Chapter 1 - The First Shot
Mrs. Baxter thought threatening Caleb’s grade would make him stop.
Instead, it made him more careful.
He waited until she turned back toward Malik.
Then he raised his phone for only a moment.
CLICK.
One photograph.
Then the phone disappeared behind his textbook before Mrs. Baxter could turn around.
Why was that single picture so important?
It was because of what was sitting perfectly flat on her pristine wooden desk.
Mrs. Baxter had left her personal smartphone unlocked and glowing right next to her coffee mug.
Caleb kept his head down, pretending to read his history assignment.
Under the desk, his thumb swiped open his photo gallery.
He zoomed in on the high-resolution image he had just captured.
The glare from the overhead fluorescent lights made it difficult to read at first.
He pinched the screen, zooming in closer on the text message displayed on her device.
The message was from an unsaved phone number.
It read, "The Malik problem needs to be resolved before the assembly today."
Caleb felt a cold shiver run down his spine.
Malik was his lab partner, a quiet kid who was currently a finalist for the prestigious Sterling Scholarship.
Mrs. Baxter had been acting strangely around Malik all week long.
Caleb knew she had been trying to disqualify him to help the wealthy mayor’s son win the money instead.
But the word "resolved" felt far more sinister than a simple grade change.
He quickly tapped the share icon, intending to upload the photo to his secure cloud storage.
Suddenly, a shadow fell over his desk.
Caleb looked up and saw Mrs. Baxter standing directly in front of him.
Her sweet, grandmotherly smile did not reach her cold, calculating eyes.
"Is there something more interesting on your lap than the Civil War, Caleb?" she asked softly.
The entire classroom fell dead silent.
Malik turned around from the front row, looking at Caleb with utter confusion.
Caleb locked his phone screen and slowly placed it on his desk.
"No, Mrs. Baxter, I was just checking the time," he lied smoothly.
She held out her wrinkled hand, her palm facing upward toward him.
"Hand it over, Caleb, because you know the strict school policy on cellular devices."
Caleb hesitated for a fraction of a second before placing his decoy phone into her hand.
He always carried a broken spare phone in his pocket for this exact situation.
Mrs. Baxter smiled and slipped the dummy device into her cardigan pocket.
She turned her back and walked toward the chalkboard to continue her lecture.
Caleb let out a slow, silent breath of immense relief.
He reached into his sock to retrieve his actual phone and finish the upload.
He tapped the screen to open his gallery, but his blood instantly ran cold.
The photograph of her text message was completely gone from his device.
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In its place was a new text message sent directly to Caleb from an unknown number.
It read, "Did you really think you were the only one watching in this room?"
