(not canon, practice only)
Robert sat in the front of the class, pushing his glasses up his nose with the nervous habit he got when the teacher passed out the results of the exams. He had studied hard for it, and felt confident about it before they left for the school break. He did not expect the big letter in a circle, which meant the teacher was angry and wanted to draw his attention to it. As if the attention would be missed. He looked up, looked around the room, looked at the teacher’s back as he kept walking, passing out the tests.
There must be some mistake, he thought. He looked at the exam again. Scrawled at the top, in a heavy-handed circle, was a big, fat “F”.
The teacher walked around the room after he finished passing out the test. He looked at Robert for a moment. Then he looked out at the class and said, “I’m very disappointed. I was tempted to scale the grades based on how bad they were, but I did not. Let this be a lesson to you.” He turned back to the board. “Did anybody do any reading on their vacation?”
Robert’s hand shot up – the only one. As everyone expected. The teacher sighed. “What did you read?”
“Mockingjay,” he said.
The teacher frowned. “I suppose that’s better than nothing. All of need to start on 1984. Read the first two chapters by Friday. Right now, we’re going to talk about irony.”
Robert dutifully took notes. When the bell rang, the teacher finally turned to him and said, “You and Jim, stay behind.”
Robert packed his backpack. Jim sat diagonally behind Robert, and was one of those kids who never got good grades. He didn’t take notes, he let the classroom words roll off of him; Robert suspected that he didn’t have a home. He didn’t have a locker, and he always smelled of B.O., and never washed, combed or cut his hair. When the bell rang, everyone left. Jim slouched in his chair while Robert sat up straight.
“Someone cheated,” said the teacher, when everyone had filed out. He looked at the two of them. “When someone cheats, I flunk both of them. Robert, I know you’re a good student from your other classes.”
“Sure, blame me,” said Jim, slouching even lower.
“Your answers were exactly the same as Robert’s.”
“So, maybe we studied together.”
Robert shook his head before the teacher even asked. Jim glared at Robert.
“I’m going to have to flunk you both on this test.”
Robert looked down, while Jim said, “C’mon, man! I studied and everything.”
“Then what’s the first line in Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities?”
“I don’t know – after I study, it kinda goes out of my head.”
The teacher shook his head. “If I catch these answers being the same again, I’m going to have to call your parents.”
“My parents? Why not his parents?” He pointed at Robert. “He let me cheat.”
“So you did cheat.”
“That’s not true!” cried Robert, still on what Jim said.
Jim shrugged. “Yeah, I looked over his shoulder like he asked me to. He even sat a certain way so I could see everything.”
The teacher looked at Robert who had a look of horror on his face. “I did not!”
The teacher sighed. “If I catch this again, I will have to call your parents.”
Robert knew his father didn’t like to get called out of work and into school. He didn’t know about Jim’s family. He didn’t know if Jim had a family.
Jim, however, only shrugged. “Are we done?”
“I suppose we are.”
Jim got up, his smell wafting behind him as he walked out of the room. The teacher looked at Robert. “I won’t call your parents, Robert. I know what happened. But rules are rules.”
“Yessir,” said Robert, his head down.
“You can go.”
Daily practice: the words “Someone cheated”.