Cheat Read Online Free Page A

answered me, I would have peed my pants. I took a deep breath, peered up and down the hall and tiptoed into the room.
    It was just another grungy, end-ofthe-day classroom. There were scraps of paper on desktops and crumpled paper balls on the floor. Beneath my runners, I felt the accumulated grit of eight periods of kids tracking in dirt. The whiteboard was filled with math equations in red, blue and green marker.
    Mr. Draper’s desk at the front of the room was heaped with textbooks and binders. There was one dinky little corner where a coffee-stained mug and a tin can of pencils clung to the edge. I wondered how many times Mr. Draper had gone for a gulp of coffee and ended up with a mouthful of pencils.
    Across from me was a wall of windows with the blinds pulled down— probably to keep kids from looking outside. Teachers are always shutting out the day. It makes you wonder why they bother putting windows in classrooms in the first place. Between the windows and Mr. Draper’s desk was a filing cabinet.
    I tiptoed past the desk to check out the glass-walled office. Cupping my hands around my eyes to cut out the glare, I squinted through the glass. The only furniture was a chair, another filing cabinet and another desk mounded with books and papers. On the far wall, a second door opened into the biology lab.
    I tried the doorknob. This door was locked. Was the answer key in there?
    I wandered around the classroom. There wasn’t a lot to see except a notice on the corner of the whiteboard announcing an upcoming test. Another opportunity for the cheating scam to kick in? I made a mental note of the date.
    Even though I was skulking in a strange classroom uninvited, I couldn’t bring myself to snoop through Mr. Draper’s desk. When I’d learned as much as I could from walking around— which was almost nothing—I decided to leave. As I headed back to the door, I heard footsteps in the hall. They were close— and getting closer —
    I looked for a hiding place. I didn’t want to have to explain to anyone what I was doing there—not even the custodian. Whoever was out in the corridor might walk right on by, but I didn’t want to take the chance.
    The only cover was the filing cabinet. I squeezed in between it and the wall of windows. I had to scrunch down so that my head didn’t show.
    Right away, I regretted my choice. I’m not good in small spaces. Being wedged into a crevice barely big enough to hold a flip chart—which was already there—felt more than a little cramped. My arms and legs were going in different directions. I felt like one of those distorted figures in an ancient Egyptian painting.
    Then, suddenly, I wasn’t alone. I heard the soft padding of feet followed by the scraping of wood on wood. There was a jangling noise and then more footsteps.
    Was it Mr. Draper? I wished I could see. I needed to move, but I didn’t dare. My legs were aching with the strain of crouching. My arms felt like they’d been shoved into their sockets backward. The more I thought about how uncomfortable I was, the worse I felt. If I didn’t distract myself, I was going to go nuts. I pictured myself jumping out of my hiding spot like a jack-in-the-box.
    I shut my eyes to make the image go away. I forced myself to focus on the sounds. I heard the jingling noise again. Keys! Whoever was in the room unlocked the door to the little office. The keys must have been in the desk—that was the wood-on-wood scraping I heard. Then there was a metallic rolling sound.
    It was probably the filing cabinet in the little office being opened.
    I was getting desperate to straighten my legs when the filing cabinet drawer rolled shut with a bang.
    I froze. My legs were shaking. They weren’t going to hold out much longer.
    The office door banged shut, and the keys clinked in the lock. Then they landed with a crash back in the desk drawer. Slam!
    In the silence that