Can't Stop the Questions

Chapter 32: Semi-Private Cheating

In the weeks to follow, Pablo seemed to have limited his interactions with the football team to what's absolutely necessary. That is, in the weight room and if, for coursework, the teachers paired him with other footballers. However, the demand for tutoring has abated some in the weeks after the state-sponsored ACT date.

Speaking of the weight room, here players taking World History on the team ask him for help. And George, too, since it's their first final.

"We need help on the World History final" Bart asks Pablo, and supplies him with a list of kids, mostly football players with a love interest or two, who have also expressed interest in getting help in that course.

"Why is it that you didn't ask Audrey, me or even George or Lilina before? Maybe you feel like you had to prioritize English, math and science subjects..." Pablo asks them.

"Frankly, World History is of little or no real use" George answers him. "Not worth the effort to learn it; you will find that a lot of people take it because they don't have a choice, thanks to state rules! Lilina and Pablo were willing to help you in World History if you needed it; you were there when you asked for extra credit help back in January!"

The mention of state rules gives both pause. And more specifically the TOPS University Diploma (which is a misnomer, since it's really a college-prep curriculum), a track VA's administration tended to push on a lot of people to pursue provided graduating with a 2.5 GPA or higher is realistic.

"I'm not like Lilina or Pablo; these two are study machines. I know school sucks, and I usually don't do extra credit unless I have no choice!" the left linebacker retorts.

"There is one thing I won't do: steal tests. However, you can ask around for past finals. I believe it would be better to study using past finals first before you go ask us to cheat!" Pablo warns his football teammates. He then texts his quiz bowl teammates for their plan to study for World History: "Lilina, try to get George to study for World History. Audrey, the basketball teams are yours to tutor"

Nadine might have had to cover Ethan's needs in this area, as well as in math, but this leaves a big hole down the baseball team. Maybe I ought to ask Tanith; she knows about the baseball and softball teams' needs in this area better than I would have, Pablo tells himself before he asks about the status of baseball players in this course. Oh wait! Nadine wasn't picky about who to help at all! She might help baseball players if it happens that baseball players ask her for aid, but Audrey is, academically speaking, loyal to basketball.

"One more thing: don't hesitate to bring whoever needs help that you might know! Doesn't matter what extracurricular activities they take part in!" George urges his teammates.

"If you're thinking about cheating, George, it's going to be much more restrictive than on a regular test, since all sections take it at the same time. So what worked for juniors in Algebra II won't work for finals. We can't have a section take photos of the test and then have us make an artisanal answer key for us to hide in the bathrooms!" Pablo warns him again.

"I guess, we could smuggle in eye charts, have someone in the section carry a laser pen and then point at the relevant letters and numbers on an eye chart!" another weight room user, a theater actor, suggests to him.

My older brother once told me about how he cheated on AP Chemistry using laser pens, but he also told me that the teachers believed the method to be so unreliable they never took laser pen-based methods seriously, Pablo has flashbacks from his older brother's only real consumption of cheating on tests. But why did he talk about the specifics of how he cheated to the whole family back then? If they want to keep cheating, an artisanal answer key in the bathroom would raise alarms if too many people catch wind of it, notwithstanding that it was last used months ago in a different course.