The Barefoot Violinist

Cheat

A few weeks after Cory had handed in their assignment, the substitute teacher called him and Bennett in. Since that day that he'd given Cory the assignment things had cooled down a lot. Cory's group of morons seemed to be avoiding him or pretended that he didn't exist. He'd also not seen Jake at school since that day either, he thought chancing a glance toward Cory.

"Is this really your work?" the sub asked holding the paper out to them.

Cory looked nervously over at Bennett who briefly nodded his head, staring at the paper in the sub's hand as if it was offending him.

"I find it really hard to believe that two high school kids could come up with something like this, especially in the short time it took you." This wasn't the work of a high school student. He was convinced that they had cheated. This paper looked more at home at a university than in a high school English class.

Here we go again, Bennett sighed to himself. This was always the struggle with new or temp teachers. They never read his file and they always thought he cheated and no matter what he said, the principal always had to get involved to explain the situation.

"I think you should read my file or talk to the principal first, sir." Bennett suggested, glancing briefly up at the sub.

Cory, started to panicking next to Bennett. This could turn out badly for him if they found out he didn't touch the assignment and here Bennett was talking about going to the principal. What the hell was that all about? Was he trying to call the sub's bluff?

"I don't think there's a need to get the principal involved Mr. Cane. Just admit that this isn't your work and I'll give you another chance to submit." He smiled at Bennett, trying to set him at ease.

"Please speak to the principal first, sir." Bennett said before getting up and leaving the office.

"Bennett! Hey, Bennett!" Cory jogged to catch up with him. "What was he talking about in there and why did you ask him to go to the principal?" he asked walking alongside Bennett toward the exit.

"So that he knows it's my work." Bennett said frostily, not breaking his stride. Cory was getting annoying with his dumb questions, he thought, his mind already on his music.

"What does that mean?" Cory was genuinely confused. Nothing that Bennett said made any sense.

"Look," Bennett stopped in his tracks to face Cory, quickly averting his eyes to a vein gently pulsing in Cory's neck. "Just give it a rest, okay? You don't need to worry your little brain cells about anything. Just keep your mouth shut." He said in exasperation, not really caring if he was rude. This had been another gut-wrenching day of boredom at school and all he wanted to do was go home.

"Em, okay?" Cory looked at him confused, as he turned away to leave the building. It took him a moment to register what Bennett had said. It still didn't make any sense, but what he did know was, that he'd just been called dumb. He was the first person to admit that he wasn't the brightest candle on the cake, but it's not like he was completely stupid. He frowned watching Bennett disappear through the doors.

--

The next morning Bennett was sitting in the backseat of Victor's car with Blue, with the science project on his lap. Victor had insisted he put on his seat belt and added and extra cushion to separate him from the door.

"Do you really think all this is necessary?" Bennett asked in disbelief as Victor slowly crept along avoiding any bumps in the road.

"That's going to put me on the map, mate. We need to take extra precaution to get you there safely."

"It's really not that delicate Victor. You can drive faster." Bennett laughed seeing Victor scowl in the rear view mirror. "And you better not tell anybody I helped you." He warned.

"Helped?!" Blue asked in surprise. "You high jacked his project and the only thing he helped with was pressing the button at the end!"

"Did I high jack your project, Victor? I'm sure I remember that you helped out a lot." Bennett frowned. He was so focused on the task at hand that everything else was a blur.

"Well, it was my idea to start with." Victor grinned while turning into a parking bay. "Does it really matter who did what?"

"Right, let's get this set up quickly so that you can vamoose out of here." Victor whispered conspiratorially leading them off to his science classroom.

Smiling at Victor's apparent excitement, Bennett left the classroom to get to the music room. He hadn't taken more than a few steps, when Cory appeared in front of him.

"You're really hard to track down you know?" He frowned at Bennett, who seemed to have found something interesting on the floor to look at.

"Why are you looking for me?" He asked curiously, chancing another glance at Cory's face. He briefly met Cory's dark gaze that seemed to looking for something.

"The sub wants to see us." He explained, leading the way to the office. "We're not going to get into any trouble are we?" He asked worriedly, looking down at Bennett who kept walking without acknowledging him.

"As long as you don't speak, we'll be fine." He said grimly, hoping they would pull it off. He really didn't want to prolong his interactions with Cory, he thought as they took their seats in front of the sub.

"Okay, I've had a chat with the principal as you've asked Mr. Cane. I'm sorry, I should have read your file first." He smiled benignly at Bennett, a slight flush across his cheeks. "I wasn't aware of your special situation." Bennett in turn nodded, briefly looking up at him.

Cory sat looking between the two of them, wondering what was going on. What were they talking about? There was definitely something up and it had to do with Bennett. What did this kid do?

"However," he held up his hand. "This was obviously the work of Mr. Cane and Mr. Cane alone as I can tell from the writing. The assignment was that you do it together. So, I will have to ask that you redo it and this time, Mr Huyssen, I expect you to put in the effort and do the work." He passed the paper to Cory and dismissed them.

"What was that all about?" Cory asked as they left the office. Bennett ignored him and kept walking down the hall.

"Hey Bennett, listen." Cory put his hand on Bennett's shoulder, bringing him to a halt. "Will you please explain what that all was about? What is your special situation?"

"It's complicated and I don't want you to get confused." he coldly looked up at Cory, defiant.

"Look, that's the second time you've called me stupid. Can you just explain already?" he knew he was sounding whiny, but for some reason he wanted to know more. He just didn't know what that reason was at the moment.

"Let's just pretend you didn't hear anything and we can go back to hating each other in peace. Or do you want to take another swing at me for old times' sake?" Bennett wasn't in the mood to play cat and mouse games with Cory and his so called concern or curiosity or whatever it was that bugged him.

"Fine! Keep your stupid secrets. It's not like I need to know or care either way." he snapped, storming off. It's not like I'm trying to be his friend, Cory thought morosely, walking down the hall.