This isn't really an excuse, but I remember that back in seventh grade I had a teacher who would come around and do homework checks. He'd stamp them with the date to make sure we couldn't reuse them.
One day he was really upset, and I'd forgotten to do my homework. I knew I'd be in trouble. He came around and started booting people that hadn't finish theirs out of the class. Without thinking, I pulled out my binder for another subject, got out some old homework, and changed the date and title.
It worked, and what's more is that I was apparently one of the only people that 'did' the homework. Sorry, Mr. C., but I was a huge nerd and there was NO WAY my reputation was going to be marred from one day of missing homework.