Writing for Mr. Rayburn

John walked into the small office with a tired sigh. Across the desk was Ashley’s teacher, Mr. Rayburn. He looked angry yet somewhat pleased with himself, as if he was finally about to gain a victory over his foe. Ashley, sitting on a chair facing the desk, looked up at her dad with a mischievous grin. She seemed to know that poor Mr. Rayburn wasn’t going to get the victory he expected. He couldn’t help but think about the scene in the Incredibles when the mom meets with Dash and his teacher.

With that thought John sighed again and sat down in the empty chair next to his 11-year-old daughter. Why was he always getting pulled into the middle of these things?

“Mr. Collins, thank you for joining us today,” said Mr. Rayburn.

“Please, call me John,” he replied. “What did Ashley do this time?” No point in beating around the bush. He just wanted to get the whole thing over with.

Mr. Rayburn nodded. It seemed he was also happy to skip the pleasantries and jump right into things. “I caught Ashley cheating on her assignments.” There was a gleam of victory in his eye when he said it, and John could see the corner of his mouth twitch up in a hidden smile.

John raised his eyebrows slowly. “Ashley cheated? That’s not right. My daughter isn’t a cheater.”

“Can you be sure about that?” Mr. Rayburn asked.

John turned to Ashley. “Did you cheat in Mr. Rayburn’s class?”

She shook her head innocently. “No.”

John turned back to Mr. Rayburn. “There, I’m sure. She didn’t cheat.”

Mr. Rayburn lowered his eyebrows. “Well how do you know she isn’t lying?”

John sighed. “Because my daughter isn’t a liar, sir. Sure, she’s a pain-in-the-neck-prankster sometimes,” he turned to Ashley, “No offense, Sweetie.”

Ashley smiled, obviously taking the comment as a compliment. “None taken.”

John turned back to Mr. Rayburn and continued. “But she is not a liar and she is not a cheater. I raised her with integrity. So, are we done here?”

Mr. Rayburn frowned. It seemed he hadn’t expected John to take his daughter’s side so quickly. Unfortunately, he still wasn’t done.

“Actually, John, I have evidence of her cheating right here.” He pulled out three pieces of notebook paper with writing on them. “Why don’t you take a look at them and tell me what you notice?”

John looked at the papers. They were writing assignments Ashley had turned in, and they obviously all had very different and distinct handwriting. John guessed they matched the handwriting of other kids in Ashley’s class. Yet even though he knew where this was going, he couldn’t help himself from making his next comment.

“It looks to me like they all have the letter “A” written in red ink at the top,” John said. Ashley snickered and Mr. Rayburn glared at them both.

“I mean besides that,” the teacher said in a frustrated tone.

John figured he should just play along to get it over with. “They all have different handwriting, Mr. Rayburn.”

“Exactly!” Mr. Rayburn said. “Each one matches the handwriting of another student in the class. Ashley is obviously asking them to write her papers for her.” He smiled in triumph, his trump card played.

John sighed again. He seemed to be doing that a lot these days. He looked at Ashley. “Why do you insist on torturing your teachers? Just show him.”

Ashley grinned. Without saying a word, she grabbed a blank sheet of paper from the desk and a pen from a mug that said “World’s Greatest Teacher” on the side. She quickly wrote “Look at this cool thing I can do,” three times, each in a different handwriting. The three handwritings perfectly matched the three assignments.

Mr. Rayburn raised his eyebrows in surprise. He looked at John as if to ask, “did you know she could do that?” John just nodded.

“She can copy any handwriting perfectly,” John explained. “So obviously she wasn’t cheating, she was just trying to be silly. Are we good now?”

Mr. Rayburn looked at both of them, and then shook his head no. “That’s impressive, but it still doesn’t prove that Ashley wrote these papers. I need more evidence than that before I let her off the hook.”

John sighed again. He loved Ashley more than life itself, but why did she always put him in these situations? He was tired and just wanted to go home. Luckily, she answered before he could.

“Check their grades,” she said with a sly smile.

“I’m sorry?” Mr. Rayburn asked, not understanding what she meant.

