The Second Ship (The Rho Agenda #1)(17)

Heather ignored the interruption. “As for other side effects, I don’t have a clue. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Glancing at the gathering darkness outside the windows, Heather rose to go. “Since we can’t tell anyone else about this, we’re just going to have to protect each other, even more than normal.”

“And hope we don’t wake up with a third eye,” Mark called after her as she stepped out the door.





Chapter 10





Los Alamos High School had endured disastrous starts by students before, but Heather doubted it had seen a worse start to junior year.

True, they had been a bit distracted, unable to resist whispering amongst themselves. And that forced several teachers to split them up, seating them as far apart as possible. Worse, it seemed that the teachers talked to each other over lunch, forming a cabal that zeroed in on Heather and the twins like homeland security.

Then Mark failed his first science test in record fashion, having ignored Jennifer’s admonitions that he study.

“Why?” Mark had said, tapping his head. “I scanned the book. Got every page, right up here.”

It had only been during the test that he realized that having the textbook scanned into his brain was no substitute for reading it. Although he’d been able to read through its pages during the test, he ran out of time with only a third of the problems finished.

Game over. Grounded for a week. As a result, the three had to postpone their planned trip out to the ship last Saturday.

And now this. The three of them sitting in Principal Zumwalt’s office as Ms. Gorsky leaned her large form against the principal’s desk, banging a chubby finger on their test papers so vigorously that the vibrations threatened to send the pencil jar over the edge.

Ms. Gorsky’s beady eyes swept angrily back over Heather and the twins.

“Cheats! That is what they are, and I, for one, want you to make an example of them. To start out the first test of the year in my class by cheating indicates a lack of character all too common in their generation. If it had only been the two girls, I may not have caught it, but when I noticed that Marcus had also quoted a paragraph from the history text exactly the same as the girls did, there could be no doubt. They were copying.”

The principal, a big man with kindly features who embraced his thinning hair by shaving his head, leaned forward, motioning for Ms. Gorsky to move out of his line of sight to the juniors.

“Marcus. Is that true?”

Mark’s face flushed a bright red. “No, sir, it is not.”

“Then how do you explain the exact quote on one of the essay questions, a quote which appears to be several sentences long?”

Mark cleared his throat. “We studied together. I got grounded for doing poorly on my science test last week. I spent a lot of time with Jennifer and Heather studying to do well on this test. We memorized a good portion of the text.”

“Ridiculous.” Ms. Gorsky stomped her foot to emphasize the point, an act that reminded Heather of the dancing elephant on the GE commercial. “The wording is exactly the same. Nobody memorizes the text. They copied from each other.”

“Sir,” Heather said, “even if we wanted to copy, it’s just not possible. Ms. Gorsky has us sitting across the room from each other. There’s no way that Mark could see either one of our papers, or vice versa.”

“Is that correct, Ms. Gorsky?” Principal Zumwalt asked.

The rotund history teacher scowled at her students before turning back toward the principal. “Yes, but that only means they came up with some sort of signaling scheme to pull it off.”

Principal Zumwalt interlocked his fingers under his chin. “So, you’re saying they tapped out the paragraph in Morse code?”

Where Mark’s face had been bright red, Ms. Gorsky’s turned purple. “Yes. Maybe not that way, but they passed the information somehow.”

“But you didn’t actually hear any tapping or see them passing a note or anything of the kind?”

“No, I didn’t. But I didn’t have to. Look at the paragraphs I circled with my red marker. If they all memorized that so well that they can quote it word for word, then I am an idiot.” Ms. Gorsky glared at the principal, as if daring him to accuse her of being wrong.

Principal Zumwalt paused for several seconds, then turned toward Mark. “Young man, would you mind telling me the quote you used from your text in response to question number three?”

A look of hope dawned on Mark’s face. “‘Whereas Longstreet was consumed with a growing dread at the thought of an attack up that long gradual slope, an attack which reminded him of the slaughter his own men had inflicted upon the forces of the north at Fredericksburg, Pickett was overcome with enthusiasm. Feeling that his unit had been unfairly kept from achieving their share of the glory in the previous two days of battle, General Pickett demanded that he be allowed to lead the charge on the morning hence, a charge that would eternally bear his name.’”

As Mark spoke, Principal Zumwalt’s eyes followed along the paragraph circled in red. Raising an eyebrow, he turned back to Ms. Gorsky.

“Well, Harriet, unless you have some additional evidence, I have to conclude that these young people did, in fact, memorize that section of text from the book. Although it is unusual that they all used the same quote, this appears to be a case of a zealous study group, not a case of cheating.”