Take a look at the sentence again:
Defeated, Melody __________ her head on the desk. Even though she had studied
until 3 a.m., she could make no sense of the chemistry problems on the exam
before her.
Melody put her head on the desk. Thus, you need a form of lay. Since the sentence is past tense, you need the simple past form. Consult the table below or review the rules.
Notice that the form you wanted to use, layed, does not exist on the table. The reason is that layed is a spelling error.
| Infinitive | Definition | Simple Present | Simple Past | Past Participle | Present Participle |
| to lay | to put something down | lay(s) | laid | laid | laying |
| to lie | to rest or recline | lie(s) | lay | lain | lying |