Dinner at the Cooper house was winding down, and Sheldon was still stewing over what happened during that math test earlier today. He hadn't ratted out Georgie for cheating, and it was eating him up inside.
By the time everyone finished eating, Georgie hopped up from the table in a great mood and headed out.
Sheldon stared at his back for a long minute, then finally spoke up. "I have a question."
"Is somebody bullying you at school? Sheldon, honey—" Mary jumped in, already on high alert.
"No," Sheldon shook his head. "It's hypothetical. If… let's say you found out somebody did something wrong. What would you do?"
Mary relaxed once she realized her baby wasn't in trouble and started clearing the table.
But George perked up—he loved these kinds of talks. He launched into a story from his own life.
Back when he was a young grad assistant at the university, he caught the head coach taking bribes and reported it to the school.
Of course, it blew up in his face. The coach didn't get punished at all; George got fired for being a snitch.
He was trying to teach Sheldon a life lesson: when everybody else is ignoring something wrong, don't be the dummy who sticks their neck out.
Mary, still cleaning up, heard him bring up that old injustice again and gave him a quick hug. "It's okay, hon. That's all in the past."
George just smiled. "I'm good now."
He was happy these days—the football team was doing great, the school respected him more, and his paycheck had gone up. He'd made peace with it.
"Got it," Sheldon summed up. "Your advice is: mind my own business."
Then he turned to the next person. "Meemaw, what about you?"
Connie took a slow sip of her beer and shrugged. "Depends on my mood. If I'm feeling good, I'll just sit back and watch the show. If I'm in a bad mood, I'll do whatever it takes to fix it."
Okay, that was a little too vibe-based for Sheldon. He wasn't there yet.
He thought for a second, then looked at Mike sitting next to him. "Mike, what would you do?"
Mike gave a casual shrug. "Pretty much the same as Meemaw. If the mistake doesn't affect me, I stay out of it and watch from the sidelines.
But if it starts messing with me? Then I fix the problem at the root."
Smooth answer—kinda like an upgraded version of Connie's.
Sheldon had now polled the whole table, and he wasn't thrilled with the results.
In his world, if somebody does something wrong, they should get punished. Period.
But everybody else was basically saying "play it safe" or "only if it bugs you."
Little face all tense, Sheldon got up and headed to his room to think it over.
On the way, he passed Georgie's door and kept giving himself a pep talk: Georgie cheating is his problem, not mine. I'm not his accomplice. I just need to worry about myself…
He told himself that even if Georgie passed this one test by cheating, he'd bomb the next one and get exposed anyway.
So one little cheat doesn't really matter in the long run.
But the closer he got to his own room, the more twisted up he felt inside.
Finally, he stopped, turned around, and marched straight to Georgie's door.
He pushed it open and stood there all serious. "Georgie, I saw you cheat on that test."
"And?" Georgie was lounging against a pillow, flipping through a magazine, totally unbothered. "Don't forget—you helped cover for me. If you rat me out, I'll tell Ms. Ingram how you lied to her too."
"I'm not your accomplice," Sheldon shot back. "I'm going to tell her exactly what happened."
Georgie smirked. "Oh no, I'm so scared. Got any proof?"
Sheldon scanned the room quick—no sign of those new sneakers Georgie used to hide the cheat sheet.
Obviously, Georgie had already stashed the evidence. That's why he was acting so cocky.
"No proof? Then I could sue you for slander, little dude," Georgie said, kicking his feet up, loving every second of watching Sheldon squirm.
"You're despicable," Sheldon glared, stormed out, and slammed the door behind him.
But Georgie didn't get to enjoy his win for long.
Next thing he heard from the hallway: "Mom! Georgie's hiding in his room looking at dirty magazines again!"
"Damn it!" Georgie muttered, scrambling to hide the magazine.
Footsteps thundered down the hall. Mary, still wearing rubber dish gloves, burst through the door like a hurricane.
"Georgie! How many times have I told you—you're not old enough for those magazines! Hand it over right now!"
"I swear to God, I don't have anything!" Georgie tried the innocent act. "Sheldon's just trying to frame me…"
Sheldon, peeking in from the doorway and loving the show, chimed in helpfully: "It's under the pillow."
Between her two boys, Mary trusted her little genius way more. She gave Georgie the mom glare. "Now. Or I'm digging it out myself."
No way out—Georgie grumbled and pulled the magazine from under the pillow, surrendering it.
"Don't let me catch you with another one," Mary warned. "Or I'll have your dad come in here for a talk."
She left with the contraband, and Georgie just sat there fuming.
Turns out smiles don't disappear.
They just move from one brother's face to the other.
The bad guy got punished. Justice was served.
Sheldon watched the whole drama from the doorway, finally feeling at peace.
He gave one last smug look at his annoyed big brother, then strutted back to his room like the winner he was.
Meanwhile, over at Meemaw's house, Mike got an unexpected phone call from Katie.
She chatted like they were old friends, filling him in on all the little things going on in her life lately.
One big thing—she was bummed about cutting ties with that punk girl Janice and said she regretted it. She wanted to patch things up but didn't know how.
Mike didn't know the full story, so he just listened and said a few comforting things.
That cheered her up a ton.
Then she asked him about the math Olympiad team—whether she should join or not.
Right now she was in the middle of building her crew in that "devil body" group, and time was tight.
Deep down, though, she really wanted to do it.
Mike just told her to follow her gut and do what felt right.