Momnesia

More Math in J-School!

We're ranking short stories for the Metro Spirit contest and one of us (who shall remain nameless), is having some problems. The instructions: of the dozen finalists, rank them in order of preference from 1 to 12.

"Uh, you have two twelves, [name redacted]," I say.
"Yeah..." she walks back to her desk.
"And you have two elevens, and two nines..." I'm confused.
"Yeah?"
"Well... you don't have a one," I say.
"What are you talking about? I did what we were supposed to do, didn't I?" she says.
"Um, no, you were supposed to rank them from 1 to 12 in order of which is best," I say.
"Oh, you're kidding me."

She reconsiders and begins counting...

"I just can't do one through 12!" she says.
"I can give you the list of numbers in between," I offer.
A.W. and I spend a few minutes chortling our asses off while she threatens to beat us.
"So, I rank them from 1 to 12, in order of which I like best?" she asks.
"Yes," I answer.
"What if I like one but I think the other is more interesting?" she asks.
"What?" T.G. asks. He's getting frustrated.
"Which would you give $100 to?" I toss out.
"Oh!" she appears settled and gets to work.

"God, I have two twelves," she says.
"Why? There are more numbers to use," I laugh.
"Well, I like them both," she says.
"Uh... you know "one" is the best, right?"
"Oh, are you kidding me?" she cries, exasperated.
"No! One is the best!" I laugh.
"You're doing it backwards!" she says.
"No, we're not!" I run over and snatch the paper off her desk. "I'll just do it for you!" I joke, and hand it back.
"Yes, you are! We did it the other way when we were reading them!"
"Wait, did you score the stories the same way?" T.G. asks.
"Oh, god," I laugh.
"That's what I'm wondering," she says.