"Snake Eyes" by Waseef Nayeem
Jesse was considered the best cheater at school. He wasn’t smart himself but was able to read off someone else’s paper from across the room without the teacher noticing. His lightning fast vision earned him the nickname “Snake-Eyes”. The teachers despised him but had no evidence to pit against him for Jesse was able to change the answers enough to make them seem original.
Every day after school, Jesse would go to Tim Horton’s with his friends to grab a snack. On the week before the Grade 8 Mathematics Finals one of Jesse was acting a bit strange.
“Hey, Jesse what’s the matter?” said his friend Christian.
“Nothing, it’s just that… I heard a rumor that on the finals, the teachers are gonna isolate us in boxes,” replied Jesse.
“So What? Are you claustrophobic?” his friend Pete asked.
“Naw, I’m not claustrophobic but how am I gonna do my thing?” said Jesse.
“Oh right, you said we’re in boxes right?” asked Christian.
“It’s like a wall around three side of the desk, you can’t look forwards or to your sides but the back is open,” replied Jesse.
“But can you look back then… oh wait never mind,” said Pete.
“I know, that’s why I’m stressed ‘cuz my parents are gonna kill me if I don’t meet their standards, which are pretty high because of all my ‘good marks’ on my other tests,” said Jesse.
“I don’t know man, good luck to you,” said Christian.
The conversation caught the interest of another student sitting across from their table, his name was Jeremy and he loathed the ethics of Jesse and his friends and was plotting the downfall of them. So he decided to challenge Jesse.
“Hey, Snake-Eyes, I know what you can do. You know what… I DARE you… no I DOUBLE DARE you to steal the test answers from Mr. Sum’s desk,”
“Shut up Germy,” said Pete.
“No, wait Skinny P. I might able to pull that off. I’ll think about it,” said Jesse.
“Dude, he’s setting you up!” said Christian.
“He can’t, you know why? You guys will be watching him.” said Jesse.
“Hey! That’s not fair!” Jeremy protested.
“Who ever said I’d play fair?” said Jesse.
On the day of the test, Jesse was more stressed than ever, he was thinking of everything that could go wrong. Jesse was assigned to block 2A, in the front row. His desk was empty, only his pencil and eraser were present. The clock was nearing 9:45 and the tests were being handed out.