"Indeed," the Guardian said, pointing to the back of the book. "Use the key to check your work, not to skip the struggle. The struggle is where the English lives."

Suddenly, the book began to glow. A tiny, ink-smudged figure crawled out from between the pages of the "Sequence of Tenses" chapter. It was the , wearing a hat shaped like an irregular verb.

Misha froze. "I just want to go outside and play football. I’ve been stuck in the Present Perfect Continuous since Tuesday."