I Know Your Face

What a Bad Influence She Is

"Why in the world would you do such a thing, don't you know how stupid that was!" Mrs. Watson screeched, swerving along in traffic as they made their way down the crowded town street.
"Well, no, not really." John admitted. "I thought it was kind of smart."
"You were cheating on a test, that's not smart!" Mr. Watson insisted. Mrs. Watson pounded the horn impatiently as she waited in the long line of traffic, not really in the mood for standing still.
"I wasn't cheating I was...helping. I was using the formulas and stuff, and Mr. Anderson said that the first problem was actually right." John defended.
"It's still cheating! You get marks on your permanent record, a zero in the grade book, and a week of detentions!" Mrs. Watson insisted. John held onto the seat for dear life as he mother made a very sharp turn down the small road that lead to their house, one of the many row homes built into a massive brick development.
"Well I mean, it could've been worse." John muttered. "They could've took my phone."
"We're taking your phone." Mr. Watson pointed out, holding John's cell phone in his hands tauntingly.
"You're grounded for a week as well." Mrs. Watson added. John groaned, there it was, it just got worse.
"Our son, a cheater, I never thought I'd see the day." Mr. Watson sighed. John was lurched into the front seat as his mother slammed on the breaks, parallel parking them against the sidewalk right in front of their house.
"You guys are acting like this is some huge deal, I mean, I just cheated on like, one test, it's not that bad." John defended.
"It is bad!" Mr. Watson insisted.
"And obviously you were so bad at cheating, which is bad in itself, that your neighbor caught you! If you're going to do something against the rules you might as well do it right." Mrs. Watson insisted.
"Don't do anything against the rules in the first place!" Mr. Watson protested.
"Yes, follow the rules." Mrs. Watson agreed, as if she weren't contradicting everything she just said. John sighed heavily, getting out of the car and slamming the door shut, stretching out his legs and making his way onto the small porch.
"Well you two try hiding something from Sherlock Holmes, see how you like it." John snapped.
"Seemed like a really weird kid if you ask me." Mrs. Watson decided, slamming her car door shut so that the glass rattled in the window.
"Very proper." Mr. Watson agreed, as if trying to make Sherlock sound a bit more tolerable than he actually was.
"He's an idiot, that's what he is, he just ruined my life." John insisted, opening the front door only to be met by Harry, who had a huge smile on her face.
"Did John really get in trouble?" she asked as soon as she saw her parents making their way up the steps. She was always really thrilled to see John get yelled at, especially if it was by an official.
"Yes, he did." Mrs. Watson agreed.
"Ha! Is he grounded? For a month? For a year? Are you going to lock him in his room the rest of his life?" Harry guessed excitedly.
"Shut up Harry." John growled, pushing his sister away and throwing his backpack at the foot of the stairs. The Watson parents just shook their heads, closing the door and hanging their coats on the rack.
"John's only grounded for a week, now go upstairs and finish your homework; you are now the good child." Mrs. Watson decided.
"I've always been the good child." Harry defended with a small frown.
"Yes, we know, now go upstairs." Mr. Watson insisted. Harry shrugged, obviously not able to find anything to complain about so she just pranced up to her room, leaving John to scowl at the foot of the stairs. His parents got back to their normal lives, cooking dinner and whatnot, so he decided he wasn't needed anymore, at least not down here.
"I guess I'll just go up to my room too." he decided with a sigh. There was no opposition, which was good, so he ran up the steps and locked himself in his room before his parents would assign him any horrible chores to do. John sat around in his bed for a while feeling miserable, wondering how the soccer game had gone, and wondering how his future was going to collapse underneath him. He was applied to a good three or four colleges, all who seemed very eager to accept him and even give him some scholarship money to come play sports for them. But now he wasn't so sure that they'd go along with that, he wasn't even sure that they'd accept him now that he was a cheater. No, no of course he was being over dramatic. It was the school system, planting these horrible ideas in his head since he was in elementary school. They always played cheating up to be some sort of miserable task, something that would destroy your entire life if you were caught doing it. They were safeguarding themselves with stories and rumors to try to encourage kids not to even try it, a scared straight sort of thing. It was all rubbish. John was only going to get one zero in that class, which was probably the same grade he would've gotten on that test anyway. Alright, so he had detention for a week, he could still make the back half of most soccer practices, and if he had no phone he couldn't possibly procrastinate on homework anymore. Maybe this whole cheating thing was a good thing? John's thought process was interrupted, however, when the doorbell rang. He wondered who could possibly be coming over at this hour, certainly not Greg, he was at the soccer game, and if Sherlock showed up then John would most certainly chop off his head. So John got up off of his bed and poked his head into the hallway, watching as his mother opened the door to reveal a very attractive blonde.
