Shy But Sly
There was a shy girl in our 6th-grade group who always sat quietly at the back. One day, she had to step out of the class mid-lesson. As she walked by my desk, I unfortunately caused her to trip and she fell down hard.
She was holding onto a see-through pencil box at the time. It was made of the type of plastic that breaks easily, and that’s exactly what happened. It seemed like she had about 30 pens and pencils in that case that scattered across the floor. She became intensely embarrassed, her face turned scarlet, and she began hastily gathering up the pencils.
What struck me was the eerie silence that engulfed the room. No one stepped forward to assist her, even our teacher didn’t move. We sat there watching. It felt like forever before she managed to collect all her pencils and flee the room. Surprisingly, nobody ever figured it was me.