"Good morning, class!"
Like he would every morning, Mr. Travis flung the door open with an enthusiastic grin on his face. The students were no longer astonished since they'd become accustomed to it as if it were a normal part of their day. Unlike his initial days in class, Travis didn't bring anything with him on this day. He just came into the class wearing a v-neck formal suit vest with a red tie, slim-fit gray trousers, and newly polished black leather shoes. Like a famous supermodel, his body complimented every inch of his bust. But, despite his flawless appearance, he made a worried and bewildered expression after he observed his students were gloomy and lifeless, sitting on their designated seats.
"Why is it silent?" Travis closed the door. "Is there—" Walking toward the teacher's table which was placed in front of the middle of the class, he continued, looking at them, "is there any problem?"
But Peter grinned as if he was thinking about something. He gazed around at his male pals Ruben, Brent, and Terfinn, who were all beaming from ear to ear as if they all were plotting something. Ruben held a little remote controller, but it was built by Brent, the boy who was adept at programming, installing, and dismantling things. The four were far apart in their seats, yet they communicated with each other through their gaze and hand gestures. Travis had observed them but had no idea what they were up to, but he was certain that something was about to happen — and that he would be the target.
When Travis stood in the middle of the class, Peter began counting, "One..." his voice hushed as he lifted his index finger to indicate number one while gleefully smiling at his pals, "two... three..." He looked at Travis and said, "Go!"
As Peter gave the three of them the signal, Ruben nodded then hit the lone red button on the little controller while waiting for the amazing moment, glancing at Travis. The three, Brent, Terfinn, and Peter, as well peered at Travis with keen smiles on their faces. Meanwhile, their seatmates; Shira next to Ruben, Opera near Brent, and Maurine beside Terfinn were all perplexed as to why their fellow seatmates were behaving so strangely. They believed they'd gone insane. For the time being, Peter had no one beside him because his seatmate, Samantha, didn't come to school.
After hitting the button directing toward Travis, the sliding cover beneath the teacher's table, which Travis was standing near, opened up and slid to the ground, making a loud noise. Travis took aware of the wood cover dropping on the ground and stooped down to pick it up with his bare hands. But as soon as he got up, he realized that all of the students in the class had their eyes dilated in disbelief. Travis was perplexed since he had no clue why they were so appalled or rather disgusted. With the exception of the guys, Brent, Terfinn, Peter, and Ruben, they all rose up and laughed at him. Travis, on the other hand, had no notion what was going on.
As the seconds passed, his students began to shriek and panic, especially the girls (except for Mareta, who stayed in her seat without producing any sound or making any move), they rose up and felt threatened as they backed away from Travis. The four lads continued to laugh so hard that they rushed to each other and high-fived each other, figuring they had triumphed. Travis still had no clue why his students were pulling away from him and why the four boys made him a laughingstock.
When Travis thought his nose was about to disintegrate, something he felt stank afterward. He quickly covered his nose and followed the foul odor. But as soon as he looked down, a swarm of bugs began to creep up on his desk. He lost count when he tried to count them since there were so many of them, not to mention they moved very quickly. Travis, for some reason, didn't seem startled and just stepped back when he noticed them scurrying about his area.
But moments later, Travis sensed something small and pointy moving above his head. "Ahh! What the heck are those!?" He made no sound as he leaped in fear while hurriedly brushing them off with his quivering hands. After sweeping the bugs off his head, he felt another sharp pointy bug crawling on his arms, on his shoulders, on his back, and on his leg. As a result, Travis remained silent but, out of spite, he jumped around, attempting to get rid of the bugs that were strewn throughout his body. This might be why his students began to drift away from him — because a swarm of bugs began to appear in various parts of his body.
Peter, with his friends, chuckled. "Dumbass, it's definitely cockroaches." But Travis didn't have the time to listen to his words as he was busy coming the bugs off his shoulders.
"Look at him struggling." Terfinn patted Ruben on the shoulder, and they both mocked Travis.
"I should make a poster or something out of photoshop from this." Brent and Peter were busy recording and taking pictures of Travis as they wanted this moment to be remembered and as well to make fun of their teacher.
When the cockroaches expanded across the room, to the ceiling, walls, and floor, the students kept shouting and calling out for help, despite the fact that their school was still closed due to the fake-bomb incident that occurred about a week earlier. Travis attempted brushing the two cockroaches on his back as he sought to walk away from an area where there were no bugs. The four lads simply cracked up laughing, not only at Travis but also at their terrified classmates.
"Hey, I told you all to knock it out!" Furious, Opera greeted her teeth and grabbed Terfinn's collar, and clenched it with both her hands.
Terfinn grinned, lifting his brow and flashing his gaze at her. "We just want to have some fun," he said, his face haughty. He shook his arms as if surrendering, acting afraid since Opera was the "she-soldier" in their class — a phrase they coined for a lesbian who knows a lot of martial arts and is adept with material abilities.
"Well, it's not funny!" Infuriated, Sara frowned and went to Terfinn to yell at him. "Some of us got scared too! We didn't know about this!" Sara was standing next to Opera when she spotted her. But as soon as Opera felt Sara's outraged tone, she grasped Terfinn's collar hard and lifted him up high, as if suffocating him.
They all went alarmed except for Mareta, who was still in her seat, scarcely paying attention to any of them while laying both of her hands on her desk. When she glimpsed something tiny creeping up on her desk, she realized it was one of the cockroaches scattering around. But as soon as it neared her hand, and while sitting down, she immediately took the sword she always carried. Taking off its black sheath, Mareta fiercely, gracefully slashed the bug in half. Instead of tiny fluid leaking from its body, the bug continued to wiggle on her desk, and there was something inside the bug that bothered Mareta. She first sheathed her sword and in no moment, she had witnessed there were damaged wires inside the bug as if the bug were a machine all this time.
Mareta, while knowing about it, had no intention of spreading the word since blurting out words would be too much trouble for her — she had always worn a mouth mask and she had never removed it except when she was with no one else, but herself. So, instead of making a fuss about what she had uncovered, she simply let it go and went back to her normal routine which was to close her eyes and meditate. To summarize, all of the bugs were simply well-programmed and assembled by no other than Brent himself.