All of us remember the days when we just didn't feel like going to school and would pretend we were ill in a bid to stay in bed all day with some soup and a good book.
But one schoolgirl's attempt to pretend she had chicken pox seriously backfired when she was stained head to toe in red blotches for four days after drawing on fake chicken pox blotches in permanent marker.
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Lily Schooley, six, from Cornwall, decided to try her luck after noticing many of her friends taking time off school because of chicken pox.
She borrowed a red permanent marker, pretending to "do her homework" - and came down covered in a "chicken pox" rash ready to show her parents, mum-of-two Charlotte Schooley, 34, and husband David.
When her parents, fighting back laughter, told her she'd need to go to the doctors, Lily changed her mind about her plan and ran back upstairs to try to scrub her spots off.
That's when she realised the permanent marker was there to stay, and Charlotte's attempts to wash them off with body wash, soap, baby oil and even hairspray just wouldn't work.
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Lily's plan had seriously backfired, and instead of getting a few relaxing days at home, she was forced to go to school and promise friends she wasn't infectious while wearing shorts and a T-shirt and displaying the bright red spots in PE the next day.
"The house is always full of laughter with Lily. She is very witty," said Lily's mum Charlotte. "She had a spelling test the next day that she didn't want to do. A few of the children in school had come down with chicken pox and she's had it before so she know she stayed off school for a while.
"She came down and said 'I just need a red pen Mummy, I need to do my homework'. Then she came down 10 minutes later and she was stroking her arm. She said 'oh mummy, I'm feeling a bit itchy. I've think I've got a rash'.
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"We turned the light on and she was absolutely covered in it. Me and my husband were aching with laughter, trying not to let on that we knew. I asked what the matter was and she said 'I think I've got chicken pox, I can't go to school'. She'd been sat on the bathroom floor drawing dots on herself."
Charlotte then detailed what happened once Lily realised she would have to go to the doctors unless the "rash" disappeared.
"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'," said Charlotte. "She quickly disappeared and we went upstairs to find her trying to rub them off with a flannel.
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"She said 'I can't go to school Mummy because everyone will laugh'. Luckily this happened on a Thursday night so she only had one day [in school with the spots]."
Charlotte believes Lily was inspired to pull the stunt after watching videos on YouTube.
Charlotte said: "She watches a lot of YouTube and she'd apparently watched a video called '10 Ways to Get Out of School' - so there'll be another nine to come."
Featured Image Credit: Kennedy News and MediaTopics: Real