Karen's Big Lie

Karen's Big Lie (5th Chapter)

Chapter 5- The Next Test

    When I returned homeafter school that day, I was ready to study. I was ready to memorize my addition and subtraction facts.  

   "Mommy?" I said. "Do you know where my flash cards are?"

"What flash cards?" she replied.

"The one Ms. Colman gave us at the beggining of the year. For math." ( The beggining of the year seemed very long ago.)

"Are they in the desk?" suggested Mommy.

  The flash card were not in my desk. I looked every drawer. Then I searched my room. No flash cards. I called the big house and asked Kristy to search my room there. No flash cards. I looked in the playroom. Finally I found the flash cards in Andrew's toy chest. I decided I was too tired to study them. I would study them the next day. At least I found them.

   On Tuesday I did study. A little. I sat on the floor in my room. The box of flash cards was in front of me. Emily Junir was in my lap. I looked at the couple of cards. I played with Emily some more. I did not study too much. On Wednesday I did not study at all. On Thursday Ms. Colman gave us another quiz. Uh-oh.

That was pretty sneaky. The first quiz had been on Friday. I was not expecting the next quiz to be on Thursday. I had planned to study on Thursday after school. Booo and Bullfrogs.

     Ms.Colman stood before us. She was holding the papers. " The quiz will bethe same as before," she said. "There are addition problems. I will time you, so work as quickly as you can. When I say 'Time's up,' please pt your pencils down. And do not start working until I tell you to do so.

    My teacher handed out the quiz papers. I stare down at mine. So many problems. One after another after another. I should have look at my flashcards.

"Okay," said Ms. Colman. 'You may begin the quiz....now!"

   The first problem was 6+8=_____. Six plus eight six plus eight, I said to myself. Was that 12? No,fourteen. Fourteen? I just was not sure. I began to count on my fingers. Then I noticed that the next problem was 4+3=_______. That was much easier. Four plus three equals seven. I wrote seven in the vlank. Not bad. Hannie said not to count, and I had not counted. I went to the third problem. 5+9=_____. 5+9. I was pretty sure the answer was 13, so I wrote 13 in the blank. Then I went back to the first problem. I began to count on my fingers. I stopped. I peeked over at Ricky's paper. Ricky's hand was very busy. But it was busy writing not counting. Ricky had filled in almost every blank in the first column. So I quickly wrote 12 after 6+8=______. I moved on to the fourth problem: 9+8=____.I just coul not answer that with out counting on my fingers.  I would never finish the quiz.  I could not work fast enough.

   I glanced over at Ricky's paper again. I bet his answers were almost correct at mine. I looked around for Ms. Colman. She was in the back of the room. She was busy with our workbooks. I looked back at Ricky's paper. He had moved on to the second column of problems.

   And then I did something I knew I shuld not do. I began to copy Ricy's answers onto my paper. It was wong, but I had to do it. I did not want another red 68. I did not want to disappoint Ms. Colman again.

  Copying certainly was faster than trying to fill each blank by myself. When Ms. Colman said, " Times up," I had finished all the problems in the first column and half the problems in the second column.

 _____________________Coming up, Chapter 6- The Red 80_____________________