It was a cool breezy Wednesday morning, it had rained the night before, and they were glad that the sun had at least peeked through the clouds. They had a test that day and Cass studied hard the day before while she was over at Nattie's place. Her dad had let her spend the night because they were going to study. "These used to fit perfectly," Cass said with a frown as she looked in the mirror. She had forgotten to pack something to wear so she figured she would just use Nattie's clothes. She had picked up a tie-dye tee she knew she had used before, but now they just clung to the sides of her body in a way she didn't like.
Nattie's heard her complain and she walked over from the bathroom, "There is nothing wrong with your body Cassie!!! It's all in your head" She said reassuringly. "Matter of fact I wish I could put on some weight and not look so skinny, I would be so pretty" She continued while and twirled in front of the mirror. "Who said you weren't pretty, btw I think David would like that very much." Cass teased feeling much better about how she looked. "Oh stop it" Natalia chuckled in the bathroom, but she couldn't help but smile.
They both finished up getting dressed and headed downstairs. "My babies," Natalia's mom said staring at them from where she stood at the bottom of the stairs. Cass and Nattie looked at each other then looked back at her and chuckled."Morning mom" They both said in unison. Cass liked Nattie's mom she was always kind to her whenever she was over, she always said she saw Cass as another one of her children. Cass loved it, it was like having a whole other family with something she always longed for, A sister. They had their breakfast of homemade bacon, eggs and toast and then headed off to school.
Katherine was a great student, she was always like that, A's and B's came to her naturally. She knew Cass wasn't hence her plan for the day, she had found that day's test questions last night while snooping around after cheerleading practice and she took a photo. When she got home she studied the questions and memorised them. The next day in class she looked over at Cass who was having a conversation with another girl in class "that smile won't last much longer" She grinned mischievously. The test commenced a few minutes later, Cass was nervous as usual, she really prayed and hoped her brain would not fail her this time.
"Yes," Nattie said as she smiled and looked over at Cass who smiled back, they had studied the right thing. Cassie's confidence increased as she knew she was going to pass this test. "Excuse me, sir, can I get another answer sheet" Kate's hand shot up and she gained the attention of not only the teacher but Maddie too. Maddie knew there was no use for an eye test sheet. The space was sufficient, she started to wonder what Kate was up to as she didn't see her crumple up the old answer script. The test went on and they had a few minutes left before submission."That's it, time's up" The teacher said loudly and everyone stopped writing. The teacher went round and collect the answer script of each student, he dropped the like of scripts on his table and sat down as the bell rang for recess.
Everyone started to leave the class but Kate stalled for a bit and Maddie noticed this "hey Mads come join us for lunch" Cass called out, Maddie was hesitant to leave, she knew something was wrong. She started to walk out slowly and then notice Kate as she told up and walked over to the teacher's desk. "I'm sorry I made a mistake sir, I submitted the script that had an error." The teacher let her swap the scripts and she left, he didn't find this suspicious but Maddie did, that was the last she heard before she left to catch up with Cass and Nattie, they had started hanging out together recently. They actually made a pretty cool trio, and after lunch, they headed back to class.
"Cassandra Taylor, Please come to the principal's office" Cassie was shocked to hear her name coming through the speakers. She looked over at Nattie and Maddie with her mouth wide open and clear confusion written all over her face. Even Brian was shocked too "what's going on" He whispered to Natalia, but she shrugged. He felt uneasy and curious. Maddie on the other hand turned to look at Kate and she saw her with an evil smile on her face. The class went on as usual but there was a lot on the mind of Kate, Maddie, Nattie and Brian.
"P-Principal Martins" Cass stammered. She still hadn't figured out what was the issue. "Miss Cassandra, I would like to believe you know the reason you were called in here," The principal said in a Stern voice. "No sir, as a matter of fact, I don't." She could hear her heart pounding at this point. "We have a zero-tolerance policy for malpractice in this prestigious establishment, we do not tolerate any such form of malpractice." Said the principal "I have cause to believe that you, Miss Cassandra have committed the act of malpractice."
"That's not possible!!!" Cass screamed her heart was in her mouth now and her blood was boiling. "Who told you that?" She queried further "I would advise you to keep your voice down miss, this matter would likely put a dent on your records as this is your final year in this school is that right?" He looked at her from above the rim of his glasses. "Yes, principal Francis," Cass said trying to compose herself even though she felt like she couldn't breathe. "We have contacted your parents and they will be here soon." He said leaning back in his chair. "Sir, with all due respect, you can't do this, I didn't cheat, there's no proof I did."
"I'm getting really worried, this is taking much longer than I thought it would," Brian said as he bit his nails nervously while pacing up and down the hall. He, Natalia and Maddie stayed back after the bell for gym rang to know what was going on. "Guys, guys" Maddie screamed running towards them "I overheard the principal saying something about Cassie cheating on the test." She said almost out of breath from running. Brian looked like he had seen a ghost, he knew the implications of such, suspension, and that was terrible but there was one thing he knew "she didn't cheat, Cassie would never do such a thing" He said with all the confidence he had. "I know and that's why we are going to figure this out," Natalia said with a serious look on her face.
"I know it's wild but I feel Kate had something to do with this" Maddie piped up. "Kate?!" Brian asked as his heart skipped a beat, he knew she was crazy but crazy enough to set Cass up. "Yes, kate, I mean I noticed that during the test she asked for another answer script, claiming she had ruined the first one by mistake" Maddie started to put the pieces together "yeah but how does that tie into all this, " A confused Nattie asked. "Well after everyone left she went back and asked to swap out her paper, claiming she had turned in the wrong one, doesn't that sound suspicious to you?"
"She probably did something to Cassie's test," Natalia said with eyes widening in amazement. "She took the paper and left the class after that. She is probably at cheerleading practice right now, if we hurry we can get to her bag, it's probably in the girls' Locker room", Nattie wouldn't normally do this, but her best friend was the one involved, she would do anything for her. The girls ran down to the Locker room while Brian stayed back to watch the door to the principal's office in case Cass came out.
"Lock the door so we don't get caught" Whispered a scared Natalia. They started to search the Lockers and they soon came to Kate's locker, it was locked but Maddie had a solution, she knew how to pick locks with a hairpin, her dad taught her in case she got into a sticky situation. she considered this one of those situations, "click" the padlock fell to the ground, they picked it up and looked around for a second before opening the locker. They found Kate's bag and began to search for it, soon enough Maddie came across the paper that Kate took out of the pile of test scripts. "I found It," Maddie said as she started to open up the paper and then suddenly her mouth fell wide open in shock and Natalia's face crumpled in confusion. "What games are you playing, Katherine McKay " Natalia said.