Make friends now. Exchange phone numbers with someone in class. If you miss more than one class, you start accumulating zeroes for each day's class work and homework that you miss. I will make exceptions ONLY in dire circumstances and ONLY if students talk to me before a missed class or immediately after. Here's my grading scheme for stories in class.
Story is publishable, with virtually no spelling, style, grammatical errors.
Well organized, complete and interesting from start to finish. Story is adequate, but contains problems that need editing to correct. Lead is solid. Story may have a poor lead, be disorganized, contain several errors of style, grammar, spelling or punctuation. May have style, grammar or multiple spelling errors.