Levi Harris: A Guide to Middle School

Episode 32: The Cheat

Episode 32: The Cheat

         May 10th 2010, End of Year Exams

         The school year was coming to a close and I was pretty happy about this. That meant that the France trip was edging closer and even though Angelina couldn’t come, I was still very blissful about the whole thing. The one thing I wasn’t looking for was the end of year exams. I hadn’t studied at all and I felt a bit behind on knowledge compared to everyone else.

         My arrival at school couldn’t have been worse. I wasn’t expecting rain so I came in my normal school uniform and got drenched as I exited my car. I rushed towards the classroom and no one had arrived yet. I noticed that the desks were changed with single desks. I sat at the back of the class wet and tired. One by one my classmates started pilling in. Ahmar came and sat next to me.

‘Man, you look cold.’ She said as she observed how drenched I was. The room started getting colder and colder and me being wet made everything worse.

‘Yeah man, it’s getting cold in here.’ I replied.

‘How comes you never brought a jacket or hoody or even a umbrella.’ She said as she chuckled. I chuckled with her and shrugged my shoulders. More people filled in and our gang was complete. Mustafa and Corey sat to my left, Angelina and Muksin sat in front of us and Sameer sat at the front, near the teacher’s desk.

‘Hey, what’s up?’ Angelina asked when she turned around to face me.

‘Nothing much. You?’ I replied.

‘Nothing much.’

After a small conversation, our first exam of the day started. It was English. It required us to write an essay to the ‘school principal’ to consider having a school disco. After thirty minutes, my rough draft pretty much looked like this:

Dear President Principal,

         I am writing this letter to demand ask if you would consider having a school disco. I think believe that having a school disco would be a smart thing to do. Firstly, It would be an easy way to raise money for the school since it would need require all the students attending to pay and you might will incur profit because I’m pretty sure that many students will attend. It would also be a neat great way to get more recognition from other parents who might will hear about the school disco. Also, it would be nice to give the children a event that they can enjoy, since everyone many people passed their end of year exams. Anything other than this is stupid and disrespectful since we deserve it! Why wouldn’t you want to give us a school disco? Use logical thinking!

                                                      Yours Sincerely, Levi Harris.

As you see, I wasn’t good at English at the time and I had fifteen minutes to add more points and rewrite it as a final draft. In the end I managed but I did not expect the grade that I would get. We took a small break and entered the classroom again. We had a geography test and I knew I was going to fail. I had a problem with geography and it seemed that I could never achieve a good grade. So as I sat there, on my seat, it seemed that fate decided to help me. Since it was form one, they never took our tests too seriously. We could have our bags next to us as long as we never cheated and our bags were zipped up. This was not the case today. The invigilator, Mr. Michael, was asleep and my bag was partially open. And in my bag, I could see the old, worn blue geography text book. It was small and I thought that I could just pick it up and read a little bit. I reached for it slowly with my eyes still focused at Mr. Michael. I felt the worn out book and lifted it to my lap. I could tell that a couple of people had noticed but they kept quiet. I flipped the book and started cheating for the first time in my life. I felt the guilt creep up in me and I looked around constantly. My mind was unsettled.

‘Just put the book back, you’ve copied enough!’ I told myself but the little red devil on my shoulder urged me to continue. I was reaching the last page of my book when…

Rule #5: Never Ever Cheat

‘Stop!’ I heard the deep voice shout. I looked up and Mr. Michael was looking in my direction. I dropped the book and placed my bag on top of the book.

‘I saw that! Don’t try to hide it!’ he shouted and the fear paralyzed me. My throat went dry and I tried to push words out my mouth but my mouth just opened with no sound being made. I looked like a fish out of water. He stood up and made his way towards me with his eyes wandering somewhere behind me. He was edging closer and closer and my heart was beating faster and faster.

‘You’re stupid. You should’ve stopped while you had the chance!’ I thought. Luck was on my side that day because Mr. Michael passed my table. I snapped my head around and saw who he was talking about. Corey was also cheating that day. He was stunned, just like I was with his eyes going red.

‘Stand up Corey!’ he shouted. Corey stood up and his face was going red.

‘Sir listen… even him!’ Corey shouted as he pointed at me. Mr. Michael snapped his head around to look at me.

‘Stand up.’ He said in a calm soft voice. I stood up and he came over and lifted my bag. Some people deny the truth in this story but I swear that all of a sudden, my bag was zipped up and the book was no longer underneath my bag.

‘Stop lying Corey. Get out of the class. You are disqualified.’ He said. Everyone gasped and Corey left the room with his head facing his shoes. I sat down and continued on my test. I could of sworn that I placed my bag over my text book. I could not believe that happened. We left the class and took our lunch break. Our group sat at our regular blue bench and started discussing the test.

‘Damn Corey, I can’t believe you got caught cheating!’ Mustafa shouted as he laughed.

‘Yeah… whatever, Levi cheated as well. I can’t believe that you didn’t get caught.’ He said under an angry tone. We all laughed aloud.

‘Yeah, I’m cool like that innit? But I swear you guys, I dropped my text book on the floor then covered it with my bag. How’d it get back in my bag?’ I said. It was still confusing. I honestly remembered putting my bag over my book.

‘Sure you did. Losing your memory at this age is a bad thing Levi.’ Corey joked.

‘Levi, I saw you drop it in your bag.’ Angelina said. I didn’t believe her. It couldn’t be true.

‘Then explain why my bag’s zip was closed.’ I retorted.

‘It wasn’t really, there was a small gap that you could’ve easily taken and dropped you’re book from.’

Until this day, I still believe that I dropped my text book onto the floor. But there still is a lesson to take from this story. No matter what, cheating is not worth it. Even though I got an A* in my test, I never deserved it so I never felt happy with my grade. As for my friends, even though they got lower marks than me, when they got their reports, I could see how happy they got since they worked hard for it. It’s easy to lie to others but not that easy to lie yourself and at the end of the day you’ve got to ask yourself: ‘Was it worth it?’