(Y/n)'s P.O.V
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Mr. Feeny was walking around the classroom. "I have graded your book reports from last Friday, and after I pass them out.."
I started to tune Mr. Feeny out as I watched Cory pull out his clown nose and mimick Mr. Feeny. I silently laughed until Mr. Feeny came up from behind Cory.
"Ah, Mr. Matthews," Mr. Feeny said. Cory slowly turned around with the nose still on his face.
"Shall I express my usual disappointment or just ask you to guide my sleigh tonight?" Mr. Feeny asked.
Cory took off his nose and turned completely around. "Uh, wrong holiday, Mr. Feeny. See, Halloween's coming up, and I was just test driving my clown nose." Cory held up the red nose.
"Then I insist you stay in the driver's seat. Put the nose back on...for the rest of the morning." Mr. Feeny walked away and everyone in the class started giggling.
"Mr. Minkus, excellent work as usual. I particularly enjoyed your haiku on Captain Ahab's obsession with the great white whale." Mr. Feeny complimented
"The calm blue ocean. Sunlights up the monster's eye. He sees me...whale food." Minkus trailed
"It works on so many levels." Mr. Feeny told him
"Brown-noser," Shawn insulted
"Troglodyte," Stuart replied. I snickered at his response while Shawn rolled his eyes.
I turned back to Mr. Feeny as he started passing our book reports back. "Mr. Lewis, very good work. Mr. Matthews, not one of your better efforts. Miss Matthews its that. Mr. Hunter," I looked at my paper to see a B- and honestly I'm fine with it because my grades are getting a lot better if you ask me.
"Hey, This isn't fair. Rick and I both got C's. How come you tell him he did a good job, and you tell me it wasn't one of my better efforts?" Cory complained
"Would bozo please come to the center ring?" Mr. Feeny called
Cory stood up from his desk and walked up to the front of the classroom. Mr. Feeny whispered something to Cory that wasn't in clear enough for me to hear but I did hear Cory when he started to speak. Man, he couldn't whisper to save his life. "How come you always pick on me, Mr. Feeny? How come you need pick on Minkus?" Cory asked
"Why would you even ask that?" I yelled calling their attention to me. I started to whistle and look the other way
"I agree Miss Matthews. Have you taken a blow to the head Mr. Matthews? Stuart Minkus gets nothing but A's. If there was a letter before 'A', "he would get that." Mr. Feeny informed
"I guess that's why he gets away with so much," Cory said before walking back to his desk to sit.
"And just what does he get away with?" Mr. Feeny asked
"Well, how come when I make paper airplanes, I get detention, and he doesn't?" Cory asked and as he finished Stuart had finished making an amazing airplane with a spinner on the end.
"I withdraw the question," Cory said
"I sure hope you do." I say
"Like you could do any better!" Cory said
"Never said I could but it's just you can't" I sassed and threw a ball at Cory
"Ow," Cory said then turned to Mr. Feeny
"Detention for you," Mr. Feeny pointed to me
"Good going Cory, because of you my no-detention streak is gone and I just made it two days." I huffed
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Cory and I walked out of detention and saw Shawn sitting at the wall. "You waited for me?" Cory asked
"No, he waited for us." I said and shoved Cory out of the way
"Yeah, of course I waited for you guys. Am I not your best friend?" Shawn asked
"You had detention, too, didn't you?" I asked
"Oh, yeah. Mrs. Engles nailed me." He said. I looked at him with a confused expression on my face.
"How'd you get detention in art?" Cory asked
"Well, that's what makes me one of the greats," Shawn said
"Oh, honey, someone lied to you, they lied right to your face." I said sympathetically while patting Shawn on the shoulder
He brushed my hand off lightly and threw his juice cup in the trash. I guess he saw something in the trash because he quickly grabbed it and walked to us. "Hey," He said grabbing our attention
"What?" I asked
"Check this out, answers to a test." Shawn said
"Let me see!" I exclaimed before looking at them
"Guys. We can't be looking at test answers. That's major cheating, detention for life." Cory said and started to walk away
"No, these aren't answers for a real test. They're for the dumb IQ exam we're taking tomorrow." I informed. I handed the paper to Shawn and he balled it up and tried to throw it in the garbage. However, Cory caught it before it hit the bin.
