Don’t Take Their Word For It

(In my senior English class, our teacher required us to write one journal page every day of the semester. On the second-to-last day of class, he would go around and count the pages for full credit, not wanting to read them because they might be too personal. My best friend and I are in the class together, and the second-to-last day comes around.)

Friend: “Shoot! I’m behind by like two weeks!”

Me: “Are you serious? What are you going to do? It’s pass/fail!”

Friend: “I’m going to write as fast as I can. I’ll fill fourteen pages. Just watch.”

(Thankfully the teacher starts on the other side of the room, and he doesn’t notice my friend scribbling away behind me. When the teacher gets closer, I check over my shoulder to see how she’s doing.)

Me: “Hold up… Are you even writing WORDS?”

Friend: “Nope!”

(She isn’t just writing nonsense; she isn’t writing ANYTHING. She’s just making scribbles with the occasional “crossed T” and “dotted I” to make it look like very bad handwriting. I think there’s no way it’s going to fly, but then the teacher gets to her.)

Teacher: “All there. Good job, [Friend].”

(Then he looks at mine.)

Teacher: “Wow! You have REALLY good handwriting. So small! You probably have twice as many words in your journal as [Friend] does!”

Me: *looking pointedly at [Friend]* “Probably…”

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