Karen's Big Lie

by Ann M. Martin

  “I have been studying,” she said. “Linny has been helping me with my flash cards.” (Linny is Hannie’s older brother.)

  “But you already know your facts,” I said. “You got a ninety-three.”

  “A ninety-three is not a one hundred,” Hannie replied. “Besides, I still need to know my facts faster.”

  “If only Ms. Colman did not time us,” I said. “That is why the quizzes are so hard. I cannot think fast enough.”

  “Have you looked at your flash cards?” asked Hannie.

  “Well, no. Not really,” I admitted. “But I think the quizzes are unfair. I hope we do not have to take anymore.”

  “We will,” said Nancy. “Ms. Colman said so.”

  “Bullfrogs.”

  I was in a bad mood by the time school began. And then Ms. Colman handed back our quizzes. Double bullfrogs. I pouted while I waited for her to put mine on my desk. When she did, I closed my eyes. Then I opened them. At the top of the page was a big red 80.

  Ms. Colman was still standing next to me. And she was smiling. “Good work, Karen,” she said. “You did much better this time. You must have reviewed your facts. Keep it up.”

  An 80. That was a good grade. For a moment, I forgot how I had earned that 80. The truth is, I had not earned it at all. I had copied from Ricky. Well, mostly I had copied. I had filled in the first few blanks myself, but almost all of those answers were wrong. And I had not been able to finish the quiz so those blank spaces at the end counted as wrong answers, too. The rest of the answers were really Ricky’s. Only two of those were wrong.

  I peeked over at Ricky’s paper. Yup, he had gotten them wrong, plus a few others. At the top of his paper was a red 90. Ms. Colman had drawn a smiley face next to it. (She had not drawn a smiley face on my paper.)

  Oh, well. At least Ms. Colman had said, “Good work, Karen,” to me. She was not disappointed. And nobody except me knew I had copied from Ricky. So all I had to do was start looking at the flashcards. Then I could get an 80 by myself. Or maybe I could even get a 90 and a smiley face. It was up to me. I promised myself I would never copy from Ricky again.

  At recess that day, Hannie said to Nancy and me, “I got a ninety-four on the second quiz. Maybe next time I will get a ninety-five.”

  “I got an eighty-three,” said Nancy.

  “What did you get, Karen?” asked Hannie.

  “Let’s play hopscotch,” I replied.

  Flash Cards

  Over the weekend I really did study my flash cards. A little. I looked at them on Saturday. I looked at them again on Sunday. It was a little-house weekend at Mommy’s. Not much was going on. I could concentrate better.

  This is what I found out: For me, subtraction is harder than addition. And the big numbers are harder than the smaller numbers. But double numbers are easy, even if they are big. I know seven plus seven, and eight plus eight, and nine plus nine as fast as anything. But nine plus eight, or thirteen minus six … well, I just had not quite memorized those facts yet. I needed to count on my fingers sometimes. That’s all.

  I looked at my flash cards with Goosie and some of my dolls. I said to Hyacynthia, who is my best baby doll, “You are so lucky. You do not have to memorize arithmetic facts.” Then I thought of something. I ran downstairs to find Mommy. I found Seth instead. “Seth?” I said. “Why do we have to memorize things like nine plus eight, and thirteen minus six? Why can’t we count on our fingers?”

  “Because that is too slow,” Seth replied. “When you learn how to multiply and divide, you will need your facts all the time. Maybe even lots and lots of times to solve just one problem. Your work will go much faster if you have memorized your facts.”

  “Oh,” I said. I clomped back upstairs to Hyacynthia. “Bullfrogs,” I said to her. “I really do have to memorize the facts.”

  On Monday we did not have another quiz. I sort of forgot to look at the flash cards that night. On Tuesday we did not have a quiz either. But I thought we might have one on Wednesday. So on Tuesday night, I got out the cards. I was trying to memorize twelve minus eight, when the phone rang. A moment later, Mommy called, “Karen! It’s for you!”

  I put down the flash cards. I ran to the phone in Mommy’s room.

  “Hello?” I said. (I could hear Mommy hang up the phone in the kitchen.)

