Mask

I won't ever forget that Tuesday after the big school play. We'd all wore masks on account-a-because it was supposed to be like som old Greek story. They told us back then everyone wore masks in the plays. So, we'd all wore these things what was supposed to reflect your personality.

I don't think they did a very good job, though. Our teachers told us what to make our masks look like, and we had to cut everything on dotted-lines that had already been made for us. My mask was a really sad-looking blue one, and they made me play some girl what couldn't speak nothing but what everyone else said first. Ami the teacher's pet was the goddess queen.

Well, Jimmy went into class with me right when the bell rang, and we raced for our seats. I'd only ever been late once, and it was on account-a-because I fell off my bike and about twisted my leg up. It turned all purple and swollen, and I thought I would die. But they patched me up, I guess, and made me go to class anyways. The teacher'd been mad and gave me a red card. So I wasn't too bent on bein late again.

Miss True was later than us, though. I guess I shoulda felt good for not getting in trouble, but I was angry instead, cause we'd ran all that way for nothing. She walked in and over to her chair in front of us like she always did. But we was all starin at her this time.

She was still wearin her weird pink petal mask from the play! She'd been the main flower, what was supposed to be the reason for the play, but she really just sat on stage and kept the little kids still. When a first-grader wet her pants I thought I would die laughing, cause it was all over Miss True's dress.

I couldn't believe it! Why would anyone wear that thing again??

I heard Ami giggle beside me. There must be somethin catching about the giggles, cause pretty soon the whole class was roaring. Jimmy was falling outta his seat, and I had tears coming out my eyes and could hardly breathe.

Miss True didn't like it much, though. She slapped her ruler around and kept yelling, "You're supposed to be in the third grade! Can't you act older than kindergartners?!"

Except her voice was kinda muffled, so when she tried to say it, it came out something like, "Wo thpos'da be i' the thiw gwaw! Caw woo ac oler tha kiwewgawwews?!" and just made some people laugh even harder.

She really got mad then. She came over to my desk and banged her old wooden ruler on it. "Do you want a paddling?" she said to me.

I said back, "No'm," and slumped down in my seat. I think the class got the hint. It got quiet in less than a minute, and Ami was back to her old looking at me disapprovin-like. Then, Miss True went right on starting her lesson in history about the Greek gods and their wives and the people they ruled. We were scared to look at her face the rest of the day on account-a-because we would of busted out laughing again. It's funny when people do things to make themselves look weird - specially when they don't notice it.

[Archiver's note: The rest of this story is lost.]