Steve has 2 boxes of pencils with 12 pencils in each box. He gave Matt 3 more pencils than he gave to Lauren. If Steve gave 6 pencils to Lauren, how many pencils does he have left? Let's think first. Chain of thought:
Steve started with 2 * 12 = 24 pencils. He gave Matt 6 + 3 = 9 pencils. After giving away the pencils, Steve will have 24 9 6 = 9 pencils left.
Therefore, the answer is 9.