“Okay, one scoop of lemon coconut.”
“That sounds awful.”
“Please.”
Theo ordered one scoop for her and his standard two scoops of chocolate covered with crushed Oreos. If only his mother could see him now. He paid for them and took them to the booth. April offered a polite, “Thanks.”
“So what’s up?” he asked.
She ignored her dish and said, “I don’t know where to start, Theo.” She paused and thought for a second. She was not the least bit sad or frightened, as Theo was expecting. Instead, she seemed excited. “So last night my parents decided to go out for a fancy dinner because it’s their anniversary. They never go out together, and I was happy for them. Happy until they told me that Janelle would be coming over to sit with me. I’m thirteen years old and they abandon me all the time, so I couldn’t understand why all of a sudden I needed a sitter. But I didn’t want to ruin their big evening, and besides Janelle is sort of an old friend. She’s eighteen years old and she babysat a few times when I was younger. She lives down the street and is pretty cool. So Janelle came over, and we ordered a pizza and watched some old movies. She’s a real chatterbox, and, to be honest, it was a lot fun. Sort of like having a big sister. My big sister, March, left a long time ago, and I realized how much I miss her. Anyway, Janelle asked me about the testing at school, and I told her I didn’t quite make Honors. She didn’t either when she was in the eighth grade, and says it’s no big deal. But here’s the dirt, Theo, and you have to swear you won’t tell anyone.”
Theo had a mouth full and just nodded. When he swallowed he said, “I swear.”
“I mean, Theo, this is a big deal, and things might get ugly.”
“Okay.”
“And it might affect you and me, too.”
“Okay.”
“I mean, I couldn’t believe it when she told me.”
“Are you going to take a bite?”
“Later. Anyway, you gotta promise—”
“I’ve already promised, now get on with it.”
“Okay.” She glanced around suspiciously. Guff’s was empty but for the two of them. The soda jerk was playing a game on her phone. April leaned in closer and said, “Here’s the story. Janelle has an older sister, they call her Binky, and she teaches eighth-grade math at East Middle School. She’s been there a couple of years and says the school has a lot of problems. Well, Binky told Janelle that this year a group of teachers at the school actually got together and changed the scores after the tests were given. They met at the school on the Saturday after the tests, the same day you were off hiking with the Scouts, and they got in a room, locked the door, and spent several hours erasing wrong answers and putting in the right ones.”
Theo was about to shovel in another load of frozen yogurt when his spoon froze halfway to his mouth. He placed it back in the dish and stared at her.
“This is what she told me,” April said. “Binky stopped by the school that Saturday to get a pair of sunglasses from her room. She saw their cars in the parking lot so she knew they were there. Later, one of the teachers that she knows well confided in her and told her the truth. Binky was shocked. This teacher feels rotten about what they did and is afraid they’re gonna get caught. They did it because the school is headed for probation, and the teachers could also get probation, or maybe worse. So they cheated, Theo. The teachers think they’re helping the kids by saving the school and so on.”
“Holy smoke,” Theo managed to mumble.
“Can you believe it?”
“No, I can’t. This is crazy.”
Slowly, April took a bite, a small one. Theo was too stunned to eat. He said, “You know what this means, don’t you?”
“I think so.”
“Well, it could mean that you and I and possibly several others who came close to making Honors got a raw deal because these teachers decided to cheat.”
“That’s what I thought.”
“Who else knows about this?”
“I have no idea, but it must be a pretty big secret.”
“How many teachers are involved?”
“Five or six.”
“That’s crazy. You never commit a crime with that many people involved. Somebody’s bound to talk.”
“A crime? Is this against the law?”
Theo paused and took a bite. He thought about this for a few seconds and said, “Don’t know. I’m sure it could get them fired, but not so sure it’s actually breaking the law. I’ll have to do some research when I get back to the office.”
“You sound like a real lawyer.”
“I meant to. That’s how I impress girls.”
“Okay, then, if you’re so smart tell me what we’re going to do about this.”
“Who said we have to do anything? If we complain to someone, we look like sore losers. It seems to me that this is a perfect example of something a couple of nosy kids should stay away from.”
“Nonsense, Theo. Look, I know you and I know deep down inside you wanted to make Honors, you just won’t admit it. At least I’m honest. I wanted it badly, and I’m really frustrated that I was not in the top ten percent. Both of us missed it by one point. Now we find out that there’s a real good chance that some of the kids who did make it got their scores improved by their teachers. We can’t just sit by and do nothing.”
“What do you have in mind?”
“That’s where you come in, Mr. Lawyer. What if you told your parents?”
“Why don’t you tell your parents?”
“Seriously, Theo? My parents are crazy, you know that. They don’t care what kind of classes I take or what grades I make.”
“Must be nice.”
“Well, it’s not, believe me. I think you should tell your parents.”
“They’d tell me to butt out.”
“No they wouldn’t, Theo. Your parents are lawyers who understand right from wrong, and they get ticked off when the wrong person wins. Your mother, especially. She never backs down from a good fight.”
“I don’t know. I still think it would sound like we’re just a couple of sore losers. And we don’t know for sure that this story is true.”
“No, we don’t. So explain t
o me why Binky would make up such a crazy story and tell her sister.”
“I can’t explain that.”
“No, you can’t, and that’s because the story is true. Look at what we do know for a fact: that East Middle School had a dramatic rise in its scores for eighth graders. In fact, Janelle said that in all their years of testing no school has seen such a big jump. Sounds pretty suspicious, right?”
“Yes, it does, I admit.”
“Thank you. So are you going to tell your mother?”
“Look, April, this is a lot to swallow all at once. Give me some time. Let’s sleep on it and have a chat tomorrow, okay?”
“Okay.”
Theo finished his yogurt. April didn’t like hers, so he finished it too. He’d never heard of lemon coconut but it wasn’t that bad. When both dishes were empty, they left Guff’s on their bikes. As Theo pedaled home, he was still trying to convince himself Binky’s story was true. Eighth-grade teachers changing test answers?
After dinner, and while he was once again doodling with his homework, he did an online search into standardized tests. It didn’t take long to find the ugly truth. In the past ten years, in at least four school districts across the country, teachers had been caught doing the same things Binky had described to Janelle.
Unbelievable.
Chapter 11
On Monday at school, Theo managed to avoid April. He did not want to discuss the cheating scandal, if there really was one, because he was not about to get involved. And what could he do anyway? He was just a student, a thirteen-year-old kid. It was a problem for the adults to worry about. If the teachers at East had done something wrong, they would eventually be caught and punished.
He wasn’t sticking his nose into the middle of it.
April, though, had other plans. She caught him at lunch on Tuesday and insisted they meet again at Guff’s. Theo didn’t want to but couldn’t say no. His jeans were fitting a bit tight, and he was almost certain it wasn’t just because he was a growing boy, so he ordered only one scoop. They hid in the same booth. April went for the blackberry swirl. After two bites, she looked around suspiciously and said, “I have something to show you.”
“Okay.”
“I couldn’t sleep Sunday night, so I decided to do this.” She reached into her backpack and removed a plain white unmarked envelope, letter-sized. “What is it?” Theo asked as he opened it.
“Just read it,” she said, somewhat proudly.
Theo removed a letter, printed on a sheet of white copy paper. It read:
To Dr. Carmen Stoop, Superintendent of Strattenburg City Schools
Dear Dr. Stoop:
I am a concerned citizen. The recent rise in test scores at East Middle School, especially at the eighth-grade level, is very impressive. You said so yourself in an interview. But you should know the real story. On the Saturday