It was a bright summer day, actually one day before my 12th birthday. We had our English and science quiz that day.

After the assembly, we went to our class and after a few minutes, we were called to the STEM Lab for our English quiz. We had the quiz with other fifth grade sections, along with my section, 5-S. The quiz was divided into house teams like Red House, Blue House, Yellow House and Green House. I was in the Blue House team.

The first four questions were asked from Red House and they did well. But then it was our team’s turn, the Blue House.

I was very nervous. The very first question asked was, “If you are writing a letter to your friend who is shifting to a new city, then which type of letter will you write?”

Without thinking, and quite stupidly in an attempt to win the round quickly, I shouted, “Formal letter!”

Everybody in the class started laughing, including my best friend and the students from the other sections. It was embarassing.

The next question was, “Which sentence is punctuated correctly?”

The teacher read out the options:

“A. Lets eat grandma.”

“B. Let’s eat, Grandma.”

I was more nervous by now and quickly shouted, “A!”

The entire class burst into laughter again because I had completely changed the meaning of the sentence. The teacher smiled and explained that without the comma, it sounded like we were about to eat grandma herself.

I wanted to disappear under the desk. We had lost another point!

Then came the next question: “What do you call a word that sounds the same as another word, but has a different meaning and spelling?”

My mind went blank and in panic, I answered, “Synonym!”

“No,” the teacher replied. “The correct answer is homophone.”

My teammates looked so disappointed that I could not even meet their eyes. They knew the answer, but I had spoken up quickly, without waiting to discuss it with them. Now our team had lost three points because of me.

The final question was also tricky: “Which sentence is written in passive voice?”

Before we could understand the question properly, the buzzer rang and none of us answered in time. The chance went to Green House, and they answered it correctly immediately.

That was it. We lost the round badly and I felt horribly embarrassed sitting there while the other teams celebrated.

In the end, the Red House team won, and I felt as though it was all because of me. Thankfully, my best friend cheered me up a little.

After school, even in the evening, I could still feel the embarrassment from the quiz. I kept thinking about how the whole class had laughed at me until my mother came to comfort me.

“Think before you answer, and never get so overexcited that you end up giving the wrong answer,” mum explained as she comforted me.

Published in Dawn, Young World, June 6th, 2026