To Catch a Cheat

by Varian Johnson

  Charlie stepped forward. “Sure. As soon as you hand over that doctored video.”

  “Before you give us the answers? No way,” Victor said.

  Jackson twirled his pencil. “Then we have a stalemate.”

  “Don’t forget who has the video of you all breaking into the school,” Rob said.

  “Doctored video,” Jackson said. “But you know, we have a video of our own. Megan, if you don’t mind …”

  Megan had already pulled up the video on the MATE. She angled it so Victor, Rob, Thom, and Bradley could see the screen. Rob and Thom popped into view, the keys to Mrs. Clark’s room clearly in Rob’s grasp. They unlocked the door and entered the room.

  “So what?” Rob’s voice was wavering. “If you got us on video, then you also caught Bradley —”

  He stopped talking. The screen had gone blank.

  “Technical difficulties,” Megan said. “You know how fickle video technology can be.”

  Thom frowned as he squinted at the tablet. “But how —”

  “Wait, there’s more,” Megan said. “Part two.”

  Sure enough, the video switched back on, and a few seconds later, Rob and Thom exited the room. Then Rob looked up, said something to someone offscreen, and waved a piece of paper with the test answers in front of the camera.

  Megan shut off the tablet and handed it to Jackson.

  “The MATEs were recording the whole time,” Hashemi said happily.

  “And what’s better than a fake video, Charlie?” Jackson asked.

  Charlie winked. “A real one.”

  Victor couldn’t help but smile. This was even better than chess. Jackson Greene really was one of the best strategists he’d ever met. He’d be much better off using his talents as part of the Chess Team instead of wasting his time with the Botany Club.

  “Just so you know, I asked Kayla to look into those watches to make sure there weren’t any nasty surprises embedded in them,” Victor said. “Surprise, surprise … Those watches were designed to stop working come first period.”

  “Hm … Didn’t see that one coming,” Megan mumbled.

  “She’s already working on removing all the software and wiping the watches clean.” He pulled out his pocket watch and popped it open, even though he didn’t need to check the time. “We’ll also be getting some new, longer-lasting UV ink. We’d hate for our answers to disappear again.”

  Jackson turned to Charlie. “Plan D?”

  Charlie nodded. “Plan D.”

  “And what exactly is plan D?” Victor asked.

  “It’s the one where we call a truce,” Jackson said. “Look, I don’t care what you guys do anymore. If you want to cheat, fine. We won’t rat. We only want to clear our names.” He stood up from the table. “We can make the exchange tomorrow. Six forty-five. At the picnic tables at school. The doctored video for the answers.”

  Thom shook his head. “But how will we know that you won’t try to double-cross us? You might try to catch us on video again and —”

  “I’ll be right there with you. I’ll even bring Hash — he’ll prove that the cameras won’t be recording,” Jackson said. “So do we have a deal or what?”

  Victor sneered at Jackson’s outstretched hand, but he shook it. “Deal,” he said.

  After Victor, Rob, and Thom left, Charlie opened up his textbook. “Well, that was unpleasant.”

  “And easy,” Jackson said. “He agreed way too quickly.” He looked at Hashemi. “Did you get what you need?”

  Hashemi nodded as he took the MATE from Megan. “We’ll be ready come tomorrow morning.”

  Megan blew a strand of hair from her face. “I can’t believe Kayla found the virus in my program. In a day.”

  “I told you she was smart,” Hashemi said as he launched an app on the MATE. He tapped on the screen a few times, then nodded. “Victor was correct. Kayla has already wiped the software from two of the watches, and she’s in the process of formatting the third.”

  “I hope she was up all night searching through the code,” Megan said.

  Bradley glanced over Hashemi’s shoulder. “I have to admit, that’s a pretty fancy tablet.”

  Hashemi beamed. “The MATE is the most technologically astute, progressive —”

  “Hash, we don’t need the commercial,” Jackson said before pulling out his notebook. “Everyone okay with plan D?”

  They all nodded.

  “Good,” Jackson said. “Any other comments?”

