🅸'🅻🅻 🅱🅴 🆃🅷🅴🆁🅴 🅵🅾🆁 🆈🅾🆄 {ERIC MATTHEWS}

S1 E7: The One Where He Cheats

˚ ༘✶ ⋆｡˚ ⁀➷ERIC WAS BEING TUTORED BY A PRETTY GIRL. It was evident that he didn't want to be tutored at all, until he found out said tutor would be one of the prettiest girls in his class. She worked in the administrative office, and was the only girl in school that was smarter than Andy. 

Andy, of course, did not take it badly, when Eric rejected her offer to help him. She had offered him help in school many times before, and often only seemed to win him over when he knew that studying would be followed by a movie night or something else fun related. She was now very peeved to know that the only reason he agreed to having help with school, was when it came accompanied by a beautiful girl who just so happened to find interest in him. 

Now, if he was learning, and willing to put in the work, Andy would not complain. She had so badly wanted to see him succeed by any means necessary, and if a beautiful girl was the ticket to Eric getting good grades and test scores, she was fully on board. 

The problem only arose when Andy found out the cost of this situation. 

Eric was not learning the material in order to get good grades, but instead letting his tutor help him cheat. Andy was always the straight A student, and though Eric was never able to relate to her in that sense, she never thought he'd allow himself to achieve what he wanted in a way that was wrong. 

He'd been over at her place one evening, watching an old episode of happy days on TV, when she finally had the guts to bring it up. 

"So," she began, unsure of quite how to bring it up. "The big test is on Thursday..."

"Yeah, don't remind me," he said in a tired sounding tone. She knew that this was weighing on him, and she didn't like how this girl that was supposed to be helping him was doing the exact opposite. She may have been helping him pass, but at what cost? The grades weren't his if he didn't earn them. 

"Do you think you're prepared? If you don't think you've studied enough, you can always come over and-"

"I know what you want to ask me, so just ask." He cut her off. 

He was so tense around her the past week, it was as if a completely different Eric had taken form. He wasn't annoyed with her, she knew that, but his stress level over everything was completely out of control, and she knew that too. She just wanted to help, but it had to be his choice to take it. 

"Are you going to take the test honestly, or are you just going to let her fill it in for you?" It was a question he didn't want to hear, but knew was practically inevitable. Eric had let it slip up to her about three days ago as to what was going on. She didn't tell anyone, he knew she could be trusted with information like that... but it still made her think more than she wanted to. She was supposed to be focusing on this test, too. Instead she spent most of her time worrying over Eric. In was in their nature to worry over one another, but she let it fester too much, and now she had to know what his decision was going to be. 

"I don't know, yet. To be honest I really want to make the grade on my own, but she doesn't think I can do it, and at this point, neither do I." He sounded like he'd repeated those words in his own head a million times, never coming to any conclusion about them. It made her truly sad to see that he though about himself this way. 

"Eric, you don't need to cheat to get a good grade. You can do this, you just have to apply yourself."

He shook his head and leaned forward, clearly in denial of her words.

"Thanks, Andy, but she's the smartest girl in school. If she doesn't think I can do this then I probably can't," he sighed out the last words. He'd been told by so many people how unintelligent he was, and now it was catching up to him. He never wanted to believe it, but all the odds were against him, and the only way he saw fit to make it out was by doing so dishonorably.