I saw his latest post.
He was sharing his favorite essay prompts for
the test.
It was the same list that Sarah had given me.
He even posted some of the same ideas that I
had jotted down.
<
8:22
His followers were going nuts.
“You’re awesome, you have great advice for
test takers! You’re like a god!”
“Yeah, I would’ve bombed that essay if it
weren’t for you!”
Same prompts? That could be a coincidence.
But why were his ideas the same as mine?
824
Only Sarah and Brittany had been in my room, it
had to be them!
Goosebumps broke out.
I didn’t know what to think, couldn’t our years
of friendship and love prevail?
I decided to go for broke.
<
I knew the essay prompts beforehand, the first
time I had gotten accused of stealing was one
of my favorites.
It could get me a good score, but not a perfect
one.
So I would use obscure quotes and write some kind of weird response to the topics.
That way I could at least get rid of this cheating thing.
The next morning, I snuck out of the house and went to my grandma’s.
To be honest, I had my doubts.
My grandmother was a kind and thoughtful
soul, surely this idea was crazy.
She had a hot bowl of oatmeal ready for me
when I arrived
<
“Are you okay honey? What’s wrong?”
I smiled sadly.
“Would you be disappointed if I didn’t get in?”
She held me in her arms, smiling.
“Are you crazy?”
“I only want you to be happy, if you don’t then
you can live with your grandma for free
forever!”
Hearing those words, I knew what to do.
Leaving my grandmother’s I saw that I had
missed a phone call from Sarah.
“Where are you? Brittany made you breakfast
and is tearing down the house looking for you!”
I just said,
く
“I’m out getting some books, I’ll be home soon.”
I wasn’t going to say anything about my essay,
or my plan.
They were too close to Chad and I couldn’t
trust them.
I would make this up at the library.
I had just started when Sarah and Brittany
arrived.
I was confused, how did they find me?
Sarah put a hot bowl of food on my desk.
“We were afraid you would forget to eat so we
brought you some food.”
Brittany placed a thermos on the table,
“Fresh orange juice, your stomach doesn’t work
<
so it’s been heated for you.”
They seemed so real, so like the people I knew.
Maybe I was just overreacting.
But if it wasn’t them, then who?
Barely able to smile, I tried to be nice,
“You guys are great, I was getting kind of
hungry.”
“Let me wash my hands and I’ll dig in.”
Grabbing my phone, I ran to the bathroom.
I wasn’t going to use the bathroom, I just
opened Chad’s social media.
He had posted again.
“I tried to share my ideas for the test but
<
someone stole my best ones, I might come up
with something new.”
The photo was of someone studying.
I was in the library, the photo was of me.
Who had taken this picture?
His followers were all asking what he was writing.
He said that he wanted to try using ancient
quotes.
I freaked out.