I opened my eyes and the little amount of light peeking through the window penetrated the crack in my eyelids. My eyes stung from the brightness. I slowly crawled out of my bed and into the living room. My mom was in the kitchen reading some papers of some sort that were of no interest to me.


“Eat a good breakfast, Henry.” She commanded.

“Why?” I sleepily asked.

“For your NECAPS today.”

My mom was always telling me to eat a good breakfast the day of a test. Mothers!


“Oh, crap! Those are today!” I complained as I walked into the kitchen and opened the cupboard.

I rummaged through the cupboard, the fridge, and the freezer. Nothing. My feet dragged across the floor and towards the pantry. I opened the squeaky, flimsy door and looked around. I couldn’t find anything so I just grabbed some Saltines and milk. I crumpled the saltines into a bowl and poured the milk in afterwards. I ate the makeshift cereal and then made my way down the hall and into the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, flossed, and then combed my hair. I was ready for school.

Once my mom was ready we both got into the car and she started to drive me to school. When we arrived I got out of the car and walked into the school and towards my Block One class. My teacher was giving all of the kids their designated room for NECAP testing. Mine was room 205 with Ms. Sauer. Just a couple of doors down the hall. I walked towards the room and turned to enter the first door. “Please use the next door,” a bright orange sign read. I walked down to the next door and to my surprise there was another sign that read, “almost there.” I chuckled a little bit and walked a few more feet into the next door. Luckily that was the right door.

“Good morning,” Ms. Sauer greeted me.

“Mornin’.” I responded.

I sat down at a wobbly desk next to the wall and waited for the NECAPS to start. Minutes passed quickly until the teacher started to disperse the test packets. She read a paper about the NECAPS and gave us all a #2 pencil. I opened the test packet to the first page and sighed with discontent. Day One of NECAP testing had started. The first subject was writing. I thought it would be pretty easy, but the questions were the stupidest I have ever seen. The first question was something like this: “You are in a group trying to earn money with a car wash. Write a procedure and explain.” The second one was: “Describe all the technology in your life.” At least give me something to write about that interests me.

After I was finished with session one of the writing I went onto session two without even noticing that I did. I went beyond the stop sign without stopping. OH NO! Now the FBI are going to come after me. Right before I handed in the test packet I noticed my mistake. I didn’t say anything to Ms. Sauer. I told my friend after he was finished, “Nice,” he said sarcastically. When we got back from advisory I changed a few things in session one and session two, but most of the time I just doodled on a scrap piece of paper.

Day two of NECAP testing. I walked into the same classroom I had on the first day and sat in the same seat with the unsteady desk. There wasn’t much change for the set-up process on the second day. In my opinion the first day was more exciting. The second day was just painful.


“S***!” I whispered to myself as I turned a page in the reading section. “A paper cut!”

Day three of NECAP testing. My desk wasn’t shaky today, but of course, my chair was. Today was math day for the NECAPS. Along with science and art, my worst subject. Session one was the hardest out of the two, mostly because I couldn’t use my beloved sidekick, my calculator. Not only were the questions hard, but there was also a piece of paper on the wall that kept poking me in the side of the head. I tried to push it away, but just ended up scooting my desk over a couple of inches. After advisory I returned to room 205. We started the second session. Then my heart filled with joy, I could use my calculator. I went through session two a lot faster then I did on session one, until I came to a specific question. It read, “Liam has a picture that is ten inches in length. He decreases the length of the picture by 25% with a photocopier. Later he decides to increase the smaller picture back to its original length. By what percent will the length of the smaller picture increase?” This was definitely the easiest question I had ever seen. If you take away 25% then all you have to do is add it back. Right. How stupid do they think we are? They probably think I am very stupid for answering it wrong. A kid in my English class told me the right answer, which was one-thirds.

Once I finished the last question I sighed in relief and handed the test and answer booklet to the teacher. I sat at my desk and thought of a happy place. Trying to eliminate all the remains of the dreaded NECAP testing.