A door handle clicked and all eyes flew to the door, as a student arrived late, handing a note to the teacher and shuffling to an empty desk.

Madison envied the kid, wishing she’d only just stumbled into class, having only to endure less than an hour of lecture before school let out for the day. Then she remembered she had debate practice, and sighed loudly, the air from her mouth flowing down her shirt, in between her cleavage; a brief, but thankful departure from the annoying heat. Damn public school; no air conditioning.

Madison glanced over at Spencer who sat a few desks over to her left. Her hair was piled up on her head and she was staring out the window onto the lawn of the quad. A lone janitor was picking up trash remnants from the last lunch period and placing it all into a plastic bag.

The flag fluttered erratically in the wind, yet none of the air had seemed to make it into the classroom. Spencer turned her head back to the front of the class, and then it dropped down as she began to stare at her desktop. Madison continued to stare, attempting to psychically alert Spencer and make her look over, but she just looked at the desk, her eyes opening and closing slowly, as though at any moment her face would smack right into the desktop.

Her teacher had announced something that Madison hadn’t heard, for her classmates suddenly began shifting in their seats, as notebooks began to open and pen’s were poised.

The clock hands seemed to not have moved, the seconds ticking away as the hands remained in place; such a sick, twisted, fucked up trick to pull; especially on a Friday.

“Madison…hello…you’re first.”

Upon hearing her name, Mad’s body snapped to attention, the feel of dozens of eyes on her person. She glanced quickly around, and then back up at her teacher.

“Um…I’m sorry, what?”

Her teacher spoke, but she was busy digging around for something in a desk drawer.

“You’re up…you can sit in that desk at the front or stand.” Madison’s chest began to pound violently as her brain began to grasp the seriousness of this sudden revelation. She reached for her backpack, in an act of desperation, unzipping the top zipper, and shoving her hand inside, pretending to root around for something. She still had no idea what the teacher wanted.