The theme of this excerpt is that not everything is perfect . Zeuxis was a painter who painted realistic things that looked so real but towards the ending of the excerpt he saw that one of his paintings failed to look real because the bird didn't become afraid of the painting of the boy. Which shows that not everything will be perfect, because failure always happens.
Answer:
Trying to gain an unfair advantage.
Explanation:
'Pulling a fast one' means that someone is trying to gain an unfair advantage over someone or something. This is usually done by tricking someone through lying, distraction, or other forms of deceit.
Here, Cassie believes that T.J. is lying to her.