A/N: Hello! Thanks for reading! Warning for language, I guess. That's all for today. : )
When John finds Sherlock the very next morning, he's already talking to Harvey.
"What'd I miss?" John asks, arriving next to them.
"This," Harvey hands John an envelope, "These are the real email addresses of who have been bullying Sherlock and Lily."
"Oh?" John takes it.
"He won't let me have it because he thinks I won't do anything about it," Sherlock explains.
"Well, that's wise of you, Harvey."
Harvey smiles. "I'm glad to help, really. And thanks for finding out about what happened to my shoes. Huge bummer, but Mister Brown, the janitor, is making it up to me."
"Really?" John asks. "That's nice of him."
Harvey nods. "Well, let me know if you want, like…payment, or something?"
Sherlock motions to the envelope. "Consider us even," he says, turning to leave. "Come on, John."
"Actually," Harvey stops John. "Can we talk, John? In private?"
Sherlock eyes them suspiciously, then pats John's shoulder and leaves.
"What's up, Harvey?" John asks as soon as Sherlock is gone.
"I just, uhm…thanks for helping Lily out. I wish she'd have told me everything that's happening, but…"
"So, you're not…upset?"
"Upset?" Harvey repeats. "Nah, man. I am upset that this is happening to her, I'm bloody livid, but I'm not upset with her, is what I mean."
John nods.
"So, yeah. Thanks for taking her home last night and for being so concerned. I really appreciate it, little dude."
John smiles, not taking offense to the name just then. "You're welcome, Harvey. Thank you. I owe you one."
Harvey smiles, then turns down the hall to class.
John's got a few minutes before first period starts, so he decides to take a look at the lists. Sherlock's list is five people long, and John knows they're all Vince and his friends, Perry included. The list includes the date and times for each email, and he notices Perry's stop on Monday. John thinks it's at least nice that he stopped when he knew he'd need Sherlock's help.
He opens up the piece of paper Harvey had written the address of Lily's assaulter on, and it's an address of numbers and letters. He's incredibly confused, for the address is: 141a_33120. He wonders what it means, but his thoughts are cut off by the bell ringing.
Sherlock goes to the office during lunch to 'use the copy machine'. The office secretary leaves him alone with the book, and he has the perfect opportunity to read through it to Monday morning.
Not to his surprise, the culprit is Vince.
But he's confused. If Vince stole Perry's research paper, surely Vince would be in trouble as well. If Vince did get in trouble, there's no way he could have convinced their teacher that he didn't have a hand in the cheating.
Sherlock copies a paper he finds in his backpack and leaves. He quickly finds John in the cafeteria and pulls him away from Brady.
"What, what is it?" John frantically asks as they get into the hall outside of the cafeteria.
"I found out who copied Perry's paper."
"Oh? Who?"
"Who else?" Sherlock retorts. "Vince."
John's eyes bulge out of his head. "Wh-how? Why?"
Sherlock shrugs. "I haven't any idea. I have another idea, though. This afternoon I'm going to steal the papers."
"How?"
"Miss Green always leaves her desk immediately after school to use the restroom and refill her coffee. She's gone twenty minutes, plenty of time for me to get in, find the paper, and get out."
"How are you going to get in?"
Sherlock makes a face. "Please, John. I learned how to break into rooms when I was six."
John rolls his eyes. "Alright, fine. I'll stay a bit after school to keep watch. My mum won't mind."
"Ok," Sherlock agrees. "Perfect."
John finally smiles and pats Sherlock's arms. "Well done, love."
Sherlock triumphantly smiles, then lets John go back into the cafeteria.
Sherlock is eager to get to Miss Green's classroom after school to search for the copied research paper. He has a plan to find Perry's, then Vince's to see if they're the same. He knows it shouldn't take long, and he's very excited to turn Vince in.
Sherlock is so caught up with his thoughts on the case that he doesn't even notice his teacher calling to him that he's got a note from the office. When he finally gets Sherlock's attention, Sherlock confusedly stands and quickly shuffles out of the room.
He has no idea what he's done wrong. The only thing he's done differently recently is put up the fliers about helping kids, but that was last week. He begins to grow worried, not wanting to be in trouble.
When he gets there and into the headmaster's office, he's a nervous wreck.
"Do you know why you're here, Mister Holmes?"
Sherlock shakes his head.
"It's come to my attention that you've cheated on your research paper about…" he glances over and reads something, then adds, "Shakespeare."
That's the paper they just had due Monday, the one Perry is in trouble for.
"What?!" Sherlock demands.
"Your paper matches another student's—"
"Whose?!"
"I can't share that information," Headmaster Card says. "But I can tell by your shock that perhaps you didn't do the cheating."
"Of course I bloody didn't!"
"Lower your voice, boy," the headmaster warns.
Sherlock sits back in his seat and breaths deeply.
"The student your paper matches is far behind your usual level of writing though, Mister Holmes. My hands are tied. He says he didn't cheat and you're saying you didn't."
"I didn't!"
