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Chapter 34: The Cheater

34 The Cheater

 

It was not a surprised Nicky nabbed the first honor title for the Third Grading. Yet, she knew she shouldn’t be too complacent as well. John Michael was still right on her heels, and if she wouldn’t be that focus, he might even catch up to her.

For Nicky, the rest of the February and March was all about working on her papers and projects—revising her two research papers over and over again and computing statistics and analyzing the results from her surveys. At the same time, she was also working with her group mates on inventing a scientific device for an experiment in Physics. Two research papers from subjects English and Research and her group’s Investigatory Project had been pretty much keeping her up all night. And just like that, her head was no longer any Red-muddled or boy-crazy for that matter. After prom and Valentine’s day, all she could think of was completing those paper works and beating the deadlines, then preparing for three final defenses in front of three different panels. There was nothing else in her mind. She could not afford to think of anything else.

The schoolwork didn’t end there. It just kept on piling up. Aside from those tedious, brain-drying paper works and projects that demanded more than just intelligence, effort, time and patience, there were still those District, Division and NAT exams to worry about. And for the first couple of weeks of March, the class was all about reviewing intensively for these exams. There was no time for a breather especially when right after these exams came the grueling finals, and Nicky felt like they barely had enough days to study for their Fourth Grading Final Exams.

The seniors were all in a race now to that finish line, and even though Nicky knew she had always been the front-runner, she knew better than to just sit back and relax. She was not just worried on John Michael beating her up in the race. But what she and even John Michael and the rest of the seniors really needed to beat was time itself. They were still more things to get done and time was almost running out. She could somewhat see the finish line, but it was blurry as a watery mirage a person in a marathon race could make out in a hot day. Graduation had never felt so close and so far at the same time.         

Things started to mellow down after the pulse-pumping, grilling defenses for their research papers and investigatory paper and the exasperating, nerve-wracking Final Exams. Nicky let out a long heavy breath after that History exam—the last exam she had that day—the last exam for the school year—the last exam she had in high school. But instead of relief taking over, a slight pang of anxiety suddenly got a hold of her. She tried to dislodge it out of her system, but she couldn’t. She was not worried on how she would do on the exams—she thought she did more than all right.

What really bugged her was that she saw Eddie Boy cheating. He was hiding a small sheet of paper under his shoe, and he would look at it every so often, raising his feet just a little. She thought she could just let it go. She wouldn’t really care now if he cheated. But like an itch needed to be scratch, she just couldn’t ignore it. So right after the exam, the moment she found him alone, without the company of anyone, especially Red, she decided to confront him.

“No, I didn’t,” Eddie Boy denied vehemently.

“I saw you.”

“What were you doing looking around during the test, anyway? Don’t tell me you’re trying to copy somebody’s answers?” He asked then laughed right after.

“Don’t make this about me, Eddie Boy. I know what I saw. I just want you to know that. What if I wasn’t the only one who saw you? What if sir saw you, too?”