usually did n't focus on my doodling anyways. It looked pretty cool at least, a set of concentric circles connected with a pattern that looked a bit like if a spider had tried to spin it's web after spending too much time with those guys passing the Aquafina bottle around. I figured I should probably take down enough of the practice problems to get the gist of whatever was being taught... looking over my math notes would give me something to do during social studies later anyway. I began to copy the first problem but stopped after only a few numbers. For a split second it had seemed as of the circles on the top of the page were rotating slightly, changing the pattern of the webbing between them. But when I stopped writing it stopped moving... must have just been a trick of the mind. Yet as I began to write again it seemed to start again. Maybe I'd drawn some sort of optical illusion without realizing it... Maybe I'd try doing more of them later instead of reading over these notes I could n't care about anyway. 
 
 McKedy began writing a new problem on the board, so I scratched out the old one and decided to just go with what he was doing now. It'd help to have all of the steps written anyway instead of just a final answer. McKedy warned the class that he'd be asking for a volunteer to solve his problem so I made sure to sink into my seat a bit as not to be picked. I copied the problem as he wrote it and the circles seemed to move some more, but I paid it little mind. But after I finished writing out the problem I noticed that the circles were in fact actually spinning... rather quickly. Not only that, but the problem was working itself out on my page as writing faded into place onto the page as if invisible ink were being revealed under a black light. I looked down at my paper to see the final answer neatly listed under a line of calculations that I certainly could n't have come up with but were somehow in my handwriting. 
 
 When I rose my hand to go to the board and solve the problem there was noticeable surprise on McKedy's face; this was the first time I'd ever volunteered despite it being the last week in May. I honestly just wanted to know if the notebook could have solved the problem correctly. And sure enough when I copied what had been written in my book he confirmed that I had done it correctly. I went back to my seat and just sat there for a minute, staring at the notebook. Maybe if I could figure out just how to copy that drawing I could just take the GED exam now and not have to spend another two years taking classes. So I took out a new page and re-drew the design, then wrote down the next problem on the board. Nothing. I grabbed another sheet and tried again... still nothing. I even tried to trace the shape, but that did n't work either. It seems like this was n't my ticket out after all. 
 
 Still, it'd make a great distraction for the rest of the period. I wrote a basic equation down 
 
 **3 + 5 =** 
 
 The circle hardly moved and an 8 appeared just after the equals sign. I tried something a bit tougher 
 
 **2 / 5 =** 
 
 And sure enough.4 appeared after a small spin. I grabbed a pre-calc textbook from under the desk and flipped through the back of the book until I found a problem that looked pretty long and had a bunch of symbols that I did n't understand. I copied it down and sure enough the answer that was listed in the book appeared on the sheet. I did n't really get it, but whatever. It was a cool trick that I could probably use to mess with my friends later. 
 
 I glanced back up at front of the room to see that McKedy had finished doing practice problems for the moment. He was talking more about radians and why their use of pi actually made them easier to work with than degrees, but I did n't really care. But then I began to wonder if the weird circle could calculate something irrational like pi. Earlier in the week it had been mentioned that pi has an infinite number of digits and some people spent their careers finding more and more digits. So I decided to test it out and wrote 
 
 **π =** 
 
 The circle began to spin slowly and churned out some numbers 
 
 **3.14159265** 
 
 The digits came slowly at first, but the circle kept spinning faster and faster on the page. The faster the circle spun, the faster the digits appeared. Within half a minute or so the whole page was filled with a string of digits. The circle kept spinning... so quickly that I could n't even make out the webbing pattern anymore as it had become a blur. I flipped the page and saw that nearly 2 pages of the notebook were full, and still the digits continued to appear. Being near the end of the notebook I decided to flip to the last page and wait it out. I sat there for a couple of minutes just patiently waiting, wondering what would happen when there was no paper left. Once the last couple of pages were filled with what seemed like a meaningless string of digits, they continued onto the cardboard back of the notebook. Once covering that they began appearing on the desktop. 
 
 Then the panic set in... my mind raced trying to figure out how I'd explain to the principal why I'd scrawled a bunch of numbers as grafiti onto the desk. My panic only brought on more as I realized that it might not stop at the desktop. And sure enough, the digits began to wind down one of the desk's legs and made their way onto the floor. Soon somebody would notice if it kept to spread and I was n't sure how I'd be able to explain away........ whatever it was that was going on. 
 
 I flipped to the first page with the circle, and still it spun away. I thought to erase it and immediately rued my decision to use pen. I decided if I could n't erase it then maybe just scribbling it out would work. And thankfully it did. The moment my pen swept its first line through the design it instantly stopped spinning and the string of digits on the floor stopped expanding. For a split second it remained and then began disappearing, the digits fading away just as they had appeared. Before long the notebook was devoid of any of the magically appearing numbers. All that remained of the day's notes was a struck through design and a few unsolved math problems. 
 
 Shortly thereafter the bell rang and class was dismissed. I ripped the page with the design out of my notebook and crumpled it up before putting my things into my backpack. I tossed the wad of paper into the trash bin by the door before leaving. Next up was social studies and, of course, the boring and monotone voice of Mrs. Lange. I let out long sigh and could n't help but think *'Whelp... Another day in paradise'*
