Anyone who grew up reading and writing for fun cringes at the thought of AI generated books and school assignments. This is why this story was so satisfying to me.

A mean girl wanted to win a writing contest by cheating, but she got exposed real fast by an avid reader and honest classmate.

Let’s read the whole story and see how everything unfolded.

Got a mean girl kicked out of a writing contest 30 years ago.

So grade school really sucked. It was a rough school in a small town.

My best friend was bullied horribly for being overweight and extremely poor, and I was bullied by proximity, I guess.

I wasn’t overly popular anyway because I was quiet, I liked geeky things and nothing about me was “cool” to most of the other kids.

I read a ton of books and did my best to keep my head down.

This alone means she was probably smarter than average.

We had a handful of other geeky friends who stuck by us, but for the most part, we were jeered at in the halls, picked last for teams in gym class, and were generally hated.

One of the bullies was this mean girl who actually used to be a friend of ours, until she decided she wanted to be on the winning side.

Someone who used to be nice to us was now laughing along with her nasty little friends.

She already knew she would be trouble, but it was even worse than she could have imagined.

One day, we were given a writing assignment in English class, except it was also a contest. We had to get up and read what we wrote in front of the class, one by one.

When it was the backstabbing mean girl’s turn, she started speaking, and she was only a few lines in to her project before I recognized it right away.

She’d copied her project, word for word, straight out of a book. And I knew this because it was one of the older books I had at home, and had read cover to cover many times.

She probably thought none of the other kids had read it, so she’d get away with stealing it.

But she knew.

So she finished speaking, and the teacher was really impressed.

He would announce the winner the following week after we all had the chance to read our projects.

I wish I could say I did something super diabolical and amazing.

She had a few options.

Like, I could have recited her entry back to her while she was at her locker, and then threatened to turn her in if she didn’t get the witches to stop bullying us.

I could have maybe called her super strict parents and ratted her out.

Or maybe I could have stolen the same passage for my own presentation, but changed the story so it was about a girl who stole from a famous writer.

She chose the plain truth route.

Nah, I didn’t do any of that. I was a shy kid who spent every day of her life waiting to get the kicked out of her by two dozen psychotic tweens.

I quietly went to the teacher with my copy of the book in hand and showed him she’d stolen the work, and begged him to keep my name out of it.

So later that week, he announced to the class he’d automatically disqualify anyone was caught stealing from outside sources.

The mean girl didn’t get to carry out her plan.

He didn’t out her to the class, but it was clear he’d already pulled the Mean Girl from the contest, as I noticed her sitting in her chair, red-faced and vibrating with rage, looking around the room to see if she could tell who blabbed.

I don’t know why I’m sharing this story 30 years after it happened.

Maybe I’m trying to heal my inner child or whatever.

But back then, she just wanted to help her friend.

My best friend was this amazing, smart, kind person who loved animals and nature and math and languages, and got dealt such a bad hand in life. I loved her so much.

And knowing her, I know she worked really hard on her English project, because her academic future was literally all she had back then.

I just wanted to stick it to one of those nasty, mean kids, and score one for the downtrodden nerds.

In all honesty, I hope the mean girl did her own healing, and I wish her the best.

Maybe she’s now a grade school teacher who’s out there catching kids who are using ChatGPT to write their essays.

This was a fun read in its own right. It also felt like a vindication for anyone who appreciates originality and real effort.

Let’s see what Reddit had to say about this.

Same.

Someone shares a similar story.

Unfortunately true.

Another reader chimes in.

A compliment.

Standing up to a bully doesn’t have to end up in arguments or fights.

Being the introverted kid comes with its own superpowers.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.