Karen's Big Lie

Karen's Big Lie (Chapter 4)

 Chapter 4- The Red 68

     It was MOnday. The big house weekend was over. Andrew and I gone back to the little house, and now I was over, Ms.Colman said, "Please put away your workbooks, girls and boys. Clear your desks."

  Ms. COlman was standing at the front of the room. She was holding a stack of papers.

  Ricky leaned over. He poked me with the eraser end of his pencil."I think those are our quizzes," he whispered.

     I nodded. I was not worried.

Ms. Colman walked up and down the rows. She handed our quizzes back to us. I could see red marks on the paper . Finally she gave me mine. I looed at it. On thr top was a red 68. A 68! That was awful! Well, it was awful for me. In most subjects I get 90s or even 100s. And in math I usually get 80s, and sometimes 90s. But a 68. How had that happend?

     I put my hand over the top of my paper to cover up the 68. Then I glanced at Ricky's paper. Ricky was not covering his. That was because he had gotten an 88.

   Bullfrogs. Well, we had not known about the quiz. Maybe that was why I had a 68. I probably would have done better if I had studied. Plus, the quiz was timed. How could I anyone solve all those problems so fast? I had not had enough time to count onmy fingers. I would just have study. That was all. As soon as I got home that afternoon, I would look for my flash cards. They were around somewhere. ( unless they were  at the big house. I do not have two boxes of flash cards.)

   "Class," said Ms. Colman. She had finished handing back the papers. he was standing by her desk. " Some of you may not be happy with your scores. Do not worry too much. You need to get used of taking timed quizzes. You also need to memorize the addition and subtraction facts. You should get to know them so you can answer them like that." (Ms. Colman snapped her fingers.) " So find your flash cards and start quizzing yourselves. And for those of you who did well on Friday's quiz-----Congratulations. Keep up the good work. We will have another quiz soon."

    On the playround that day, Hannie and Nancy and I climed to the top of the monky bars.

"Boy," I said, "our addition quiz was hard."

"Yeah," agreed my friends.

"Exrtra hard," added Nancy. " I only got a seventy-six."

"Seventy-six!" I cried. "Boy."

" What did you det?" Nancy asked me.

"A sixty-eight," I replied." A big red sixty-eight."

"Karen, you never get sixties," said Hannie.

"I know. What did you set?"

"A ninety three," Hannie replied.

"Wow," said Nancy and I. (Well, Hannie's best sibject is math.)

"Ricky got an 88," I went on.

"He did not count on his fingers."

"Did you count on your fingers?" Hannie asked.

"Yes. I always do."

"You should memorize the facts," said Hannie.(She sounded like Ms. Colman.)

"Counting is too slow."

"But it works," I replied. " Oh,well, I will just have to look at the flash cards. Then I will do better. Come on. Let's play hopscotch."