4. Cheater Pants

4 Cheater Pants It's still dumb Monday Dear First-grade journal, Right now it is recess. I am not playing on the playground. Instead, I am sitting at my desk. And I'm waiting to get yelled at. I wish I could disappear into thin hair. If I could disappear,

I would run outside. And I would find May. And I would clunk her on the head. I wish I didn't even sit next to that girl. 'Cause people should never leave homework on their desk for other people to borrow. That is just asking for trouble mister. From, Junie B., First Grader Mr. Scary was writing at his desk. He looked up and called my name. "Junie B.?" he said. "I'm ready for you now. Could you bring your chair up here, please? My stomach flipped and flopped. 'Cause here came the yelling part, that's why.

I did some deep breaths. Then I pulled my chair to the front of the room. And I sat down next to him. Mr. Scary took my homework paper out of his drawer. He set it in front of me very serious. "I want you to explain this, Junie B.," he said. "I want you to tell me exactly why you copied May's homework this morning." I tried to swallow, but nothing went down. "Um, well, let's see the reason I copied was was I tapped on my chin. Then, all of a sudden I thought of it! "Daddy!" I said. "It was my daddy's fault!" My teacher looked surprised at that answer. "Your daddy?" he said. "Your daddy told you to copy May's homework?"

"Yes," I said. "I mean, no. I mean, last night I wanted to stay up late to do my homework. But Daddy turned out my light. And so he is the reason that I had to come to school without it." "Ohhhh I see," said my teacher. "Your daddy wouldn't let you stay up. So that's what forced you to copy May's paper." I nodded real fast. "Yes," I said. "That's exactly it." Mr. Scary raised his eyebrows. "So did May actually give you her paper to copy?" he asked next. I rolled my eyes at that crazy question. "No, silly. May would never be that nice," I said. "It's just that this morning she kept on bragging about how her homework is always an A+. And then she left the paper on top of her desk when she went to the office. And that is just asking for trouble, mister."

Mr. Scary leaned back in his chair. "Ah," he said. "So when May left for the office, you saw her paper and you just decided to—" "Borrow it," I said. "I decided to borrow it to copy." My teacher did a frown. "Borrow?" he said. "No, Junie B. I'm sorry. But borrow is not the right word here at all. When you copy someone else's paper, that's called cheating." My eyes got big and shocked at that word. 'Cause what was he even talking about? "No, Mr. Scary. No. I didn't cheat. I didn't," I said. "Cheating is when you steal answers off of someone's test. But homework isn't a test. Homework doesn't even count, hardly." "Oh, but homework does count, Junie B.," he said back. "Cheating is not just about

stealing test answers. Cheating is anytime you take someone else's work and you present it as your own." He looked at me. "When you cheated this morning, you broke my trust in you, Junie B.," he said. "We have a rule about this in Room One.