It is the voltage drop across a load, not after a load that we are interested in. In the first post you assumed that the first resistor has a voltage drop of 40v, exactly the voltage of the battery, which is wrong, as you can see in the picture you posted. 12v battery, 9v across the first resistor, 3v across the second. There is a drop across each component, and the first component it line will not 'see' all the voltage of the battery. Look at the circuit as a whole, not just going from the positive terminal of the battery to the negative and treating components independantly. To make things easier, wire up something and start measuring voltages. Nothing beats the hands-on approach.