"We were feeling a bit nervous about our studies, so we thought we'd light a nice fire to cheer us up," Eric said, smiling at Billy. He turned to another student. "Gather up those math papers."
The student rushed over and grabbed the exam papers, and then he tossed them all into the fire. He had often dreamed of doing such a thing, but he had never expected it to happen.
"Don't stand so far away," Eric said to Billy. "I thought you wanted to be our head teacher, so shouldn't you be trying to stop us?"
"Stop!" Billy yelled. "I order you to stop. What do you think you're doing?"
"You want me to stop?" Eric asked. "Sorry. I can't do that." He took a menacing step toward him.
Lance moved closer, clenching his fists as he scowled at Billy.
Billy was dumbfounded. He stared at the scene in front of him, refusing to move any closer. He was terrified of Class 6, and he was determined to keep his distance from them to avoid getting hurt.
He had thought that he would rise in importance now that Alex was gone, but instead, he had been completely disgraced.
The other teachers were exhausted, but they were amused at Billy's fall from grace. He clearly wasn't fit to be a teacher.
The situation had gotten out of control, but no one knew how to deal with it, and Class 6 showed no signs of stopping. Even worse, they had encouraged other classes to join in with their rebellion, and the teachers were infuriated by Billy's incompetence.
The students of Class 6 seemed determined to burn down the school.
"Stop it," Billy said again, but it was a halfhearted attempt.
"If you don't shut up, I'll toss you on the fire," Lance said, pointing at Billy.
Billy clamped his lips shut, afraid to speak. Although all the teachers and students were watching, he didn't dare say anything.
The principal was angry at Billy's lack of action.
"You said you wanted to be the head teacher of Class 6," he pointed out. "I gave you what you wanted, so now show me that you can handle it!" He glared at Billy. "Now, dammit! While we still have a school!"
In the background, the fire was still burning, and nobody was trying to stop it.
Billy stared at the principal, who rarely used even mild swear words. That he had done so now showed how angry he was.
Billy flushed at being subjected to a public reprimand, but he still wasn't prepared to act, and there was nothing he could say to justify himself.
The students of Class 6 had no respect for him at all, and encouraged by the principal's reaction, they began to taunt Billy.
"You're nothing, Mr. Wilde. It's your jealousy over Mr. Ambrose that has brought the school to this."
"When Mr. Ambrose was here, we were all model students. You had to stick your nose where it wasn't wanted, and now we're forced to do this. Why don't you do us all a favor and leave?"
"Mr. Wilde, please take charge of your class," one of the teachers said. "They're burning all our books!"
"Five of my students were injured," another teacher said. "And you've never bothered to check on them."
"The fire could take out the whole school," a third teacher said. "Mr. Wilde, you have to do something. You can't just stand there and watch the school be destroyed."
Billy cringed. Everyone was scolding him, but they weren't telling him anything he didn't already know. What did they expect him to do?
He had wanted to take over Class 6, convinced he was better than Alex, but the students were too difficult to control, and he was simply out of his depth.
"Hey, aren't there thousands of books in the library?" a student asked. "Why don't we burn them too?"
"Get them," Lance said. They were already in trouble anyway, so why hold back now? The more problems they created for Billy, the better.
The principal was stunned. The students really wanted to burn everything, and he couldn't stop them. They had two older security guards at the school gate, and all the others had been injured and were unavailable.
There was no point in calling the police. In the past, by the time the police had arrived, the students had returned to their classroom, where they had sat quietly, pretending to be well behaved. Then, as soon as the police had left, the students had started causing trouble again. Eventually, the police had grown tired of being called to the school, and they rarely responded now.
Besides, the teachers were the adults here, so they were responsible for dealing with their students.
Many of the students in Class 6 weren't afraid of the police, but the teachers were worried about being held responsible, so they were reluctant to call for help.
Everyone was shocked that the students planned to burn the library, but they couldn't stop it from happening.
The principal realized he would lose his job because of this, and he knew exactly who was to blame.
"Billy!" he roared, the sound carrying throughout the playground. "Do something. Now!"
Startled, Billy finally rushed to stop the students, but Lance stepped in front of him. "If you dare to stand in my way, you'll be the next thing thrown on the fire," he said.
Billy opened his mouth and then closed it again. Even in front of all these witnesses, he didn't have the courage to confront the students, so he simply stepped aside and let Lance pass.
Sensing weakness, the students hurled more abuse at him.
"Hah! You're totally spineless, aren't you? You're nothing compared to Mr. Ambrose!"
"What an idiot. He's brought this on himself."
"He's a loser. He actually thought he was the equal of Mr. Ambrose!"
"Well, he's not. I think we can all see that."
The voices came from all directions, heaping scorn on Billy, whose face burned with humiliation.
Meanwhile, Lance led the students of Class 6 to the library.