  “Hi, Karen. It’s me, David Michael. I have to tell you something.”

  “What is it?” I asked. David Michael hardly ever calls me at the little house. He must have had very big news.

  David Michael whispered something into the phone.

  “What? I cannot hear you,” I said.

  “I … got … a … tattoo,” he said more loudly.

  “You got a tattoo?” I shrieked.

  “SHHH!” hissed my brother. “Did anyone hear you?”

  “No. They are all downstairs,” I told him.

  “Good. Because this is a very big secret. You cannot tell anybody.”

  How could David Michael have gotten a tattoo? First of all, Daddy and Elizabeth had told him not to. They had not given him permission. And second, how could my brother have let someone poke needles in him? That was gross. And probably not very safe.

  “You will not tell on me, will you?” asked David Michael.

  “I guess not,” I said. “Where is the tattoo?”

  “On my arm. Up near my shoulder. It will be hidden by my shirt sleeve. Even a T-shirt will hide it. But when I want to show it to my friends, all I have to do is roll up my sleeve.”

  That was sort of cool, I thought. “What does the tattoo look like?” I asked.

  “A dragon. A green dragon.”

  “Awesome.”

  “Thanks,” said David Michael. “I knew you would think so. Now do not tell on me, Karen.”

  “Okay,” I replied. Even though I did not really want to keep the secret.

  Easy as Pie

  After I hung up the phone, I could not concentrate on my flashcards. All I could think about was David Michael — and the cool dragon tattoo that was a big, huge secret. So I put away the flash cards. That did not matter because on Thursday, Ms. Colman still did not give us another quiz.

  I meant to look at the flash cards on Thursday night, but I forgot to.

  On Friday, Ms. Colman said, “Boys and girls, it is time for your third arithmetic quiz. Please clear your desks.”

  Well, I had not studied very much. But I had studied a little. Especially my addition facts. I knew I could solve the addition problems faster than before. And I remembered my promise. I would not copy from Ricky.

  I closed my eyes for a moment. Could I get another red 80 all by myself? Yes, I said. (But what I really wanted was a red 90 and a smiley face.)

  Ms. Colman was handing out the papers. When she gave me mine, I looked down at it. I saw two long columns of … subtraction problems: 16 – 9 = _____. 8 – 6 = _____.

  Subtraction problems? What had happened to the addition problems? Boo and bullfrogs. I was much slower at subtraction than addition.

  “You may begin,” said Ms. Colman, “right … now.”

  Ms. Colman checked her watch. Then she walked to the back of the room. That morning, my classmates and I had made some weather instruments for our science unit. We had also made a mess. Ms. Colman began to clean up the mess and arrange our projects. She was very busy. She was not looking at my friends and me.

  Keep your eyes on your own paper, I told myself. Even so, I just peeked over at Ricky. His hand was moving quickly down the page.

  I will not copy, I will not copy, I reminded myself. Then I remembered that I had promised myself I would not copy from Ricky. But I had not promised I would not copy from anyone else.

  I turned my head slightly. I peeked at Natalie’s paper. Natalie Springer sits on the other side of me. But I could hardly see her paper. Natalie’s arm was in the way. I did notice, though, that Natalie was hard at work. And Ricky was hard at work.

  I knew I should be hard at work, too.

/>   I looked at my own paper. Okay, Sixteen minus nine. I knew I could find the correct answer if I counted on my fingers. So I did. I wrote 7 in the blank. I had answered three more problems when Ms. Colman called from the back of the room, “The quiz is half over, girls and boys. I just wanted to let you know.”

  Half over! I had hardly begun. If I did not answer a lot of problems fast, I would get another 68. Or something worse.

  So I copied from Ricky again.

  * * *

  On the playground that day, Hannie and Nancy and I sat on the monkey bars. Nancy and I talked, but Hannie was very quiet.

  “I think I did pretty well on the quiz today,” said Nancy. “Maybe not as well as on the addition quiz, but pretty well.”

  “Subtraction is very hard,” I said.

  I looked at Hannie. She was staring across the playground.

  “Hannie thought the quiz was easy, didn’t you, Hannie?” said Nancy.

