Chapter 3 - The Director Answers
Principal Thomas Vance wiped his sweaty palms against his tweed trousers as he listened to the frozen silence radiating from his desk phone. The private line was supposed to be restricted to board members and emergency municipal services. Yet, the woman on the other end was breathing with a fierce, controlled intensity that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
"My name is Evelyn Vance—no relation, though your administrative incompetence makes me ashamed of the shared surname," Evelyn said, her voice dripping with venomous clarity. "You are going to walk down to Room 104 right this second. If Mrs. Gable touches my son Leo with that yellow ruler one more time, or if I see that little boy Julian punished for showing her tyranny to the world, I will dismantle this district piece by brick."
Thomas swallowed hard, his eyes darting toward the hallway monitor on his own wall. "Mrs. Vance, I assure you, our faculty employs traditional disciplinary methods designed to foster—"
"Foster trauma?" Evelyn interrupted, her red-tinted vision pulsing as she watched Helen lower the ruler with a pale, trembling hand and force a sweet, sickeningly fake smile for the hidden camera. "She is terrorizing five-year-old children, Thomas. I am looking at the live feed right now. You have three minutes to reach that classroom before I send my legal team and the state troopers through your front doors."
The line went dead with a sharp click. Thomas didn’t hesitate. He grabbed his master keys, burst out of his office, and broke into a desperate jog down the linoleum-tiled corridor.
Back in Room 104, Helen slowly turned toward little Julian, her face contorted in a terrifying mix of humiliation and suppressed rage. She took a slow step toward him, her hand gripping the yellow ruler so tightly her knuckles turned white.
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Leo watched in horror from the wall, too terrified to speak, as Helen raised her arm to strike Julian across the palm.
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