DOMINIC VS. THE RESEARCH PAPER
There are plenty of ways to cheat. I just have to find one.
Besides, writing a 20-page research paper is pointless. I’d told Ms.Sabin as much when she assigned it.
“I can Google anything I need to know.Why repeat what’s already out there?”
“You’ll be learning how to think, Dominic,” she’d said. “How to analyze information and connect ideas. I’ll be in the library Mondays and Wednesdays after school for anyone who needs help. Your project packet has a step-by-step checklist. Now, let’s talk about plagiarism . . . "
That’s when I zone out.
After school, Cameron suggested some one-on-one, so I bailed on going to the library and joined him on the soccer field.
“I hear AI bots can write a paper in seconds.”
Cameron bends the ball past me, and I chase him down the field. I’m about to steal it when he does a Ronaldo Chop and kicks it into the net. I bend down, letting the sweat roll off my face into the grass.
“Dude, are you crazy? My brother did that and almost got expelled. Get Deja to help you. She’s smart,” he suggests. “If you hook her up with some merch from your dad’s store, she might write it for you.”
Deja is smart, but she’s also hot. Like fire. Practically glows walking down the hall. Every guy at school goes weak in the knees when they see her. But she’s with me. I can’t let her think I’m a basic loser.
Cameron collects the ball from the net. “Got time for another drill?”
“Gotta slide. My dad scheduled me to work tonight.”
At Javelin Sports, my dad tosses me an apron and tells me to deal with a shipment of track shoes that “aren’t going to unpack themselves.”
Works for me. In the storeroom, my dad won’t see me texting Deja.
