Excuses, Excuses

“All right, people! Turn in your homework!”

I groaned. Crap! I forgot it! Again! This was so not like me. Normally I was good about turning in homework, especially in English class. It was my best subject. But now I had three F’s on homeworks, going on four. Frantically I pulled all my books out of my backpack, hoping that I had put the worksheet in one of them by accident. Alas, no such luck. I checked my writing binder, just in case I’d put it in there. The assignment was to write a short story. Maybe I got it mixed up with the one I was writing for fun. No, it wasn’t in there either. Darn it!

There was only one thing to do. As the teacher approached me, I began coming up with the best excuse I could. This would have to be better than, “The dog ate my homework”. I hadn’t done something like this since first grade, but I was going to do it now!

“Ellie, where’s your homework?”

I launched into my tale, my eyes filling with tears that were half-real. “Mr. Sheldon, I’m so sorry! I did the assignment, really! But, well, circumstances at home got in the way and I sort of…didn’t print it out.”

“Why didn’t you print it?” he asked. There was no meanness in his voice. Still, I sniffled, for dramatic effect.

“Well, you see, Mr. Sheldon, we only have one computer at my house. It’s very old and very slow and needs to be replaced, but we don’t have enough money to do that right now because my dad just bought my little sister a car for her 16th birthday. So it’s hard to get the computer when you have to share it with five other people. My sister had a paper to write last night too and she was on there till after dinner and then my little brother took the chair and played on some online game for three hours.

“So then it was eleven and I should’ve gone to bed but I knew that I had to get this story done for you. I kicked my brother off the computer and started writing. But you know how we had that storm last night? Well, right as I finished writing, the power went out at our house. The computer was off and my story was lost in cyberspace. I was horrified! I knew I had to get this into you today because it was so important, so I pulled out my writing notebook and rewrote the story in there.”

“I’ll take it handwritten if you have it, Ellie,” said Mr. Sheldon. “It’ll be some points off but it’s better than failing the assignment, right?”

“I’m not done yet,” I told him. “I don’t have it handwritten. It was dark and so I couldn’t really see what I was writing but I finished it and then I went to bed. I got three hours of sleep and then I came downstairs this morning. The power was back on but my story was erased from the computer, and my stupid cat had decided to use my writing notebook as a litter box!”

He grimaced. I continued. I was in my element! “So I knew I couldn’t turn it in like that! Besides, when I looked at it, I realized that it hadn’t even been legible. That’s what I get for writing in the dark, I guess.”

I sniffled again and looked around the room. To my surprise, everyone else was staring at me. I wiped at my eyes and kept going. My story was not done yet.

“So then I thought maybe I could write it on the bus and turn it in when I got to school. But I couldn’t even remember what I wrote! So now I don’t have my short story to turn in, Mr. Sheldon, and I am so, so sorry! I’ll never let it happen again! Next time, I will make sure to save my work, both on the computer and to a flash drive or something! I won’t fail again!”

I allowed a few more tears to leak out of my eyes and gave one last sniff. Then I looked up at Mr. Sheldon. “So that’s what happened,” I said. “I’m sorry.”

To my surprise, he laughed. “Ellie, I’m going to do something I don’t normally do for students who forget their homework. How would you like to get a grade for the story you just told me?”

“Really?”

“Sure. That was quite a performance you gave.” He turned to the class. “Give her a round of applause, guys.”

The class clapped. I blushed and smiled. “So, you’ll really give me a grade for that?” I asked.

“Yes, but I want to see that whole thing typed out and on my desk first thing tomorrow morning.”

“It will be, Mr. Sheldon. I promise.”

Wow. Maybe I should consider a career in the theater instead of in the writing business. I think I could be a pretty good actress.