“Listen to me, Mr. Douglas…When this conversation is over, I want you to go on your phone, and I want you to send the pictures and videos you have stored in your phone to every adult in your contact list, along with a confession. In that confession, you will detail your experience as a child molester and a pedophile.”

“I...I can’t. I can’t! No!” Cassie was prepared for this, but the level of resistance she suddenly ran into was still surprising. It was even enough to help Mr. Douglas break free for a brief second. Unfortunately for him, before he could act, Cassie activated her armor. As the silver plating covered her body and amplified her psionic might, the last hope for Mr. Douglas disappeared. 

He was never the toughest or most determined person. If he was, he wouldn’t be in this situation. 

“Yes...I will comply.”

“Good.” Cassie nodded, wiping away some of the sweat on her forehead. Mind controlling someone was much more difficult than accessing their memory at the moment. If Mr. Douglas was a little more determined, he probably could’ve resisted her influence. 

Nonetheless, what’s done is done. 

Just before she left, she gave another order. “Oh, and you will forget this conversation ever happened.”

Cassie walked out of the storage room, picked up the basketball she placed next to the wall, and rejoined Amanda and several other girls at the hoops. As she moved, she found a small, proud smile climbing onto her face. 

“Someone’s happy,” Amanda noted as she caught a ball that bounced against the basket and flew back to her. She kept on dribbling the ball as she moved next to Cassie. “This may be the first time I have seen you smile!”

Cassie raised her eyebrows. Oops...she shouldn’t look too excited. As low as the chances were, she didn't want someone to associate her with the downfall of Mr. Douglas. Her mother might be overprotective with some aspects of her life, but Cassie had to admit she had a point with other aspects. She really didn't want to have people find out about what she could really do. 

As such, the smile on her face disappeared, and Cassie returned to the blank expression she had for weeks. 

“Yeah...you can say that.” She shrugged before coming up with a split-second excuse. “I don’t have any homework tonight, so…” 

“Ah…good for you, Cassie!” Amanda didn't think much of it as she took another shot. Score!

Seeing that the girl was buying into her story, Cassie let out a small breath of relief. She stole a glance at Mr. Douglas, who was leaning against the wall and had pulled out his phone. It didn't take him long before he started typing and sending messages that would doom his career forever. 

Once again, a smile climbed onto Cassie’s face. 

That should be enough evidence...

The impact of Cassie’s action came quicker than she expected. By the following day, Mr. Douglas was gone, replaced by a substitute teacher who knew very little about sports in general. It only took another day before rumors rose. After all, Mr. Douglas sent his confessions to all the adults in his contact list, with many of them being parents. 

For a moment, everyone was talking about Mr. Douglas, and most of them didn't have anything good to say. 

“Does anyone actually know what he sent?”

“Some sort of porn, I think...I got a glimpse of it on my dad’s phone.” 

“I heard that idiot actually sent out child pornography to everyone he knew! Including his personal friends! What the fuck was he smoking?” 

“My mom said he included some sort of confession. Like...what was he thinking? What did he even want to achieve? In what world will this end nicely for him?”

“Well, I heard the CPD was getting intervened. Distributing child pornography is a felony, so…rip him I guess.”

Everytime the fellow students were discussing Mr. Douglas and his tragic fate, Cassie only found herself all too satisfied. Nonetheless, she would be a fool to speak up and take credit for this. She was never the show-off type anyway. In a sense, fame was equal to danger. 

Just like that, life continued. For several weeks, nothing really happened. Cassie kept her daily routine, which was surprising considering what she was now capable of. But as of now, Cassie still didn't really know what to do with her powers. Yes. She could mind control people and access what they were thinking at the moment. Yes. She could move things with her mind. Yes. She had a set of impenetrable armor. Even so, Cassie still saw the armor as something she could protect herself with. And if she saw unfair things happening at school, then she would intervene whenever she could. 

What she did to Mr. Douglas was pleasant, but Cassie still had no intention of actually going out there and...what? Be a vigilante and fight crime? Where would she even find the time to do that? She was still a full-time student, for god’s sake! She had schoolwork to worry about!

