"The universe had once been a small cloud. The cloud exploded into lots of little bits. The little bits formed the planets. Little tiny bits grew on the surface of the planets, and that was the beginning of life."
"Elizabeth--"
"Other bits decided to became bright, and they became the stars. Some stars stayed away from life and decided to become pretty little constellations in the night sky. Other came near the planets, and became the suns."
"Elizabeth."
"There was one planet that decided to sprout figures with a head, a torso, two arms, and two legs. And that was the beginning of humans."
"Elizabeth!"
Elizabeth jumped in her seat, her pencil fell out of her hand.
"Really, Elizabeth, no matter how many times I scold you, you still never learn," the teacher said, more out of exasperation than anger. "Pay attention in class! There's a time for study, and there's a time for idle drawing. Right now you'd better focus on my subject. It's for your own future, you know."
"Sorry, ma'am," Elizabeth said in an apologetic tone. "I promise to do better in class."
"I hope that that will be a promise you can keep," she said sternly, turning away and returning to the front of the classroom.
Elizabeth breathed a sigh of relief as she looked around her chair for her fallen pencil. Spying it on her right side, she reached over the arm of the desk-chair.
"I got it," her seatmate said, picking up the pencil before she could get to it. "Here you go."
"Thanks, Luke," she mumbled, unceremoniously taking the mechanical pencil. She jabbed the button end on the desk a few times to check if it was still working.
"Man, Elizabeth, be more careful with your stuff," Luke said, shaking his head at the way she treated her mechanical pencil. "And with the teachers. That's the 3rd teacher who's noticed you spacing out—Hey, hey, don't space out on me too! Listen to me!"
"And so humans overran the earth and brought nature to its knees. For lack of anything else to do, they started taking over each other's tribes, until nothing remained. Thus was the end of humanity."
Elizabeth held up her notebook and observed it with a blank stare. Coming back to full awareness, she suddenly realized that she'd filled the page's borders with her space thoughts. She swore under her breath, tore out the page, crumpled it, and sweeping it off her desk.
"No, it's no good," she mumbled to herself. She gave off a quick puff of breath before suddenly fervently copying off the blackboard again, replacing the notes she had just chucked.
Luke picked up the crumpled paper, smoothed it out and folded it. "That girl, she's at it again," he said quietly to himself.