Mystery Loves Company

Chapter 27 - File #4.7: The Hateful Fight

Avery

Three years ago, Kyle Jackson was a high school junior, like me. Because of the early admission, he could go to Bensworth one year ahead of his friends. He even got a scholarship. Those were the two things Mrs. Dench offered me a week ago, but I just dumped them into a filthy trash can.

Just about a week after he applied to Bensworth, the news of his plagiarism broke out. The first person he needed to get an explanation from was the English teacher, Mr. Harden. Kyle said that according to the detector program, almost 99% of his book report was copying other student's work four years prior. Mr. Harden, having read so many book reports, didn't easily believe with the program's result that he called Kyle to go with him to the academics office. He would have known if someone made a report of The Count of Monte Cristo before.

They rescanned the report, but the result was still the same. So, Mr. Harden requested to see the hard copy of the report to Mrs. Goldfire. Since not every student papers were archived, they found nothing. Like mine and Danna's, the date when the fake report was posted wasn't really four years ago. But, Mrs. Goldfire assured both of them that no one used the computer at that particular time, not even her.

With his kindness and trust towards Kyle, Mr. Harden convinced Mrs. Dench that Kyle wasn't cheating because he didn't remember any of his students used that kind of book for a report. The case was closed, just like that, with program failure being the reason why Kyle was wrongfully accused. If this still went on, he would probably lose his chance for Bensworth. But, later, we all knew that he was accepted.

Lucky son of a gun. He really was destined to be Rhett's best friend because they completed each other.

Now, the plagiarism allegation happened again. Not one, but two papers at once were detected, with the same method as three years ago. It wasn't a program failure. It was clearly a work of 'serial plagiarism accuser'. I knew it sounded ridiculous, but Kyle and I thought that these were probably done by the same person.

But who?

My mind was out in space when Mr. Connor called my name. The student who was inside his office before me already got out. Following Rhett's advice, I went to Mr. Connor to ask some questions. Thankfully, he didn't mind to answer.

"Yes, I was so busy last week." Mr. Connor sat on his chair as he told me to sit in front of him. "I only had time to check them on Thursday. That's when I found out about your report."

I nodded. "I have reason to believe that someone might've stolen our group's file, edited, and uploaded it to the database before you did."

His eyebrows raised. "That's not possible. I brought the papers and CDs home. I had one class on Thursday, and it was after lunch break. The assignments were with me all the time. I checked them after my class ended."

"What time was that?"

"About 1.30 pm."

So, he came to school after lunch break and used the computer after his class. If the fake report was uploaded around lunch break, it meant the suspect didn't get the file from Mr. Connor.

Helen, Troy, and Jake. I gave each of them the file because I didn't go to school last Tuesday.

I excused myself from Mr. Connor's office after saying thank you. Ricky Peralta and Tanya Herbert might take the same classes as me and Danna, but there was no way for them to get the files. It was all back to my own group.

I told Danna about this when we were in the chemistry class. Danna confirmed that Ricky was absent from school on Thursday because his grandfather passed away, and Tanya was in the school clinic most of the time. The nurse let her go home before lunch break because her stomachache was getting worse.