Cheating

**Cheating** is the ninth episode of the first season and the ninth overall episode of *The Sex Lives of College Girls*.

## Short Summary

A heartbroken Kimberly considers cheating on an exam. Leighton's fear of coming out upends her weekend getaway with Alicia. Bela navigates the fallout of exposing assault. Whitney confronts the truth about Dalton.

## Full Summary

Bela asks Leighton and Whitney who ate her last applesauce. Whitney tells her Bela ate it herself, with her hands the last time she was drunk. Kimberly comes in and asks if they've read the paper. They've never looked at it once. Kimberly shows them a cover story about the coaches being fired because one of them had an affair with a player. Whitney says she heard about it, but the details are vague. Bela reads it and begs Whitney for more details. Whitney admits that she was the player and tells them not to tell anyone. Leighton reads something and tells Whitney she should read it. Whitney doesn't want to, but Leighton tells her Dalton did the same thing with a player at Ithaca when he worked there. Whitney says it doesn't matter and leaves to take a shower.

In the bathroom, Whitney types out a text to Dalton asking about the other girl, but then deletes it and looks at herself in the mirror.

Bela tells Jocelyn, Leighton, and Kimberly that she's going to the Title IX office to learn what her options are for dealing with a gross student with a weirdly-shaped penis. She tries to describe the shape of his penis. Leighton says she might not need to mention that, but Bela thinks it's best to share everything. She leaves to make the report. Jocelyn asks Kimberly how she's doing since Nico. There's an awkward silence and Jocelyn realizes Leighton and Kimberly haven't talked about it. They take the opportunity to talk it out and settle things. Leighton says if Kimberly had said something, she would have told her that Nico had a girlfriend. Jocelyn says Nico's hot, but he wasn't raised right. At least Kimberly got to hook up with someone way out of her league. Kimberly's offended by that remark.

Rikki takes Bela and Carla's report. Bela asks what's next. Rikki tells her they'll have to give written statements and the department will decide whether or not they need to intervene to protect the community. Otherwise, it's Bela and Carla's choice if they move forward with an investigation. She recommends doing everything they can to avoid Ryan, including taking a break from The Catullan. It could last weeks. Bela says she'd miss a lot of camaraderie building.

Kimberly rants to Roger about Nico and why she was late all the time. He tells her to clean the milk frother. Roger walks away and Kimberly tells Canaan she gets angry when she talks about Nico. He made her feel like an idiot. Canaan says he sees her more with a nerd. Canaan asks if she's getting ready for the econ midterm and asks if she has the practice test. He looks at it and realizes it's the actual test. He warns her not to try cheating and says she doesn't have the ability to pull it off. She think she can do it. It's a three-hour test. It'd be hard to memorize even if she had a passing knowledge of econ, which she doesn't. She says she has a plan and he asks her again not to cheat.

At Theta, Leighton confronts Nico about sleeping with Kimberly. She tells him Kimberly is really upset because she's not used to guys like him. She tells him to make things right with Kimberly. Maya calls down to him and he says he'll be right up. Leighton says he's one of the grossest men she's related to. She tells him he needs to apologize today.

Whitney enters the locker room and hears the other players talking about adapting to their new circumstances. They look at Whitney as they see her. Whitney calls their attention to her and takes responsibility for what happened. She blames herself for them being in a tournament with no leader. Abbey says it's not her fault. Jena agrees that Dalton is the problem. What he did was gross and wrong. Willow adds that he was very dumb. The whole team agrees. Then they go practice.

Bela looks up at The Catullan building, then down at her keychain. She decides to go in.

Bela is working when she looks up and sees Ryan talking to Eric and Evangeline. She gets up and walks out.

Bela tells Kimberly, Leighton, and Whitney she doesn't know what to do She can't let Ryan get away with this, but she doesn't want to Title IX him either. If she does that, she'll be picked apart as much as he is. Leighton says she has a point. Bad things happen to women who report things. Whitney says to do it anyway, but Kimberly suggests as a first step, she could go to some upperclassmen and get their advice. Bela doesn't really like any of her options.

Leighton goes to Alicia's apartment. She says she really want to see her. Alicia asks about Bela, but Leighton's not really sure how she's doing. Leighton has brought Alicia a grocery store cake. She also suggests they get out of town tomorrow, even overnight. Alicia suggests that she can plan it and drive them there, but Leighton has to pay for everything because Alicia is poor. Leighton agrees.

As Whitney packs her bag, Kimberly wishes her good luck at her away game. Whitney wishes Kimberly lucky with her midterm. Kimberly brings the graded test in her bag with her.

