Summary:: They weren't cheating, they were simply utilizing one another's skills to achieve maximum grades.
Disclaimer:: I don't own Scorpion, it's characters, or anything else you get from this related to it.
The one normal thing about the group of teen geniuses was that they still had subjects in school they hated, or occasionally sucked at. ("I really don't understand why I have to learn about baroque art." "Because you didn't take another elective and now you're stuck in that class, suck it up, Princess.") So, every few days the group exchanged papers and notes and did each other's homework. Sylvester took math, Walter science and Toby any psych or some language arts homework. Paige would grab any extra social studies or government classes and any shop or "real-life analysis" math papers were immediately given to Happy (with an extra 5$ so she didn't fail you.) The Cyclone's system worked efficiently, they were top of their class and had no intentions of stopping.
Until Walter hacked the school website- a dare from Toby- and ended up with 3 weeks after-school detention and Happy's hand bruised over completely after being 'hit on' on by a freshman.
Paige got to lunch first from her choir class, hoping to collect her paper on Sigmund Freud and some chem. As Sylvester slid into his seat, he gave Paige an exhausted smile. Toby and Happy arrived not a minute later, Toby tossing 2 essays over to Paige's side of the table while continuing to lecture his shorter counterpart about fighting. "You're in biomed, not a real Doctor, so lay off, I did what I needed to do, I'll be fine." Happy rolled her eyes, handing Sylvester his graph papers back and sitting down. Paige's eyes locked on Happy's partially-bandaged and thoroughly purple and black hand.
"Happy what in the hell did you do?" Paige scolded, eyes wide and bouncing between Happy and Toby.
"A freshman got in my way, he should be fine in like 3 weeks after some intense therapy. He managed to move away from one of my punches, accidentally hit the wall. Hey, it's not as bad as Walt, though no shop for me until it's healed, sorry." She finished, raising her eyebrows at the peaceful girl, with a smirk.
"Oh, you're kidding right? And when will Walter be back, how'd he get caught anyway?" Sylvester asked, pulling 4 packets of math out of his color-coordinated binder.
"Kid got sloppy. underestimated the school's server so he didn't double back and delete his steps. Rookie mistake, but trial and error I s'pose. He's in ISS all day today, but he'll be back tomorrow. I'd be prepared for him not to be able to do your math for at least a week, though." Toby informed his friend, reaching into his folder and retrieving a stack of loose-leaf papers and distributing them accordingly.
Placing her head in her hands, "So we're on our own with chem and shop for a week, we're doomed. My grade's going to drop so far." Panicking only slightly, Sylvester gave Paige's arm a light squeeze. "You still have us for science, and Happy can still make sure we're getting our measurements right and such, she just can't build a prototype to copy." Smiling a genuine Sly smile, Paige's breathing returned to normal.
The next day Walter was back, handing everyone their now-complete assignments to copy later. He'd been cornered and chided by Paige earlier that day, but she blushed and rolled her eyes when he drew a small smiley face in the corner of her essay. Life went on, Happy's hand was back to new fairly soon, but she continued to be careful around the tools (causing Sylvester to almost stick a nail right through his finger.) Walter served his many detentions, cleaning hundreds of desks and writing various papers including why he wouldn't "hack into the school website without written consent from Principal Gallo."
Falling back into their usual pattern of switching papers and rewriting solutions, everything returned to normal. (Only with more stolen glances, longer hand-touches, and high-school hormones screwing them all up.) "Here's your psych essay, 3 pages on famous psychopaths and the common characteristics they all shared." Toby said, nudging Happy's side with his elbow. "Here's what you're doing in shop, cutting 3 9x4s, screwing them together as drawn, and letting Walt and Paige do most everything else. Thanks for the paper, but you're a spiller." Cocking an eyebrow at Gallo standing behind Paige (who was conversing with Walter about formulas and how mixing different chemicals could totally set off the fire alarm and be called an accident.)
"And what paper might you be thanking for, ?" Cabe's gruff voice called out, loud enough for-thank God- only the table to hear.
Thinking easily and quickly on her feet, Happy retaliated. "He gave me one of his old Language Arts essays to use as reference for mine. I'm not planning on plagiarizing, and with the amount of grammatical errors." Luckily, Cabe nodded and head off in the other direction, not completely believing the lie. Breathing out deeply, "We should probably do this at Walter's house, or where Paige works or somewhere else that isn't here." It didn't help that Gallo continued to waltz around the cafeteria everyday, but they moved their operation to the Cafe Paige worked at. (As long as someone else did or helped her with pre-cal, she was good.)
::::
They got caught-actually caught- senior year. In a grand debacle of Toby stapling one page of Sylvester's essay to the back of Walter's, making no sense at all when you read either one of them. Their english teacher called the two boys over, interrogating them intensely before, with a look, Walter confessed to save any trouble. He'd said it'd only been this essay, and that Sylvester had been weighed down with a lot of math and he had to help his sister move into college so they asked Toby to write their essays. Surprisingly, they got let off with 2 lunch detentions which would be greatly spent rewriting the papers. After that, they decided to finish off their grades senior year by their own effort, only consulting one another when they really needed help. Graduating still at the top of their class with smug smiles, the Cyclone was called to speak with the principal after. "You guys did good, but I know about the little scheme, so be lucky I'm feeling nice." Nodding in their direction, almost approvingly, the group left laughing hysterically. (And they all got Skype to do the same thing all the way through college.)