When you were little, wouldn’t you have done anything to get out of school? Especially if you had a spelling test that day?

Six-year-old Lily really didn’t want to have to take the test, so what better way to get out of school than to fake sick?

But every little kid knows you can’t just tell your parents that you don’t feel well. It’s gotta be really believable. You know the old tricks: sticking the thermometer under the light to make it go up to fake a fever, or pouring water in the toilet to make it sound like you’re getting sick.

Those ideas were amateur hour for Lily. She needed to make her sickness REALLY believable. There was a SPELLING test at stake, for Pete’s sake.

Then, she got it. After a few kids in her class went home sick with chickenpox recently, she thought of a brilliant beyond brilliant idea.

Lily asked her parents for a red Sharpie marker—for her homework, of course—and then drew little red dots all over her body, arms, legs, and face. Ten minutes later, she went back to her parents to tell them that she suddenly had a terrible rash and would need to stay home from school the next day.

Lily’s mother Charlotte said she had to hold back her laughter when she saw her daughter try and play hooky. But instead of calling her out of school, she decided to tell Lily that she had to take her to the doctor’s office at once.

“She was deadly serious about it until we said ‘oh gosh, it’s come on so quickly in 10 minutes. We’re going to have to see the doctor,'” Charlotte said.

That was not what Lily wanted at all. She just wanted to get out of school! So she decided to come clean and tell her parents that it was just marker, and that she’d wipe it all off.

But right as she admitted defeat and accepted that she’d have to take her test the next day, she realized that the red marker she used wasn’t coming off. It was permanent marker and would stain her skin for at least four days.

“She said, ‘I can’t go to school because everyone will laugh,'” Charlotte said. “We had to send her in with a letter the next day to say they weren’t contagious or real and we just couldn’t get them off.”

They did everything to try to get the dots off, like body wash, soap, hot water, baby oil, and alcohol wipes, but they only started to fade after a couple of days. “She had PE that day as well and had to wear shorts and t-shirts. The teachers thought it was hilarious,” Charlotte said.

We can’t help but think this ploy to get out of a test was pretty darn cute even though it wasn’t successful. We’re sure Lily learned her lesson after that!

Did you ever fake sick to get out of going to school? Did it work or did you get caught?