Doing all the work on a group project while your partner does nothing is frustrating, but one student was smart enough to turn it into leverage.

When a student finished a two-person geography project solo, lied to the teacher to protect his friend’s grade, and watched him walk away with a good grade, he made sure the favor came with terms attached.

Keep reading for the full story.

I tricked my slacking friend into getting me a 10/10 for a school project

Back in high school, the two of us were assigned to work on a geography project about plate tectonics.

My friend hated geography and had a sour relationship with the teacher.

I, on the other hand, was quite good at the subject and even liked it — which is probably why he chose me as his project partner.

After a few days, I noticed he hadn’t done any work on the project whatsoever.

That’s when his friend just came out and said the quiet part out loud.

When I confronted him, he basically said, “Look, I have no intention of doing anything for this project. Please just get me a good grade — I would only hold your grade back otherwise anyway.”

Of course I was annoyed, and I informed him this plan wouldn’t work.

The teacher would catch on right away, he said.

I have always been quite good at writing — at least in our native language — and I had a very distinctive writing style even as a teen. So if I did everything myself, the teacher would notice.

My friend did not take this warning seriously and basically brushed me off to go do the entire project myself.

This is where the revenge started.

This student started doing some smart planning.

I looked ahead in the school agenda and noticed that we had a big economics project coming up — at least three times bigger and more important than the geography one.

I despised economics and was terrible at it, not least because it involved very little writing. My friend, however, excelled at it — always the entrepreneurial type, economics was his best subject by far.

We were part of an 8-person friend group, though this friend was my best friend.

So he set his genius plan into motion.

So I informed the other 6 of my plans and convinced them to form pairs so that my friend would basically be stuck with me.

The day we got the economics assignment, my friend seemed a little annoyed to have someone as incapable at economics as me as his partner.

A few hours later, it was time for geography class. I had turned in “our” project the weekend before.

Turns out, the teacher really did catch on.

As I predicted, the teacher called me out of the classroom to discuss the project. My friend seemed terrified.

Turns out we had gotten an 8.5/10 — not bad for one person doing a two-person job.

The teacher voiced his suspicions that I had done all the work, because he recognized my writing style. He gave me the opportunity to rat my friend out and leave him with a 1/10.

But instead of ratting out his friend, he played a different hand.

I looked my teacher dead in the eyes and said, “You’ve got it all wrong, sir! My friend was a huge help throughout the entire thing. We just agreed that I would put everything on paper to keep the writing consistent. You know I can be a bit of a control freak when it comes to language, haha!”

The teacher then called my friend over and asked him if what I said was true.

My friend seemed both surprised and remorseful — but he backed up my story, and so we both got the high grade.

After class, my friend literally hugged me and thanked me profusely for being such an awesome friend.

But this kindness was going to cost this friend big time.

I wasn’t mad anymore — but I wasn’t about to let him get away with it either.

So I said to him, “Easy there, bro. You royally screwed me over with this. The least you could do to repay me is to make sure we both get at least an 8.5/10 on that economics project. Because just in case you hadn’t picked up on it yet, I have zero intention of doing anything for that assignment. I’ll leave it in your capable hands — I would only hold you back anyway.”

My friend looked at me for a second and then started laughing.

Everything ended up working out in the end.

He apologized for his behavior and did the entire economics project — which was so much more work — while I just sat at home living my best teen life.

And he delivered: he got us a perfect 10/10, which actually elevated my score to a passing grade.

There’s not really a villain in this story if you ask me, but some lessons were learned either way.

We had a great friendship, and I’m glad we have situations like these to laugh about now.

This student played his friend like a fiddle!

What did Reddit have to say?

This situation was actually pretty good practice for real life.

This user did something very similar.

This user thought the story was heading in a different direction.

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This student’s cleverness will get him far in life!

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