The next morning, I decided to pack the rubber controllers into my backpack for school. It would sure be nice if I could make my best friends, Brett and Avery, listen to me for once. I looked at the packet and I saw eight left. That meant I could only give eight commands left. From last night, I learned that the controller has to touch the skin of the person to control them. I also learned that I couldn’t use the same stopper twice. This morning I tried to have mom make waffles for breakfast, but when I tried erasing the old command and writing, “I will make waffles for breakfast” on it, it didn’t work. Mom just threw the stopper away and made us have cereal. She was in a very bad mood; so bad that she didn’t say a single word as she dropped me off at school.

My first period history teacher, Mrs. Ledbetter, was out sick. We had a substitute teacher. She was a tall, fair, dark haired woman in a bright yellow sundress who had a very familiar, soft, and whispery voice.

“Good morning class, my name is Mrs. Swanson and I will be filling in for Mrs. Ledbetter today,” she said to the class.

One of the boys in the back raised his hand and asked her, “Did anyone ever tell you that you look and sound exactly like Jennifer Tilly?”

I couldn’t tell if she was offended at first, but she definitely took it as a compliment when she said, “I get that a lot. She’s an angel, you know?”

She turned around, grabbed a grey paper tray, and then exclaimed, “Well, first thing’s first! I hope everyone is ready to turn in their essays today!”

Oh no! I completely forgot about my essay over Benjamin Franklin today! How could I? I had over two weeks to do it and I didn’t even start! What was worse was that this essay is worth 50% of our history grade! You know what that means, too? No monthly allowance!

Wait, the controllers! That’s it! I quickly grabbed one of the controllers from my backpack, wrote “I will let Andrew go to the library” on it, and then walked right up to Mrs. Swanson while the other students were turning in their papers.

“Excuse me, Mrs. Swanson, I just wanted to say it is an honor to have you as our substitute teacher today!”

I shook her hand and stuck the controller to her as it was cuffed within my hand. Mrs. Swanson’s face froze to a blank expression.

I then asked her, “May I go to the library?”

“Yes, yes you may, I will write you a pass,” she replied in a robot-like voice.

Oh what a relief! I snatched the pass right out from Mrs. Swanson’s hand and dashed to the library. I hopped onto a computer and my fingers frenzied the keyboard extremely quickly. I managed to finish the essay within 15 minutes; a whole new record for me!