- The only way John could pass the exam was by cheating
- “There you go, making up lies again. That is what they told me
- the thing she did to the breaks on the Honda
Weekend Freewrite
“The only way John could pass the exam was by cheating,” said Mike to Richard. There is no way he could have done this on his own!”
Mike didn’t look happy with the results posted to the corkboard outside the classroom. John had scored better than him and that just didn’t sit right.
How could that be? Mike had always been better than John, ever since they were little kids playing together. Mike could run faster, he even spoke earlier. When John was still bubbling syllables and nobody knew what he was saying, Mike spoke in whole sentences, even though he was almost a year younger.
He liked John, but not that much. He always had to share his toys with him when he came over to their house. And John would break one almost every time.
It really is hard when your mom is best friends with someone who has a kid you basically have to grow up with like he is a brother. Mike had told his mom more than once that he didn’t want to go to the same college as John. It was time to move on, to go somewhere - away from home.
But that costs a lot of money. Money! He and his mom didn’t have any. But John scoring better than him and getting the scholarship he wanted! That just didn’t sit right with Mike and he needed to tell the professors that John must have cheated.
When Mike got home, he told his mother what the professors had said to him. “There you go, making up lies again. That is what they told me! Can you believe it? Me! Telling lies!! I am so mad!”
“Honey, you must have misunderstood what they said,” said his mom. But Mike knew what he knew and now, he was really mad.
That night he couldn’t sleep at all. This scholarship had been his hope, his way out of this town. Away from everyone he knew. Living where everyone knows your name might sound romantic to some, but not to Mike.
All, night, he tossed and turned and plotted and even shed a tear.
Then, finally, he came to the conclusion that he needed to go to John’s house and confront him, to find out how he had pulled it off.
Sleep came, but morning was just a couple of hours away. He dreamed how John would confess to cheating and him marching him to school to confess. Mike even had a dream of packing his bags and leaving town.
He climbed into the old car his mom had given him, slammed the door and drove off. As he was driving, he suddenly remembered that she had told him about the thing she did to the breaks on the Honda.
What was it? He couldn’t remember. What was it! Sweat was starting to drip off his brows as the car was speeding up. What had she said? Double push on the pedal? Or press really hard? What was it? If only he could remember!
Double push did slow the car. But by the time he reached the school, he was exhausted.
He saw John walking up to his car with a girl he hadn’t seen before. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen John much lately either. Not at the basketball pick up games he liked to play every night, not at the bowling league and not at any of their usual hangouts.
“Hi Mike,” John said, “this is my tutor Clara.”
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