It was a gray, dreary, boring Monday in Mr. Lancer's class. Danny was putting his elbow on the table and resting his head on his enclosed fist as Mr. Lancer ranted on and on.
"So, students, I think we can all agree that…" Lancer started. Danny was supposed to be listening to him, but Danny had no interest in what Mr. Lancer was talking about. He immediately whispered backwards to one of his friends, a Goth named Sam.
"Hey, Sam," Danny said. "Do you understand a thing Lancer is saying? I would rather be watching Barney Goes to New York."
"Danny, relax," Sam said. "You're better off just trying to follow Lancer. You need to know as much about this as you can, you don't want another 38 on an exam, do you?"
Danny sighed. "Man, that was just plain awful. You're right, I don't want another 38, but what can I do? It's not my fault I'm not interested in stuff written 450 years ago!"
"Danny, will you please stop complaining? I, for one, am trying to listen to Lancer so that I'm ready for whatever pop quiz or surprise assignment he makes us do. You never know what he's going to do."
"Yeah, yeah," Danny said. As he said this, he turned away from Sam and started looking at Lancer towards the front of the class again.
"Thus, students, I think we can all understand why Romeo and Juliet is the greatest story of all time. Am I right?" Lancer said with a bright smile on his face. All he got for a reaction was a bunch of bored glares. "Well, I hope some of you were paying attention, because we are going to have a test on Romeo and Juliet this Friday!"
"What!" Danny yelled. "A test? How come you couldn't just skip the test for this story and we can go on and read the next one?"
"Why is that a concern for you, Mr. Fenton?" Lancer asked. "If you were paying attention to the story, then the test should seem like nothing except a long homework assignment that you have to do in school. You were paying attention during our class discussions, weren't you?"
"What?" Danny said, freezing up in nervousness. "Uh, of course I was! I understand that thing completely!"
"Good," said Lancer. "Because I want to have a word with you after class."
"Oh boy," Danny said under his breath as Lancer said this. Danny slowly sunk back into his chair and he suddenly felt like he weighed fifty pounds more. Lancer wanting to meet with him after class regarding a test on Friday could not have been a good thing.
As class ended, Danny went to the front of the room to talk to Mr. Lancer as Lancer had asked. Lancer kept a pretty flat face as he saw Danny walking towards him.
"Mr. Fenton," Lancer said, still sitting at his desk. "We need to talk about your grades. They have been getting worse and worse as time goes on."
"I…I know," Danny said, pretending to be scratching the back of his head. "Look, I know I can do better, and YOU know I can do better. There, can we just end the discussion here?"
"Mr. Fenton, let me show you something," Lancer said, keeping that blank expression on his face. He opened up his grade book and quietly said all the names of the students in his class as he scrolled his finger down the side of the book, looking for Danny's name. "Ah, Mr. Fenton, here we are. Do you remember what you got on your test after we read To Kill a Mockingbird?"
"Sure do," Danny said with a glum look on his face. "I got a 38, and you're not going to let me forget it anytime soon, are you?"
"Mr. Fenton," Lancer replied, completely ignoring everything Danny just said, "If you had gotten a grade even eight points higher on that last test, then I wouldn't have to talk to you about this. But, considering that you've done so poorly on the last four exams I've given out, I have to tell you that you're going to fail the class."
"I'm gonna WHAT!" Danny yelled.
"This test on Friday is going to be the last one of the term, Mr. Fenton," Lancer explained, "and if you don't get at least a C on this test, you're going to fail."
"…and if I fail?" Danny asked, obviously very nervous.
"Well, you can either repeat the class next year or you can go to summer school," Lancer told him. "Your choice."
"I don't want to have to do either!" Danny yelled angrily.
"Well then, I would recommend you study for the test, then," Lancer said, closing his grade book and standing up, ready to go to his next period to teach. "You have all week. That should be plenty of time for you to study."
Lancer walked out of the room and left Danny standing there. Danny walked out of the room with a lot of stress on his mind. He didn't know what he was going to do. He had to keep up with his routine of fighting ghosts, but now he also had to study for a test for Friday that would determine whether or not he passed the class.
When lunch time came, Danny sat with Sam and Tucker as usual. They both noticed something was wrong when Danny just played around with his plastic fork by moving food very gently on his plate.
"Hey man, what's eating ya?" Tucker asked, looking at Danny.
"Tuck, I'm in trouble," Danny began to explain. "I'm having a test on some Scottish play this Friday that makes about as much sense to me as the alphabet in Russian, and if I don't get a C or better on that test, I'm either going to have to stay back or I'm going to have to go to summer school."
"That stinks," Tucker said. "Now you're going to have to fight ghosts AND study for a test with your class grade on the line."
"Gee, thanks for reminding me," Danny said glumly, still tapping his food on the plate with his fork. It was a while before Danny finally started to eat some of his lunch. He thought that if he got some food in his system it would make him feel better, but it didn't. At least he wasn't as hungry now.
The day went on, and suddenly Danny realized he wasn't feeling very well. Maybe the stress was getting to him. He would just be happy to get home.
After the walk home from his bus stop, Danny threw his bag down on the ground and plopped down on the couch. He suddenly felt very sick. It had to be the stress, he was feeling perfectly fine earlier that day.
"Hi sweetie, how was school today?" Danny's mom said as she walked in. She saw Danny lying on the couch and that his face looked very pale and his eyes looked bloodshot. After seeing this, she gasped and said "Oh my goodness, what happened? You look awful!"
"Ugh…I feel awful," Danny said in a sick way. Now he barely felt like he had the energy to talk. "I don't get it. I was fine this morning. I had a pretty bad day, it's probably stress."
"Oh, you poor thing," his mom said. "Let me take your temperature." She ran out of the room and came back in a moment later with a thermometer in her hand. She jammed it into Danny's mouth and under his tongue and waited a few seconds. When the thermometer beeped, Danny's mom was shocked.
"Oh…my…gosh!" his mom said. "Your temperate is 102! How'd it get so high?"
"I don't know…" Danny moaned. "I just feel so sick right now."
"Well, you are staying home from school tomorrow, mister!" she said. "I'm going to schedule you for a doctor's appointment tomorrow." Saying this, she ran out into the kitchen and went to the phone.
"Well…at least maybe I'll be able to study for my test a little more tomorrow than I normally would. Maybe some time off from school would be good for my health. Maybe I'll be able to focus more on that play if I get some time off from school."
Right after saying this, Danny's mom burst into the living room. "Honey, you're going to be seeing the doctor tomorrow at 10:30 in the morning."
"Uggghhh…great," Danny said in a sick, painful groan.