Bean tried not to talk. She promised not to talk. But every day she talked. Mostly, she was trying to be helpful. She was trying to explain things to kids who didn't understand. For example, regrouping. Eric didn't understand regrouping. Ms. Aruba-Tate had explained it, but he didn't understand it. So he added instead of subtracting. Bean couldn't stand to watch him add when she knew he was supposed to subtract. Just knowing that he was adding made it impossible for her to do her own subtraction. She had to tell him that he was doing it wrong. She had to tell him how to do it right.
"Bean is only responsible for Bean, Ms. Aruba-Tate kept saying. But Bean thought that wasn't true, because Ms. Aruba-Tate also kept saying that a class was like a family. And families were responsible for each other. When Bean pointed this out, Ms. Aruba-Tate opened her mouth and then closed it again.