The Spelling Test

It is stories from my childhood day.
I have always loved to read and I found the majority of school work inane-
So I read in class.

In elementary school-

In junior high -

and in high school -

When I read a book I stop seeing the words on the page. I also become utterly oblivious to anything which occurs around me. Some people mall this being off in "la - la - land" La-La land sounds like a terrible place full of tellitubbies. This place is more like "not present to this world of endless drudgery - land" and it is awesome.

One day in fifth grade I was reading a book in class and paying absolutely no attention to what was going on. Suddenly an echo-y voice from a different reality said, "Aright turn in your papers class." Slowly- sluggishly my brain tried to grasp what was going on, "papers? what papers?" As I regained consciousness I shot a glance at somebody else's paper, "I see numbers - numbers with words written next to them." and the top of my neighbors page said, "SPELLING TEST".

The fog lifted.
                  My mind spun frantically but to no avail. I read straight through a spelling test.
The rest of the class passed their papers forward.
                 shoot shoot- um okay I know most of the words right? we practiced them this week but they are never going to be in the right order and even if they were close there is no way that I have enough time to...
Miss Smith flipped through them one by one...
               Ah! AH! brain panic mode coherent thoughts equal zero. error. error.
Her brow furrows and she starts to walk towards me
              No time. No plan. O gods of foursquare help me now.
And she says: "Elizabeth where is your spelling test?"

I attempted to answer that question.

Her eyes stared coldly into mine with the hatred of an underpaid school teacher who cannot understand why children live to torture her.
And then she said nothing and walked away.
I never retook the spelling test.
She never said anything about it again -
and I learned what mercy feels like.