Emily is a very quiet, introverted, hardworking 5th grader who gets straight A's but who never volunteers in class, has only one friend and, in general, seems to be scared to death of people. Her teacher is particularly impressed with Emily's performance on an arithmetic test and announces to the class that since Emily got the highest grade, she will lead the pledge of allegiance everyday for a week. Emily's performance on the next arithmetic test is quite poor. The number of correct answers she gives drops to the lowest she has ever had.