Chapter 25

It is a sad truth that even while my parents know I'm a genius and the most honest soul under the sun; as soon as a teacher phoned to say they had 'concerns', all that went out the window and I was left trying to prove that it is all a mistake.

I argued with Mom until Dad got home and took over the argument. I had two things going against me here. The first was the natural tendency of adults to believe the worst about young people. The second was that I didn't have any files of my article that predated the publication date. Without something in writing I couldn't prove that P.J. Smith was me. There was nothing on my computer and I never received any confirmation that they had even received the article, much less planned to publish it mere weeks before I used the same article as the basis for my Civics paper.