"I must suspend you for two days, Mister Holmes."
"This isn't fair!"
"Starting tomorrow," Headmaster Card says. "You must finish out today, and your suspension starts tomorrow."
"This really isn't fair!"
Headmaster Card just folds his hands in front of him and stares at Sherlock.
"This is shit," Sherlock says, grabbing his bag and standing.
"Don't make me suspend you for longer, young man."
Sherlock doesn't say anything, he just gets out of the office as quickly as he can.
Unfortunately, the bell rings as he exits, so students begin filing out of classes as he stands there stunned.
"You little fucking freak!" Sherlock hears from down the hall.
His immediate thought is to run, but he is so stunned that he can't move until he's shoved.
"I trusted you, and you tricked me!" the voice shouts.
It takes Sherlock a second to realize it's Perry. He's so confused that he can't even stop Perry before Perry punches him in the cheek.
Sherlock grabs his face when he stumbles back. He still can't move or do anything, then Perry grabs him by the shirt collar and holds him up straight.
"You piece of shit," Perry spits, "You stay the fuck away from me. To think I trusted you."
Perry tosses him away, like a rag doll, then storms away.
Sherlock just slowly sits on the floor. He's right outside the office and miraculously nobody saw Perry punch him. He feels blood stream down his cheek, and he feels tears swell in his eyes.
Sherlock gets cleaned up and goes to his last class late. John's in shock when Sherlock walks in, but Sherlock ignores his gaze and everyone else's and goes straight to his seat at the back of the room. He rests his head on the desk and doesn't even bother listening to the teacher for the entire class.
He gets out of the room as soon as the bell rings. He knows John is running after him, but he doesn't slow down on his way to Miss Green's classroom. He's still determined to prove that he didn't cheat and that Vince did.
"Sherlock!" John shouts when he catches up. "Babe, what the hell happened?"
Sherlock glances at him once, but doesn't bother to explain. There's time for that later.
John doesn't let up, and Sherlock knows that John knows he's going to break into Miss Green's classroom. John doesn't say anything, and for that Sherlock is thankful.
Sherlock waits a few minutes before he breaks in, waiting for students to disappear from the hallway. As soon as it's clear, he gets on his knees and pulls a paperclip from his pocket.
"Amazing," John mutters as the lock clicks and the door cracks open.
Sherlock doesn't reply, he only slips in and closes the door.
He goes straight to Miss Green's desk, where her box of papers to grade is. He knows the research papers will be there, for he saw her put them there with his own eyes.
He quickly finds Perry's class's papers and finds Perry's. He finds Vince's two papers later, because Vince and Perry are in the same class.
He's completely shocked to find that the papers are different.
"What…" Sherlock says outloud.
"What?!" John calls through the door.
"Nothing!" Sherlock replies, putting Vince's paper back and pulling out his class's papers. If his is matching Perry's, surely it's in the box.
He nearly gasps when he finds it. His name is hand-written in the upper right hand corner. Obviously, Sherlock knew it wasn't going to be his real research paper, but this is proof enough that it's not his.
He sits on the floor with 'his' research paper for many long seconds, trying to perhaps figure out whose handwriting it is. It's not his, of course, and it's not John's. It's not even Perry's, for he's seen Perry's.
Suddenly, he realizes he has seen it before. He shuffles through the box, back to his old class's assignments, and finds what he's looking for.
There, on the last paper he turned in in that last period class, is the paper Vince took from him and wrote 'Freak Holmes' on the top.
Sherlock sighs relief and sits against Miss Green's desk. He smiles at himself, proud that he's solved what's going on, but he just as quickly hears a knock on the door.
"Sherlock, she's coming!"
Sherlock scrambles to get the papers back in the right spots, but not before pulling his phone out and snapping photos of each paper. He then stands from the floor.
"Uh, hi Miss Green," he hears John say.
Sherlock looks around the room for somewhere to hide, but he knows Miss Green doesn't leave her classroom until she's ready to leave the building altogether, which is late at night. His gaze finally falls upon the large windows, and he runs over and opens one up. He shimmies through and falls into the dead bushes below, right on time to hear Miss Green open her classroom door.
Sherlock walks around the building to the front entrance, where John is exiting the building.
"So?" he asks, running to Sherlock.
"Vince stole Perry's paper, made a copy, hand-wrote my name on the top, and turned it in 'for me'."
"What happened to your face?" John asks, as if not interested in Sherlock's explanation.
Sherlock had forgotten about that, and when he remembers, it stings. "Perry punched me in the hall before last period."
John frowns deeply. "He did? That fucking prick, I'll—"
"You'll nothing, John. I solved it. I'll tell Headmaster Card what happened tomorrow."
John takes a deep breath and nods. Then, he lunges forward and wraps his arms around Sherlock.
Sherlock eagerly hugs back.
"I'm sorry, love. For what he did."
"It's ok, John. I'll get it taken care of tomorrow."
John pulls away and nods, then takes Sherlock's hand and begins to walk him towards their houses.