Writer's Workshop - 8th Grade Health class

This week, these were the prompts from Kathy:

1. Put Shaggy (Scooby Doo's partner) and Batgirl in an elevator and write a 200 word scene.
2. Write about a time you hid from someone, or a time you disguised who you really were.
3. List 10 things worth saving then choose one of those things and write about it.
4. What did you do before we had the internet?

I'm choosing the one about the disguise. True story:

I had a friend in 8th grade & everyone used to think we were sisters - hi Lori, where ever you are! We would pretend to be, for the humor in it & we really had a lot of fun together. Why not run with it?

We took this one just a little too far, though. We had Health class for one quarter of the school year. Our teacher was Mrs. Kimball. She reminded me of a more clearly speaking Julia Child (only then I didn't know who Julia Child was, I just knew my teacher looked vaguely familiar - like someone I'd seen before). She had that kind of look & that sideways smile, not to mention the short, gray, curly locks.

We didn't give Mrs. Kimball too much credit for being an intelligent person. As the quarter moved forward, this idea held some credence. Mrs. Kimball used to confuse the two of us. She would call me Lori & Lori would be Alexis. It happened often enough to give us an idea. Just for the fun of it (we weren't the only ones she got confused about, just the ones she confused the most).

Lori & I decided to become - each other. We planned on only doing this for a day or two. Who would have believed we could carry it farther than that? No one, until we did.

Long story short (because I don't remember as much as I'd like to), I was Lori & she was me for the entire quarter! I did my homework & Lori didn't always. I got good grades on test, and Lori didn't always. You can see where this is going?

At the end of this quarter, there happened to be Parent Teacher conferences. Lori had gotten me a solid D. I was grounded (not just for that - there were some classes I didn't like - math - I had a D in that, too) until I brought my grades up. Luckily, my parents didn't ever go to the conferences.

Unfortunately, Lori's parents did go. More unfortunately, Mrs. Kimball wanted to talk to Lori's mom about why her grade was a B instead of an A. Our cover was so blown when Mrs. Kimball kept addressing Lori's mom as Mrs. Brown.

Lori was freaking out & had no one to lean on & nowhere to hide. She fessed up. I wasn't there, so her description of how pissed her mom was didn't stick with me all that well. I just remember her telling me about the yelling when they got home.

The grades weren't switched and nothing ever came of it, except a little infamy. I was stuck with her D & she got my pretty B. I can't remember if we were punished by the principal - I vaguely recall in school suspension, but I can't be certain. I had to endure that a few times for other reasons.

I was someone else for one quarter of the school year in one Health class. That was a memorable class.

I hope you'll drop by & visit the rest of the gang who loves to write! Visit Mama's Losin' It & write your own or just have fun reading the others.