Track of a legend

Christmas started at school right after we returned from Thanksgiving holiday and took down the paper turkeys and pilgrims from the windows.

The teacher sang “Jingle bells, Santa smells, Rudolph laid an egg” ail the while that he was supposed to be reprogramming my December reading assignment, and the computer printed out MERRY CHRISTMAS every time

I matched a vowel sound with the right word, and BAH, HUMBUG whenever

I was wrong. And it said BAH, HUMBUG a lot and didn’t light up the observation board. We used the gold math beads as garlands for the tree because we ate most of the popcorn, and paper chains were for kindergarteners who weren’t smart enough to scheme to get out of lessons.