It was a cold windy day outside, and in the old school house it was near as cold and windy. As the wind whistled through the broken windows, Mr. Welsh’s religion class was trying to concentrate on the four page test in front of them.

“It would be nice if we could put something over that hole,” Crystal, a tenth grade student with fiery red hair and a personality to match, complained. The window that Crystal was talking about had been broken by a rock being thrown up by the farmer’s tractor as he harvested his crops a month before.

“You could always put your notebook there,” Brant suggested.

“And how do you suggest that I keep it there?” Crystal asked keeping her voice down so as not to wake Mr. Welch who was asleep behind his desk.

“Here, use this,” I said handing Crystal a copy of the text we were using for the class. “Prop it up on the sill.”

Crystal took the book from my outstretched hand and placed it on the sill as I had instructed.

As the wind continued to howl outside, we went back to our exams.

At the time I was using a pen that could be taken apart and used as a blow gun, if you were careful not to lose any of the pieces. In frustration over one of the questions, I was unscrewing the tip and replacing it, to help me think.

“What’s the answer to number 24,” Brant asked.

“It’s C, what’s 15,” I answered.

“You two really should stop doing that, Crystal said, “it’s B.”

“You need any?” Brant asked her.

“I just want that wind to shut up,” she snapped.

“Sorry I don’t control that,” I said, unscrewing the pen tip.

That was when the book fell to the floor and the pen in my hands went flying. As everyone else turned to look at the fallen book, my eyes were on my pen, now sitting on Mr. Welch’s desk. He started awake and looked around the room.

I pulled another pen out of my book bag and went back to my test. Mr. Welch went back to his nap.

After the test, when we were all at lunch, everyone was talking about the book falling and Mr. Welch nearly catching us cheating. No one seemed to have noticed the pen that went flying across the room, hitting Mr. Welch between the eyes. He never asked about it, but I knew I had pegged him with my pen.