Missing Piece of the Puzzle

Pre-Face

Cheat, cheat, cheat.

That's all they ever want from me when we're in class. Not, today. I don't care if Mr. Banner gave us a pop quiz; I'm not going to let anyone from the gang cheat off of me.

I slightly turned to the right and saw one of the girls from the gang, Karina, write something down on a small, torn sheet of paper.

I groaned internally.

Why did Biology have to best my best subject? Why did I have to have this class with one of them? It doesn't matter what class it is, they always find new ways to get me in trouble. And their favorite way is cheating. For once I wish I wasn't smart. That's how low they bring me; I end up wishing I didn't have knowledge.

'The gang', 'the girls', 'them', they are all referred to the real gang that I'm in. We don't have some retarded name for our gang; we just call each other 'the gang, or 'the girls'.

I don't call them that; instead I say 'them'.

Of course I will never tell them that to their face. But lets just say their lucky I'm calling them 'them' behind their backs and not some long line of cuss words.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Karina sticking her hand out with the paper for me to take.

I quickly grabbed the small rolled up paper and put my eyes back to my test. I was already finished with the quiz, but we had to turn it in at the end of the period. That's what I hate about this class; instead of turning it in, getting a good grade and being able to say "Sorry, I already turned in my paper and I don't remember the answers." I was supposed to wait until the period is over, cheat and get an F if I actually get caught cheating. I could be an A+ student if I didn't get caught cheating so much.

I opened up the crumbled piece of paper and read it:

Give me the answers from questions 1 – 20.

Gosh, not even a 'please', and the last time I checked, the whole test was only twenty questions.

I shook my head and mouthed 'no' to her, but something roughly got a hold of my neck to stop me from protesting. Whatever got a hold on my neck was strong because I felt a shot of pain forming in that area.

I slightly winced. I forgot that another girl from the gang - more like the 'leader' of the gang - sat right behind me.

I heard her horrible voice in my ear. "Listen Bella, if you don't help her on this test you will get another punch from me. You don't want that now do you? So help Karina out." Her icy voice demanded.

Jazmin, that was the name of the leader of the gang, was right: I didn't wan to get another punch from her. My black eye and torn lip are almost barely noticeable.

I didn't want to steal something from a store, but everybody else in the gang wanted me to do it. I kept refusing and refusing until I felt to awful punches. It was pretty hard stealing something from a store when everybody is looking at you. But who could blame them? I had a new black eye and a fresh cut up lip. It was harder for me to jack something from the store when all the blood was coming out from my lower lip. To make matters worse, I thought the room was spinning.

That happened a couple of weeks ago and just thinking about it makes me sick. No way did I want to go through that again.

I was stuck in between doing the right thing and getting beat up or doing the wrong thing and cheat. In my life, there was never a good out come.

I silently wrote down all the answers on the other side of the tiny paper. I put my head down as I put my hand under the table and stretched it out to my right side.

I waited, but nothing ever took the paper. Still looking down, I looked at Karina from the corner of my eye.

She looked down at the paper in my hand then back up at me face and said something unbelievable. "I don't cheat."

Then, I heard a loud SMACK! that made me jump. I saw a hand on my desk and slowly looked up to see who it was – Mr. Banner.

Busted.