Failing

There is a teacher with a terribly bleached mullet grading papers across from me. It's an exam and she has the scorecard on one knee and a stack on the other. She is using a red pen to grade them. It looks like a crime scene on the pages.

Years ago, I had an amazing English instructor, Mr. Staley. He refused to use red pen for just that reason. He said it felt like he was scratching the papers while grading them, and causing our hard work to bleed. He used purple and green mainly to be more gentle with his corrections.

I suppose it's good no aliens ever took his creative writing classes. They might be mortified.