"Wait a minute. Let me take a look at this." Cory said. He unballed the paper and examined it.
"Wow. The person who knows these answers gets a perfect score." Cory said
"On a test that doesn't even count for a grade. Why bother?" Shawn asked
"Are you kidding? This is my one ticket to get Feeny off my back. If Feeny thinks I'm a genius, he'll treat me just as good as he treats Minkus." Cory informed
"Cory, do yourself a favor. Crumple the paper up, throw it away in the trash. Don't complicate your life because it'll automatically spill into mine." I said
"You know, that makes a lot of sense, and if I was a smarter person, I'd probably listen to you, except I'm not a smarter person, but tomorrow, I'm going to be a genius," Cory said
"Yeah, ok," I said before me and the boys walked out of school.
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"I have in my hands the results of Tuesday's IQ test, and one person here deserves special mention. This person achieved not only the highest score in the class, not only the highest score in the school but a score so high as to give rise to the question, 'Is there, in fact, a ceiling on human intelligence?" Mr. Feeny said
"Please, Mr. Feeny, you're embarrassing me," Stuart said
"Mr. Minkus, you came in second." Mr. Feeny announced which quickly shut Stuart down
"Second?"Stuart asked
"Mh-mm" Mr. Feeny answered
"As in the context of not first? Someone scored higher than I did on the IQ test?" Stuart asked again.
"Way to be modest," I mumbled
"They blew you out of the academic water." Mr. Feeny said
Cory snickered back at me and Shawn before he turned back to listen to Mr. Feeny, "Someone sitting in this very classroom is a junior Kierkegaard." Mr. Feeny said as he walked over to Cory.
"A what?" Cory and I asked at the same time
"A great mind, Miss Matthews, just like your brothers. I have clearly underrated you, Mr. Matthews, and I bow to your genius. You know, Miss Matthews, you could learn a thing or two from him." Mr. Feeny said then started to clap which made the whole class clap.
"Yeah, sure," I said before I clapped along
"It's no big thing, Mr. Feeny," Cory said
"On the contrary, Mr. Matthews, it is a big thing. It is a very big thing." Mr. Feeny said before walking away
Cory turned to Shawn and me with wide eyes, "Uh-oh," He said
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Cory, Shawn, and I burst through the front door of our house, "Oh, hi-" Mom started
"Can't talk, Mom, lots of homework," I said
"Got to go do it," Cory said
"Yeah, what they said." Shawn finished before following us upstairs.
I put my backpack down in my room before I walked into Cory and Eric's room and closed the door behind me.
"Feeny knows. Somehow he knows, and he's going to get me." Cory said
"You're wrong," Shawn said
"No, he's right. The guy has been our teacher since kindergarten and he's been alive for like a thousand years. He knows Cory isn't even close to being that smart." I explained
"Yeah, Shawn. Listen to (Y/N), do you really think he's just sending a thank you note to our parents? 'Thank you for bringing up your son. He's a genius. He's smarter than Captain Kirkagaurd." Cory explain
Shawn stood up and took the letter from Cory and started opening it. "What are you doing that's a sealed envelope addressed to my parents. Now they're going to know I opened it." Cory exclaimed
"Cory, (Y/N), do your parents ever write letters to anyone?" Shawn asked
"Yeah. Why?" I said
"And when they do, what do they put the letters in?" He asked again
"Envelopes. Just like that one." I trailed off
"Oh, I like the way you think sometimes," I said and gave Shawn a high-five
"So, we could read the note." Shawn said
"And seal it back up in a new white envelope." Cory finished
"And crumple it up just a little for that extra touch." I added both boys looked at me
"What? I'm just saying." I shrugged
Cory and Shawn nodded and high-fived me before high-fiving each other. "I love the way we think," Cory said.
