MALPRACTICE

"Cassie" Cass whipped around as she heard her mom's voice behind her "mom what are you doing here" She said looking in surprise, she expected to see her dad not her mom, she didn't know her mom was back from her trip and this was definitely not how she wanted to welcome her mom. She was glad though, that her mom came because she knew that her mom knew what she could and couldn't do and that her mom would stand up for her. Little did she know she had her own mini army working in the background.

"Yoo. What the actual fuck is going on?" Maddie asked looking down at the piece of paper she found in Kate's bag. "This is Cassie's test. How can they say she cheated when her script wasn't even found." "Something's not right, if Cassie turned in her test and Kate took it out, then why is she being accused of cheating? " There was no time to answer that question. The cheerleading team had rounded off practice so they took the paper zipped up Kate's bag and put it back where it was, then they left.

"Good day Mrs. Taylor" The principal greeted Cassie's mom as she sat down and took Cassie's hand in hers. She could see tears in her daughter's eyes and she knew something wasn't right. "What's seems to be the problem principal?" She said, very confidently looking at the principal and then his secretary. "Uhm, I have cause to believe that Miss Cassandra here has been involved in malpractice in the test conducted this afternoon, I was informed by one of her classmates who saw her during the test and choose to speak up." Cass couldn't believe what she was hearing. "It's not possible, how is this possible." She kept asking herself in her mind over and over again.

"Do you have any proof to back up these claims" Her mom asked in a sort of calm that was intimidating, the principal cleared his throat and said"we have compared Miss Cassandra's grades in the past and the results of the test that was taken this afternoon and there's a distinct difference, plus we have one eye witness." He said pushing Cassie's test results and past grading scripts to her mom. She took them in her hands compared them closely looking left and right through all the sheets of paper. Cassie felt like she was going to faint, she knew her grades had not been perfect a few months ago but she knew she had to get better, hence the reason she went over to Nattie's place to study.

This test meant a lot to her, this was her final year and she wasn't going to joke with it. She needed to get her grades up and she knew she wouldn't be able to concentrate properly if she studied alone, she would get distracted by something. Natalia was always extra serious when it came to her studies, she knew Cass needed her help and she was ready to give it, she made sure they studied almost all through the night. It actually paid off, the test was better than most Cass had written on days when she studied alone.

Cassie's mom began to smile and that got the principal confused and Cass was confused too, what could be so funny that her mom could find it amusing in these times. "It's not hers, she didn't do it" Natalia yelled as ran down the hall to meet up with Brian. He spun around to face them trying to understand what an out of breath Natalia was babbling about. "Slow down, I don't understand what you're saying."

"Maddie saw Kate swap her script after exams right?" Natalia asked adding a dramatic pause, she was having fun with this little detective game. "Yeah that's right, so?". Natalia smiled and put her hands out handing him the crumpled up script "well Kate didn't take out her own script, turns out she took Kate's script out and probably switched it for a different slip, but we still can't figure out why they say Maddie cheated, if anything I would have guessed Kate wanted her to fail."

"I think we need to go to the principal's office, before it gets too late and Cass gets suspended. " Brian's heart skipped a beat at the thought of Cass being suspended, she had been in high spirits recently and he was glad, if she had to go through suspension she would just recoil and withdraw again. He definitely didn't want that to happen. Nattie ran so fast her sneakers squeaked on the shiny tiled floor, they finally got to the office and she didn't hesitate to push past the door. They were lucky that the secretary had been called in if not, he would have stopped them right at the door.

Kate felt on top of the world, she was happy she got what she wanted. When she heard Cassie's name through the speakers being called into the principal's office she couldn't help smiling to herself. She was scared that it wasn't going to work, thank God she took that acting class when she was 9, how on Earth would she have convinced principal Francis that Cass cheated.

She remembered how her heart skipped when he said "this is a very great accusations Miss, are you certain you saw her?" She nodded her head frantically and gave him the idea of asking their teacher about it, telling him that Cass had always been an average student and that maybe out of desperation to get her grades up for finals she resorted to cheating. She even pleaded with him to take it easy on Cass.

She smiled to herself all through cheerleading practice and her teammates were surprised to see Kate all bright and happy, especially Ava, Ava had been in the cheerleading team for some years, and she knew what went down between Brian, Natalia and Cass. She was also friends with Cass, well they weren't close close, but they were cool and she was actually worried about her.

"Wait, Wait something is not right!!!" The trio yelled as they barged into the principal's office, Principal Francis, the teacher, the secretary, Cassie and her mom turned in shock. Cassie was wondering what her friends were saying and why they all looked like they had ran two blocks to get there. When the finally caught their breath they apologized for barging in like that. "We're sorry for coming in this way Sir but we found something." Brian said looking at Cass and wondering if she was okay, "You better be! What is the problem, is there a reason why you barged in here this way, can't you see we have a parent here, what did you find that could wait till later?"

"I think you should let the kids speak Mr. Francis because you might want to listen." Now the principal got confused "Go ahead then I'm listening" he lean back in his chair and took off his glasses setting them on top of his desk. Cassie kept looking back and forth, she was too stunned to speak, she had already started to feel light-headed. "Well, Principal Francis, During the we all took this test, Cassie, Natalia, Brian and I, we were all present, when the test scripts were collected Natalia and Cassie left before I did. During the test Katherine McKay asked our teacher for a fresh sheet of paper, claiming that she had made a mistake and wanted to start all over. I found this suspicious but I didn't object, After the test when everyone had left she claimed that she unintentionally passed the wrong slip which is the one bearing the mistake, so our teacher let her exchange it, without closely observing her, I saw all this before I left the class."

"Miss Katherine was actually the one who brought this matter to me "The principal said as realization dawned on Cassie. "Principal Francis, moments ago you handed me these scripts to analyze, claiming that my daughter couldn't have scored that high in a test without cheating, but you failed to notice that the supposed test she cheated on wasn't even in her writing. Cassandra is my child I could tell her writing from a mile away and i can boldly tell you. She didn't write this test." Mrs. Taylor said pushing the papers back to the principal, as he and the teacher bent over to scrutinize the Paper Maddie went on "I found this in Kate's bag sir, this is the test Cass took, it's in her handwriting and it was taken out by kate."

"What!!!?" This was the first time Cass spoke since this back and forth conversation bad been going on. "You mean Kate swapped out my test and submitted something she wrote". The teacher then spoke up "that appears to be right." He said holding up Kate's test and the script bearing Cassie's name wrong. Kate had tried to slant the handwriting a bit but it was obvious that it was hers. The Principal the was infuriated, "Get Katherine her right this minute"He said very aggressively at his secretary.

"I'll do that right away sir."