How the Hell is "Algebra" Arabian??

Well, I'll tell you. Back in the Baghdad day when it was the center of mathematical commerce and not a place where bombs drop like bird poops, there was a guy named Al-something who wrote a book using early what-we-call-algebra. His book was called Al-Jabr. You get it? Al-Jabr--Algebra??...
Yeah. More like Al-jabber to me. That there, with my bird-poop commentary was the beginnings of one of my math classes. I am good at algebra and it is taught by who I consider to be a fascinating teacher, but tonight a certain formula (n!/n!(n-r)!, in fact) is particularly bugging me. Ahhh! I just can't WAIT until my father comes home and explains it all to me...for three friggin hours!!
So I'm sitting here, writing in the blog that my math-centered parents...don't...know...about...and wondering what to do. Stewing in my pissed-off-ness won't do. Though I AM pissed off--it is my last year at the school I am going to and they choose NOW of all times to combine the middle school drama program with the fourth and fifth grade one. Sorry, but, the fourth and fifth graders can't project their voices to save their lives. I'll drop out of the school drama and just take a class at the SCT, but the school plays are more fun than the SCT ones unless it's in summer. (Which it's not, Mr. Masters Degree or Resident). So to get that off my mind I guess I'll put in some more writing I've done. Just so all y'all know I'm not trying to do this just to earn complements or anything--my head's not that big--even though all comments/complements are more than welcome, heehee! And if you have writing (like creative writing) on your blog GIVE ME THE URL!
SO: on to the writing.

...Suddenly, as if an answer to princess Talya's thoughts, a man's--her father's--hand flicked around the door and it creaked open. Talya stiffened, like she always did in the presence of the king.
"Hello," said her Papa, peeking in and smiling in that sugary way. She hated him for it; grinning foolishly as if she were still a small child. He sat down beside her on the bed. Talya wished that she were just alone.
"I was just wondering how things are coming along between you and your new friend," her Papa said. Talya started--did she know where Lonan was now?
"Fine," said the princess, a little too defensively.
"I never really got to know him," said the king. "Is he nice?"
"Yes." Talya answered in as flat a tone as possible.
"Charming?"
"Yes."
"Handsome?"
"Marginally."
The king chuckled and stood up. "I thought you might quite like him. Did you ever consider--"
"Why do you CARE?" burst out his daughter. She couldn't take it anymore; she stood up to her full height. "You hired him as your jeweler, your peer, why does it matter what you thought I'd think of him? Didn't you take his skills into account when you picked him?"
"Well," said the king uneasily, taking a breath, "I judged those and other things, but also his qualities as a possible--"
"SUITOR?" cried the princess. "You didn't care about his real talent? Just chose him because he was my age and was a potential LOVER?"
"Why not?" challenged the king. "You do love him don't you?"
"Not anymore!" she bellowed fiercely without thinking. "I thought I did, but not now, not now that I know that what I thought was love was actually a silly little game set up by a low, prejudiced, condescending oaf like you!"...

There it is. Okay, now my mind's no longer on drama, at least, haha.
-Ahaneen