Alex walked into the classroom under the perplexed gaze of his new students. Outside in the corridor, many students and staff had come to see what all the commotion was about. At the far end of the corridor stood the principal. He couldn't help but smile. "Maybe hiring Alex was a good idea, after all", he thought.
When Alex came into the classroom and stepped up to the teacher's desk, the stunned silence of the students turned into a buzzing murmur. None of them knew what to do. Alex had ruined the first step of their plan, and they needed a new one. They all looked to Eric, who simply waved at them to be quiet. For him, nothing had changed. The others had seemed to forget that there was a Step 2.
He turned to one of the girls sitting behind him to his left, and she immediately sprang to action. With an innocent look on her face, she picked up a pastry box from the floor beside her desk and walked up to Alex. As she handed the box to him, she smiled demurely at him and played with her hair. Then she went back to her desk.
Eric rose. "Teacher," he began. "My name is Eric. I'm sort of the organizer for our class. We've bought you some gifts to welcome you. I hope you'll like them."
He stepped forward and handed Alex a beautiful wooden box. When Alex opened it, he saw that it was filled with imported cigars. He looked up at Eric, who had already gone back to his desk.
"Don't worry, teacher," Eric said. "You can eat your cake and have a smoke right here. We don't mind. You could even have a beer if you want. I've got some in my desk." He reached into his desk and pulled out a glass bottle of beer.
"Please, help yourself," he said in the most respectful tone he could muster. He gestured to the chair that had been placed beside the teacher's desk. "Sit and have a chat with us." He smiled warmly and went forward to hand the beer to Alex.
Alex laughed as he took the beer from Eric's hand and put it on the desk next to the other gifts. He looked down at the chair his students had prepared for him, and then he looked back at Eric with a knowing smile on his face.
Eric smiled back. He was relieved. This part of the plan seemed to be working, at least. But then, Alex suddenly grabbed him by the arm, put his foot forward to bend Eric's leg at the knee, and pressed him down onto the chair. Eric's smile disappeared instantly as he got stuck in the glue on the seat.
While the class looked on in stunned silence, Alex turned calmly back to his gifts. Slowly and methodically, he took a closer at each of them in turn. Then he threw it all into the trash can. There were insects baked into the cake, the beer smelled of laxatives, and gunpowder had been rolled into the cigars.
The entire class stared at him in shock, but one of them had her own reasons. From the back of the classroom, in the final row, Heidi had immediately recognized Alex. She could hardly believe her eyes. Her new teacher was the man who had saved her only days before.
She had thought about stepping forward to stop the second prank, but the situation was so surreal that she had stopped herself. The idea that Alex would show up as a teacher at her school, let alone as her teacher, was impossible.
"Perhaps it's his twin brother or something", she reasoned. "It can't possibly be him."
Alex hadn't noticed her. He stood in front of his desk, straightened himself, and spoke out in a deep and authoritative voice. "Listen up," he said. "From now on, this class will do as I say. There won't be any more stupid pranks, and you'll all be responsible for your own studies. Understood?"
Without waiting for an answer, he turned and marched out of the room. The students were left looking after him with dumbfounded looks on their faces.
"What the hell just happened?" Eric asked as he tried to yank himself free from the glue-covered seat. When he found that it was useless, he stilled himself and sat with a dejected look on his face.
"It's no use," Lance said. "I don't know who this guy is, but he's in charge now. He beat us."
The other students agreed. They hadn't been able to process what had happened. There had been no roll call, no introduction, and no corny attempt to bond with them. In fact, Alex hadn't acted like a teacher, at all. He had just said one sentence and left.
"Screw that," Eric shot back. "This is a setback. He won this time. But we'll strike back. I'm sure he's real proud of himself now, and he'll let his guard down."
The attitude among the class changed instantly in response to Eric's words. They would come back from this. After all, they had only known their new teacher for a few minutes. They couldn't give up just yet.
Heidi was conflicted. She wanted to run after the new teacher and find out if it was really Alex. "It must be him", she thought. "He looked and sounded just like him. And he had the same name." Her heart fluttered. Her mind was made up. She had to talk to him alone. She stood up.
"Shut up," she yelled. The classroom immediately fell silent. Everyone looked at her.
"What's the matter with you?" Eric asked her with surprise in his voice. He had never seen her act so aggressively. Everyone knew her as a quiet girl who never bothered anyone. And considering her family connections, that was just as well. Nobody dared to cross her, anyway.
"No one in this class will try anything against Mr. Ambrose again," she exclaimed. "If you do, you'll answer to me." With these words, she kicked her desk away from her and ran out of the classroom to find Alex.
Lance and Eric looked at each other. They both tried to keep a straight face, but they knew that everything had changed in an instant.
Eric glanced around the room with a hesitant look on his face. His classmates all met his gaze. It was obvious that they were looking to him for guidance. He had to say something.
"All right, here's what gonna happen," Lance said to break the silence.
"Nothing. There'll be no more plans. If you have any ideas about what to do to the new teacher, keep them to yourselves."
Everyone stared at him. "Why?" one of them dared to ask.
Eric sighed in frustration. "Because Heidi said so. Didn't you hear her?"