  Charlie cleared his throat. “You should have let me call it the Zugzwang.”

  The next morning, Jackson and Hashemi sat at the picnic table behind the school and watched as Victor, Rob, and Thom crept along the edge of the parking lot. The sun had barely risen above the tree line, and except for Mr. Hutton’s old red pickup, the parking lot was empty. Still, they refused to walk normally, instead crouching close to the ground.

  “They look like hermit crabs,” Hashemi said.

  “Yeah. If hermit crabs got arthritis and liked to cheat on tests.” Jackson eyed the MATE in Hashemi’s hands. “You might as well bring up the cameras. That’s the first thing Victor’s going to want to see.”

  Sure enough, as soon as Victor reached the table, he said, “Pull up the cameras.”

  “Told you,” Jackson mumbled as Hashemi passed the MATE to Victor. “Satisfied?” he asked Victor.

  “For now.” Victor returned the tablet to Hashemi. “Where’s the video of Rob and Thom?”

  Jackson pulled a DVD from his book bag. “Voila.”

  “What about the answers to the test?” Rob asked.

  “Duh, they’re on the video,” Jackson said.

  “And how exactly are we supposed to bring that up?” Rob asked.

  “You’re welcome to open the video using one of the computers in the library,” Jackson replied.

  “I knew you’d try to trick us!” Victor said.

  “Calm down,” Jackson said as he pulled two folded pieces of paper from his pocket. “Bradley not only wrote down the answers, he also printed out a screenshot of Rob coming out of Mrs. Clark’s room.”

  Victor took the papers and opened them. Rob had waved the answers at the MATE, but even with an extreme zoom, Victor could read only half of the answers clutched in Rob’s hand. He quickly checked the first ten letters against the other sheet. They matched.

  “How do I know that you didn’t give us fake answers?”

  “Why do you care?” Jackson asked. “You have a B going into the final, right?”

  Victor didn’t reply as he passed the paper to Rob. “Write lightly — you don’t want Mrs. Clark to be able to see the ink from her desk.” Then he opened his book bag, pulled out the hard drive, and handed it to Jackson. “You’re right — I don’t have to cheat. But why get a B when you can get an A?”

  Jackson shook his head. “Stop talking and get to writing.” He rose from the table. “And don’t worry — Hash’ll stay here until you’re finished. That way, you’ll know we didn’t move the cameras to record you.”

  “Where are you going?” Victor asked quickly.

  “There’s no way I’m bringing this hard drive into the school building with me,” he said. “I’m going to hide it in the toolshed in the garden.”

  Victor looked across the parking lot toward the garden and toolshed. “Oh, okay,” he said. “That makes sense.”

  Jackson tucked the hard drive underneath his arm. “As soon as I hide it, Hash is going to turn a camera toward the toolshed. So don’t get any ideas about sneaking in there to steal it back.”

  “Don’t worry,” Victor said, his grin as wide as his face. “Going into that garden is the last thing I plan to do.”

  There were many things about teaching that Johanna Clark would miss, but end-of-semester grading would not be one of them. Every year, she tried to give her students (and herself ) an out through her practice exam. Every year, they disappointed her.

  As she walked down the hallway toward her classro
om, she was glad that that seventh grader, Serena Bianchi, wasn’t there to ambush her. Every day this week, Serena had hunted her down — in her classroom, in the teacher’s lounge, and once outside her bathroom stall — and questioned her about her students and her exam. Even Dr. Kelsey didn’t ask so many questions, and he had perfected the art of micromanagement.

  She unlocked the door and flipped on the light.

  “Hm,” she mumbled. “How about that.”

  Serena didn’t ride to school with her sister on Friday morning. She didn’t have any reason to go early anymore, as she was sure Mr. James didn’t want her monitoring the security video. She had actually thought about skipping school, but her mother wouldn’t let her. So she decided to walk.

  She arrived at school a few minutes before homeroom. Her usual bench was overrun with noisy eighth graders. She started to head to the library but stopped when she saw Lincoln cutting through the crowd toward her.

