Her big brothers

Chapter 76: redemption

The next day going to school, I was honestly nervous. Mr Clark grades papers super fast, and there was a high chance he'd give them out today. My first period was history so I didn't need to feel worried for long. Whoop de do.

I swear Mr Clark gave me a dirty look as soon as I entered class. I sat down next to Holly and tried to avoid eye contact with him.
"You seem nervous," She says softly.
"Yeah, 'cause I am, Holly," I snap at her.

Isa, who was sitting in front of us quickly snapped her head to me. "Don't have a go at her. It's not her fault you decided to cheat," She said, glaring at me.

I sigh, putting my head in my hands.
"She's right. I'm sorry, Holly. It wasn't your fault," I say sadly.
"It's okay," She says sweetly, putting her hand on my shoulder.

"You'll be okay. You're a good student for the most part, even if he finds out, you won't be punished that bad." Isa reassures me, softening her tone.

"Alright students, settle down please." Mr Clark orders, tapping his hand on his table. "I wasn't able to get all of your papers graded, but I did quite a few. I have to say, I'm impressed with the excellent work you've all done. You can pat yourselves on the back." He says with a smile, much to the class' relief.

He begins distributing the stack of graded papers, the anxiety disappearing and a smile appearing on most of the student's faces as he hands them their papers. I was nervously watching, wanting and not wanting at the same time for him to give me my paper.

"Here you go, Isabelle," he says with a grin, handing Isa her paper, proudly displaying a big 'A' at the top. She turned back to us excitedly. However, upon noticing that I was still an anxious, sweaty, nail-biting mess, she cleared her throat and discreetly tucked her paper away.

He gives more than half the class their papers, before starting the lesson. Though I was still nervous, I breathed a sigh of relief, thankful my doom wasn't today.

Once the class finally ended and the bell rang, we all got up and started to leave. I was one step out of the door when Mr. Clark called me.

"Emma, could you stay behind for a moment? I need to speak to you,"
I freeze in my tracks, before slowly turning towards him, and walking to him.
"Y-yes?" I ask, totally failing at trying to keep the worry and fear out of my voice.

"I graded your paper, too." He says nonchalantly, swiftly pulling my assignments out of his briefcase.
"Oh..." I say anxiously, shifting from foot to foot.
He gives me a pointed look. "Mind telling me why you decided to cheat?" He asks lowly, not beating around the bush.

"How did you know?" I ask quietly, knowing that denying anything would be futile now.
He raises a brow. "Emma, I've been a teacher for around ten years. I've been yours for almost an entire year now. I can certainly recognise when someone's writing is not theirs. You're one of my top students, I could recognise the writing I'm your paper wasn't up to your usual standard,"

"Up to my standard?" I ask, meekly.

He nods. "While your essay was incredibly well-written, it completely lacked the creativity and depth that you consistently bring to your work. It's like the soul of your writing was missing in this one. I've witnessed your growth throughout the year, Emma, and this essay didn't reflect that." Mr Clark says, disappointedly. "I suspected it was either plagiarised or written by someone else. I didn't want to jump to conclusions and accuse you right off the bat, so I used
a plagiarism detection software. Cheating with AI has become more prevalent among students recently, so the principal has advised us to use this software if we spot anything off."

I sigh. "I'm sorry, Mr Clark. This was the first time I've ever done this..." I trail off, knowing that wasn't an appropriate response.

"You used AI to write most of it, didn't you?"
"All of it," I mumble.