A: I failed the English test and have to take it again at the end of the semester.

B: I’m not surprised at all! You’re always away with the fairies when you’re in class!

Note: The expression means to “be in a daydream, or lost in one’s own thoughts.” This phrase has its basis in Scottish/Irish Gaelic folk myths. Mythology has it that humans can be abducted by the Sidhe, a dominant, supernatural clan of fairies. The everyday belief in a nether world populated by fairies, elves, pixies, leprechauns, goblins and the like was commonplace in medieval Europe, as was the belief in their interaction with the real world. The phrase didn’t begin to be used in its current figurative sense until the late 20th century.