Shawn quickly tore open the note and started to read it
"What's it say?" Cory asked
"Uh-oh. He's bringing in the S.E.A," Shawn said
"What?" Cory asked I sat down next to Shawn to see what the note actually said
"The State Education Authority. They have special field agents who handle intelligence fraud." Shawn said
"I'm cooked! I'm cooked guys! For the first time in my life, I'm in real trouble." Cory exclaimed
"Not if he's making all this up," I said
"Is he?" Cory said
"No," I said
"I'm cooked!" Cory yelled
"Cory, relax. Of course, he's making this up." I said trying to calm him down
"Yeah. He just wants to talk to your parents." Shawn explained while handing Cory the note.
Cory took it and walked away before speaking again. "What if he tells them he doesn't think I'm a genius?" Cory asked
Shawn sprung up from the bed and walked over to Cory, "Who cares if Feeny doesn't think you're brilliant? As long as the test says so." Shawn said
"But I'm not, and my parents know I'm not." Cory said
"We all know you're not Core, but guess what tomorrow is?" I asked
"Halloween?" He replied
"Exactly, and this year you're going as a genius," I said.
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Mom, Dad, and I had just gotten back from the grocery store and talking to Mr. Feeny. I heard classical music come from upstairs and I guess Mom and Dad heard it too because we all went upstairs to see Cory listening to classical music with his Phillies Finger. The music just about ended when we got in there and Mom and Dad started to clap. "So, I'm the only one who was a little disturbed?" I asked Mom nudged so I pretended to put a zipper on my mouth.
"Well, Cory Matthews, is that classical music you're listening to?" Mom asked as I laid down on Eric's bed and tried to watch before giving up and just listening.
"Oh, that was just a commercial during the baseball game," Cory said
"Oh, selling cellos, were they?" Dad asked
"Yeah, I guess so," Cory said.
"Come on, Maestro, we saw you conducting that symphony with your Phillies finger," Dad said
"It wasn't a symphony, Dad. It was just Beethoven's piano concerto in 'E' flat."
"Cory, we just came from school, talking to Mr. Feeny. We know about the IQ test." Mom said. That made me sit up from my position quickly and raise my eyebrows.
"You do?" Cory and I both asked
"(Y/N), you were with us," She said
"Oh yeah. Alright then, continue." I said
"But yes Cory, we know." Mom said
"So, what do you know?" Cory asked
"Well, we know that you scored very high." Mom said
"The highest in the history of the school district," Dad added
"I don't want to be treated any differently." Cory said
"I wouldn't think of it." Dad said.
"Cory, your father and I are having a little trouble understanding why your IQ test scores were way up here and your report cards are, well, down here." Mom gestured using her hands.
"You know, I've been giving that some thought to Mom," Cory said
"I'm sure you have," I said. Cory glared at me before turning back to Mom
"I've decided that what you're seeing is the flaw in our public education system." Cory said
"Yeah, I'm seeing the flaw." Dad said
"Because the way I see it, I didn't fail the system, the system failed me." Cory said
"That's the way you see it?" Dad asked
"What other explanation could there be, Dad?" Cory said
"Oh there could be a thousand," I said. Cory glared at me before throwing something at my head which I quickly dodged.
"Mommy!" Morgan called
"Up here, angel face." Mom replied
"I don't know, Core, It just seems that after 15 years of being a mother I'd like to think I know my own children." Mom continued.
Morgan walked into the room with her new zombie consume. It had a machete going into her head and an eyeball dangling out of the socket. It was a pretty cool costume. "I'm a zombie," Morgan said
"Is my youngest sister hideous or what?" Eric asked
"Eric..." Mom trailed off
Dad took Morgan's hand and sat down on the bed, "Very gruesome. Blackout teeth," Dad said and showed his teeth while morgan followed suit.
"Ooh. That's my youngest girl." He said.
"There were no cinderella costumes?" Mom asked Eric
"Hundreds of them." He said
"And you had to choose axe in the head here?" Mom asked again
"It was the last one," He answered
"Ooh, nice hanging eyeball," I told Morgan while touching it.
