Daily Flash Fiction Challenge

Mr. Galloway, the smug little pony-tailed teacher of Applied Mathematics, had just written the question for the final exam on the chalkboard and walked out of the classroom, letting the door slowly shut behind him with a terrifying thud-click.
One the board he’d written: “Y=”
234 students sat at their tiered desks in stunned silence. Well, all but Harry. He knew the answer!
“I know the answer!” Harry said to himself. It might have been the first time Harry had ever said that to himself or otherwise in his life.
He and the class stared at the question in silence. The more he looked at it, the more absolutely positive he was that he knew the answer!
Harry thought back to his days in middle school. Mr. Brown’s class. Yes, Pete Brown in his bowtie always telling of his days at Harvard, which, of course, he pronounced, HAAVAD. “There was a Haavad professor of Psychology,” who asked the class one question and said, “Ninety present of your final grade depends on your answer to this question.”
WHY?
The only kid to pass the test that day answered, “Why not?”
Harry looked to his right. He looked to his left. He turned around and looked at his classmates in the upper rows. They were all busily filling their notebooks with long-winded answers.
Harry put pen to paper. “Ynot?”
If it was good enough for Harvard, it ought to be good enough for Pasadena City College.
Turns out Harry was very wrong. He soon dropped the Applied Mathematics class and transferred to Scotty’s Truck Driving School and is presently working toward his Class C driver’s license.
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