Eugene Forbes is a thirteen-year-old prodigy who's the top mathematics scholar at Leland University.
Background[]
Eugene was doing long division in nursery school. He's always been so busy with math that he didn't have time to play or make friends. He never went to camp except for math camp. He used to teach high school. Now he's a graduate student who gives lectures and runs symposiums and hopes to have his doctorate by the time he's 17. Eugene is desperately lonely because of the lack of kids his age at Leland. He'd give up all his achievements for a date.
On the series[]
Alex hires Eugene to tutor him in Advanced Non-Euclidian Geometry to help him raise his grade from an 89 to a 90. Eugene falls in love at first sight with Jennifer and spends the next week mooning over her, barely able to concentrate on math. Jennifer continually rejects him despite his romantic gift of an X-ray of his brain. Finally Alex bribes Jennifer $15.50 to go on one date with Eugene so he'll be able to help Alex again. Eugene, Jennifer, Alex, and Ellen Reed go on a double date to Walter Jenkins' tenure party at the faculty club. Jennifer acts like a typical twelve-year-old, using the word "neat" and admitting to reading Nancy Drew. Eugene yells at Jennifer for embarrassing him in front of his peers. When Alex tries to calm Eugene down, Eugene throws a tantrum, covers his ears, and yells, "I can't hear you!" Then he realizes everyone is staring at him and flees the room in embarrassment. After the party, Eugene goes to the Keaton family's house to apologize to Jennifer, but Jennifer says she liked seeing him act like a regular kid. The two of them go to get a soda together.