“I copied the handwriting of Andrew, Grace, and Dillon,” Ashley explained. “I chose them on purpose because they aren’t good students. What grades did they get on their papers?”

“Um, I can’t tell you that,” Mr. Rayburn said, looking through his grade book. “It’s confidential.”

“Oh, for goodness sake,” John said. “You know what she’s getting at. Did they do as well on their papers as she did on hers? If not, then you know she didn’t cheat. Why would they have done worse on their own paper than on one they did for someone else?”

Mr. Rayburn continued to look at the grade book, and although he didn’t say anything his face confirmed what Ashley had said. Her scores were better.

“It still doesn’t prove anything!” Mr. Rayburn stammered, trying anything to win the battle. “Maybe they did worse on purpose so she wouldn’t get caught. Or maybe she stole their real ones and replaced theirs with fake ones she wrote!”

John raised his eyebrows slowly. He was trying so hard to be polite, but this man was making it very difficult. “You know that isn’t what happened,” he said. “But what further proof could you want that she didn’t cheat?”

“I want her to rewrite all three papers right here in front of me,” Mr. Rayburn replied. “It’s the only way I’ll know she didn’t cheat.”

Ashley gasped. She couldn’t believe he would make her redo all three assignments just because of her little prank. John put his head in his hands. He just wanted to go home.

“Surely there’s another option?” John asked. But Mr. Rayburn shook his head no. He was smiling after finally winning a point in the fight.

“I have another idea that might work,” Ashely said innocently. She grabbed another piece of paper, wrote on it, and then set it on the desk for both men to read.

John looked down at it and read the words, “To whom it may concern, Ashley Collins has proven her integrity and does not need to redo any assignments. On top of that, she is an A+ student and I will personally bring treats in for her and her classmates every Friday as a reward for her hard work.” It was signed by Mr. Rayburn.

Mr. Rayburn was looking at it as if he had just been punched in the gut. John looked at his daughter. “Let me guess, that’s his handwriting and signature?”

“Yep!” she replied, obviously pleased with herself.

“Well, that works for me,” John said. “I guess she’s off the hook.”

“What!?” exclaimed Mr. Rayburn. “But you know I didn’t write that! It’s not valid.”

John shrugged. “We’ll take it to the principal then. She doesn’t know.”

Mr. Rayburn scoffed. “I’ll tell her that Ashley can write in anyone’s handwriting, and that she wrote it.”

“You really think the principal is gonna believe that?” John asked. “Don’t you think she’d need some sort of proof?”

“I’ll bring the papers!” Mr. Rayburn declared triumphantly, holding up Ashley’s three assignments.

“Thank goodness,” John said, the exasperation clear in his voice. “We finally came around to you admitting that Ashley is the one who wrote those papers. Are we done now?”

Mr. Rayburn’s mouth dropped open in shock. Ashley giggled and gave her dad a fist bump under the desk.

“Well, wait, I didn’t say, um…” Mr. Rayburn stammered, realizing too late the trap he had fallen into. Then, after a moment of silence, he finally accepted that fact that he had dug his own grave and lost the battle. “You’re free to go,” he said, defeat in his voice. “Although I can see where Ashley gets her trickery from.”

“Thank you,” John said, and stood up from his chair. “Come on Ashley, let’s go home.”

Ashely gave Mr. Rayburn a beaming smile and then popped out of her chair and skipped out of the room after her dad.

“Can we get ice cream?” Ashely asked once they were in the hall.

John looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. What kind of parent would get their kid ice cream after putting him through such an ordeal? Then he shrugged his shoulders. A tired parent who wanted ice cream, that’s who.

“What the heck, why not?” he said.

“Yippee!” Ashley cheered and she did a little twirl. “Oh, also,” she added, “do you remember my teacher Mrs. Turner?”

“Big lady with a glare that could kill you? Yeah, I remember her,” John replied.

“She wants to meet with you on Thursday after school,” Ashley said with a grin.

“Oh boy,” John said, the exasperation coming back to his voice. Yet he couldn’t hide his smile as he put his arm around his little girl and gave her a squeeze.