After Mr. Lee finished handing out the test papers, Lianna, Daniela and I exchange mischievous grins. Let the cheating commence.
After 5 minutes of contemplating the questions on the paper, I furrow my eyebrows and raise my hand. "Mr. Lee?"
"Yes?"
I stand up swiftly, then walk over to the teacher's desk, test paper in hand. "I'm afraid I don't quite understand question 4 on page 1. What's a polynomial?" I point to said question on my test paper, eyes wide in a show of curiosity.
"Sorry, Miss Alex. I'm afraid I cannot tell you. If you want the answer to your question, you should have listened in class," Mr. Lee answers, smirking. He's enjoying this. He knows very well none of us have revised.
I grit my teeth. Focus on the plan! I plaster a smile on my face. "Mr. Lee," I say sweetly, "I'm afraid there are a few flaws in your statement. I DID listen in class, but due to several reasons, I was not able to remember your lectures clearly, namely because of your, ah, let's say, monotone voice lulling me to sleep." Have I gone overboard? I shouldn't have straight out insulted the teacher like that. One misstep, and I could easily push Mr Lee over the edge. I feel my palms start to sweat. Okay. Focus. There's no backing out now. As Mr. Lee opens his mouth to interject, I continue on smoothly, "I will admit that it was partly my fault that I was not able to listen in class, but to my understanding, I presume that the teacher's teaching methods do play a big part in how well a student absorbs information, right? Therefore, this means that..."
As I drone on, Mr. Lee's face is changing colours rapidly, rather like the Christmas LED lights Lianna, Daniela and I keep in our room. He glares at me with the force of a thousand suns, so focused that he doesn't even notice the whispers and gossip directed at us, which are getting louder and louder. No one is even working on their tests.
Achoo! I sneeze, bending over and covering my mouth with both of my hands. "Pardon me, I'm terribly sorry, Mr. Lee! Now, as I was saying..." I continue verbally attacking Mr. Lee. When his cheeks are busy flashing from red to purple to white and back again, I lean on the teacher's desk and place my palm on the edge of the test papers. The wad of gum in my palm sticks the pages together immediately. I hold in my sigh of relief.
Mission accomplished, I tell Lianna and Daniela. My part is done. Lianna, point out the stuck-together pages of the answer booklet; Mr. Lee will try to unstick them one by one, and Daniela, that's when you can take pictures from the CCTV above the teacher's desk. I conclude my argument with Mr. Lee and waltz back to my seat. Everyone is staring at me. I sit down and continue fake-working on my test papers. When I sneak a glance out of the corners of my eyes, I glimpse Lianna trying to hold in a laugh, and Daniela bent over wheezing, face red and contorted in silent giggles. Did you guys SEE the look on Mr. Lee's face? she laughs. I wish I'd brought a camera. No, wait, I've already hacked into the CCTV above his head and recorded everything. We can watch this again on Friday's movie night.
Concentrate. Now, for step two. Lianna raises her hand. "Mr. Lee?" she asks. Without waiting for Mr. Lee to acknowledge her, she fires on. "Why is there a wad of gum stuck to the answers?" As Mr. Lee starts and tries to separate the individual pages, the CCTV clicks several times as it takes pictures of the answers. A moment later, 28 cell phones ding as the answer sheets are sent to the class Whatsapp group by an anonymous number. I click on the files and start copying down the answers immediately. Nice work, I compliment Daniela. I feel my younger triplet smirk. My pleasure.
Lianna leans over and whispers to Daniela and me: "Do you guys wanna spy and see our dear teacher's reaction when he marks our papers?" A slow smile spreads across Daniela's and my face. Now we're talking.