"I wanted Morgan to choose her own costume." Mom said
"She did choose it, Mom. She wanted to be a zombie." Eric said
"Eric, 24 hours ago, she didn't know what a zombie was," Dad said
"The undead are cool," Morgan said before walking out of the room.
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"Shawn, this whole thing is getting out of hand." Cory said
"Relax. Everybody thinks you're brilliant. You should enjoy it." Shawn said trying to calm Cory's nerves
"I don't." I shrugged
"Well, not us everyone else does though, right?" Shawn asked
"No," I said
Shawn sighed and looked back at Cory. "When it was just Feeny, I could enjoy it. But now my parents are involved, and we don't like lying to them." Cory said and I nodded in agreement.
"You don't?" Shawn asked
"No," I said
"Cause it gives me a little rush. Besides, you didn't tell them you were a genius, Feeny did." Shawn said
"And I didn't tell Feeny I'm a genius," Cory said
"The test did. And you didn't ask to take the test," Shawn said
"They gave it to me!" Cory said excitedly
"And you wouldn't have even seen the answers..." Shawn started
"If they didn't give us..." Cory said
"Detention," I finished
"We're innocent victims," Cory said
"Nothing we do is actually our fault," Shawn concluded
"Its good to be kids. And in you guys' case idiots." I said
"I don't get it," Stuart said as he walked closer to us
"What?" Cory asked
"If you're smarter than I am, how come you're always trying to copy from my paper?" Stuart asked
"Uh-" Cory started before Shawn cut him off
"He's not copying Minkus. He's just glancing over to admire the work of a fellow genius." Shawn said
"You are?" Stuart asked
"He is," I said
"I am," Cory said
"Oh, well, that's ok. In fact, from now on, I'll kind of tip my test papers up so you can admire the answers even easier." Stuart said
"Would you do that?" Cory asked
"No." Minkus said and walked off
"Genius envy." Shawn said
The bell rang and we all sat down in our respective seats. Mr. Feeny walked in with a lady who walked to the front of the class. "Class, this is Miss Chin. She'll be with you for the first half-hour while I have a word with Mr. Matthews." Mr. Feeny said. I could practically feel Cory getting more and more anxious because he didn't know what was going to happen.
"Tell Mom I went out like a man."
"Good luck, Core. Also I will." I said before he walked out.
"He's going to crack," Shawn whispered
"Pretty much. All we can do now is wait," I replied
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I went with Eric and Morgan to go to the mall because he was using us to get girls. He told me he would buy me whatever I wanted and I needed some new clothes so I cooperated and got my clothes. I put them away in my closet before I walked into Cory and Eric's room. Cory started shooting me with his ball gun. "CORY! STOP THAT!" I yelled he stopped but not long after Shawn walked in and Cory started shooting him too.
"Hey! What are you trying to do, kill me?" Shawn exclaimed
"Kill ya? I'll tell you about killed! How about what you two did to me?" Cory exclaimed
"What did we do?" I asked
"Where are you guys spending your next recess? Playground, shooting hoops? Playing ball?" Cory asked
"Yeah, sure. But why?" I asked
"So let me tell you what I'm doing. I'm searching for Bobby Fischer!" Cory exclaimed
"What are you talking about?" Shawn asked
"Geniuses go to a special school. Did you know that? You killed me. I'm going to be in a class full of Minkuses. Wait a minute. What am I talking about? These kids make Minkus look like Fabio." Cory explained
"Wait a minute. They're putting you in another school?" Shawn said
"Yes. The lady is going to be here in half an hour and they're going to give me a genius test and then they're going to take me away. So I just called you up to say goodbye or a geniuses say, good-bye in Latin." Cory said
I slapped my palm into my forehead and shook my head. "Cory, you idiot." I said
"What?" He asked
"Are you a genius?" I asked
"No." He said
"Do you have the answers to this test?" I asked
"No." He answered again
"You kind of see where (Y/N) is going with this?" Shawn asked
"You want me to throw the test?" Cory asked
I shook my head and sat down next to my twin brother. "No buddy. We want you to take the test to the best of your ability." I said
"And no guessing. We wouldn't want you to stumble onto a right answer." Shawn said as he walked out of the room.
