"Everybody get your phones out"

“Hand it over.” Miss Vicksen said sternly, extending her upturned palm to the front of the desk.

Lifting the device from his lap, Derek smugly complied, cheekily placing the phone in the middle of his desk, inches from Miss Vicksen’s waiting hand. Olivia continued to stare daggers down at the troublemaker, fully aware he was just trying to push her buttons. But as Derek subtly smiled back, he knew he was going to push them in more ways than one.

Not wanting to give Derek the satisfaction of seeing her retreat to fix the distressed dress behind her, Miss Vicksen foolishly held onto her pride, deciding to lurch those final few inches forward and hastily snatch the student’s phone.

*POP*

Derek’s smile quickly spread to a toothy grin, now seeing the second button of Miss Vicksen’s dress burst away. Olivia’s frown quickly spread to a toothy snarl, now seeing the misbehaved student seemingly quite content with his disruption of today’s class.

“Well! Since Derek here thinks this whole situation is so funny, I want everybody else’s phones out too,” Miss Vicksen doubled-down, leaning forward with a threatening finger tapping Derek’s desk,

“RIGHT,”

*POP*

“NOW!”

*POP*

Derek now sat smug as ever, having a front row seat watching Miss Vicksen push her skirt to new widths, and her potential embarrassment to new heights. But still, truly believing she had the upper-hand, Olivia continued her attempted intimidation, maintaining her leaning position over the pest’s desk.

“That’s right everyone, phones out!” Miss Vicksen obliviously raged on, “And I mean EVERYONE. You all can thank Derek for what’s about to happen here today.”

“No need to thank me class.” he quipped with a smile, “But yes, you all better listen to Miss V and get those phones out!”

Miss Vicksen’s eyes initially squinted angrily at Derek’s seemingly sarcastic response, but then opened wide. Looking over her classroom, every student had began retrieving their phones as instructed, but at a suspiciously speedy pace. And as Olivia observed each device being pulled out from different pockets and purses, none were being brought to her desk, or even uniformly passed up to the front row. One by one, every single student had become armed with their phone up in front of them, all sharing the same wide-eyed gaze behind each screen. Miss Vicksen quizzically stared out onto her suddenly hypnotized class, all while every camera lens stared right back at her.