�You don�t have a calculator,� said Robin. He began tickling the balls of her feet with his pen, and she once again began to howl with laughter, but this time it was a bit more hysterical. He noticed her turning red in the face, and eventually her laugh developed intermittent spells of silence.
�See if she knows the answer,� said Marc.
�Oh,� said Robin, removing the feathery pen away from Ms. Jefferson�s soles. �Well,� he said, after watching his teacher pant heavily for about a minute.
�Two thousand and ninety-four,� Ms. Jefferson replied.
�Is . . . that right?� whispered Marc.
�I don�t know,� Robin muttered. �WRONG ANSWER!� Robin shouted, returning to feathering Ms. Jefferson�s soles.
�WAHAHAHAHAAHAA!! WAIT! You don�t even know!� she screeched, curling her toes.
�Doesn�t matter,� said Robin. �You don�t know.�
�You are gonna be in so much trouble,� said a girl�s voice behind Robin.
Robin�s head shot up from his desk. He cast a sleep-blurred gaze towards the front of the class. Ms. Jefferson was still at her desk, apparently still grading papers. He looked down at her feet. She was shuffling her shoes around on the floor with her bare toes. He looked down at his paper and found that he wasn�t near as far along as he thought he had been. Robin frowned. He didn�t now if he was more upset that his paper was behind schedule, or that his Ms. Jefferson experience was a figment of his subconscious imagination.
Over the last ten minutes of the period, Robin scrambled to complete his report, flipping textbook pages and scribbling words like a madman. He managed to complete the report, much to his relief, not sure of its coherence, but satisfied that he had met the required word count.
As Ms. Jefferson walked around collecting the reports, Robin cast a sad gaze at her feet. He was surprised that he seemed depressed. Ms. Jefferson took Robin�s test and he thought he heard her mutter �five thousand, eight hundred forty-eight.�
�What?� Robin croaked. But Ms. Jefferson went on as though she hadn�t said anything. Robin was sure she had. This had been a confusing hour.