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I sat downstairs with Mom, Dad, and the lady who came to test Cory. I watched the adults talk as they sipped on tea. "So, Mrs. Matthews you're a housewife?" The lady asked
"Uh, Amy's a homemaker. She wrangles 4 kids, runs this house, and still manages to sell real estate quite successfully." Dad answers
"And I understand you work in a grocery store." The lady said to Dad
"Well, Alan is the manager of the largest supermarket in this whole area." Mom answered
"Ah. Tradesmen are so important and yet so little respected." The lady said
"Mommy? Can I have cookies?" Morgan asked as she ran into the living room.
"No, honey. It's too close to dinner." Mom said.
"You realize, don't you, that her clothes don't match?" The lady pointed out
"We let her pick out her own clothes," Dad answered
"We feel it encourages Morgan's creativity." Mom finished
"Indeed. Well, if yours are the genes that have produced our darling Cory, then perhaps you've done it again with young Morgan here." The lady said. I snickered to myself before continuing to listen to the conversation.
"Shall we try a word association problem?" The lady asked Morgan
"Ok," She replied
"Maple is to Elm as Daisy is to...?" She asked
"Booger?" Morgan asked. When she said that I tried so hard to keep in my laugh.
"You may go," The lady dismissed Morgan
"Change your clothes." Mom said to Morgan.
"Genetics is so...hit or miss." The lady said
Cory stood up from the desk and walked over to the couch. "All done," Cory said and handed the woman his test.
"Why, Cory, most students need at least a full hour for this test. I'll just get out the answer template." The lady said as she pulls out a sheet of paper.
"And that should confirm...what we already know." Mom and Dad looked at us.
"Hmm.." The lady said
"Hmm.." Dad imitated while continuing to look at us.
"Well, Cory, if I'm to believe the results of this test then your I.Q would be about that of an average sixth-grader." The woman said
"Yup that's me. The lights are on, but nobody's home." Cory said
"Did you really think you'd get away with it, Cory?" The lady asked
"We both knew he would be caught from the beginning," I said
"I guess we knew that, too," Dad said
"Cory cheated."
"I'm not a genius," Cory said
"You sure aren't and we love you that way." I added
"You'd sure like us to believe that Cory," The lady said
"Huh?" We all said in sync
"Your son is manifesting typical behavior for a young genius."
"But he's not smart." I said that made Cory nudge me
"I mean look back at your answer sheet. Doesn't it say he's a moron? I know it does." I corrected. Well, sort of
"He doesn't want to leave his old school and all of his friends or his sister. That's why you cheated on this test, isn't it, Cory?" She concluded
"Yes. Well, no, but--look, when I said I cheated, I didn't mean this test. I meant the first test, the one Feeny gave us that said I was a genius." He started before getting cut off.
"Cory.." The woman said before being cut off
"No. Please. Don't talk. Every time you talk you make me sound smart." Cory said
"Look, Mom, Dad.. (Y/N) and I found the answers to Feeny's test and I memorized them. I'm not a genius." Cory confessed
"I think they may have figured that out already," I said
"Yeah and we're glad you finally decided to come clean." Mom said
"You'll excuse me, but there are actual prodigies out there who deserve my attention and respect. I can't waste my time with normal people like you." The woman said as she gathered her stuff and walked to the door
"Well, you'll excuse me, but normal people like us have raised our children to be normal kids. I'm sorry they don't fit some arbitrary intellectual standard of yours." Dad said
"But we're not sorry that they're well brought up and completely normal," Mom said
"AHH!" Morgan yelled as she ran downstairs in her zombie costume
"Is this better?" Morgan said as she went the group of adults.
