The voices in my head

apparently talk to TMAO, too! (This is so going to be me in a couple of days. I'm collecting first drafts of writing assignments from BOTH the sixth and the seventh graders. I didn't plan it this way, it's just that you lose a teaching period here and there, and all your careful staggering is for naught).

*****

After school, as I walk out of the building. From behind me,

Goodbye, Ms. Frizzle!

I turn, and see one of my sixth graders, a spunky girl who occasionally uses her spunkiness for evil, but is, at her best, cheerful and enthusiastic.

I did your homework already!

That's great! You wrote your whole paper?

The whole thing!

Wow, I can't wait to read it!*

And I can't.

*Yes, I use a lot of exclamation points in my job. Unfortunately, it doesn't get me any tax breaks. What can you do?