A man stands on the roof of a 1500-foot-tall building. He drops a ball that falls at 8 feet per second. How many minutes will it take for the ball to hit the ground?
Jamal glared at the laptop screen. The word problems glared back, just like they had all evening, spitefully refusing to clarify themselves. Meanwhile the problem that mattered was that he had an appointment at the gym next morning, and fat chance he could focus on the most annoying possible homework while his head was buzzing with strategies for Rufflet and Drowzee.
"You are stuck." Drowzee nudged him telepathically. "Can I help?"
He smiled a little. "Didn't know drowzee did math tutoring."
They did not, but Drowzee plonked herself down beside him anyway, and he did feel slightly less alone. "I know math dreams. Math tastes... complex." She frowned, tapped her snout thoughtfully. "What is the math you are doing?"
Jamal read a problem aloud for his teammate. Drowzee's frown deepened.
"You talk about the words," she finally hummed, "but maybe there is a different approach. When dreamers have math as a problem, they solve it by running out of the room very fast. In only underwear, always. Underwear changes the problem, I think." She nodded sagely.
That got a snort out of him. "Pretty sure that's tests, not homework," Jamal said. "Think I'll keep my clothes on, thanks."
Change the problem. Sounded like his teacher. He'd say word problems were "math for the real world", then fail to explain why it mattered how long it took to drop a toy off a skyscraper. "Try reframing it," went his cheerfully generic advice, but what could you even turn toys and skyscrapers into that was actually relevant?
Drowzee's suggestions, while entertaining, weren't finishing this any faster. Jamal snapped his laptop shut and called Rufflet down from his tree so they could keep practicing. Nothing for it but hoping a new badge would psych him up enough to try again before the assignment was due tomorrow afternoon.
The seel yelped as talons sank into its tail and hauled it effortlessly out of the pool. Rufflet winged straight up to the gym's high ceiling, dragging his flailing foe into the air after him. "Sky drop!" Jamal called; the eaglet opened his talons, and the seel crash-landed on the pool's edge, dazed and done.
Rufflet swooped down to meet Jamal's open arms, screeching triumphantly. "Awesome!" cheered Jamal. His buddy's finishing move was still playing on repeat in his head. "Didn't even matter how much bigger it was. You coulda carried it way higher than the roof!"
...Huh. That was pretty high up; the seel'd had a decent fall. The rotom camera replay could probably tell him how long it took...
He missed the junior trainer's offer to take him to the gym leader until Rufflet gave him a concerned peck on the shoulder. "Oh! Oh, sorry, thanks, yeah. Real quick, though—how tall is the gym's ceiling, exactly?"