Time flew by, and before anyone knew it, it was Wednesday. The moment Ms. Ingram walked into the classroom carrying the math test papers, the whole vibe in the room got super tense.
Some of the usual class clowns—the kids who weren't exactly straight-A students—suddenly looked like they'd bitten into a sour lemon. Their faces were all scrunched up.
The poster child for that group? Little George. He was slouched over, head down, legs bouncing like crazy, as if he'd chugged a triple espresso.
Of course, there were a few outliers who weren't stressed at all. In fact, they looked kinda pumped.
The prime example? Sheldon. He was already geared up with his pencil in hand, sitting there like a soldier ready to charge into battle.
"Everyone, relax. This is just a simple diagnostic test," Ms. Ingram said, scanning the room. Her eyes landed on the kids crammed together in the back row. "Back row, spread out please—one desk per person."
There were plenty of empty seats up front, so even with everyone spaced out, there'd still be extras.
As the kids shuffled around to new spots, Ms. Ingram's tone got a lot stricter. "This test won't count toward your final grade, so no need to freak out."
Just as everyone started to breathe a sigh of relief, she added, "But that doesn't mean cheating is okay. If I catch anyone, I'll report it to the school straight up, and it'll go on your permanent record."
Under that warning, the back-row crew quickly got settled.
Unfortunately for George, he was a step too slow, and all the good spots got snatched. Grumbling, he grabbed his stuff and plopped down in the front row—right on the other side of Sheldon.
Once everything quieted down, Ms. Ingram started handing out the tests one by one.
This was only Mike's second test since starting at the school. When he got his paper, he didn't dive right in. Instead, he flipped through the whole thing first.
Not bad—the last two big problems used calculus, but everything else looked pretty straightforward.
Mike figured he could probably ace it, no sweat.
Feeling confident, he turned it over and started tackling the questions from the top, nice and steady.
Over on Sheldon's side, he looked just as chill with his test. For him, the problems were a breeze too.
But about half an hour in, when Sheldon got to those last two questions, his eyebrows furrowed.
Eleventh-grade math hadn't covered calculus applications yet. Those two were clearly beyond the curriculum.
Sheldon thought for a second and was about to raise his hand to point out the issue.
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But right then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught Mike working on those exact same problems.
Sheldon's pride as the class genius kicked in—he hated losing to anyone when it came to academics.
So, he swallowed the urge to tattle. Instead, he pulled out scratch paper and started working through the problems using his own logic.
Another half hour later, with his scratch paper completely filled, Sheldon—thanks to his off-the-charts smarts—finally cracked the answers.
Feeling pretty accomplished, he copied them onto his test sheet. Then he glanced over at Mike.
But the Mike who'd been focused earlier was now face-down on his desk. From the red marks on his cheek, he'd clearly been snoozing for a while.
Sheldon, who saw Mike as his only real rival, shook his head in disappointment.
From his perspective, Mike must've given up early because he couldn't solve those last two tough ones.
After basking in that one-sided victory for a bit, Sheldon finally looked around at the rest of the class.
Seeing everyone else struggling and frustrated gave him a huge ego boost.
But as he scanned the room, he suddenly noticed George on his other side. While Ms. Ingram wasn't looking, George had propped one leg up.
George had worn a new pair of flat shoes that day. And Sheldon spotted tiny math formulas scribbled all over the sole.
"This is cheating!" Sheldon realized what his brother was up to.
Disgusted by it, Sheldon glanced up at Ms. Ingram, who was dozing at her desk, ready to report him.
But then he remembered her warning about the serious consequences of getting caught cheating. He hesitated.
After thinking it over, Sheldon decided to handle it himself—without getting the teacher involved—and stop his brother from cheating.
"George! Hey, George," Sheldon whispered.
George, deep in his cheating zone, jumped at the sound. He quickly lowered his leg and acted all innocent, pulling off the move pretty smoothly.
Well, except for the beads of sweat popping up on his forehead—that kinda gave him away.
Wiping his brow, George snuck a peek at the front. Seeing Ms. Ingram still napping, he let out a relieved breath, then whipped around angrily. "Sheldon, what the heck is your problem?"
"Your shoes," Sheldon whispered back.
"What about my shoes?" George played dumb.
"Your shoes... you're... cheating..."
When George kept denying it, Sheldon got a little worked up.
Just as the brothers were whispering back and forth, Ms. Ingram suddenly barked, "Quiet!"
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It was Sheldon's first time ever trying to cover for someone during a test, and he felt a pang of guilt. He cautiously looked up—and locked eyes with the teacher.
Scared stiff, Sheldon ducked his head like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
"Is something wrong, Sheldon?" Ms. Ingram asked, noticing his weird reaction.
"N-no, nothing," Sheldon stammered, shaking his head.
"Okay then. Focus on your test—this one's important for you," she said with a subtle hint. Then she scanned the room with her eyes before dozing off again.
Down below, Sheldon didn't dare make another peep. He could only watch helplessly as George propped his leg up again.
Seeing his own brother cheat made Sheldon feel awful. And he felt even worse for kinda covering for him earlier.
Finally, after an hour, Sheldon's torment ended.
Test time was up, and Ms. Ingram collected the papers one by one.
Once she left, the class erupted in groans, complaining about how hard it was.
Now relaxed, Sheldon looked over at Mike, who was just waking up and rubbing the sleep marks off his face. He couldn't help asking, "Mike, how'd you do?"
"Pretty good. The questions weren't too tough," Mike said casually.
"How could they not be tough? Those last two were brutal," Sheldon thought, surprised. Then it hit him—Mike probably wasn't counting those out-of-syllabus problems.
As Sheldon pondered that...
George, who'd actually answered a bunch thanks to his "prep," sidled up and chimed in, "Yeah, totally easy this time. I think I'm gonna score big."
Hearing that, Sheldon whipped around and snapped, "George, why'd you... get new shoes?"
Whew, close call—he almost blurted out "cheat."
"None of your business," George shot back. Then, as he walked past Sheldon with an angry glare on his face, he grabbed his stuff and headed to the back.
But as he passed, he muttered under his breath, "Don't forget—you're my accomplice now."
What George meant was that Sheldon had seen him cheating, hadn't reported it right away, and had even kinda helped cover it up.
Sheldon, who'd been about to say more, froze like he'd been caught red-handed. All he could do was glare as his brother walked away.