Grade Three Blues

When I was in grade three, during religion class, the teacher was telling the story of  a person who helped the unfortunate. Everybody in the classroom was captivated by the story, but not me. All I did during that story was draw cartoons. One thing she liked to do during her lectures was walk up and down the rows. She did it to see who was listening.  I was about done drawing the cartoon until  my name was called. I raised my head and in front of my desk was the teacher. She looked quite upset. She asked me if cartoons were more important than God. I didn't reply. I just kept staring at her. She eventually told the class that I was an example of a poor listener. I felt embarrassed and angry. She continued the story. After the story she announced that a play was happening next school mass. I hated these things. She asked who wanted to be part of the play. Many people were chosen to play as the sick and the poor. When she asked who wanted to play the main role, no one raised their hands. She waited for a response until she looked and pointed at me. "You can play the main role." I was shocked and angry. But I accepted the challenge. When school was done all the actors went up to the teacher and collected their scripts. She told us we had a week to remember our lines.

It was the day of the play. I had been rehearsing my lines every day so that I wouldn't make a mistake. Every scene flowed well until the last scene. I was handing out food to the poor. I was saying my lines perfectly until I stared at my teacher. She started mouthing off random words. The weird thing was I was trying to make sense of it. I Lost my focus. In the middle of my line I say the words "what?" into the mic. The whole school was laughing. My teacher handed me the script and we finished the play. As I analyze the event now, my teacher was sabotaging my performance.