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_____________________
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Karen's Big Lie
Mystery / ThrillerKaren did not mean to cheat off Ricky. But she was just not ready for Ms. Colman's surprise math quizzes. And Ricky's paper was right there. When her teacher and her friend Hannie ask Karen if she has been cheating, she says no. A big lie! What wi...