“Are you listening, Simon?” Simon’s teacher asked. Simon smiled and shook his head. He rarely listened or __1__ hard in class. Talking was so much ___2___. “One of __3__ days, you’ll actually listen and you’ll learn something,” Mrs. Jacobs said in frustration. That evening, Simon started to feel a little bit sick. He tried hot chocolate and honey, but he wasn’t sure it __4__. The next morning he opened his mouth to say, “Good morning,” nothing came out but a croak. “Honey, you __5__ your voice,” his mother said. He __6___ a fever and had to go to school, even if he couldn’t talk. How awful! When Simon got to school, Mrs. Jacobs said, “Hello,” to him, and he just nodded. When his friends started to ask him about TV shows, he just shrugged. “I’m scared. He never stops __7___,” Mrs. Jacobs said. “I’m sick. I can’t talk,” Simon wrote instead. Everyone started talking at once. They all __8__. At the end of the day Simon realized it wasn’t that bad. He could actually do his homework and it gave him extra TV time. Two days passed. On the __9___ day, he could talk fine, but he didn’t interrupt. He listened and raised his hand to speak. What difference that one day made! |