Those three words. I couldn't stand them, and to this day I still don't like them. Spoken German test. I didn't study- I never do. I never think I need to until I get my test back with a really low grade. Speaking tests were even more annoying, because I was so used to speaking Chinese. Hell, I had that class right before German! I gave a classmate, Maia, a look of panic. She laughed and returned the expression. Well, at least I'm not alone. At least I know someone else is probably gonna fail as well. Better to fail in numbers, I guess.

One by one, the teacher called off names. Each student went to his desk, had to come up with a story based on a series of pictures, and that was it. Our grade depended on pronounciation, word order, and correctly conjugating verbs. Sure, I was gpretty good at that kind of stuff, but I was still nervous. I never did well on tests, even if I did really well on classwork, and not just in German. The only classes I was passing were English and Chinese.

I heard my name. Oh crap, I'm done for. Wait a minute, I was studying this before class started! Maybe I'm not done for! So, with a renewed confidence, I walked to his desk and started.

I was doing pretty well, for the most part. Not one mistake yet. And then I panicked. The person in the picture was watching TV. Okay, easy enough . . .or not. I couldn't remember the verb! I searched my brain for about thirty seconds, and then spoke.

"她看电视。"

"How about you repeat that in German, Kristi?"

Yup, my life was over. At least, my German-speaking one. Obviously my Chinese was still as polished as ever.