Chapter 7 - The Interrogation Room
Panic seized my entire body as Mrs. Keller's manicured hands dug into the fabric of my backpack.
I tried to pull away, but she was surprisingly strong and fueled by sudden, paranoid rage.
She violently ripped the bag from my grip, dumping its contents onto the linoleum floor.
Textbooks, pencils, and notebooks scattered everywhere in a chaotic mess.
Right in the center of the debris sat the little black digital recorder, still emitting its rhythmic, low-battery beep.
The color instantly drained from Mrs. Keller's face as she recognized what the device was.
She snatched it up off the floor, her hands trembling with a mixture of fear and absolute fury.
"You arrogant, deceitful little rat," she hissed, her voice dropping to a dangerous, terrifying whisper.
Instead of letting me leave, she grabbed my arm firmly and dragged me down the hallway toward the detention room.
The detention room was an empty, windowless closet normally used for storing broken desks.
She shoved me into a chair and locked the heavy door from the inside, trapping us together.
For the next hour, she subjected me to a relentless psychological interrogation.
She threatened to have me expelled for illegal wiretapping, claiming she would press formal criminal charges.
She promised to destroy any chance I ever had of getting into a respectable college.
Tears streamed down my face, but I refused to answer her rapid-fire questions about who else was involved.
Seeing that I was broken but silent, she smirked triumphantly and pressed the delete button on the recorder.
She held the device up to my face so I could watch the tiny digital screen confirm that the file was permanently erased.
"You have absolutely nothing now," she laughed cruelly, tossing the useless piece of plastic back into my lap.
She unlocked the door, told me to get out of her sight, and warned me that my life at this school was effectively over.
I stumbled out of the building, feeling completely crushed and entirely defeated.
I found Jake waiting at our usual spot, and I collapsed against the fence, sobbing out the terrible news.
Jake didn't look angry, nor did he look defeated by the loss of the device.
May you like
Instead, a slow, incredibly devious smile spread across his face as he reached into his jacket pocket.
"Did you honestly think I would trust our entire future to just one microphone?" Jake asked, pulling out a small, secondary cassette recorder.