  “Yup,” replied Hannie. “As easy as pie.”

  “Show-off,” I muttered.

  Hannie glared at me. She was looking at me very strangely. Then she turned away.

  The Dragon

  It was another big-house weekend. On Friday, the day of the subtraction quiz, I went home to Mommy’s house after school. But before suppertime, Mommy drove Andrew and me to Daddy’s.

  I was not in a very good mood. I felt bad about copying from Ricky again. Plus, I had left my flash cards at the little house. I wanted to study them over the weekend (since I knew Ms. Colman could give us a quiz at any time).

  “Mommy,” I said, as Andrew and I were getting out of the car. “I forgot my flash cards.”

  “Do you really need them?” she asked.

  “I really do.”

  Mommy sighed. “All right. I will bring them over tomorrow.”

  “Thank you,” I said. (Being a two-two is not easy.)

  As soon as Andrew and I had run into the big house, David Michael pulled me upstairs. “Want to see it?” he whispered.

  “See what?” I answered.

  “My tattoo! Did you already forget about it?”

  “Oh, sorry,” I said. “Sure. Let me see it.”

  David Michael rolled up his sleeve. And there, by his shoulder, was a picture of a bright green dragon. It looked extra cool.

  “Watch this,” said David Michael. He bent his arm back and forth, and the dragon’s tail moved.

  “Awesome!” I cried.

  “And see? It is easy to hide. I just have to push my sleeve down.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. And then I said again, “Awesome.”

  “You could get one, too, you know.”

  “Who, me?” I replied. “No way.” I was not going to get a tattoo. First of all, I did not want anyone poking me with needles. Second, I was already keeping enough secrets. I had copied from Ricky twice. I knew my brother had gotten a tattoo when he was not supposed to. I did not need a secret tattoo myself.

  Later, just as my family was finishing dinner, Elizabeth said, “Well, guess what, everybody.”

  “What?” said Kristy.

  “In two weeks the company I work for is going to have a big picnic. Everyone who works there is invited. Everyone in their families is invited, too. I hope all of you will come. This is the first time we have ever had a picnic. If people like it, we will hold one every year.”

  “What will we do at the picnic?” asked Charlie. “I mean, besides eat.”

  “You can play games and go swimming. You can spend the entire day in your bathing suits, I think,” replied Elizabeth.

  “Cool,” said Charlie.

  But I looked across the table at David Michael. This is what I wanted to say to him: “Okay, big shot. Now what are you going to do?” If he spent the day in his bathing suit, everyone would see his tattoo.

  David Michael would not look back at me. He knew he was in trouble.

  Before bedtime that night, I said to my brother, “What are you going to do?”

  “About the tattoo?” replied David Michael. “We will just have to hide it.”

  We will? How come I had to help David Michael with his secret?

  * * *

  The weekend was awful. I did not see Hannie at all. Every time I called her to invite her over, she said she was too busy to play. At least Mommy remembered to drop off the flash cards. I studied them for fifteen minutes on Saturday and fifteen minutes on Sunday.

  Keep Your Eyes on Your Paper

  Monday. School again. Ms. Colman took attendance. Then right away she passed back our quizzes. As soon as she started walking around the room, my heart began to pound. It sounded as if it were beating in my ears.

  Thump, thump, thumpety-thump.

  Finally Ms. Colman laid a paper on my desk. I looked at it quickly. At the top of the page was a red 90. (But no smiley face.) I looked over at Ricky’s paper. I saw another red 90. (But no smiley face.) Then I looked at the problems I had gotten wrong. They were almost the same ones Ricky had gotten wrong. Except he had gotten the very first problem wrong, and I had gotten the very last problem wrong. (I had left that one blank because I had not been able to copy it from Ricky fast enough.)

  I wondered if Ms. Colman had noticed anything about my answers and Ricky’s answers.

  “Boys and girls,” said my teacher then, “I would like to talk to you. I want you to understand something about taking a quiz. The most important thing about it is … to keep your eyes on your own paper. You must do your own work. That is the only way we will find out what each of you has learned, and what each of you needs to work on some more. Is that clear?”

