No Smart Kids Allowed

Chapter 9: Sulphuric acid

Mrs. Riker is holding Tiffany's hand when the two of them enter Mr. Slovak's room. His class looks at Mrs. Riker and all the kids that are peeking inside. Mrs. Riker clears her throat. "There's been a little cellphone incident. I would love for my class to witness the punishment for not following specific rules," she says.

"But," Tiffany starts crying again. "I needed to make that call and check on my-"

"Get inside!" Mr. Slovak yells. All of us jump at his booming voice. He stands from behind his desk, then swiftly walks towards us. He yanks Tiffany and takes her towards a cabinet in the room. Holding her with one hand, he uses his free hand to open the cabinet door. Mr. Slovak grabs two handcuffs that are hanging on the door and cuffs her hands behind her back.

While she's crying and begging for him not to hurt her, our class gathers inside. Cheeto boy waves to me then give me a thumbs up like something amazing about to happen. While Tiffany screams, Mr. Slovak returns to her with a needle and gives her a shot in her shoulder, face, and neck. Mrs. Riker gets behind her and holds her in place. I think the shot might have paralyzed her.

Just so you know, Mr. Slovak's class is big. Almost as big as an actual science laboratory. More teachers and students walk inside. This time, Scott, Mulan, Gemma, Felix, and Aaliyah joins us. I quickly wave over to Scott and he stands beside me.

Mr. Slovak walks over to the sink and Estaban follows him while holding the acid. Some kids walk to the sink and we follow behind them. Scott and I stand on a chair so we can see what's going on.

"Sulphuric acid, kids," Mr. Slovak says. "Is very, very dangerous." He throws a sponge in the sink and Esteban pours the acid onto it. The purple liquid from the bottle burns the sponge, making it disintegrate until it's all gone.

Mrs. Riker points to Tiffany. "She's completely paralyzed, class. That's so she won't faint from the pain of the acid. She will feel everything minutes after it's over. Estaban places three tubes in the acid, then two inside of Tiffany's ears. The third tube connects to a pump held by Mr. Slovak. Tiffany closes her eyes and mumbles that she's sorry over and over again.

As much as I want to turn away, I don't. The whole class, whether they want to look away or not, their eyes are on Tiffany like glue. Mr. Slovak squeezes the pump and we all watch as the acid quickly shoots through the tube into her ear. There's a loud sizzling sound that makes my stomach turn. Things get worse when pus burst out of her ear, then dissolves her skin. Little holes form into her skin, under her ear, on her neck and the acid drips out of it. The smell of smoke and burning skin fills the air making me and a few others want to vomit. Tiffany only stands there, looking more terrified than a kid about to be punished for being bad.

Bubbles of pus and some blood fall onto her clothes and on the ground. There's not much blood because the acid burns it. Tiffany's body begins to tremble and her eyes roll back in her skull. She foams at the mouth a bit and Mr. Slovak uses a tissue to pat it clean. "Sometimes the acid gets into a few nerves leading to the brain and kills them. Hopefully, Tiffany doesn't die. She'll have to learn sign language with Mrs. Rose after this."

Her body finally stops shaking and Mr. Slovak tells Mrs. Riker to take her to Rose's room. He then turns and face us. "Kids, we don't make rules for our own health. We do it for you. We give you our time and our own lives to make sure you're successful in life. We expect you all to take that very seriously."

Scott and I get down off the chairs and walk over to where Aaliyah, Mulan, Gemma, and Felix stands. Aaliyah has tears in her eyes and Felix has his hands on her shoulder. "This school is insane." Aaliyah cries.

"Yeah well we have to find a way out," Felix says.

Mulan shakes her head. "This isn't a school, this is a mad house. You should've heard the way they talked about music."

"They talked about music in my class too," I say. "Did they in yours?" I face Aaliyah.

Aaliyah shakes her head. "No," she whispers. "Today they talked about religion. I felt like it was a personal attack on me. The teacher even said, 'this is a free country, Aaliyah. You don't have to wear that here.' Then she gave us a whole lecture about religion. It was a hateful speech."

Felix lowers his head, shaking his head at the ground. "We talked about homosexuality," he looks at us. "It wasn't a welcoming subject. I felt like it was pointed directly at me and some others in the class."

"Wow," Mulan says. "Don't forget that we talked about makeup. The teacher told us we would learn how to become the best makeup artists. Why would they teach that here?"

I think about that for a minute. Why would teachers want us to be the best makeup artist out there? I thought about a few reasons. Did they want us to look like them? Did they want us to look a certain way? More beautiful? Act in plays? I don't know, but it was odd.

Scott sighs. "We really need a plan."

Then a thought occurred to me. "There's two guys in the janitor's room. They warned me about the teachers," I say. "Maybe they know something we don't. We should see what else they know."

"Let's go now while everyone's distracted," Mulan says. Just like that, all six of us are heading out of the classroom and to the janitor's room.