Chapter 2: I Already Sent It Out
Mrs.
Gallagher's eyes swept the room like a hawk, scanning every desk, every face, every trembling hand.
Nobody moved.
Then Marcus slowly raised his head for the first time.
His palm was still red and swollen.
But his eyes were completely steady.
"It wasn't a picture," he said quietly.
"It was a video."
The silence that followed was suffocating.
Mrs.
Gallagher took one step toward him.
**"You hand that phone over right now, or I will have you removed from this school."**
Marcus didn't flinch.
"It's not my phone."
Her head snapped toward the rest of the class.
Twenty-three students stared back at her.
Not one of them looked afraid anymore.
Then a second sound broke the silence.
A chair scraped the floor near the back of the room.
A quiet, heavyset boy named Daniel stood up slowly.
He wasn't the one who had recorded it.
Everyone knew that.
But he held up his own phone anyway, screen facing outward, and said five words in a voice that didn't shake at all.
**"I already sent it out."**
Mrs.
Gallagher's mouth opened.
May you like
Nothing came out.
Because at that exact moment, the classroom door swung open — and the school principal stepped in, phone already in hand, expression unreadable.
