Two days passed. After checking in with Meemaw, Mike had spent the last couple of nights staying over at Cady's place.
After taking their relationship to the "next level," Cady had leveled up in other ways, too. She was practically glowing, looking more radiant and confident than ever.
Gretchen was green with envy.
That afternoon, Georgie suddenly showed up at the Math Olympiad room, dragging his dad along.
Mike walked out of the classroom and, seeing the anxious look on Georgie's face, asked, "What's going on?"
Even though Mike hadn't been home in two days, he'd heard from Meemaw that George Sr. had gotten a job as a salesman at the sporting goods store owned by Dale. This should have been his shift.
"Do you know where Shelly is?" George asked point-blank.
It turned out Sheldon's little scheme of faking sick for the past two weeks had been busted. His chess teacher and his homeroom teacher, Ms. Elizabeth, had compared notes during a casual chat.
It made sense—Sheldon was perfectly fine in class during the morning, but would suddenly have a "broken arm" wrapped in bandages by the afternoon to skip Chess Club. It was a ridiculous plan that might work once or twice, but over time, it was bound to fall apart.
"Isn't he supposed to be at the Chess Club?" Mike asked, confused.
Seeing Mike's reaction, George shook his head. "Georgie, tell him."
Georgie explained how Sheldon had asked him for help, adding guiltily, "I thought he just wanted to skip a day or two. I didn't know he'd skip two whole weeks of extracurriculars."
Georgie had only found out the extent of Sheldon's stupidity when the school called the house. If he'd known Sheldon was going to cut that many classes, he never would have given him that terrible advice.
Seeing the panic on both their faces, Mike helped analyze the situation. "If Sheldon skipped the afternoon Chess Club activity but didn't go home, he's likely hiding somewhere on campus..."
"Exactly!" Georgie's eyes lit up. "But where would he hide?"
Since Georgie was partly responsible for Sheldon playing hooky, he wanted this resolved as fast as possible.
"Let me think..." Mike closed his eyes, tapping into his "Mind Palace" while George and Georgie watched expectantly.
Knowing Sheldon skipped the group activity to study 12th-grade material, he would definitely look for a place where he wouldn't be disturbed.
A while back, Mike had scouted the school for secluded spots to... chat privately with Karen and Lena. He mentally scanned the campus and used the process of elimination to find the perfect blind spot—a classic case of "hidden in plain sight."
It was a place that met all of Sheldon's needs.
"Follow me. If I'm right, I know where he is," Mike said, opening his eyes.
"Really?" Georgie was amazed that Mike figured it out just by closing his eyes for a few seconds.
Mike didn't explain. He led the father and son directly to the first floor, to the storage space underneath the stairwell.
"Are you sure it's here?" Georgie asked uncertainly. He and his dad had walked past here multiple times while looking for Sheldon.
"Only one way to find out," Mike said.
The space under the stairs used to be for storage but was now semi-abandoned. Hardly anyone paid attention to it.
George didn't overthink it. Trusting Mike, he decisively pulled open the small door.
Sure enough, amidst a pile of broken desks and chairs, a small figure was sitting there, studying intently by the light of a portable lamp.
"Shelly," George hissed, suppressing his voice.
Sheldon was snapped out of his focus. Seeing who it was, he asked in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
"Why aren't you at your group activity?" George asked, trying to keep a lid on his anger.
In America, actively avoiding school social activities made you look like a weirdo or an outcast. George didn't want his son getting that reputation or causing trouble over something so small.
"You mean the Chess Club?" Sheldon said earnestly. "Their skill level is abysmal. I learn absolutely nothing there. It is much more efficient to use that time to study things I actually want to learn..."
To a genius like Sheldon, the Chess Club members—including the faculty advisor—offered zero challenge. Staying there was just torture for him.
"By the way, Mike, I've basically finished the 12th-grade material. Can you get me some Math Olympiad workbooks?" Sheldon asked as if nothing was wrong, completely ignoring the fact that his father was about to explode.
"Sure. If you want, I can ask Mr. Sharon if you can audit the Math Olympiad team," Mike replied.
Mike had realized recently that while Mr. Sharon seemed strict, he was actually quite reasonable.
"Audit? That sounds acceptable," Sheldon said, his eyes lighting up at the chance to compete with Mike again.
"Shelly, right now, you aren't going anywhere except to Ms. Elizabeth's office with me," George snapped. Seeing that his son didn't think he'd done anything wrong, his tone became severe.
Georgie, now off the hook, headed back to football practice. Meanwhile, Mike and George escorted Sheldon to Ms. Elizabeth's office.
"Sheldon, can you explain to me why you lied?" Ms. Elizabeth asked, frowning, as they sat in her office.
"It was a benign deception. It allowed me to have more time to enrich my mind," Sheldon argued, using the defense he had prepared from the start.
However, Ms. Elizabeth wasn't buying it. She asked sternly, "Do you know that lying is wrong?"
"Technically, yes, lying is incorrect," Sheldon nodded, but then doubled down. "However, I had a valid reason for my fabrication, so it shouldn't count as a mistake..."
Seeing Sheldon still trying to justify his actions, Ms. Elizabeth cut him off impatiently. "Alright, Sheldon, enough. Since you refuse to admit your mistake, I am giving you three days of detention."
After announcing the punishment, she turned to George. "Mr. Cooper, do you have any objections to this decision?"
"No, none at all," George replied, glancing at his youngest son. "It's a good punishment."
In George's opinion, Sheldon needed to learn a lesson about admitting when he was wrong.
"Good. It's settled then," Ms. Elizabeth concluded. "Starting today, through the end of the week—which is exactly three days—Sheldon will stay at school for one extra hour after dismissal to study the Student Code of Conduct."
Hearing the word "detention," Sheldon panicked. Everyone knew that the kids in detention were delinquents.
Sheldon didn't have the courage to be alone in a room with "bad kids." He whispered, "Ms. Elizabeth, if I memorize the entire Code of Conduct, can I leave early?"
"No," Ms. Elizabeth refused firmly. Then she waved her hand. "You may leave now."
As a rather intense feminist, being alone in a room with three males made her uncomfortable.