Would Katie do that? No way. Tell on us to save her own hide? No. I couldn’t stand that. Not my Katie Potatie!

So where is she?

*   *   *

Mr. Principal’s door swung open. He looked at me, curled his finger. “Ladies first,” he said. “Sarah, will you step in here, please?”

Jake

I wish I hadn’t done that. I shouldn’t have gone down there and asked Sarah not to tell Chen about me. That wasn’t very heroic.

If I were a nobler person, I suppose I would’ve dashed into the office and saved her. Maybe I would’ve told Chen that I’d tricked Sarah into using my sister’s answers. A better man than I would have insisted that the entire cheating scam had been my idea…which, come to think of it, maybe it was.

I wish I hadn’t crawled in there, low as a worm, on my belly. Now I’m cringing and wincing and I hate myself and I make myself sick. Feeling like mud is no worse than I deserve.

But it’s not too late. I could go back down to the office right now. I could walk in there with my chin up, shoulders back, and I could save the damsel in distress.

It probably wouldn’t make Sarah fall into my arms with gratitude, though. It would just make me the joke of the school.

“Jake Broder can’t even cheat right! Can’t even hide behind his genius sister without screwing up. Pathetic!”

And I deserve to be a laughingstock. For all I know, Sarah masterminded the whole thing. Stalked me. Followed me into the library and pretended to take the chair next to me by accident. I walked right into it like the biggest fool.

Who was I kidding? What were the chances, really, of a girl like Sarah Collier sitting next to me and flashing all those smiles at me for no reason? What are the odds that after never noticing me before she just suddenly gets so friendly out of nowhere?

I can’t believe what a sucker I was, falling for the whole thing. I was duped. Tricked. Taken advantage of. Used. She must’ve been laughing at me the whole time.

And she never said anything about sharing my sister’s test with other kids. Other boys. I thought this was just between us. I wouldn’t have had any part in it if I’d known she was going to spread it around. Especially to Dan and Rob, neither of whom would stop to piss on me if I was on fire.

I bet that’s how she got caught: because of them. If she’d kept the answers to herself, she wouldn’t be sitting in the principal’s office right now. So, really, Sarah created this mess. And she has no one to blame but herself.

Dan