429 Panicking (2/2)
Zeke frowned. "Are you okay?"
Kyle nodded. He coughed and gasped for air a few more times. "Yea, just-" More coughing. "—swallowed some gum by accident. All your yelling scared me." He shot a glare at the three of us, focusing on Dave.
Dave scratched his head. "Ha. Ha." He forced out. "Zeke has the impression that we're cheating because of Noah's joke."
"We wouldn't cheat!" Kyle adamantly denied. "And Jake's only a freshman. How could he know more than us?" He lifted a paper notebook. "Look, I'm just finishing my math homework right now."
Zeke was still suspicious so he made his move to the desk. He picked up the notebook and looked it over. "You really showed your work. How...unlike you." His eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't be hiding Jake's homework somewhere would you?"
"Nope." Kyle got up. "Take a look! I'm gonna go downstairs for some water."
"Yea, me too." Dave added, following his twin to the hallway.
"It's almost dinner time after all." Noah said, tugging on my arm. "We should go downstairs and set the table before Mom and Dad get home."
All four of us gathered in the kitchen.
"That was a close one." Dave whispered. He glared at Noah. "You almost got all of killed up there. What's your problem?"
Noah shifted nervously. "I panicked, okay? I just made a mistake on the computer and didn't want you to see."
"What did you do?" Kyle asked, chugging some water.
Noah looked at me. I shrugged.
"Well, it shouldn't be a big deal. I just...sent a mean message about Patterson to a blog. But it was done anonymously!" Noah told them.
"Why would you do that?" Dave asked, surprised. "And why wouldn't you want me to see?"
Noah shrugged. "I felt guilty. I wasn't going to send it after talking it out with Jake, but you startled me. Now it's out there." He folded his arms and put on a mean face. "Jake's uncle also denied any relationship between Jake and Jeremy. It was messed up. I was angry."
"Well, it was sent anonymously, right?" Kyle asked. "So it probably won't gather too much attention. They probably get a few hundred messages a day." He patted Noah's shoulder. "Don't worry about it."
Noah nodded. Then he lowered his voice. "How could you let Zeke look for Jake's work? Are you hiding it in your pocket?"
Kyle turned red. "No way, I was scared he would ask me to empty my pockets. Zeke can be strict. So...as soon as I heard Dave's loud warning from the hall, I..." He blushed even harder. "I panicked."
"Hey! Don't copy me!" Noah said. "Really, where's Jake's homework?"
"..." Kyle kept quiet.
Dave's eyes widened, looking like two perfect circles. "You didn't!" He accused.
Kyle slowly nodded.
"I didn't get to copy it yet!" Dave rolled his eyes.
Kyle shrugged. "I finished copying. You can just look at mine at lunch time."
"But...where's mine?" I spoke up.
Kyle patted me on the head. "You can copy mine at lunch too."
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Why?" Noah pestered. "What did you do?"
Dave laughed as Kyle's face got even redder. He looked to make sure that Zeke wasn't downstairs yet. Then whispered. "Kyle wasn't choking on gum. He was choking on paper."
Noah's jaw dropped. "You ate his homework?"
What! "You ate my homework??" I looked incredulously at Kyle.
Kyle's face was the same shade as a tomato. "You know what, you're welcome. If it wasn't for my quick thinking, we would have been in trouble. All of us." He looked at Noah. "You too! Don't think you would be let off easy. You obviously knew about it the whole time."
Noah started to laugh. He got louder and louder. "I've heard of kids using the excuse that their dog ate their homework, but now-" He chuckled. "Jake can say that his brother ate his homework."
"Shhh." Kyle held a hand over Noah's mouth. "Shut it. Don't blow this a second time!"
I looked worriedly at Kyle. "Can you eat paper? Is that safe?"
Kyle shrugged helplessly. "No one ever died from eating one piece of paper. I'll be fine."
"Boys!!" A woman's voice called out. It was Mrs. Atkins. "We're home!"
All of us quickly ran to greet her at the door. Sometimes Mrs. Atkins was safer than Zeke.