ENF Prone Isabel

         Isabel is new to teaching. Having a hard time finding work (“They can’t all want prior experience, can they?”, she frets). So, she jumps at the chance when she is given a two day temporary gig handling kids in detention in an outside classroom temporary “module” (school-system speak for a modified trailer).

         At first she thinks she’s got some control over the little hellions, but they play a trick on her that will alter the entire course of her day. A heavyset kid named Charles asked to see some papers in his backpack, which is kept locked up in a cabinet with the rest of the the kids’ things during detention. When Isabel gives him the papers and sits back down to a sip of coffee, she discovers one of the little pranksters has applied a thin layer of ultra-strong bonding agent to the lip of her cup. She takes a sip, then finds that her lips are glued shut!

         As she looks about in confused consternation, a couple of the kids start to giggle behind their hands, then one after another, they begin to rise from their chairs, laughing now and advancing on her with wicked gleaming little eyes. Not all of the kids do, but the three she suspects are the culprits, and she desperately tries to open her mouth to speak as a couple of the other troublemakers cautiously rise and descend on her.