SPELLING TEST While I was at primary school we used to have spelling tests every week on a Friday. Week after week on average I would score between 2 or 3 out of 10. This was due to the simple reason that week after week I would never revise for the test. One particular week when my Aunty Sue was staying at our house: Aunty Sue had moved out of her marital home leaving her four children and husband, to come and live with us with and her lover, Pat Kenning, who she was pregnant by. I remember once, Pat Kenning was babysitting us. I was in bed and he was downstairs watching a Stephen King film- Salem’s Lot. I got bored or rather I couldn’t sleep so I thought I’d get up to some mischief. I sneaked downstairs and into the living room. Pat Kenning was totally unaware. It was during the scene in the film when a young boy turned vampire was floating at another boys window’s, tapping the plane of glass whispering ‘Let me in, let me in’. This was exactly at this time that I jumped up from being the couch, and grasping my hands on his shoulder’s shouted ‘BOO’. Pat Kenning jumped out of his skin turned around and shouted at me to get back to my room. Barstad, I thought… Aunty Sue knew of my forthcoming spelling test and recommended that I revise for it. Wow, I thought, what a concept, actually revise for a test. It was a concept I hadn’t put into practise before and thought I may as well this time. So for the next week I spend every night revising for the coming spelling test. Ten words with ‘sur’ at the front. Surface, surgeon, surmount, surpass, surreal, surrender, surveyor, survive, surveillance, surreptitious. Come Friday morning, test time, I was as prepared as I could be. The test started and I felt confident. Surface- yes, easy. ‘Sur’ at the front as always, with ‘face’ at the end. Easy. Surmount, no problem too. Surpass, easy peasy. Surreal, surrender, surveyor, survive, all flowed out on my pen onto the paper. 8 out of 10, I’m going to make it. 10 out of 10 here I come. Surveillance, yes, I know that, sur at the front and then, let me think, ‘veillance’ at the end. Surreptitious, yes yes, I know, ‘repetitious’ at the end, there you are done it. ‘OK class swap your books with the person on your right and we’ll start marking’, said the teacher. ‘Here I come’, I thought. ‘When my score is called out, no longer will I suffer the shame of 3 out of 10, but this time I can wallow in the glory of 10 out of 10. I can see it now, the whole class turning to look at me and saying- ‘Wow, Matt got 10 out of 10, how brainy’’. My heart sank when my score was called out as ‘8 out of 10’. After all that hard work I got 8 out of 10, how damn it, how. On the last two words I wrote ‘veillance’ and ‘repetitious’. I had forgotten to put ‘sur’ at the front of them. I was so eager to finish I forgot to put ‘sur’ on the front of them. Morally I got 10 out of 10, but technically I got 8 out of 10. What’s the use of trying hard I thought, fate only lets you down. So for the rest of my primary school I didn’t bother to revise anymore.
© Copyright 2007 Matthew Taylor |
|---|