The veil of honesty

"Do you know yet, today's Geography test?" greeted Aria as Mahira put down the backpack.

"Geography Review?" Mahira frowned. "Come on... don't pretend you forgot! Can a great detective ever forget?" Aria grinned evilly. The Queen of Geography doesn't know that there is a test. It is certain that the value will fall even if it is only 5-7 points. That includes evidence to the great detective girl's gatot.

"Dear Allah!" Mahira slapped her forehead. Without command, she took out a Geography book and read it reverently. There were still twenty minutes before the bell and Geography class started.

"Well, detectives are humans too, aren't they?" Aria elbowed his friend.

Mahira did not answer. His eyes are busy scanning

row of words.

"But, why do you have to study? You're good at Geography right? Even if you don't study and I study, your score will be the same as mine. Or even more points!"

That compliment didn't necessarily make Mahira glance at Aria. "That sucks. I'll take a walk first, okay?"

Mahira still didn't respond. His friend just walked away. However, five minutes later, something forced Mahira to rush to the girls' toilet. His stomach suddenly felt queasy.

What did I eat? Why am I like this? Mahira thought as she hurried down the corridor. I just ate the bread and boxed milk I bought at the Canteen Miss. Could she let the bread expire? If it really expired, I should have realized earlier. Immersed in his analysis, Mahira ended up slipping right in front of the teacher's office. Luckily no teacher saw.

The pain is doubled. His stomach hurts, his butt hurts. O Allah, are you planning to test me today? Wrinkling in pain, Mahira tried to get up so she could continue on her way to the toilet.

"How come you slip, Mahira? You're not careful, are you walking?" asked Aline who was standing in the opposite direction. She is famous for being beautiful and many say her words

can't be held. For Mahira who is in her class, she knows very well what kind of character she is. Aline is also a bit odd, often carrying a bottle of drink. This time, he brought the orange juice he had bought at the cafeteria.

Mahira cuck. Mahira can read the minds of people who are jealous of her popularity well, especially Aline's thoughts are too clear.

"Are you okay?"

Mahira turned around. Mahez, the tall and handsome head of class X-1, frowned.

"Oh, no, really." Mahira hurriedly ran to the toilet because the contents of her stomach had already gone up into her esophagus. Almost forced his mouth to open the exit door, while hiding his flushed face.

Arriving at the toilet, Mahira immediately threw up the contents of her stomach into the sink. He didn't even have time to enter the toilet cubicle. "Uwk....

"Uh, disgusting!" A senior whispered to another senior who came with him to the bathroom. "hey you, if you throw up in the toilet, please!"

His good friend nudged him. "What are you doing?"

Mahira turned on the sink faucet, cleaned her mouth, then answered senior sister's question. "Sorry."

{^°}

The two upperclassmen were about to leave, but the bitchy first senior said again. "Why your skirt?" Mahira checks her skirt. Sure enough, the back

The two upperclassmen were about to leave, but the bitchy first senior said again. "Why your skirt?" Mahira checks her skirt. Sure enough, the back

the bottom is wet with something. "Oh, I slipped." The two seniors exchanged glances, shrugged and left.

The first hour finally started. Unlike usual, Mrs. Ismawati came a few minutes earlier. Whereas usually, Mrs. Ismawati is famous for being late. Uncharacteristically too, he entered without greeting with a face as hard as icy steel.

Her footsteps made the whole class look surprised, including Mahira. Aria whispered to him, "What's wrong, Mrs. Isma?"

"Before I wanted to ask a question and you must answer honestly. Who has seen this?"

The class cast a glance. Some frowned, some glared, some even dared to whisper.

"Who?" Mrs. Ismawati's firm voice broke Mahira's thoughts. "Excuse me." Apparently Rehan was late, not usually.

"Mom, can I come in?"

"No. No one will be able to enter or leave this class until someone admits to leaking today's Geography test."

Rehan is shocked. The whole class did not dare to speak. Mahira was deep in thought. Could it be Rehan? Why is he late? But, it seems impossible. He only appeared when the matter was already handled by Mrs. Ismawati. Who is it, then? Why would someone do it?

"If no one confesses, then Mother will not hesitate to cut the grades of all students in class X-1."

Mahira raised her hand. "Me," came the voice.

Mahira is confused. He turned his head, it was Mahez

also raised hands. Mahez?

"I will bear the punishment that Mother inflicted on us."

"No ma'am. I know it wasn't Mahez."

"No, I did," Mahez insisted. "No, I know who did it and it's not Mahez."

"Are you able to account for what you say?" asked Mrs. Ismawati.

"We can," they both answered in unison.

"Then," Mrs. Ismawati turned towards the door."Rehan, you may come in."

Rehan scrambled to his seat, not daring to return Mrs. Ismawati's fierce gaze.

"Who's the class president?" "Me, ma'am," Mahez raised her hand again.

"Vice Chairman?"Aria raised her hand.

"Aria, you make sure no one goes in and out of class until Mother returns. The classroom door will be closed. Mahira and Mahez are with you."

Mahira and Mahez looked at each other for a moment before getting up from their seats. They followed Mrs. Ismawati out of the room. As soon as the door was closed, Mrs. Ismawati glared at Mahez.

"You are the class president, you should be an example for your friends. But, why are you secretly peeking at the test questions? Even if Mom just left it on the table, it doesn't mean you are free to see it."Just leave it on the table. How cecollapse, Mahira thought.

"Then how do you know that the matter has been leaked?"

"Because I realized the envelope was changed." "How did you realize the envelope was changed?"

