A Dance with the Devil

Chapter 7

I managed to reach the classroom as the bell rang. I had to pick up the extra seat I asked yesterday at the maintenance office first before heading straight to the classroom so I came a little just in time.

Knowing that it’d just be homeroom, I already expected to see the classroom almost empty when I walked in. There were just at least three heads that snapped at me from the back of the classroom when I came in. Two boys whom I didn’t really recognize were smoking in the corner and Jaq who was giving me a meaningful look from her seat. I raised an eyebrow at her; mentally asking her where did the others go but she just shrugged. It took only a few seconds for them to eye me before carrying on with their businesses. Not finding me a bit interesting.

With the light plastic desk chair in tow, I was just going to go sit in the corner when I remembered something.

What am I doing? Aren’t I supposed to be in charge of this class? And when you say in charge….what exactly did tht mean?

What the heck? I didn’t even know what I was supposed to do besides keeping them behave! This was my first time being appointed in such authority and I had no idea how to handle it. My teachers from my former school were wise enough to keep me uninvolved in class affairs and responsibilities. It never crossed my mind when I accepted this job yesterday. I guessed I was so caught up with my plans that I didn’t even have the basic thoughts of asking Tyler what I was supposed to be doing as a discipline head.

I glanced around my three companies in the room. Then I knew what to do next. At least, the most obvious thing that I had to.

I approached the two guys in the corner wearing my sweetest smile.

“Hi,” I greeted in a cheerful tone. “Do you guys mind if I take your cigars away?”

For a moment both of them seemed taken aback but they regained their composure right away, each giving me a different expression. The taller guy, with a short dreadlock at the lower back of his head gave me a sly smirk as he took a long drag from his ciggarette and exhaled slowly, not really taking my words seriously. The other one with a little mole under his left eye sneered at me and tamped out his cigars impatiently on the nearby desk but he didn’t extinguish it completely.

“Fuck off.” The one with the mole bellowed.

“Here, you don’t just ask people to stop whatever they’re doing.” The dreadlock boy said with amusement in his tone.

I smirked. “Well, technically I didn’t ask you to stop.” I swiftly moved my hands to snatch away the cigars from both of them, leaving the two empty handed in two seconds. For the second time, they were taken aback and looked startled. But now, before they could recover from the slight surprise, I fled away shooting the trash in the nearby bin.

My next stop was the flatform infront of the classroom just infront of the teacher’s desk. I glanced at my wristwatch before turning towards the class again. Finding Jaq in her same position (with the same meaningful look on her face) and the two boys who were still on the spot I left them, both scowling at me. I returned their look with a smile. “I don’t want any smokers or drinkers inside the class as much as possible. You could do that outside, though. Just don’t let any school admins see you or I’ll get you in trouble before I get in trouble because of you. Tell that to everyone when they --”

Speaking of the devils, the door bursted open and the class started to fill in. A few looked my way and snorted but most of them didn’t even bother to glance at my direction. I surveyed everyone who were coming in and tried to remember their faces. Clyde, Zeke and Nicole were the last ones to enter, all wearing smug looks on their faces.