"Mary!" John said excitedly, running down the stairs in excitement. Mary, of course, was his girlfriend, his very beautiful and smart and amazing girlfriend. John knew if anyone would take his side in this whole thing it would be Mary, she would most certainly understand.
"Hello Mary, nice to see you again." Mrs. Watson said with a smile, opening the door wider and letting her walk into the house. For some reason John's parents didn't like Mary much, and it was evident by the rather cold look on Mrs. Watson's face as soon as Mary looked away. It didn't make sense to John why they didn't like her, what's not to like? But they always claimed that she was a bit sassy, and not a very nice girl to be around. John really didn't care what they thought, he didn't even care all that much about Mary's personality. They were in love and she was gorgeous, what else was there to ask for?
"Hi John." Mary said with a smile, dropping her coat on the coat rack as if she was expecting to be staying.
"Alright mom, we'll be upstairs." John decided, not asking for permission because he knew his mother would say no.
"Well your father is almost done with dinner, so when it's ready she needs to leave." Mrs. Watson decided.
"That's alright." John assured, running up the stairs and gesturing for Mary to follow him. Finally they both got up to John's room, and as soon as she was inside John slammed the door, not in the mood for listening to his mother ramble on or seeing the disapproving look in her eyes.
"Lots of rumors going around about you." Mary said immediately, flopping down onto John's bed and turning on the TV. She flipped to some horrible chick flick channel, making John cringe. He sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulders; letting her lean on him so that he could smell her flowery shampoo.
"Ya well, isn't there always?" John wondered. Mary nodded, watching intensely as some sort of teenager walked for the first time after getting her leg amputated...or something. It was a very weird TV show apparently.
"I heard you were cheating on your math test." She said. "Well, I heard a lot more other things, but cheating is a lot more likely than stabbing Mr. Anderson with your pencil, so I'm going to go with the first one."
"No, I stabbed him with my pencil. But only in the arm, so they didn't arrest me." John said with a shrug, trying to keep a straight face while he said it. Of course it was always tempting to stab Mr. Anderson, but obviously he would never attack a teacher. Apparently though, Mary thought he could, because she looked very worried for a moment.
"You're serious?" she wondered, looking as if she were ready to run away from this homicidal school supply maniac.
"Of course I'm not serious, I was cheating. Using my phone to look at answers." John admitted.
"Oh, that's more like it." Mary agreed, nestling her head back into John's shoulder with a sigh.
"How's the soccer game going?" John wondered.
"Oh, I don't know. I wasn't there because I know you aren't there. I'm going to guess it's horrible though." She decided.
"That's not very nice, they're good players." John insisted, immediately standing up for his fellow teammates.
"Ya, but you're not there, and you're the best." Mary defended. John smiled modestly, shaking his head although he very much agreed with her. He was pretty good at soccer; he couldn't lie to himself about that.
"So who was the one that caught you anyway? I heard that you got caught but they never said how." Mary asked. John sighed heavily, laughing as if this were all some sort of sad joke.
"Sherlock Holmes." He admitted.
"That psychopath caught you?" Mary asked with a loud laugh, as if somehow getting caught by someone below you on the popularity scale was somehow insulting.
"Ya, that moron saw me with my phone and told Anderson right away, right in front of the whole class. He seemed so bloody proud of himself, it was terrible." John growled.
"You should get back at him somehow." Mary suggested.
"What, go beat him up in an alley?" John wondered.
"Maybe." Mary shrugged. "Just make sure he doesn't do it again."
"I won't be cheating again I can assure you of that." John insisted.
"Don't be such a goodie goodie John, that was your first try, next time you'll be better, and Sherlock won't dare call you out again." Mary assured. John sighed, but shrugged, thinking that maybe Mary had a point.
"I kind of scared him in the bathroom; he thought that I was going to kill him." John admitted.
"What did you do?" Mary wondered with a laugh.
"Knocked his comb out of his hands and threatened to smash his face into the mirror." John said with a shrug, as if that was just every other day.
"Oh my god he's such a loser, a comb, really? You should've just smashed his face, it would've gotten you into trouble but it would've been funny." Mary suggested. John nodded, imagining Sherlock's 'pretty' face after he had chunks of glass sticking out of his cheekbones.
