The Chaos Of Mrs. Place: A Manchester Prep Adventure

"I can't believe they did it again," Mrs. Place muttered as she rushed down the corridor towards the headmistress' office. She was convinced that some of her students had taken laxatives before coming to school. The sudden need to relieve herself right after first period had been twice as bad as ever before, and she'd barely made it to the faculty bathroom in time.

The last thing she needed was for the headmistress to catch her looking like this — a flushed face, wet hair, and rumpled clothes that were clearly not from yesterday's morning class. Mrs. Place wiped away the sweat from her forehead for what must have been the hundredth time today, but it didn't help much.

"What are you doing here?" Mrs. Place asked as she stepped into the headmistress' office. The headmistress looked up from her desk and motioned for Mrs. Place to sit down on one of the chairs across from her own seat. Mrs. Smith had been principal of Manchester Prep since before Mrs. Place had started working there ten years ago, and Mrs. Place couldn't remember a time when she'd had a pleasant encounter with her — even back when both women were still students at this very school.

"Please take a seat," said Mrs. Smith, who seemed to take pleasure in watching Mrs. Place squirm with discomfort in front of her desk, "There's something I wanted to talk to you about."

Mrs. Place sat down in one of the leather chairs, crossed her legs and folded her arms over her chest in an attempt to hide as much of herself from view as possible. She knew better than to protest being called up here like this -- better just let whatever news Mrs. Smith had for her be delivered quickly so she could get back to her classroom and return to teaching class once more before lunchtime rolled around.

"You've probably heard by now that we're considering letting our students start carrying phones with them during school hours," said Mrs. Smith matter-of-factly, "We've been trying out different phones with our teachers to see how useful they are during classes."

Mrs. Place nodded silently in response -- she'd heard about this idea from several other teachers over the past week or two, but hadn't really paid it any attention herself until now when it was brought up directly by the principal herself. It was hard enough keeping order in the classroom without having to deal with phones ringing constantly or buzzing for attention every five minutes or so -- no wonder that parents didn't want their kids at home without something else keeping them occupied!

"Anyway," continued Mrs. Smith after a brief pause, "I thought it would be good if we could put some of these phones into your class today so you can try them out too." She reached down underneath her desk and pulled out a black case which she then opened with an all-too-familiar sound: *click* *click* *snap*.

Mrs. Smith took one of the three phone inside out of its case and handed it across the table towards Mrs Place: "You'll find all six numbers programmed into it already -- feel free to give each number a call sometime during your last period today."

Mrs Place stared at the phone in silence as if unsure that she'd just heard right... A phone? For one whole lesson? With nothing else expected of her but answering questions about whatever happened to be on screen? What kind of sick joke was this supposed to be!