  “Where have you been?” he asked. “Mr. James and I have been looking for you.”

  “Is he still mad at me?”

  “Mr. James wasn’t upset.” Then Lincoln shrugged. “Well, maybe a little — you can be a bit intense. But he finally looked at the video, and you were right — the cameras were shut off yesterday. Twice. And you definitely received a bogus call.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “They got away with it. I know they somehow got into Mrs. Clark’s room and stole that test. And I couldn’t stop them.”

  Lincoln led her to a quiet corner. “Serena, how many times do I have to tell you — it’s not our job to police the school.”

  “That’s easy for you to say. I’m the one who was duped.”

  “You think you’re the only person who’s been tricked by the Infamous Jackson Greene?”

  “So you finally believe that Jackson is involved?”

  “Well, duh,” Lincoln said. “I’ve always believed that Jackson had his hand in this. I just don’t know what ‘this’ is.”

  “It’s obvious. He’s stealing the American history exam. It’s the only thing that connects him, Charlie, Victor, Rob, and Thom.”

  Lincoln was already shaking his head. “Jackson’s a lot of things, but he’s not a cheater.” He looked across the atrium. Victor Cho stood by the vending machines, staring at the back of his hand. “But Victor …”

  “Is Victor smart enough to pull off something like this?”

  “He probably thinks he is,” Lincoln said. “You should go and talk to him.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he stopped me in the hallway,” Lincoln said. “It turns out that Mr. James and I weren’t the only people looking for you this morning.”

  While Victor told Serena about the suspicious activity he’d seen in the garden that morning, especially around the toolshed, Rob entered the last stall in the first floor boys’ bathroom. He hated this stall — it was dark and dirty and smelled like his baby brother’s diaper pail — but it was the most private place in the school.

  He pressed the button on his watch and looked at the answers on the back of his hand. Once he practiced a few different techniques for pressing the button while innocently looking at the back of his hand, he committed the first five answers to memory. He figured he’d only have to check his watch eight or nine times during the exam. Maybe even less if he actually knew some of the answers.

  Of course, he would have had a better shot at knowing the answers if he had truly studied, but that hadn’t seemed necessary until last night, when it looked like Victor’s plan might not work. And by then it seemed pointless to even try to prepare.

  He checked the time, then rushed to class. He bumped into Jackson on the way to his desk, accidentally on purpose, then slid into his seat as the bell rang.

  Mrs. Clark didn’t waste time with small talk. She ordered the students to put away their study materials, then walked through each row, handing out the fifty-question exam and test pens.

  Rob bent over his test. He felt proud of himself — he remembered four of the first five answers, and even knew two additional ones after that.

  Then he had to name the last major battle of the Revolutionary War.

  He glanced toward the front of the room. Once he was sure that Mrs. Clark wasn’t looking at him, he pressed the small button on his watch. Light beamed out through the side of its case, but he couldn’t read the letters on his hand.

  I must not have pressed it hard enough, he thought. He pressed the button again. He even cupped his right hand a little tighter around the back of his left, trying to cast a shadow.

  Is that a B? Or a D? The writing is too light to —

  “Hands above your desk!”

  Rob jerked his hand away from his watch. Then he realized that Mrs. Clark was talking to Thom, not him.

  Was Thom having trouble reading the test answers as well? He must have tried to put his hands underneath his desk to make the answers darker.

  Rob looked at the ceiling. He hadn’t noticed it before, but …

  He raised his hand and cleared his throat.

  Mrs. Clark eyed him. “Is there a problem?” Her voice could cut through brick.

  “It seems a little … bright in here,” Rob said.

  She nodded. “I noticed that this morning. Mr. Hutton finally replaced my fluorescent lights with newer, stronger bulbs. I’ve only been complaining about it for twelve years.” Her face turned stern. “Now, back to the test.”

  Rob sighed, picked up his pen, and started guessing.

  By the time he reached the midpoint of the exam, he knew that finishing the test was pointless. There was no way he was going to pass. He and Thom would be right back here for summer school.