"She's a zombie. You got a problem with that?" Dad asked
"You must be so proud." The woman said before walking out the door
"You guys knew I wasn't a genius all along didn't you?" Cory asked
"Yeah, I guess we did." Mom said
"How come you went along with him?" I asked
"Well, guys because we would never accuse you of cheating. We had no proof that you did." Mom said
"We just hoped you two were smart enough to tell us the truth eventually," Dad said
"We should've it would've saved us a lot of time and energy." I said
"We weren't even smart enough to do that until we were backed into a corner." Cory said
"I guess we blew it, huh?" I asked
"Yep." Mom said
"Grounded?" Cory asked
"Yep. 2 weeks both of you." Mom said
"That's fair." I said
"We'll be in our rooms," Cory said
"Yes, you will be starting the day after Halloween." Dad said. I smiled widely and looked at Cory
"You mean we can still have Halloween?" Cory asked
"As long as you don't go disguised as a boy who cheats on tests and his twin sister who covers for him." Dad said
"Oh trust me, we won't" I said
"Yeah, those costumes were totally wrong for us." Cory said
"Cory, (Y/N) you guys don't ever have to try to be something you're not." Mom said
"Done. From now on, we'll just wear our normal kid outfits." I said
"It always looked good on you two." Dad said. I got up and gave both of them a hug.
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The final bell had rung and kids were piling out of the classroom. "Please read chapter 7 and be ready to discuss it tomorrow." Mr. Feeny called
I stood up and grabbed my things and headed to the door. I stood there and waited for Cory because I knew there was something he had to do so I just listened. "Bozo resigns. I'm turning in my nose. I figured as long as I'm going to give up being the class genius, I'll give up being the class clown, too." Cory said
"Fair trade. Welcome back to class, Mr. Matthews." Mr. Feeny said
"I guess I thought a guy had to be a genius to earn your respect." Cory said
"All my students have to do to earn my respect is try their hardest." Mr. Feeny told him
"I guess that's why you didn't bust Rick Lewis for failing this week's math quiz." Cory said
"That's right. He did the best he could. He just didn't understand the material. I consider the failure mine, and I will try my hardest to make sure Mr. Lewis understands the next assignment." Mr. Feeny explained
"Well, I think that's really cool of you, Mr. Feeny," Cory said before he walked back to his seat and gathered his books before walking back to me.
"I'm cool. God help me." Mr. Feeny sighed
"I'm proud of you, Cory," I said
"Yeah, why?" He asked
"Because in the end, you fixed most of your mistakes," I said
"That wasn't a compliment," He said
I threw my arm around his shoulder and smiled, "Well, bud, it's the closest thing you're going to get." I said and with that we walked out of the hall.
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Cory and I met up with Shawn and Rick. I was dressed as a skeleton. Cory was a Vampire, Shawn was Frankenstein, and Rick was a villager. In order to get more Candy we were going to go trick or treating at our own house because, Cory and I knew that Morgan was opening the door for trick or treaters. We walked up to the front door and it was already open. Mr. Feeny was standing there with rulers in his hand. Rulers.
"Trick or Treat," We exclaimed
"The candy's on it's way." The older man said
"Hey, aren't you that Feeny guy from school?" Rick asked
"I'm Mr. Feeny, yes." Mr. Feeny said
"My brother's friend Cory Matthews said I'm going to have you for a teacher next year. He said you're the best teacher in the whole school." Rick complimented
"Oh, please, Mr. Matthews I wasn't born yesterd-." Mr. Feeny took the masked off Rick's face too, of course, reveal Rick under it
"I'm terribly sorry." Mr. Feeny pulled his mask back down.
"Happy Halloween. Here, have a ruler. Have all the rulers." Mr. Feeny said as he gave Rick all of his rulers
"George." Mom called
"Yes?" Mr. Feeny replied
"There's plenty of candy here in the kitchen." Mom said
"Thank you." Mr. Feeny said disappeared into our kitchen
We all took our Masks off and laughed, "And they say I'm not a genius." Cory said.
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Word Count- 4675