I cheated on a unit test in math class this morning during second period with Mr Burke Afterward, I was too sick to eat lunch just thinking about it. I came straight home from school, went to my room, and lay on the floor trying to decide whether it would be better to run away from home now or af _ It wasn't even an accident that I cheated. Yesterday Mr.Burke announced there'd be a unit test and anyone who didn't pass would have to come to school on Saturday, most particularly me, since I didn't pass the last unit test I did plan to study just to prove to him that I'm plenty smart - which I am.mostly - except in math. Anyway, I got my desk ready to study on.Just when I was ready to work, Nicho came into my room with our new rabbit and it jumped on my desk and knocked the flashcards all over the floor.What a mess! Nicho and I finally took the rabbit outside but then Philip came to my room and also Marty from next door and before long it was dinner. After dinner my father said I could watch a special on television if I'd done all my homework.Of course I said I had.That was the beginning.I felt terrible telling my father a lie about the homework. It was nine o'clock when I got up to my room and that was too late to study for the unit test so I lay in my bed with the light off and decided what I would do the next day when I was m Mr.Burke's math class not knowing the 8- and 9-times tables. So, you see, the cheating was planned after all. The next day, I'd go into class as usual, acting like things were going just great.I'd sit down next to Stanley Plummer - he is so smart in math it makes you sick - and from time to time, I'd glance over at his paper to copy the answers.Everything was okay except that my stomach was upside down and I wanted to die. The fact is, I couldn't believe what I'd done .in cold blood.I began to wonder about myself.I've never been a wonderful kid that everybody in the world loves.I have a bad temper and I like to have my own way and I argue a lot.Sometimes I can be mean.But most of the time I've thought of myself as a pretty decent kid.Mostly I work hard, I care for little kids, and I tell the truth.Now all of a sudden I've turned into this criminal.It's hard to believe I'm just a boy.And all because of one stupid math test. Lying on the floor of my room, I begin to think that probably I've been bad all along.It just took this math test to clinch it.I'll probably never tell the truth again. I tell my mother I'm sick when she calls me to come down for dinner.She doesn't believe me, but puts me to bed anyhow.1 lie there in the early winter darkness wondering what terrible thing I'll be doing next when my father comes in and sits down on my bed. "What's the matter?" he asks."I've got a stomachache," I say.Luckily, it's too dark to see his face."Is that all?" "Yeah." "Mommy says you've been in your room since school." "I was sick there too," I say."She thinks something happened today and you're upset." That's the thing that really drives me crazy about my mother.She knows things sitting inside my head the same as if I was turned inside out. "Well," my father says.I can tell he doesn't believe me."My stomach is feeling sort of upset." I hedge."Okay," he says and he pats my leg and gets up. Just as he shuts the door to my room I call out to him in a voice I don't even recognize as my own."How come?" he calls back not surprised or anything.So I tell him I cheated on this math test.To tell the truth, I'm pretty much surprised at myself.I didn't plan to tell him anything. He doesn't say anything at first and that just about kills me.I'd be fine if he'd spank me or something.And then he says I'll have to call Mr.Burke.It's not what I had in mind."Now?" I ask surprised."Now," he says.He turns on the light and pulls off my covers."I'm not going to," I say. But I do it.I call Mr.Burke, and I tell him exactly what happened, even that I decided to cheat the night before the test.He says I'll come on Saturday to take another test, which is okay with me, and I thank him a whole lot for being understanding and all. "Today I thought I was turning into a criminal," I tell my father when he turns out my light. Sometimes my father kisses me good night and sometimes he doesn't.I never know.But tonight he does. Before the cheating, the author thought that  _  .
he was a bad boy in everything he always did what he was told he was a boy that everyone loved he was a decent child but not perfect