smallpox.

There I was, sitting in 4th period English (most of my stories seem to happen there), almost entirely oblivious to my surroundings. The only thing I noticed was Ms. Coe handing out half-sheets of paper to each person in the class.

Why in the world is she handing out half-sheets of paper? I thought. Maybe we're taking notes or something.

Ms. Coe turned on the projector. On the screen were about ten fill-in-the-blank questions. 

Nothing seemed particularly unusual about that. I only wondered if we were going to be reviewing the lit book material we read as homework. As a class, you know. Answering some fill-in-the-blank questions together.

The first one went something like this:

"When the Europeans came to the New World, they brought many diseases with them that killed millions of Indians. The worst of which was ________."

I knew the answer, so I figured I might as well share it with the class since we were doing a review and everything.

"... Smallpox?" I said. 

Cue LAUGHTER EXPLOSION. Seriously, the class all started laughing at the same moment. And they kept laughing. And laughing. And staring at me, too. 

Well gee, what is going on here?

Then it hit me. 

"Oh... Are we taking a quiz?" 

No duh.

Of course everyone kept bugging me about it throughout the rest of the quiz as well as the class period. "Hey Maryn, do you know the answer for this one? Ha, ha, ha..." But I figure I made their miserable last period of school that much better. That wasn't what I was thinking then, but you know.

It was a rough day (this being like, Thursday).