My Mom wakes me - Sally up every morning around seven. I don't like school. I get everything from bad grades to mean teachers. Well, at least I used to. Right about now I'd be getting on the school bus to leave for school.

It's not very fun on the bus either. I sit in the back. For some kids sitting in the back of the bus is cool. I don't think it's cool, I don't even have my own seat! It's always one seat to another. The worst part about it is, when I come around to fmd a seat everyone acts like their seat is full. It's like I'm not cool enough for them.

Today at school we have gym. It's my one of my worst subjects. Today we have to climb the rope. The legend is, that nobody has been able to climb it, but just one person. People say that was over forty years ago. I don't believe in that kind of stuff. I don't think anybody has been able to climb that old rope - ever. I don't like heights, so I told the gym teacher that I get splinters very easily, and that if I get one I will have to go to the hospital to get it out. He didn't believe me. So then I tried to tell him that if I fall and break my leg my parents will sue him. He didn't seem to care about anything I said. When it was my turn to climb the rope I looked at my gym teacher, then while he was looking I pointed at my fmger and leg to tell him again about the splinters and bones. The gym teacher signaled me to climb the rope. As I started climbing I thought I saw my life flashing before my eyes. Then I discovered that it was my fault that was happening, because I skipped breakfast that morning. When I was five feet above the ground I froze in fear. I looked down at my classmates, some of them were poking each other and laughing silently to each other. I don't like those kids anymore. When I looked at the gym teacher he was coming towards me. He asked me if I wanted help down in a whisper. I said yes but the whole class knew what was going on.

When I got to homeroom the loudspeaker in the classroom came on. "Susan Rose, come to the office please." My real name is funny to the other kids in my class so they started to giggle a little bit. I walked out of the classroom and headed towards the principal's office. As I was walking down the hall I started talking to myself in a whisper. What did I do wrong? Is it about my grades? Did they call my parents? I was stressed out when I got to the door of the principals office. After I opened the door and walked inside, the it seemed to slam behind me. Our principal's name is Mr. Happy, but he's never happy.

Mr. Happy turned around in his big chair. He didn't look happy or mad, he looked sad. My Mom and Dad were standing side by side behind the his chair. My Mom was crying and my Dad was trying to hold in his tears. I didn't know why I was here but I could tell I was about to fmd out. The principal took a breath and said, "I am very sorry to say that Susan Rose will be held back. Her grades did not come back up this year. I'm sorry Susan. We want all of our students to make it to the fifth grade this year. We're all sorry about this."

Just then 1 burst into tears. 1 didn't want to be the only person who didn't make it to the fifth grade this year!

1 looked at my parents one more time. Tears filled my eyes and 1 passed out - or at least 1 thought 1 passed out. 1 was awakend by a loud bang! "There is no sleeping in my class!" said a voice. Turns out it was the teacher, Mrs. Nice. As you might have guessed, she is never nice. For some reason I fell asleep in class in the middle of social studies. Now that 1 think about it I do know why I fell asleep. Social studies is my worst subject. In my opinion, social studies is one hundred percent boring. Mrs. Nice was standing right in front of me. She didn't look the least bit happy. When she walked up to the black board I knew I was toast. She pointed to it and told me to read what she had written.

"What is a county seat?" I read aloud. She told me to answer that question. I knew she was going to say that. I knew if I said it wrong I would embarrass myselfbadly. "Isn't it that one white building in Washington DC where the president lives?" I asked hopefully. Mrs. Nice actually smiled at me! Wow, I thought. I guessed right!

"No!" she said stomping her foot. "I am going to write a note to your parents about sleeping in class." "Hopefully this will teach that when you misbehave, you get punished!"

It didn't make me feel any better when my imagination took over my mind. What would my Mom say? I thought. Will I get grounded? What if I never get to play again?

Then the bell rang sending us home. "Wait one minute," said Mrs. Nice. "Susan is going to stay a little while after class." Everyone in the class except me, ran out of the door. "Susan, I cannot trust you with this note." She said. "That is why I have called your parents. They are in the principal's office right now, waiting for you."

That made me feel worse. Why did she think I couldn't be trusted? That hurt me, down deep. I started walking to the principals office. I already had a picture in my head of what was going to happen.

As I walked to the door I gulped. I was hoping that I wasn't in too much trouble. I walked in and Mr. Happy was talking with my parents. He stopped talking to them and started talking to me.

"Susan, we have come here to discuss the problem with you sleeping in class, is that correct?" He didn't give me enough time to answer."Sit down please." he said more calmly than before. "Is Susan getting enough sleep Mr. And Mrs. Rose?"

"I'm pretty sure." said my Dad.

"I'm not so sure." said my Mom.

"Mom, I get enough sleep." I said through my teeth. Mr. Happy changed the subject.

"How about you all figure this out at home please. I have to go home now. Mrs. Happy will be waiting for me with the rest of the family and I need to join them for dinner before the food gets cold." He said as he walked through the door.

Mom told Dad and I to get in the car, so we did. Mom didn't look too happy about how Mr. Happy just left all of the sudden.

When we fmally got home I wasn't in the mood to talk about what happened at school that day. Apparently, neither were my Mom and Dad. For dinner, Mom ordered pizza. I love pizza, but I didn't feel like eating pizza that day. It felt like the pizza was staring at me. It seemed like the pizza was telling me what my parents should be telling me.

"Try to study." The pizza said. "You'll get better grades, try to study. Try to study ... you'll get better grades ... try to study ... " The words, "try to study" went through my head over and over again that night.

On Saturday, Mom made me study all morning! I studied a whole ten minutes! She made me study more than that though, because when it was time for the family movie Mom said it wasn't going to be a family movie tonight, which meant that Mom and Dad were going to watch a grown up movie while I studied all night long.

On Sunday, I had to study even more than Saturday. As usual on Monday my Mom woke me up and I got ready for school. After I got off the bus I asked Mrs. Nice if I could go to the library. She said I had to wait until study hall, when I could get a library pass from the study hall teacher, Mr. Right. We don't really consider him as a teacher because he just sits there and watches us the whole time. Not one person in my class has heard him talk yet. Oh, and you probably are thinking that Mr. Right is always wrong. You would think that but I don't know, I'd never heard him talk: before.

When my class fmally walked into the doors of study hall I quickly walked up to Mr. Right's desk and asked him for a library pass. He asked me many questions like, "Have you fmished all of your homework?" and "Did you study hard enough for any test coming up?" I couldn't help but lie to him that I had finished all of my assignments. I could finish them at home .. sure it would be a ton of homework but I needed to go to the library.

I have something to tell you about our library teacher. Well first of all her name is Mrs. Fun. As you hopefully know by now she isn't fun. Her favorite (and probably only word she knows) is "Quiet!". When she talks she spits, a whole lot.

I went searching for books with things to keep you busy. I even had to look it up on the computers in the library. I finally found the book I was looking for! It's called 'How to Keep You Busy in Class.' It was two-hundred and forty-three pages long. In my spare time, I would be reading it. It only took me about a week to read it all. This is the cool part, I was so busy reading that book that I actually paid attention in class! It doesn't make sense does it? It doesn't make sense to me. Somehow, I paid more attention in class. It seems so strange if you think about it.

The next day my parents and I were so happy! I got a great score on the most important test of the year. My Mom said it was because of all the studying I did. I think it was that book, only it still didn't make sense. I still don't like school but I guess I'll have to deal with that for now. Hey, maybe sometime I can tell you about myoid bus driver. She is so mean!