I hated the blouse I was wearing. I hated coming to school. Mother had purchased my white blouse for twenty-five cents at the Goodwill. It was a lovely blouse for someone to wear ten years ago with its pearl buttons and puffy white sleeves. When everyone had a sip of water, we walked single file back into the stuffy classroom and took our seats.

Mrs. Brown began passing out sheets of writing paper cut in half.

“It’s time to take our weekly quiz on multiplication,” she announced. “Make sure your name is at the top and number your paper from one to twenty.”

‘Oh, no, torture,’ I thought glancing over at Wanda, the smartest student in class. I wish I was sitting next to her, so I could copy the answers off her paper. How can she be so smart?

Wanda was in the back row sitting comfortably in a new desk. A desk I wish I had, since mine was old and squeaked whenever I moved to scratch or pick up something I dropped on the tile floor.

With her angelic face, crisp-looking clothes and neatly brushed hair, it was obvious she had to be the teacher’s pet. After all, she sat near Mrs. Brown’s desk.

Mrs. Brown began the oral drill, while we wrote the answers down. Now, what was that? .Oh, darn, I can not remember. She’s going too fast. Well, that was another ‘x’ on my paper.

“Pass your papers down,” commanded Mrs. Brown collecting them.

Since I sat in the middle, it was easy to witness other papers decorated with ‘x’s’ like mine.

‘Well, at least I am not the only one who is stupid,’ I thought.

Mrs. Brown stood in front of the class glancing over the papers.

“It’s obvious some students are not studying at home. If you do not pass mathematics, you will not get promoted to fourth grade.”

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