Mark explains math

Mark recently shoved a piece of paper under my nose, with gruff orders to sign it.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Math test," he grunted. "You have to sign it." He waggled a pen at me for emphasis.

But I'm not as naive as Mark believes. I actually like to read papers before I sign them.

"C+?" I said. "Really? You told me yesterday you were ready for this test."

"I was!" he protested. "It's not my fault. There weren't enough questions!"

And that stopped me in my tracks. I'm not good at math, but apparently, Mark's not good at logic.

"What does that have to do with anything?" I asked.

"There were only 9 problems," he explained. "And I missed two, so that's a C+."

I waited.

"And...?" I finally said, breaking the silence.

"And...if there were more questions, I would've got a better grade," Mark said slowly, to his (obviously) idiotic mother.

"It doesn't matter how many questions there are," I told him. "It's the percentage that counts. You got 78% right. Doesn't matter how many questions there are--78% will be always be a C+."

"No," Mark said, his patience straining. "If there were more questions, I would have got a higher grade."

"If you'd gotten all the other questions correct," I said. "But if there were twice as many questions, and you missed twice as many answers, you'd still get 78%."

And there we stood, staring each other down. Stalemate. 

He tried again.

"I missed two," Mark explained. "If there were 20 questions, I would've gotten an A."

"But you didn't get an A," I said. I pointed at the paper. "You got a C+." I couldn't figure out how this conversation was going so wrong.

"Just sign it, please," Mark sighed. He was done with me and my little brain, and my illogical questions.

"This is not acceptable," I told him, handing the paper back. "I want to see a better grade next time."

He walked away, stuffing the paper in to his backpack.

"Then tell the teacher to give us more questions," he said.

He shook his head and walked away, clearly wondering how I ever finished middle school, when I was obviously so bad at math.

I'm not sure he's really even studying math at all. I think he was actually practicing Jedi mind tricks on me instead. And I'm pretty sure I failed.