"Mom always seals envelopes like this." Mrs. Ismawati showed the seal of the two rings and the red crossed cord on the back of the large brown envelope where the question papers were. "Five minutes before entering your class, these envelopes were sealed, but not crossed. Next to this question, Mother placed a pack of 20 similar envelopes. Since one has already been used for the question script, there should have been 19 left. However, when I counted again, , there are only 18. This means that the original envelope has been brought by the perpetrator."

"And for some reason," Mahira added.

"Well, Mahez, you said you were the culprit. Why did you do it and why did you steal Mom's brown envelope? Isn't it enough just to peek?" "No, it's not like that," Mahira denied.

Mahez lowered his head.

"Mahez did it precisely because he was a good person." Mahira glanced at the class president who was now silent.

"How do you explain that peeking at the test text is a good thing. Especially if it's done by a class president?"

"I mean, Mahez admitted to doing this despicable act because he was protecting the Perpetrator." "Then, who is the perpetrator that Mahez is protecting?"

"Someone," Mahira glanced at Mahez, who looked down deeper. "Someone's in the room behind this door. Right, Mahez?"

Cklek

The sound of the door hinges managed to distract the class.

Mahira, Mahez, and Mrs. Ismawati entered the room with different expressions. Mrs. Ismawati with an expression that changed 180 degrees from before. Mahez, the great Class President, for the first time was speechless and could only look down. And Mahira who looks the most normal with flat emotions.

"Was Mahez really the culprit?" asked Aria without hesitation as soon as they entered.

"It's a long story," said Mahira.

"It's Geography time now." Mahira and Mahez returned to their seats maeach. "But, no, someone has seen about it," said Aira

"Calm down," said Mrs. Ismawati while distributing the paper questions one by one. "I believe you are not that kind of child."

All questions are distributed, leaving the last table that has not received a question.

"Oh, it looks like there's one less question. Aline, wait a minute, I'll get you another question." Calmly Mrs. Ismawati opened the door. "Mahez, make sure no one cheats while Mom's out!" Mrs. Ismawati ordered before leaving the class.

Mahez didn't nod, but in his heart he said yes. With the corner of her eye, she glanced at Aline, who had been sitting in a chair for a long time, until Mrs. Ismawati came back with a question and went straight to Aline's bench.

While placing the questions on Aline's desk, Mrs. Ismawati whispered something in Aline's left ear. "I'm sorry, I only have the rest of the questions that are all essays. However, I still consider the results of this test score valid. And after the Geography test is over, meet Mother in the teacher's room."

"Eh, Ra, who is the culprit? So why are we still able to work on the script if someone is already peeking? What's really going on? Tell me, please." Aria immediately bombarded Mahira with questions as soon as the test ended and Mrs. Ismawati had left the class.

"Aline," said Mahira briefly.

"HUH?! HOW COULD YOU?"

"Shstt! Don't be so loud!"

"Oh, sorry. How can that be?"

"Yes. I know because this morning, before going to the toilet, I slipped in front of the teacher's office. At that time there were two people in front of the teacher's office, Aline and Mahez. Aline brought orange juice. The bottle of orange juice leaked, so I slipped. The orange juice also had time to wet the envelope of the Geography test. Inevitably Aline had to replace it with a new envelope. Mrs. Ismawati realized that the envelope had been replaced and the rest of the brown envelope on her desk was also reduced. That is, the first wet envelope was thrown out of nowhere. Then I found a bottle of orange juice with a rolled up brown envelope in the X-3 trash can."

"How come, you can immediately understand that Aline is the culprit?"

"Because Mahez admits he did it."

"You mean?"

"Mahez was in the same place when Aline came out of the teacher's office. He already knew that Aline had just done something in the teacher's room which was left open by Pak Ahmad who was out of nowhere. Because Mahez was good, he sacrificed himself. That's what he said. the key."

"Eh, but why is Aline peeking at the test? Then, why does she want to buy orange juice whose bottle is leaking?"

"About the reason why Aline could do that, I don't know. If all the items are available, what are our price tags and the money for payment, please put them on the display case. Because I was in a hurry and not notified by the Canteen, Aline chose an orange juice that had a manufacturing defect because of that I didn't even realize I chose expired bread." which are already

"HAH?"

"Yeah, that's why I went to the toilet because I wanted to throw up. Worse, I didn't realize it was expired bread because I've been starving since I left. Mrs. Canteen hasn't checked which merchandise should be thrown away and which ones can still be bought.

"Wow, you really are a great detective. Can solve a riddle like that in no time. Only a quarter of an hour if I count the time."

Mahira just smiled. "Oh yeah, I have to go to the cafeteria."

"Why? Complain to Miss Canteen?"

"No. Maybe he forgot to check his merchandise. "Mahira got up from his chair and just walked away.

"Mahira." Mahez called when Mahira was just out of class. "Thank you, yes. 33

"Why?"

"Thanks to you everything became clear."

"By the way, why did Aline do that?"

"I was told by Lia earlier. They said they bet. Who gets a lower score must accept whatever challenge is given by the one with a higher score. Lia said, maybe Aline was afraid."

"Afraid?"

"I don't know. I also don't understand why it's like that.

"Oh," Mahira smiled then turned around.

"Eh," Mahez called again. Mahira turned again.

"How did you know that I wasn't the culprit? Did you know from the start that it was Aline?"

"Oh, that's simple. Psychological motive."

"Psychological motives?"

Mahira smirked. “You know that it's Aline's pela because you've been in front of the office all morning. If you like someone, you protect them, right?"

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