Good afternoon, Steven. Are you coming to class today? We missed you in the lab yesterday.
Uh...Sorry, Miss Smith. I had a mid term exam for my literature course and I... I had to do some last minute revision for it. Yes, I will certainly be at the class today, though. Sorry, I missed the experiment yesterday.
Hmm...I don't really think reviewing for an English literature exam is a very good excuse, do you?
No, you're right. It isn't a good excuse at all. It's just that I did a very similar experiment in chemistry 101 last time, so I felt I probably wouldn't miss too much.