As they prepare for the test, Kimberly looks over at Canaan. Kimberly reads the first question, then gets up to ask Professor Bennett if she can go to the bathroom. She explains that she has a UTI and has to urinate frequently.

In the bathroom, she consults the test paper she's hidden in there.

Kimberly fills out her test answers.

Bela goes into a room with Eric and Evangeline. She thanks them for meeting with her and then tells them what happened with Ryan. Evangeline is immediately supportive and checks in with Bela, while Eric is more doubtful. Bela says he did it to Carla, too, and that's why she quit. Eric's known Ryan for years and doesn't believe he would do this. He normally believes women, but not in this case. He walks out. Evangeline tells Bela she did the right thing.

Leighton asks Alicia for a clue as to where they're going because she gets anxious when she doesn't know what occasion to dress for. Alicia says they're going to a B&B. Leighton doesn't like that plan and immediately pulls out her phone to book them a hotel room.

Leighton and Alicia enter their hotel room. Alicia only cares about the bed. They start kissing and undressing each other. They get on the bed and start having sex. They're interrupted by a knock at the door. Leighton asked for extra towels. She calls out to leave them outside.

Whitney and her team lose their game.

Willow tells Whitney it's all right. Whitney's disappointed because she really wanted to win it. Willow says it's their best season in ten years and a lot of that is because of Whitney. Next year, they'll go all the way.

Kimberly looks at her test paper. She asks again to go to the bathroom.

In the bathroom, Kimberly doesn't find the test. She checks every stall, then leaves, where she's confronted with Bennett and the test paper.

Leighton and Alicia relax in bed in their robes. Alicia likes the robe look. She takes a picture of herself. Leighton looks at places they could go. Then she sees that Alicia posted the picture and Leighton's purse is in the background. When Bela likes it, Leighton panics that someone will see it and realize they're together. She asks Alicia to take it down. Alicia does so and the mood is sullied.

Canaan, Jayla, and Darius talk about Captain Marvel. Whitney comes in and Canaan is surprised to see her. She apologizes for dodging his texts. He accepts her apology and says he heard about her game. He's sorry she lost, but he's glad soccer is done because she has more time to hang out with him.

When Leighton asks Alicia about food options, Alicia says she thinks they need to end things. Leighton is so scared of people finding out about them, that Alicia feels like Leighton is pulling her back into the closet and she doesn't want to do that again. Coming out was hard, but it made her feel so much better. Leighton doesn't want her entire identity to become her being gay. Alicia says it doesn't have to, but Leighton says when you google a gay person, the first thing that comes up after their name is gay. She doesn't want that for herself and have everything become about that. Alicia says Leighton's describing her as the thing she doesn't want to be. Alicia cares about her, but if Leighton can't be out with her, she can't be with her. Leighton says they're done then.

Bela thinks Eric hates her, but Travis says it was good that she did what she did. Jocelyn agrees and offers to help Bela get revenge. Eric knocks on the door and asks if he can talk to Bela. Jocelyn and Travis mistake him for Ryan and threaten him until Bela tells them he's the other editor. She agrees to talk to him privately.

In Bela's room, Eric apologizes for how he reacted and promises he'll do something about what she told them. Bela is shocked and thanks him.

Kimberly spots Leighton as she walks home. They both lie about what they're doing and they both say they're okay. Leighton asks if Nico talked to her today. Kimberly says no. She asks if Leighton is going home. Leighton says no, she's headed somewhere else first.

Maya comes downstairs and Leighton tells her that Nico has been cheating on her a lot.

## Cast

### Starring

* Pauline Chalamet as Kimberly Finkle
* Amrit Kaur as Bela Malhotra
* Reneé Rapp as Leighton Murray
* Alyah Chanelle Scott as Whitney Chase
* Gavin Leatherwood as Nico Murray
* Midori Francis as Alicia
* Chris Meyer as Canaan Greene
* Renika Williams as Willow
* Lolo Spencer as Jocelyn

### Guest Starring

* Mekki Leeper as Eric Miller
* Conor Donnally as Ryan Hutton
* Stephen Guarino as Sips Manager
* Will Hines as Professor Bennett
* Julie Brister as Rikki
* Sierra Katow as Evangeline Hashima
* Betti as Travis Feldman
* Isabella Roland as Carla
* Maya Rose as Jena
* Donielle Nash as Jayla
* Mona Mira as Maya

### Co-Starring

* Kylie Contreary as Abbey
* Najee Muhammad as Darius