"He said he was too pretty to die." John said with a laugh. Mary laughed a very cruel laugh; obviously she wasn't Sherlock's biggest fan either.
"He's so gay." She decided. John nodded in silent agreement, turning his attention back to the TV, as if that had somewhat bothered him.
"Ya well, hopefully he's too scared to talk to me again." John hoped.
"Get him in a back alley anyway." Mary suggested. "I'll record it or something."
"That sounds like a great way to get us both arrested." John decided.
"Ya well as long as that little snitch keeps his mouth shut no one would know, would they? It'll be fine." Mary assured. John sighed, but shook his head. As tempting as it was to knock Sherlock unconscious he knew that he had to be somewhat cautious now. He needed to get a good reputation back, dispute his seething anger towards that worm.
"Ya, I don't think I can do that. Sorry." John decided.
"You should get him back some way else then, nonviolent. Ruin his life like he ruined yours." Mary suggested.
"He does deserve it." John agreed, thinking about any possibilities for getting back at Sherlock. But nothing came to mind, and before Mary could suggest anything new John's mother's voice came up from the kitchen, calling for dinner.
"Alright then, that's your cue." John decided with a rather upset shrug.
"That's fine; I'll think of some ways to get back at him, it'll be fun." Mary decided with a proud smile. John nodded, getting up from the bed and stretching his now numb arm a little bit before opening the door for the two of them to leave.
"I'll see you later then." John decided. Mary smiled lovingly, pressing a very quick kiss to John's lips for good measure.
"See you." She agreed.
"Gross!" Harry's voice whined from behind them, trying to push through to get to the staircase.
"You'll get here someday Harry, just you wait." Mary said with a laugh, ruffling her hair a little bit before descending down the stairs quickly, without a thank you or goodbye to the rest of the family. But of course, John still loved her. 

    The next day when John got into school he felt like everyone's eyes were on him. He saw a lot of unusual glares, faces that he had never seen aimed towards him. Some were disbelieving, some were blame, and some disgrace, and there were whispers passed from person to person as John made his way down the hallway. John had no idea why this was all so necessary, I mean, so what if he cheated, god they were acting as if this were all some sort of big deal. When he got to his locker he was surprised to see Greg there already, usually he loitered around his locker to see Molly Hooper arrive at her own, but today he looked rather angry, leaning against John's locker with a look of supremacy on his face.
"What's going on, what did I do?" John wondered, watching as Greg sighed heavily, stepping away so that John could twirl his lock.
"I think they're more focused on what you didn't do." Greg muttered, sounding very glum.
"What happened at the game?" John wondered nervously, deciding that this was the only thing that could possibly affect the entire school.
"We got crushed, five to one. It was humiliating John, absolutely humiliating. Now we're down in ranks and everyone thinks we won't make it to the playoffs." Greg insisted. John groaned, letting his forehead fall into his locker in despair.
"Come on that's rubbish, they're not even a good team, how did this happen?" John exclaimed in horror.
"No idea mate, but we were lost without you. Coach is furious." Greg insisted. John shook his head, throwing his things into his locker and grabbing his book for first period.
"That's pathetic Greg; it's not my fault that they made me stay after school." John defended.
"Well it's your fault that you were cheating in the first place!" Greg pointed out.
"And if it weren't for Sherlock Holmes, no one would even know!" John exclaimed.
"Don't try to blame this all on him, you know he was only trying to be noble." Greg pointed out.
"Ya but he's a moron, I can't stand that kid!" John exclaimed.
"Well it's nothing to get all worked up over, he did what he thought was right, it's your fault that you didn't study." Greg insisted.
"Greg, honestly, who's side are you even on?" John wondered, shutting his locker dramatically and turning his gaze onto Greg.
"I'm on the team's side, and so that means I'm not on yours." Greg insisted.
"Don't be dramatic, it's not my fault!" John exclaimed. It was, in fact, his fault. Greg just shook his head, walking down the hallway without another word and leaving John speechless at his locker, not really knowing how to respond to any of this. He knew that he had Mary in his first period class, so then he was able to talk to her about all of this, get her side of things. But then he had history, and he knew that there was a certain curly haired demon in the back of that class; he was going to have to face Sherlock Holmes twice today. It wasn't a good day already, and he's only been in school for about two minutes.
"Well there he is, I thought you wouldn't show up, too ashamed." Mary laughed as John walked into the classroom, sighing heavily before dumping his backpack on his chair. He walked over to where Mary was sitting and sat in the empty desk beside her, not really caring about the accusing glances he got from his fellow soccer players.