Some little weasel has told on you for cheating. You, the cool and popular student, who also happen to have good grades and high hopes for the future, is reduced to a dishonorable cheat by a "righteous" nerd who wants revenge for all the taunts and jokes you've rendered on him. Well, what can you do?

Violence is something that should naturally come to mind first. The little weasel is a measly 90 pounds in weight and requires only a slight punch in the jaw to set him on the floor. However, such an action will only bring ephemeral relief because the rat will tell on you once again for hurting him. From that moment, a cheating incident on your record becomes a police complaint for assault and you are in even deeper water. What can you do?

Making life miserable for the already unpopular and lonely "loser" is a logical way to avenge the kid's revenge. Since you have many friends, why not get them to hate the rat and ridicule him even more? Ever hear of a high school named Columbine? Maybe the nerd is into violent video games and dreams of murdering all the "elite" kids in school. What happens then? Aren't you only provoking the kid into thinking more irrationally? Things will seem funny when the rat can't even walk through the hallways without being mocked, but what does that really accomplish for you in the long run? Not much except a few, empty laughs. Well then, what can you do?

A rat is a rat for a reason. Not any kid will walk up to a teacher and reveal the wrongdoings of his classmates. It takes guts to betray your peers and what the rat did was not out of pure joy, but of vindication for his hard, independent work, which was unfairly gathered with the workings of a commune that broke the policies of the school. Everyone knows cheating is something that occurs everyday and almost every moment, but what they don't know is that cheating sometimes defeats the purpose of school. Why go to school if your homework or test is the product of another kid's mind? Get a job where you do your own work and earn your own living. Nobody likes a rat because he's a traitor, a loser, a friendless jerk. However, the rat has reasons to do what he has done. He's a loner who feels unfairly cheated by the world - he's disadvantaged socially to begin with, and to have perhaps his only bright side in school work lost among the tainted work of others may be too much to deal with. Tattling can be sort of a counseling session, where the rat can vent out his anger without having to physically hurt anyone.

The solution in dealing with a rat is not all that hard. You swallow the pain and anger caused by consequences resulting from the rat's tattling, and you find out first off - why did the kid tell on you? To answer that question, you must talk to and understand the nerd like you've never known him before. It may even require being nice and polite, even though the only words at the tip of your tongue have four letters and one syllable per word. Since the rat was "brave" enough to tell on you, you can counter his actions by being "brave" enough to know the rat better, understand him, and show how it may even have been "wrong" for him to tell on you. Think about it - if the rat was your friend, would he have become a rat? Of course not, and that is where you must realize the whole incident may have been your fault. This problem goes beyond cheating, which, in the moral mind, should never have been committed. The problem transcends to a question of relationships between teens. The nerd you always poked fun of or pushed around in the hallways and in gym class, if you had known him better, would you have treated him like that? It all comes down to whether or not you are a good person. Responsibility should be taken to reach out to those who are not as blessed as you are and need to find people to talk to and hang out with. This may sound like another sermon, but it's true - communication and understanding makes a world of a difference.

You may wonder what real good may come out of reconciling with a kid who has just made your life miserable. Plenty good will come when you know the rat better because he will feel differently about you and even have regrets about his deed. Not only that, you would have learned a valuable lesson in making sure that you do not create any enemies, especially those who are provoked to become your enemy. By then, you should be safe enough to continue your habit of "cheating" in school, and this time, maybe the rat might join you in your work. The rat told on you, and now the rat gives you the answers on the next test - what more can you do with a rat?