not the Popular Kid

I am not the popular kid at school.

When B arrives somewhere, particularly at preschool or Stroller Strides, her friends shriek and scream like girls in the vintage footage of The Beatles.  "B!!!!  It's B!!!!" the girls scream in high pitched happy squeals of joy and delight.  "B, B?  Look here, play with us, let's have fun, sit by me!!!"  Yes, B is a popular kid and I'm glad for her.

Me.  Yea, Not as much.  B and I are alike, we're outgoing and talkative, but I spend my time chatting with the professors at school.  Enough that my Professor, who we'll name Dr. Forest (wait, that's a real name isn't it? Huh... well that's not his real name, maybe I should go with Dr Tree...), So where was I?  Oh right, Dr Forest, who doesn't seem to know many students in the class, knows my name.  Seriously, he knows my name, and the guy who sits in front of me who we'll call Mr. Ecks.  

Mr. Ecks and I have been sitting together since Kim, the dumb sweet girl who sat between us bailed on the class.  He moved in front of me, and I think we bonded because in general Mr Ecks is a lot like me.  Bright student, not a genius, who tries hard, is married, and doesn't think a lot of "red headed stupid girl" who doesn't deserve a special snappy-blog name.  RHSG sits in the back of the class asking stupid questions.  

But G, I thought there WERE no stupid questions?!?  Well, that's only true if you show up for class on time, and don't leave 45 minutes into class for a 20 minute smoke break.  I swear, Dr. Forest now waits for her to leave the room before saying things like, "what I'm about to show you, will be on the test, written just like this, all you have to do is memorize the answer."  (seriously, he's done it more than once in the past 4 weeks).

SO- Dr. Forest likes me.  I am, apparently, the teacher's pet.  Last week, when he realized he'd left the class sitting in the dirt at some point, he called on me and had me come up to the front of the room to write the equation on the board.  Uh.  OK, sure, but I did feel really hot and red (and no, I don't mean sexy) as I stood up there writing out the X times X over Y times Y over Z equals XX number of Z's equation all while explaining to the class why Y went on the bottom.  But I did it, and I stayed after class to answer questions from another student.  Come test day though, I was really thrown for a loop.  Here I was, the "one who gets it", and I was the 2nd to the last person done... and it was HARD, and I was unsure of about 7 or 8 of the questions, so if I'd missed them all - I would have had about a 65 on the test.

I was late to class on Tuesday.  This never happens, but it happened on Tuesday.  I was 3 minutes late and dang - it, I missed some stuff.  But it's OK, I slipped silently into class, grabbed my test off the prof's desk, and sat down in an empty seat until I could move to my own chair.  My test, I was pleased to see... was scored on the top with a big FAT "EXCELLENT!!!" and 90 + 10 =100!

Class continues, we discuss the test, Dr Forest explains that he gave everyone credit for one of the answers if they answered it the way the top graded student answered it because "I knew she had a full understanding of the material and if she got it wrong, then I should consider how it was worded".  I look down at my test, and realize he's talking about me.

After all is said and done, Mr Ecks asks about my test and I returned by asking Mr Ecks how he did on the test.  

"Well, I got one of the 65's...  You know the whole class got 65 or less, except for the 1 person who got a 100?  She blew the curve right out of the water.  Oh...." he trails off.

"Oooooooh...." I thought.

Mr. Ecks pokes me again, "Well, what DID you get?"

"Oh.  Um." I said.  Followed sheepishly by, "I got the 100."

I think it's safe to assume, I am NOT the popular kid this semester.