silence.

“Good morning, class!” Mr. Ziminak said.

“Good morning, sir.” the students mumbled.

“Let’s try that again. Good morning, class!” he said.

“Good morning, sir!” the class said.

“Good,” he said. “Today is Monday and we’re going to kick things off with Math!”

Everyone groaned. Mr. Ziminak gave them a stern look. 

As Mr. Ziminak started the lesson with algebra, Penny Purimo started doodling on her notebook. She was a very talkative student, but her grades were low, just like the rest of the class. She was thinking about lunch when-

“Penny? Please answer the question on the board.” Mr. Ziminak said.

“Umm…” she said flatly. “I dunno.”

Mr. Ziminak took a deep breath, desperately trying to control himself.

“Penny, I expect more from you. I know you are smart, but you just are too lazy to use your brain.” he said.

Penny’s cheeks went pink.

“If something like this happens again, you will get after-school detention for a week.” Mr. Ziminak warned.

Penny gulped.

Luckily, Mr. Ziminak hadn’t lost his temper yet and Penny sighed with relief.

Mr. Ziminak then stood up and said,” For homework,-” and he was interrupted by the countless groans from his students.

“For homework,” he said, raising his voice a bit. “ I would like you to work on pages 253 to 257 of your math books. Tomorrow , we will start Chapter29: The Measuring System of the United States. The homework will be handed in tomorrow.

Then, English class began. Mr. Ziminak opened his file cabinet labelled, “Tests”. He pulled out some papers and began handing them out to students.

They looked confused, as they didn’t have an English assessment until Thursday.

“Today, there will be an exam. This is a surprise test, so I hoped you stu-” He got cut off again by the many yells and screams from the students.

There was an uproar. Penny was shocked and gasped, while other students had a more immediate response. They screamed and yelled. 

“SILENCE!” Mr. Ziminak thundered and the class shut up. “ Now that you have your tests, I expect you to be silent. Anybody who talks will get detention.

Beside Penny, a boy named Frank gulped. 

“You have 60 minutes. Your time starts…now!”

All heads were down, analysing the questions.

Penny read the first question: “

1). What is an idiom?

1. a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words

2. a characteristic mode of expression in music or art

       C.All of the above”

Penny frowned. She only remembered a little bit about idioms from last Wednesday because she had been doodling at that time. 

Penny was stuck on question one. She glanced at the timer sitting on Mr. Ziminak’s desk. There was 15 minutes left! At that moment, Mr. Ziminak slipped out of the door, no doubt going to the bathroom.

`Frank stood up, making noise apart from scratching pencils and rustling paper. All eyes were on him. He sprinted to the front of the class. He went behind the desk and went to his file cabinet. He opened a drawer and leafed through the pages. He bit his lip. Mr. Ziminak had a lot of papers. At this rate, Mr. Ziminak would find Frank and give him a detention.

He wondered if there was an alternative. After a while, he got it. He decided to walk up to Adam, the class’ smartest person and ask her what the answers were. After a lot of negotiation, Anna finally caved in. She passed the paper to the person closest to her, Penny.

She wasted no time, copying down the answers. She made sure to purposely answer a few questions wrong to avoid suspicion. Then, Penny passed the paper to another student. 

To speed up the process, Frank suggested that the people who were done should pass the papers to other students. The class obliged.

There was only one student left, Carlos. Just then, they heard footsteps coming their way. Carlos panicked and rushed to fill in the answers.

He finished. The footsteps got louder. Everyone rushed to find their paper. Luckily, the pile wasn’t too jumbled up.

A moment later, Mr. Ziminak entered the room. He looked at the timer. It beeped.

“ Time’s up! Everyone please hand in your tests.” he said.

Just then, the bell rang and the students dispersed for recess.

After recess, Mr. Ziminak greeted the students.

“ Good news!’ he said, grinning. “ Everyone passed the test!”

The students tried their best to look surprised. It wasn’t easy.

“As a treat,” Mr. Ziminak continued. “ There will be no History today. I know it’s your lea-” He got cut off for the third time today. This time though, it was cheers instead of groans and shouts.

Mr. Ziminak smiled.

“Instead, we will have a double period of Science! We will do a baking soda and vinegar volcano experiment!” he announced.

Everyone cheered loudly. Penny grinned, catching Frank’s eye and winking.

 He winked back.