She picked up the chalk. Her hand moved on its own, writing an answer to a question no one had asked yet: We teach because we are afraid to learn.
The third chime rang.
At 8:00 AM, the first chime rang. Deep. Slow. Like a bell in a clock tower she’d never heard. classroom 7x
The fifth chime. Desks began to hum. The students’ uniforms darkened, bleeding into the chairs. The birch desk turned to ash. The walnut desk split. She picked up the chalk
She screamed hers. But the chalk on the blackboard erased itself, and new words appeared: Elara. Seat fifty. a different question appeared.
The faceless children tilted their heads in unison.
A single slate rose from every desk. On each, in chalk, a different question appeared.