When I awoke I had a crick in my neck and a headache. Children’s cartoons blared in the background. Trying not to open my eyes I found the remote and muted the Loony Toons.
Bugs Bunny looked different today.
Emily and I sat next to each other on the bus. It was something we had done many times before. WE got on and off at the same stop, and it just made sense.
At the start of that day, we didn’t say a word to each other. We were both uncomfortable. I don’t know why. It was like those three little words had changed everything for the worse.
We didn’t speak all day, right up until health class in the afternoons. We were told that we were now going to be taking the babies home with us.
“So… Uh…” I said, “Do you want to take it first, and then I we can swap or…”
“That sounds good.” She said.
The assignment was to feed the doll and change it and stuff. Somehow they had managed to get our parents informing on us. Since there was no real grade to be gained they could turn us in without being worried about our future.
Two days after, I went to Emily’s house to say hi. “Hey, how are you doing.” I asked. She turned around and the question seemed stupid. She was crying, her mascara running and her eyes looked puppy and red.
She practically threw herself into my arms. “Alec! I am so tired. He put an alarm in it that goes off every fifteen minutes. All I want is a little bit of sleep.”
I thought it sounded extreme and she was clearly stressed. “That’s okay.” I said. “I can take it, I have an essay to write anyway.”
I took the ‘baby’ now complete with a large sleep button on top. I went back to my house and put a can of coke on my desk.
I sat at my computer, took a sip and began to type. Black letters jumped onto the empty white space. The essay was on the Great Gatsby. It wasn’t a novel I had read before, but several study guides had. I spent several hours typing at my laptop.
See, here is the thing about cheating nowadays. A lot of teachers consider themselves technically savvy and will Google your work to make sure it isn’t copied. So here is what you do: copy from many different sources. Use the thesaurus; say exactly what they said in your ‘own’ words. Doing that technically makes it your work. Uncopied and good enough for an A in any homework. I really wanted an A in English; the teacher was marking me extra harshly after the comments I had made all that time ago.
At three in the morning I was coming close to finishing. I had typed 1578 words, then extended it out to the required two thousand. I had done this by a combination of eliminating contractions replacing them with the two words and also by using a more long-winded phrase. This can actually get more marks in English. Sometimes teachers favour a longer, more drawn out approach.
Frustratingly, every fifteen minutes I had to reset the alarm. I considered popping out the batteries but it had been connected to a stopwatch, taking out the batteries would wipe the watch and we would have to start the project all over again. I got the feeling Emily would murder me if I did that.
Sometimes, when I pull all nighters the last few hours disappear. I don’t make any real progress, but don’t go to bed either. I drift between the two worlds, with one foot in both. This was one of those times. I kept micro sleeping, then I would wake up to the alarm. Eventually I sat and stared out the window, as the sun ever so slowly rose.
I awoke at my desk with the alarm ringing. I had been sleeping for two hours.
Ah well. I thought. I just killed a baby. At least it wont cry anymore.
