You Must Remember This

Chapter 35: Singin' In The Rain

After his initial rage, denial, and bargaining with everyone he knew, Mr. Ivanov had settled into mute acceptance of the new status quo. It wasn't like him to be so bothered by what everyone else was doing; he was no stranger to the administration's harebrained schemes, and despite the new idea of student involvement, chances were that they'd have come up with something equally stupid in the future. When Mr. Ivanov saw Frank in the hallways, he thus didn't needle him too much; Frank was still a good kid, with a sense of humor Mr. Ivanov could appreciate, and despite Frank's refusal to ever censure Jason or Alan Mr. Ivanov was sure that Frank was on his side.

Jason, now, was another matter. Jason had grown emboldened over time, observing that nobody stopped him from spying on whomever he wanted whenever he wanted; it was like nobody cared at all. Jason had incurred some losses in his quest to see and hear everything: Mr. T had taped over his camera after seeing it follow Juliet around the classroom from too revealing of an angle. Frank assumed it was Alan, but some quick process of elimination proved that it couldn't be him or Behrooz. While both Mr. T and Frank assumed the most innocent of motives—it seemed entirely logical, in fact, that as Jason couldn't monitor Juliet's phone, this was the next best thing—when Mr. T casually brought up this observation to Mr. Ivanov, he was displeased:

"So you're saying Jason is a Peeping Tom? God, maybe I need to tape over my camera too!"

"I think you're overreacting, Igor," Mr. T assured him, "it's just some innocent espionage. I have nothing against it."

"But you taped up your camera, clearly you too are against this surveillance state they're building."

"Jason is free to spy on Juliet, Regina, Frank, or myself in any other place in the school. I personally would just like a little peace of mind. It's no big deal that I noticed, but what if someone else did? Then I'd look bad! Plausible deniability, you know. And if it turns out that I inspire copycats, well for the good of the school I'll take the tape off." Mr. Ivanov was not satisfied with Mr. T's train of logic, who after that conversation went to take the tape off in case he inspired Mr. Ivanov, and he accosted Jason when he came to class the next day as cheerful as ever. Jason's face betrayed nothing:

"Oh, Mr. T's classroom? Well, you know, I do routine security checks. Random chance. And if I just so happen to be following Juliet, Alan, or Behrooz around, from any angle I so choose, it's luck. That's all there is to it. They should be honored, actually, that they're so privileged to be examined so closely."

"And you don't see anything wrong with doing this during lecture, when you ought to be paying attention? Think of how disrespectful that is to your teachers. As a teacher, I take offense for all of them."

"I'm adept at multitasking. I serve a higher power, Mr. Ivanov, and He commands me to secure his legacy."

"Who, Frank?" Mr. Ivanov asked sarcastically, watching the security camera in his classroom from the corner of his eye.

"No, Joseph Stalin."

"Don't joke about Stalin like that. He massacred millions of people, and you think that legacy is something you want to implement here? My God, you're crazy! All of you are. Go sit down, Jason. And stop playing with the cameras when I can see you, it drives me crazy. Do you understand how scary it is to know that anything I say, anything I do, anywhere on this campus can be used against me? I'm going to have to start taking my calls in the restroom at this rate."

"We have cameras there, too," Jason added.

"Be quiet." Jason couldn't understand what all the fuss was about. Sure, spying on the club officers all day was going above and beyond whatever duties he promised Mr. Kurtz and Ms. Wolfe he'd handle, but then again, wasn't everything? And really, if Jason thought about it hard enough, their phones were spying on them anyway. Nobody walked around all day with their phone encased in aluminum foil. So what difference did it make? At least this threat was easily quantifiable; who wouldn't prefer kindly Jason to the NSA? That was why Jason left class that day entirely certain of his moral infallibility, and that was why Mr. Ivanov angled his desk so he was always facing the security camera; it was quite clever of Jason indeed to have the cameras randomly move, that way Mr. Ivanov never knew when he ought to start swearing loudly and flipping off his personal guardian. He couldn't always be watched; presumably he was not that interesting to Jason, who had spent enough time in his classroom to know that nothing interesting ever happened.