Much to Cassie’s own surprise, she actually became a decent friend with Amanda. The two were of very different personalities. Cassie was quiet and always kept to herself, mostly because she was taught that the world was a harsh place and everyone would tear her apart whenever they had the chance. She never stayed at school after the classes were over. Even now, her friends were in the single digits. 

Amanda was the type of girl who boys drooled over. Boys, and some other girls, fought to work with her in group projects. She also acted as a member of the school cheerleader team. She invited Cassie to one of the football games where her team was cheering. All it took was ten minutes before Cassie was scrolling through her phone in boredom. She never understood the appeal of dozens of men chasing a ball while hundreds of audience cheered on. 

Cassie still wore her armor whenever she could to enhance her powers. Interestingly, she didn't have a chance to use her power for weeks...until one fateful English class. 

Cassie never loved the English classes. Learning about grammar and writing was fine, but who would need to use poems in their future careers? And did she really need to understand Catcher in the Rye in order to survive in society? 

Making things even worse for her was the English teacher she had. Ms. West. Cassie didn't like to judge people based on their looks, but Ms. West had a terrible appearance that matched her terrible personality. She was the type of person that should never be a teacher. Every word that came out of her mouth took the form of a chastise, and whenever students went to her for help, she would look at them like they were idiots and mock them with the harshest of words. 

One of her favorite things to do was to give students terrible marks...just because she could. If she was a corporate manager, then she would be micromanaging the works of everyone just to show her authority. She was one of those people that should never be put in a position of power.

Honestly, Cassie secretly suspected she hated this job but couldn’t find anywhere else to work. This made her bitter, and that bitterness was used against her own students whose futures included more than anything she herself could ever hope to accomplish.  

This was one of the days where the students had to make public presentations. Cassie was the fourth person to be chosen by Ms. West. She walked onto the stage, delivered her speech, and came back down. While her own classmates clapped their hands, Ms. West didn't bother with such foolish and meaningless behaviors. 

The student who came after Cassie was an Indian, and he wasn’t one of the American-born Indians. He just moved to the US a few years ago, and presenting in front of a class of native speakers with a foreign language was truly stressful. This became clear when the poor student started stuttering on the stage. 

This stuttering continued for a full minute. He kept on trying to speak up, but he just didn't know the words, and he was terrified that he was going to say something wrong. At this point, if Cassie was in charge, she would’ve given the student a few words of comfort for trying and then had him come down. 

But for Ms. West, this was the perfect opportunity to let off some steam. After all, she has had a stressful day! 

“Hmmm...cat got your tongue, kid? Are you mute or something?” 

“I…” The student paused, unsure of what to say. 

“You know...I never get what your parents were thinking. This is America, and we speak damn English! If you don’t speak our language, then don’t come over here! Or did they really buy into that inclusivity bullshit?” 

The student’s face turned red. He wanted to defend himself, but he literally couldn’t. Ms. West should’ve stopped here and now, but she took too much pride in taunting someone who couldn’t talk back or defend himself. It was free entertainment!  

“What did you expect? Should we hire a dedicated translator for you, you arrogant idiot!” The vicious teacher’s voice got louder and louder as she was engulfed in the moment. For a moment, this felt like the pinnacle of her career. “You know what...when you go home to your parents tonight, tell them to take you back to India! We don’t want your sorry ass here, wasting our time!” 

She looked down at her watch. 

“Oh look...a full two minutes, wasted on something so stupid. Get off the stage you embarrassment!”

She ended the speech with a cold snicker. 

At this point, most of the students were feeling uncomfortable. A few of them pondered the idea of speaking up, but decided against it for the sake of their grades. Completely defeated and with tears in his eyes, the young student turned and ran out of the classroom. 

“Oh...unexcused absence. That’s a week of detention.” Ms. West, the victor of this one-sided argument, finally let out a wide smile. 

She was just about to go back to the stage when Cassie stood up.