Kate was glad that the school did not question their new friends. In fact, they barely looked twice when Kate explained that Lisa was a visiting relative from another country. She felt that would best explain Mona Lisa's strange behavior. If they looked twice, they may have realized that Lisa looked a bit older than Kate was. But, Kate was thankful that they were too busy worrying about the oncoming state ELA test to think about the new people in school.
Kate laughed to herself when she thought about it. Here was a famous painting, sitting here in real-life form in a classroom, and they were discussing strategies for the English test instead of learning all they could about her and the century she lived in.
"This is the copy of the test they had last year. Make sure to read the multiple choice first, before the story because you can think about the questions while you are reading," the teacher said. Her voice lost its excitement when talking about the test. It was as if they were forced to teach it and hated it.
"When do you start learning," whispered Mona Lisa. She had gotten excited during computer lab since she had never seen a computer before. Now, Kate could sense her boredom. She wasn't the only one who was losing interest in class at this moment.
"I don't know," Kate said.
Kate's thoughts drifted to Mona Lisa. "How old are you anyway. I mean how old were you supposed to be in the painting?"
"Twenty-four. And I had two children. I married at 16," she answered in a whispered voice.
"Wow! You married young! I couldn't imagine getting married at that age. Maybe in my 20s, but I wouldn't want to be married during my teenage years. So, you didn't have much time to be a kid, did you?" Kate asked.
"Do you have much time to be a kid," asked Mona Lisa, looking up at the teacher who was still talking. She was right. Even though Kate felt she didn't fit in, here, she enjoyed learning new things. But, sometimes, school was boring, like now. Kate thought that some of the mandatory tests drained the joy out of the teachers like Mr. Lunn, her third grade teacher who started counting his days to retirement three years before he retired.
Luckily, Kate was good at taking tests, so she didn't worry much about them. School wasn't supposed to be perfect though, and the tests were part of school life, so everyone just listened and prepared. And, they all survived this yearly ritual.
Of course, school was just a small part of her daily life.
