Panel 1: We find ourselves in class watching Gordon (who has light brown hair this week) thought-bubbling a rather treacly poem about Allyson, Allyson, the girl he'd trade a palace on, there's not a wart or callous on the lovely lady Allyson.
Panel 2: This turns out to be ill-timed as Mike has to warn him to hand in the test he's supposed to be doing.
Panel 3: As they walk to their next class, Gordon tells Mike that he doesn't know why his brain went blank during the test and wonders what the matter with him is.
Panel 4: It turns out that he's saving face because he thinks he does know why. He thinks that Allyson is deliberately making him fail science by being attractive because he's a not very bright seventh grader.
Summary: The reason that Gordon doesn't know better is that Lynn doesn't know better. A person must understand cause and effect before she can endow her characters with it.