You Fancy

I am subbing for a middle school teacher and when I walk in the classroom, the kids tower over me and look more like high schoolers than 7th or 8th graders. Coolio's Gangster's Paradise starts playing in my head. They have also been doing practice TAKS tests all day, and the teacher has not left a lesson plan. Awesome. I decide that we will play hangman for the remainder of the period because while it technically a 'game,' it is the only thing that I can come up with on the fly that is also pseudo-educational. We are mid-puzzle when one student politely raises his hand asks, "Miss, are you rich?" I answer, "What makes you think that?" With a straight face and in the most innocent way possible he replies, "Well, you look kind of fancy." I can't help but start laughing and his classmates join in. I finally compose myself and say, "Let me ask you this: if I were rich, do you think that I would substitute teach?" He accepts this answer and we move on. My 'fancy' outfit that day was a t-shirt and cropped work-out pants that I attempted to make look professional with a pair of flats and a cardigan.