Missing a C

Today Rocky presented his agenda to be signed before he went to school.

On Monday of last week, the teacher had written "Rocky got a B on his science test."

How nice, I thought. On closer inspection, I found that the B was written in pencil and the page under the B was apparently erased numerous times. Okay, so one of three things had happened: Rocky's teacher had issues with remembering his real grade; Rocky retook the test five or six times, obviously getting a better grade each time; or Rocky changed the teacher's note.

Hmmmm.

I said, "Rocky, what was the real grade on the test?"

"A C?" he asked me.

"I doubt your teacher would write me a note about a C," I told him.

"A C minus?"

"Nice try." So I wrote a note to the teachers, describing my discovery and asking for the "real" grade. I put the note in a bright orange envelope and handed it to Rocky. "I told your teachers to email me later," I said. "If I don't get an email, I will be in the school tomorrow morning to follow up."

"You'd go to the office?" he asked, aghast.

"For a start," I assured him. "And then I'll come to your class..." His eye started to twitch.

I am somewhat relieved that he's so poor at forging--it makes it easy for me to catch on to him. This reminds me of the time in first grade when his teacher took me into the classroom to show me the toothbrush he decorated for the class's dental hygiene project. His two-foot-long toothbrush was inscribed with the mother of all cuss words, now three letters long because he spelled it without a C. I was aghast.

"Should I take some comfort in the fact that he misspelled it?" I finally managed to ask her.

Same thing with the forgery. Is this a sign of things to come, or is it something which he tried and will now forego because he is so unskilled at it?

Time will tell.