The Principle of the Matter

I’m sitting next to the kitchen table, phone in hand, about to do an unpleasant but crucial task. I need to call the school’s administration to forfeit my privilege of being the salutatorian at the upcoming high school graduation. Weird, no? Let me share my story with you.

My name is Penina. When I was in tenth grade, I loved to learn, do projects, and get involved with class politics. Everything was cool except for math. Algebra, to be precise. My grades hovered between 70 and 80, instead of my usual 95 to 100. I tried to succeed by studying with Leah Taub, which helped — but not as much as I wished.

Midyear we had a comprehensive exam. Read — excruciatingly difficult, no, nearly impossible. At one point, I looked up and realized that Leah and her test were in full view. I discreetly verified that some of my questions were answered correctly, but question number five, a particularly complicated one, wasn’t. Whoa, I was one number off. After recalculating, I fixed the careless mistake.

Questions number eight and nine were tricky, too. Maybe they should be checked. Oh, no! I was cheating! Nah, I wasn’t; I just wanted to verify that my answers were correct. After making sure the teacher wasn’t looking, I saw that Leah’s answers were different. In a flash, I corrected mine.