"Time is up, I want your answer," says Mr. Smith. The class is watching me, anticipating my response. They look anxious. They crave the answers. Seeing if they victim gets it right or wrong. They need to know. It keeps them sane. But the truth is...I don't know. I choke back tears. Why? Why can't I know the answer? Why do I have to be so dumb? All my Life, memorizing book after book, fact after fact. Just to meet the national IQ standard of 225. And I don't know the answer to one stupid question. I finally manage to whisper " I don't know." Mr. Smith does not look happy. My friend in the class start to cry. My enemies start to smile. " The multiplicative identity is 1, Mr. Brown." Mr. Smith snarls as he reveals the answer, already treating me like trash. "I am sorry, Mr. Brown, but you will now be Detained." Mr. Smith presses a button on his desk. A man in a brown suit bursts in the door, grabs me, and hustles me out of the room. He takes me down the hall to a door marked "Detainment". The man straps me into a lone chair in the middle of the room, and then leaves. As soon as the door shuts, a rasp hissing noise begins. Immediately I feel happy. So happy that I start to laugh. I don't know what I am laughing at, but it is so funny. I laugh harder. I need to breathe. I try, but find that the unidentified object is getting even more hilarious, so I laugh even harder. Why breathe when I can laugh? Colored dots swirl across my vision, and shadows start to creep over my eyes. I am glad, that I missed the answer. Laughing is usually not prohibited. Neither is having fun. But here I am, doing both. I must be so naughty. I laugh and laugh, the shadows getting bigger and bigger. The joke is almost over. Laughing hurts now, and I think blood is coming out of my mouth. But I don't want the joke to end. I want the shadows out of my eyes. I claw at my eyes, trying to scratch the shadows away. But they spread faster, until I cannot see. I am not happy anymore, I am scared. I stop laughing. And breathing. All because of one wrong answer.
