TAKE IT ALL

When I open the email server, I’m in Marisol’s account. I could log her out and open mine, but there isn’t time. I have to use hers.  I copy her essay and paste it into an email to myself. To cover my tracks, I delete the message from her sent mail folder. 

Marisol’s writing is really good. I decide to rearrange the sections and change the wording here and there. I’m sure Ms. Sabin won’t notice the similarity.

A few weeks later, the campus supervisor escorts me to a conference room in the office. Sitting around the long table are the principal, Ms. Sabin, my mom and dad, and two other adults. And Marisol, her eyes wet and red-rimmed. She looks at me like I ran over her dog.

Like some fancy lawyer, the principal lays out the evidence: two research papers and a printout of the email from Marisol to me.

“Isn’t email supposed to be private?” I feel the blood draining from my face.

“That doesn’t seem legal,” my dad says. 

“It is,” my mom, the paralegal, assures him.

“The only question here isn’t what happened, but who is responsible. An infraction of this magnitude is cause for expulsion.”

“I swear I did not give Dominic my paper. We’re not even friends.” Marisol glares at me across the table.

“My daughter has never cheated on anything,” says the man next to her.

“Then how do you explain the email?” Ms. Esparta asks.

“I can’t. I just know that I didn’t send it.” She wipes the fresh tears from her cheeks.

All eyes turn toward me. Do I deny everything? Blame Marisol? I’m really mad about the way she’s looking at me. My dad looks so ashamed, and my mom is crying.