Summary of: "Cheater by Michael Laser"

   In the book, Cheater, by Michael Laser, the author tells about cheating and the consequences of doing so. The child born to learn, Karl, thrives well in school, while lazy people cheat their way through. It's already high school, so every grade matters for getting into a good college. The group of cheaters, called The Confederacy, includes Blaine, Cara, and many other people. However, the boss, Upchurch, is only know during the conclusion of the story. Blaine, tempted by his evil boss, hires Karl into the group of cheaters to help them. Karl is a good kid and he would never join a group of cheaters unless he had a reason. Cara, one of Blaine's friends told Karl that she likes him, creating love between the two. Karl's best friend, Lisette tries to convince Karl not to join; but after learning so much about this group, he has no choice but to join. With Karl's brilliance, he would be able to give all the correct answers to teammates.

    The Confederacy takes a test run by cheating on the easy chemistry quiz. Since this was high school, laptops were available to students at any time, even when taking tests. Using this resource, Karl sends emails to the Confederacy and gives everyone the answers through the computer. Making his first big mistake, Karl forgets to turn the sound off on his computer, alerting his teacher that he is on his email. The teacher demands to see Karl's computer screen, but Karl is saved my Upchurch, who had planned this all along. Upchurch is an A+ student and sits strait as a pole. At this time, Karl has no idea that Upchurch is part of the Confederacy, and is confused with why Upchurch saved him.

   This school has a missing principal, so the assistant principal, Klimchock takes control. A few weeks after cheating through tests, Karl gets devastated when Klimchock gives a speech about cheating. "How does he know about this?" Karl thinks to himself as the lecture from Klimchock goes on for hours. New policies formed and security cameras were installed everywhere in classrooms to prevent cheating. Even the computers were taken away.

   Without any other ways, the Confederacy gifts to Karl a cheating tool: a pen than captures answers and plays back on other voice systems. During the first test using the pen, Karl was successful after waving the camera in the pen around on his paper. However, Cara got caught by Klimchock and was expelled from the high school forever. Now, readers understand that the evil "villain" of the story is Klimchock. Cara was brave and didn't give away the names of people that helped her cheat. She moves away from the city and all the contact information that Karl knows is broken.

   With Cara away, Karl wants to leave the Confederacy as well. But Blaine won't let him leave, explaining how he will fail his tests after Karl leaves. All the members of the Confederacy has perfect grades and not cheating would dramatically drop them. Once again, Karl is forced to cheat for the others. Unfortunately the second time he uses the pen, he is caught by the camera and sent to the assistant Principal's office for talking. Klimchock offers to not punish Karl if he gives away the names of cheaters. Karl refuses, but gets another chance of learning in school when Klimchock offers: "Cheat again on the SAT so I can discover who is using the signal of that pen to cheat. Do this for me and I will lie to colleges and say that you are active as well as smart. You know, colleges want sporty people and hate cheaters!" Karl agreed reluctantly.
   Karl gets sick after school that day and ends up in the hospital. After cheating through the school year, Lisette still comes to comfort him for getting caught cheating. Even though Lisette broke her friendship with Karl months ago, she still cares about him. Cara also came to visit after hearing the problem. However, Cara doesn't really care about Karl and simply left Karl saying he has no options but to betray his friends.

   Samantha, a news reporter also comes to visit Karl because she wants to catch the cheaters. Samantha doesn't know Karl is one of the cheaters and wants Karl to help her catch cheaters. With this done, Samantha could possibly be accepted into a major news channel as a reporter, for a job. Mr. Upchurch arrives at the hospital the same time as Klimchock and so Samantha helps to organize conversations 1 on 1. Karl sets up a microphone to record the conversations as evidence later on when he rebels against both groups. Klimchock repeats to Karl about lying to the colleges and Mr. Upchurch repeats how he wants Karl to cheat so Upchurch can get into Harvard.

  On Monday of that week, the SAT started and with his iPod, Karl broadcasts  the whole story on a radio channel. His friends all hear it as well as the adults. With sufficient evidence, Klimchock immediately runs into his car and drives away never to be seen again. The Confederacy thanked Karl for not exposing them. The real principal also thanks Karl for kicking away Klimchock because Klimchock was an evil man who banned the real principal from the school. Lisette gets back in relation with Karl and the have a good time together. The story ends with the two sitting at the park amazed by some of Karl's own inventions that he had worked on over the school year.