Johnny was sure he could talk his way out of anything, even a charge of cheating on a history test. When Mr. Johnson quietly compared his paper with Mary’s, Johnny demanded proof and confidently stood by two matching answers that seemed obvious to any student. But Mr. Johnson had saved one question for last, and that was the one that would undo Johnny’s entire defense. The teacher first pointed to the question about the first president of the United States, where both Mary and Johnny had written “George Washington.” Johnny dismissed the concern, arguing that everybody knew that. Then Mr. Johnson moved to the question asking who freed the slaves, and again both had written “Abraham Lincoln.” Johnny insisted that this, too, was common knowledge and explained that he had read his history book the night before.

Instead of dropping the matter, Mr. Johnson revealed the final question: who was president during the Louisiana Purchase. This time, Mary had not written a famous name. She had simply answered, “I don’t know.” On Johnny’s paper, under the same question, the answer clearly revealed more than he intended to admit. Beneath Mary’s “I don’t know” appeared Johnny’s matching response: “Me neither.” In that brief phrase, the pattern of copying became unmistakable and exposed the very behavior Johnny had tried so hard to deny.