Usman Grant and the Cheater

Surprising Events

Lunch period was almost over. Dana was trying out her latest corny joke for speech club on Usman.

"What do you call a factory that makes OK products?" she asked.

"I don't know." Usman said, dreading the inevitably terrible punch line.

"A satis-factory," Dana said with a triumphant grin.

Usman groaned.

"That's the reaction I'm going for!" Dana said.

At that moment, Glenn stood up and yelled, "Food fight!" He hurled a heaping spoonful of mashed potatoes at a kid at the end of his table. The messy splatter hit his neighbors, too.

"What are you doing?" the kid, who was wearing a "Gamers Rule" T-shirt, asked. In response, Glenn threw a banana at him hitting him on the forehead.

Ms. Root the math teacher, seeing this, yelled, "Glenn Horovitz, stop it. Someone could really get hurt."

By that point, "Gamer's Rule" had chucked the banana back at Glenn. The first throw had broken the peel, so when it hit Glenn, the banana, slightly overripe, burst and a gooey mess splattered on Glenn's face.

Rather than getting mad, Glenn chuckled. He scooped up some beef stew with his hands and smeared the brown chunky mess into the hair of the girl next to him. She screamed and ran out of the cafeteria, probably to get clean. But her friend picked up her plate and used it to launch her food in Glenn's direction, hitting him and Troy and even the guys at the table behind them! Dana realized the food fight had spread throughout the cafeteria!

She looked at Usman. "What is going on?"

Usman's mouth was staring in shock. "I have no idea but I need to get out of the line of fire before my clothes get hit!"

"That's what's so weird though," Dana said. "You'd think he'd target us for making fun of Troy."

At that moment, a glob of mashed potatoes landed on the front of Usman's shirt and dripped down his shoulder. His face paled.

Usman sprang into action, wiping the potatoes off with a napkin, then wetting another napkin and blotting the stained areas. He wanted to make a run for the kitchen and ask for dish soap but he was afraid running would make him more of a target!

At this point, Ms. Root and Mr. Bacon, the English teacher, had reached Glenn's table. Usman was able to blot the stains on autopilot, so he could watch the interaction.

Mr. Bacon crossed his arms and asked, "Who started this?"

All the students looked down and stayed silent. Not even "Gamers Rule" would snitch to a teacher. Then Troy, still facing the floor, jerked his head slightly at Glenn.

"Is this true, Glenn?" Mr. Bacon said.

Glenn should have been mad that Troy ratted him out, but he seemed amused instead.

Glenn looked Mr. Bacon in the eye, smirked and said, "I cannot tell a lie."

Mr. Bacon scoffed and said, "Glenn Horovitz, you are skating on thin ice, buddy. I'm taking you to the office and you're lucky if you don't get detention for this."

Glenn repeated in a mocking voice, "You're lucky if you don't get detention for this," staring right at Mr. Bacon as he spoke.

"What did you say, mister?"

Without breaking eye contact, Glenn picked up his juice, and poured it out, right on Mr. Bacon's shoes. Then he smirked.

Mr. Bacon was red-faced. "That's it. You wanted detention, pal? You got it."

Usman was confused, though he still noted the unconscious The Breakfast Club reference. Glenn wasn't a teacher's pet, not by a long shot. But he wasn't dumb. The food fight was ridiculous and it came out of nowhere. Plus Glenn probably had a lot of demerits on his record. He could get in serious trouble some day!

So why was he trying to get detention?

***

The weekend went by in a blur. Usman spent most of the time studying for the test. When he was studying, he liked to imagine himself in a training montage from a movie about an athlete getting stronger and faster.

The only time he spoke to Dana was Sunday afternoon when they quizzed each other over the phone. Even Monday morning, Usman spent every last minute prepping for the test after lunch. At least there was no food fight this time.

Usman glanced over at Glenn's table and saw Troy reading something. Was he actually studying? He nudged Dana who was trying to memorize the dates of different Civil War battles. Dana looked up.

"Troy is reading something," Usman said, "He might actually be studying."

"I hope so," Dana replied, "I do feel kind of bad for making fun of him, but maybe that helped motivate him."

"Way to look for the good in the bad. No wonder you're in public speaking club."

***

"As usual, I'll be handing these back in order from highest to lowest" Mr. R. was saying Wednesday as he held up the stack of graded tests. "So we can reward the top scorers with our admiration and motivate the low scorers with a bit of gentle public humiliation."

Usman cleared a space on his desk between his pencils, eraser, and textbook. But Mr. Roosevelt walked past his desk in the front row and announced, "We have a bit of a surprise today!" Mr. Roosevelt kept going to the back of the class where Troy sat.

"Very good, Mr. Angelo. A perfect score!" Mr. Roosevelt said cheerfully as he handed back Troy's test.

Usman exchanged looks with Dana.

"But how ..." he said as Dana said, "Wait, what?"

The whole class was murmuring and whispering.

Troy looked annoyed. He leaned forward held his hands out, and loudly said, "Why is everyone so surprised? I can get good grades, you know. Just because I never have before doesn't mean I can't."

Mr. Roosevelt chimed in, "OK guys settle down. We should congratulate Troy."

Usman took a deep breath and he was the first one to put his hands together in applause. But as the class was clapping, Usman turned to look over his shoulder at Troy. Troy was staring right back at him with a grin that said, "I ate your cake and got away with it too."

Usman knew Troy had cheated. But how?