I stared back down at the ground, sure he couldn’t be serious. “What?” You know that feeling when you say a word too many times in a row, and it seems to lose all meaning? You think, I must be saying it wrong. That’s not actually a word, is it? That was how I suddenly felt about the word kneel. No matter how hard I concentrated, I couldn’t make sense of what he was asking me to do. Kneeling on rice would be horribly painful. This was the twenty-first century. Kids weren’t supposed to be subjected to this kind of torture. Had I passed out in class after not getting enough sleep and fallen into some twisted nightmare? What other explanation was there? The jar slammed heavily onto the shelf, startling me out of my confused stupor. My gaze flew back to Principal Hale, whose cutting glare slash
