A schoolgirl has been caught quite literally red-handed when her attempt to avoid a dreaded spelling test by faking 'chicken pox' backfired stunningly.
Lily Schooley had noticed her school friends had managed to get days off school because they were sick of chickenpox.
With a spelling test the next day looming, the six-year-old hatched a plot.
The enterprising little girl borrowed a red permanent marker to "do her homework."
Ten minutes later, she bounded downstairs to reveal her shocking new "itchy rash".
But when mum-of-two Charlotte Schooley and husband David switched on a light to get a closer look at the malady, they had to stifle their sniggers.
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Charlotte, 34, coolly suggested Lily was going to have to go to the doctor's.
Lily was off like a shot upstairs to make a miraculous recovery.
But the six-year-old's scrubbing efforts proved no match for the staying-power of a bright-red Sharpie.
Even her mum's own attempts with body wash soap, baby oil could not shift the permanent marker stains.
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Lily was forced to convince her schoolmates she wasn't infectious when she was forced to wear shorts and t-shirt in PE the next day - revealing the prominent red spots that refused to budge for four days.
Charlotte, from Saint Austell, Cornwall, said: "The house is always full of laughter with Lily. She is very witty.
"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.
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"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'.
"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 said: "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'.
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"She quickly disappeared and we went upstairs to find her trying to rub them off with a flannel.
"She said 'I can't go to school Mummy because everyone will laugh'.
"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.
"I think it was hairspray in the end that got it off - after four days.
"Everyone was looking at her like she was contagious. We had to tell everyone she wasn't.
"She had PE that day as well and had to wear shorts and t-shirts. The teachers thought it was hilarious.
"Luckily this happened on a Thursday night so she only had one day [in school with the spots]."
A fan of YouTube Kids, Charlotte believes her daughter had taken inspiration from a light-hearted video on the channel.
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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.
"She's always dressing up the cat and pushing her around in pushchairs.
"We've had all-sorts with her," her mum said.
Lily had also recently discovered the existence of periods: "She decided she needed a 'bleed patch' and went out with a pad on her leg," Charlotte said.
