Avoiding Death’s Door

(My senior year home room requires us to complete a daily journal using a prompt on the board. The question is usually a mind teaser or something philosophical. My teacher likes to come up with strange questions that would leave us scratching our heads.)

Teacher: “Okay guys! The journal question is on the board! Bring me your journals when you are finished!”

(The journal prompt reads: ‘”You are in a burning building. You have a paper clip, a pencil, and a sweat-sock. How do you get out?’)

Me: *quickly scribbles down answer* “All done! Here’s my journal!”

Teacher: *reads entry* “… You smart-a**.”

Student: “What?! What did she say?”

Teacher: “I’ll tell you once all the journals are turned in.”

(The last journal is turned in, and the class asks again what I wrote.)

Teacher: “She wrote that she used the door.”

(Apparently, I was the only one who didn’t automatically assume I was trapped!)