Chapter 6: Exposed

"Blank paper?"

The whole class went silent.

"Blank paper? Ms. Grant said she handed in a blank paper?"

"Huh? Why?"

Natalie stared at me, eyes wide. "Ms. Grant, did you make a mistake?"

I held up the paper. "Look—nothing but your name."

Her face flushed red, eyes darting wildly as she clutched the paper like it might bite her. She flipped through it in panic.

"Impossible, absolutely impossible!"

She searched through the pile of tests, frantic. Finally, she found one filled out—except for the last question.

She stared, dazed. "What on earth is going on…"

I gently took the paper from her. "Natalie, why are you holding Aubrey’s paper? I just checked—except for the last question, she got everything right. You should learn from her."

My words sent a ripple through the class.

"Why did she hand in a blank paper? She can’t do it?"

"But she got a perfect score in math last time. How could she blank this one?"

"She kept looking at Aubrey’s paper—what’s she doing…"

Natalie couldn’t take it. She shouted, "What do you know! I just didn’t bother with this test! It’s useless to me! I’m not wasting my time!"

She stormed back to her seat, eyes burning holes through me.

Inside, she raged at her system:

[Why did the swap fail? Why?]

[Do you know how humiliating this is for me?]

Her system was silent, then finally replied, subdued:

[Because Aubrey didn’t finish all the questions, the swap failed.]

Natalie was stunned, then hissed:

[Didn’t it always work before? Why are there restrictions now?]

The system was silent a long time, then whispered:

[I don’t know either…]