I had studied all weekend, and I was ready. When I walked
into science that Monday, I was sure I was going to ace--or at least do pretty
well on--the science test our teacher had been preparing us for. Confidently,
I sat down, took out my sharpened pencil, and began to work.
It was tough, but I was tougher--I fought each
problem till the end, and I always won. Everything was somewhere in the
material we'd studied and I knew I could do it. I felt almost like I'd ran a
mile when I was done--I was tired and seemed out of breath. But I was done,
I'd checked over it, and with confidence I handed it proudly to the green Kau
that was our teacher.
On Friday, she showed us each our grades, I eagerly
awaited mine, hoping to see at least a 'B+' circled at the top of my paper.
But as the Kau read in her monotone voice the names of each of the tests, as
pets went up to receive their tests an either squeal in delight or groan in
disappointment, as the stack of papers dwindled lower and lower, when finally
it was gone, and my name had not been called.
Puzzled, I raised my hand. When I was called
on, I said, "I was never called..."
"Yes, I know," she replied nonchalantly. Keeping
my fiery temper tame, I sat quietly until she went on. "I'll need to talk to
you after class."
I sat back in my chair, brow furrowed. And the
teacher continued class as if nothing had happened.
When class was finally over and other students
streamed out the door, I sat rigidly in my seat. Taking two papers out of her
desk drawer, she clopped over to me and spread them out on the desk in front
of me.
"You cheated on the test Monday, Polayo," she
said quietly.
I wanted to explode. There was no way in the
whole world I could have cheated on that test. I'd studied, and I had earned
that B- circled on the top of my sheet fair and square.
Finally, I said, "I did not cheat. And there
are two papers here, mine and..." I squinted my eyes to read the name, "Crystallius'?"
I was surprised to see my friend's name scrawled along the line. But putting
my grades before friends, which I didn't often do, I said, "And why isn't Cryst
in here?"
Ignoring my question, the teacher was pointing
out the similarities of the two tests. "Not only are all the answers the same,
with the same ones right and wrong," she continued, "but you were obviously
watching her write and making the same spelling mistakes as her. You each originally
had many words spelled wrong, but at the exact same words and letters you crossed
it off and wrote it again. I'm sorry, Polayo, but you cheated."
I could feel the colour rising to my cheeks. "For
one thing," I began angrily, "It's Po. For another thing, I didn't cheat!
And why isn't Crystallius in here?"
The Kau looked down slightly and mumbled her
answer, but I couldn't here. "What was that?" I prompted.
She looked up at me, her eyes narrow slits. "Because
I trust her, that's why."
My mouth hung slightly open in shock, the only
thought running through my head was how unfair this was. I was being accused
of cheating, something I did not do, while if anyone cheated it as Cryst and
she wasn't here! Finally, I said, "This isn't fair."
She pursed her lips. "Fine, you stay here. I'll
go find Cryst, and see what happens."
"That's all I ask," I replied haughtily.
A few moments later, she returned with the shadow Aisha. Cryst cheerfully waved
to me and I did so, feebly, back. The Kau, sitting down and glaring at us sternly,
began to speak once again.
"One of you cheated on this Monday's test,"
she began, and I wanted to say that a few minutes ago she thought it was I,
but I refrained. "One of you must come clean by tomorrow morning, or both of
you will receive failing grades for the term."
I nearly exploded, but kept myself down. Glancing
at Cryst, she was nodding with worry in her eyes. "Now you may go," the Kau
finished, and I stood up stiffly and walked out of there as fast as I could.
The rest of the school day was barely more than
a daze, and when I finally got home the first thing I did was call Crystallius,
to get the truth out of her. It was doubtful that she cheated or lied, but one
of us needed to confess or we'd both fail.
"Hello?" Adophrite's voice came over the phone,
and I could just hear Auinara arguing with Eudeel in the background.
"Hey, Adophrite, can I talk with Cryst?" I asked.
"Sure, I'll go get him..." I heard the phone
fall from her hand, probably bouncing up and down in mid air on the cord now.
"CRY-YST!" She called, and I winced--it was loud.
Soon, another phone was picked up and Cryst's
voice came over the line. "Po?" She said.
"Yeah, it's me." I said grimly. But before I
could go on, she cut in.
"Po, if this is about the cheating thing, I
swear I didn't cheat. I would never cheat, especially not off
a friend. I don't want to fail science, though! What should we do?"
It didn't occur to me that Cryst might be lying
because I knew she wasn't. I'd been able to trust Cryst before and I was going
to trust her now.
I plopped onto my bed with a sigh of relief.
"Good," I said, "But what are we going to do?"
She laughed. "I have just as much of an idea
as you do!" There was a sort silence before she said, "Hey, I've got it!"
"...And?" I could almost see her grinning from
the other line.
"All right," she began. "This is what we do..."
***
The next day, I met Cryst outside the school half an hour before school started.
She grinned at me and we walked wordlessly through the school's front doors.
Arriving at the science room, she made me stay
outside at first. I saw as she walked proudly toward the Kau's desk through
a crack in the door, and the green Neopet looked up. "Oh, Hello, Crystallius,"
she said tiredly.
"Hi," she said. Taking a deep breath, she went
on. "You know, just because two pets have the same grade does not mean they've
copied, even if they spelled the same things wrong. Po and I may sit near each
other, but neither of us copied off each other. We earned our grades fair and
square, and it isn't fair for you to accuse us of cheating.
"In fact, Po and I would each be glad to take
a retest right now, each in a different room--yeah, she's here too. And I can
promise you, neither of us had a chance to study last night, we spent all the
time planning this. We didn't copy off each other, and you should learn to trust
us."
The Kau looked stunned, and it was all I could
do to stifle a giggle. After a few moments of careful thinking on the Kau's
part, she replied. "All right. You two don't have to take a retest, I believe
you."
Now it was my turn. Jumping out from behind the
door and prancing into the room I grinned mischievously. "And after looking
at the two tests while you went to get Cryst from the other room yesterday,
I added up the point values, and you cheated us out of our grade. We each deserve
B+'s, not B-'s."
She said nothing, but looked down at her hooves.
"The principal won't hear anything if you just
move our grade up to the right one..." Put in Cryst.
"All right, all right," she mumbled, taking
out our papers and marking them up, along with the grades in her grade book.
After that was done, she said huskily, "Can you two go now?"
"No problem," I said with a grin, and we marched
out of there.
When outside of the classroom, she exclaimed,
"OH YEAH!" with a laugh. Laughing along with her, I met her high five and made
our way to our first classes.
Ever since that day, the Kau has mainly stayed
clear of both me and Cryst, and our friends. And I've made personally sure no
other pets have been either cheated out of their grade or accused unjustly of
cheating.
But also since that day, Cryst and I have
definitely been better friends. We've been through one ordeal together, and
had come through with flying colours. Not only have I gained a better friend,
we also both received honour grades for the term. What more could I ask for?
Well, a lot...but that's a different story.
The End
Thanks to Stripe (StripedAishaPlushie) for volunteering her Aisha Crystallius
to be the potential evil villain (er...sort of) of this story. By 'potential'
I mean...well, read it, heh. One more note: due to the lab ray, Cryst could be
any assortment of...anything. But she's normally a female shadowed Aisha. |