And if someone tries to steal it and call it theirs...

I could of used that info last year when I took 2 semesters of English.

I will use this information in the future

Poor kids. Actually unless your school/teacher makes it clear that they're super-serious about the word count, the unspoken rule is that it's generally ok within x% of the word count (where I went it was 10%). Plus it's generally just a rough guide to the sort of detail they expect, so it's probably fine if it's shorter by an extra couple of %. If you have inadequate content and boost the word count artificially it's still an inadequate essay, it won't get you extra marks.