Chapter 29 Wouldn't that be considered plagiarism?
The next morning, the college was immersed in the silence of self-study period.
While the other students buried their faces in their books, Katherine was in her own world.
Her long, nimble fingers danced, braiding red strands with mesmerizing precision. Her thick, shiny black hair was tied back in a high ponytail, exposing her elegant nape. The morning sunlight filtered through the window, creating a golden halo around her.
Loose strands fell over the bridge of her nose and pale cheeks, which glowed under the soft lighting as if she were wearing a real-life beauty filter. Even her black-rimmed glasses couldn't hide her striking aesthetics; on the contrary, they gave her an air of forbidden intellectuality.
She was totally focused on the bracelet, her expression serious as if she were defusing a bomb.
Knock. Knock.
Someone knocked hard on the wood of her desk.
Katherine stopped. She slowly raised her eyes and found the red face of Mr. Wilson, the dreaded math teacher, staring back at her.
“Katherine!” he thundered. “You really are hopeless, aren't you? The job market is knocking at the door and you're playing with crafts? Look at your classmates! See if anyone else is wasting time like you!”
The whole room held its breath.
“Get your book and notebook now,” Wilson ordered, pointing to the door.
“You will stand in the hallway and reflect on your priorities.”
Katherine sighed, without a hint of shame or remorse. She lazily gathered her things and left the room, her calm steps contrasting with the tension in the air.
Outside, the breeze carried the sweet scent of osmanthus flowers from the garden.
Katherine leaned against the hallway wall, enjoying the peace. As Mr. Wilson's voice echoed inside explaining complex formulas, she resumed braiding her bracelet, unperturbed.
Suddenly, a movement caught her attention.
Through the open window of the room, a hand reached out furtively.
She looked inside. Gabriel Park, sitting in the row near the window, was trying to pass her a folded note.
Katherine looked at his shaved neck and outstretched hand, but did not move to take it.
Gabriel, seeing that she was ignoring him, shook his head in frustration. Taking advantage of the fact that Mr. Wilson was writing on the board, he crumpled the paper into a ball and, with perfect aim, threw it outside. The ball landed on the windowsill, next to Katherine's arm.
She unfolded the pink paper. It had a childish drawing of Peppa Pig printed on it.
In the center, scrawled in messy handwriting, were the words: \[This is so boring. Let's play tic-tac-toe. You go first.\]
Katherine rolled her eyes, crumpled the paper back up, and threw it in the nearest trash can. She went back to focusing on her knitting.
Inside, Gabriel sighed, defeated. He crumpled another piece of paper and threw it on the floor, giving up. His eyes wandered until they landed on the focused profile of Dandara Arbex, a few tables ahead.
Nísia, the star of the class, solved the problems on the board with irritating ease. Five minutes. That was how long it took her to finish everything.
Satisfied, she turned her head and looked out the window, just in time to see the interaction between Gabriel and Katherine.
Her eyes narrowed. A glint of contempt and calculation crossed her angelic gaze.
When the bell finally rang, Katherine's bracelet was 90% complete. All that was missing was the clasp, a material she didn't have there. She put the work of art in her pocket and returned to her desk while the students stretched.
Gabriel Park let out a dramatic groan and dropped his head on Katherine's desk, like a big, needy dog begging for attention.
“Ah, finally! I thought I was going to die of boredom. I almost choked on so many numbers.”
He looked up, resting his chin on the wood of her desk. “So? Did you finish the exercises old man Wilson gave us?”
Katherine looked at the whiteboard, where the formulas were still written. “No.”
Gabriel laughed, straightening up. He picked up his own notebook, puffing out his chest with pride. “Haha! I knew it!” I've already solved two problems and you haven't solved any? Who would have thought I'd beat the new girl.
“Hmm,” Katherine replied indifferently, opening her own book to pretend to read.
Gabriel, feeling generous and superior, pushed his notebook on top of her book. "Here. You'd better copy it right away. If Wilson catches you with a blank notebook later, it'll be another humiliation.
He pointed to the first question with his pen. "Look, I'm very confident about this one. I searched ChatGPT and found one just like it, I just changed the numbers. That guarantees at least half the points! The second one is just follow the formula... but the third one is impossible, no one did it.
As he spoke, he craned his neck to see if he could cheat off Anders Spence's notebook, but the boy had already run off after Dandara.
Katherine looked down at Gabriel's notebook. The handwriting was terrible, and the logic... well, ChatGPT's logic had failed miserably in his interpretation.
Unable to resist her perfectionist OCD, Katherine pulled a red pen from her pocket. Quick and precise, she circled three parts of his solution. Vibrant red circles, indicating fatal errors. She didn't write the correction; she just marked the mistake.
Gabriel blinked, confused. “What are you...”
“Cousin?” A sweet voice laden with venom interrupted.
Nísia appeared beside the table, as if she had materialized from the shadows. She looked at the red-scribbled notebook in Katherine's hands and then at her cousin's impassive face.
A scornful smile, which she didn't even bother to hide, curved her perfect lips. “You only solved two problems? And you still had to copy from Gabriel?”
Katherine dropped the draft, the sound of paper hitting wood echoing softly. “So?” she asked, her voice monotone.
This time, she lifted her face. Her thin, pale fingers pushed her black-rimmed glasses up her nose, and she fixed her gaze on Nísia. There was a silent warning in those dark eyes.
Nísia, ignoring the ice in her cousin's gaze, placed her own immaculate notebook on Katherine's desk. “I wrote all the resolutions here,” said Nísia, with a sweet, condescending smile. “You can use it as a reference. Professor Wilson will ask for the answers soon, and I don't want you to get in trouble. Use this temporarily.”
“Oh, I don't need it.”
“Katherine, don't be stubborn,” insisted Nísia, lowering her voice to sound confidential. “There's a good chance we'll be called on. If you don't know the answers, you'll be embarrassed in front of everyone. Keep this, just in case.”
Katherine drummed her fingers on the table, a slow, irritating rhythm. She held Nísia's gaze for two endless seconds. “Copying what you wrote... wouldn't that be considered plagiarism? Or cheating?”