  And then, when Rob thought his day couldn’t get any worse, Becca Simpson, the first period office helper, entered the room.

  Victor sat in algebra, ignoring his teacher as she droned on and on about slopes and inequalities. He wished he were sitting next to a window. He wanted to see Serena visit the toolshed and retrieve the hard drive.

  He’d always assumed that Jackson would try to double-cross him at some point. So Victor had decided to take the offensive. To be proactive. To turn Jackson in before Jackson could beat him to it. Sure, that would mean he couldn’t blackmail Jackson for the rest of the school year, but he’d still have the answers to the test, and he would have humiliated Jackson Greene. Wanting more would have been greedy.

  The bell finally rang, and he slipped out of his desk, eager to get to American history. He looked at the back of his hand. No, he didn’t need to cheat, but there was nothing wrong with a little insurance.

  Mr. James was waiting outside of Mrs. Clark’s room. “Victor, you need to come with me.”

  Victor frowned as he noticed Jackson standing behind Mr. James. Jackson’s silly tie was pulled slightly to the left — why couldn’t he wear it the correct way? — and he sported a small smirk.

  “Is there a problem?” Victor asked, trying to keep his voice steady.

  “Just … come with me,” Mr. James said. “We have a few details we need to clear up.”

  Victor quickly glanced in Mrs. Clark’s classroom.

  “Looking for someone?” Jackson asked. “Seems like there was an issue with a couple of our classmates.”

  Victor placed his hands behind his back, as if Mr. James could see the invisible ink on his skin. “I still don’t understand —”

  “That’s why we’re all going to the security room,” Mr. James said. “Best to discuss this as a group.”

  They arrived at the room to find Dr. Kelsey and Serena huddled around the desk. “Finally. Now we can get some real answers,” Dr. Kelsey said.

  Victor held back as the others entered the room. “But I have a test.”

  “Mr. Cho, the last thing you need to worry about is your exam,” he said. “Now come in and shut the door.”

  Victor shuffled forward a few steps, pulling the door closed behind him.

  “Serena was
kind enough to retrieve the NVR hard drive that you said you saw Jackson place in the toolshed,” Dr. Kelsey said, waving toward the box on the desk. “Are you sure you didn’t see anyone else entering the shed?”

  Victor set his jaw and nodded at Jackson. “Just him.”

  “But you and Rob and Thom have been in the shed before,” Serena said. “I’ve seen you there. And unlike Jackson, you aren’t members of the Botany Club.”

  Victor crossed his arms. “That’s the stolen hard drive, right? Did you all even look at it?”

  “Oh, we looked at it,” Dr. Kelsey said. “Most of the drive has been erased, but we could access one video.” He nodded to Serena, and she started the video — of Rob and Thom sneaking into Mrs. Clark’s room.

  Dr. Kelsey turned back toward the boys once it ended. “Rob and Thom are in my office now. According to them, you two are the ones behind it all.” He tapped his fingers on the desk. “Either of you have anything to say about that?”

  “I have no idea what they’re talking about,” Jackson said. Then he turned to Victor and smiled.

  Victor balled his hands into fists. “Well, it’s obvious, isn’t it? They tried to rope me into their plan, but I said no. I’m not a cheater.” He pointed to Jackson. “But everyone knows that Jackson Greene is a —”

  Before he could finish, the lights shut off, pitching the room into darkness.

  “What happened?” Dr. Kelsey spun around. “Did the power go out?”

  “The monitor is still on,” Serena said. “It must be …”

  She trailed off as a small lamp on the bookshelf hummed to life. The lamp was angled so almost all of the room was cast in its neon-blue light.

  “What in the world?” Mr. James scratched his jaw. “What is that?”

  “Wait …” Dr. Kelsey took a step toward Victor. “What’s that on your hand?” He grabbed Victor’s arm and yanked him over to the lamp. “Are those … Are those test answers?”

  Victor stared at his hand. “I don’t — I don’t —”

  “Serena, pull up that video again,” Dr. Kelsey said.