  “Yes,” said a couple of kids quietly.

  “Sometimes,” Ms. Colman went on, “you may get help when you are doing homework or a project. But when you are taking a quiz, you do your own work.”

  I swallowed hard. My stomach began to feel funny. Did Ms. Colman know what I had done? I could not tell. She had not said any names. Maybe someone else was copying, too.

  Okay, I said to myself. Karen, you will not copy from Ricky anymore. You just cannot do that. It is not fair. You have to do your own work — and keep your eyes on your paper.

  After I told myself that, I felt a little better. But Hannie ruined everything. She ruined it on the playground after lunch. Nancy had decided to play dodgeball with a bunch of other kids. Hannie and I were watching them. That is all we were doing. Just watching. And suddenly Hannie said to me, “I know what you did, Karen.”

  “What?” I said.

  “I know what you did,” Hannie repeated. “I saw you copy from Ricky’s paper on Friday.”

  My stomach began to feel funny again. “I — I did not copy!” I cried.

  “Yes, you did. Karen, I saw you.”

  “How could you see me? You sit all the way in the back of the room.”

  “I have very good eyesight,” Hannie told me. “I can see the board from the back of the room. That is why Ms. Colman lets me sit there. I do not wear glasses like you. Anyway, I did too see you copy.”

  “Hannie! I am your best friend!” I exclaimed. “How could you say something like that about me?”

  “Because it is true. I saw you do it.”

  “Liar! You did not see me do that.”

  “Did too.”

  “Did not.”

  Hannie did not answer. She just glared at me. So I said, “I am not talking to you anymore, Hannie Papadakis.”

  And she said, “Good. I do not want you to talk to me.”

  We stuck our tongues out at each other. Then I ran off to swing by myself.

  100%

  On Monday night, Mommy and Seth invited some friends over for dinner. They ordered two pizzas. Andrew and I got to eat with the grown-ups. I had such a good time that I forgot to look at my flash cards. I did not remember them until I was already in bed, and the light was out. Oh, well, I thought. That does not matter. I can study tomorrow night. We will not have another quiz right away.

  Guess what. I was
wrong. Ms. Colman handed out quizzes on Tuesday morning. She handed them out first thing, as soon as she had taken attendance. While I waited for her to give me my paper, I closed my eyes. Over and over I said to myself, No subtraction, no subtraction. When I felt the paper land on my desk, I opened my eyes. An addition quiz. Whew.

  “All right,” said Ms. Colman a few moments later. “You may begin.” Ms. Colman turned her back. She started writing on the blackboard.

  I began the quiz. I answered the first two questions by myself. Then I glanced at Ricky’s paper. I only wanted to see how many questions he had already answered. Well, for heaven’s sake. He was way, way ahead of me. I slid my eyes over to Natalie’s paper. I could not see it as well as Ricky’s, but I could tell she was ahead of me, too. If I took the quiz all by myself, I would probably only answer about half the questions. I would get a horrible score. A 50%, or maybe even a 40%. How would I explain that to Ms. Colman?

  I copied Ricky’s entire paper.

  On Thursday, Ms. Colman handed the papers back. While she was walking around the room, she said, “Class, I am proud of you. Most of you are working very hard. You are doing better and better on your quizzes. In fact, three people received one hundreds on the last quiz. They are Hannie, Ricky, and Karen.”

  I knew I should smile then. I knew I should look happy. But I did not feel happy. I had not earned that one hundred myself. Plus, Ms. Colman did not smile when she gave me my paper. And when I turned around to look at my friends, Hannie just glared at me again.

  I was in a huge mess. I did not know how to get out of it.

  The Three-Legged Race

  The next weekend was a little-house weekend. But guess where Andrew and I went on Saturday. To the big house. This is why:

  On Friday, Daddy called Mommy. He told her about Elizabeth’s company picnic. He said, “I thought maybe everybody should practice for the games and special events. Tomorrow we are going to try a three-legged race and a potato sack race and an egg toss. Would Karen and Andrew like to come over? They could practice with us. We will have lots of fun. They can stay for lunch.”