Master Plan

 Casey paced back and forth around Ben’s room while Ben sat at his computer, typing sporadically and tracing words on the screen with his finger.

“How do you do it so fast?” she asked. “Actually, that’s the wrong question.  I know your mind works at light speed….When do you have time to do it?”

“I do it during class,” Ben replied, not looking away from his computer.

“During class?  But it’s all new material.”

“I skim.”

“The chapter?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“During class.”

“So you skim the chapter and then do the homework during the one hour class period while the teacher is giving the lesson on the material you already learned.”

“Yes.” Ben typed furiously for a few seconds and then stopped and leaned back in his chair.  He swiveled it around and looked at Casey, who was at a loss for words.

“And people are actually paying you for them?”

“Fifty cents for each assignment.”

“There are six periods of forty students each, so if only half of them get it off your site, that’s…” Casey looked up at the ceiling and squinted her eyes, trying to do the math before Ben.

“About one hundred a day,” Ben said, spinning around in his chair.

“Five hundred a week,” Casey said almost to herself.

“Excluding test days,”

“Two thousand a month.”

“And holidays,” Ben added, halting his rotations.

“…Ben, you do realize that this is undoubtedly illegal on several different levels?”

“Probably.”

“And you’re not worried?”

“I’m not worried.”