Before she could finish, Ryan snapped a rubber band at her. It hit her sleeve and she flinched. The class roared again. Still, she didn’t yell. She didn’t punish. She simply said, “I hope we can start this year with respect. You’ll find I’m not easy to push around.” That only fueled their cruelty. They weren’t used to calm voices. They thrived on reactions. By the third day, their taunts grew bolder. Dot. They’d drawn caricatures of her on the whiteboard, mocked her accent, and even stole her teaching notes.

But Alina never cracked until that Friday morning when everything changed. During roll call, Dererick made a cruel bet with his friends. “Watch this,” he whispered. “Let’s see how long before she quits like the last one. ” He stood up pretending to answer her question, then tugged at the sleeve of her blouse as she passed by his desk. It ripped cleanly down the seam of the room fell silent. The sound of the tear was loud enough to echo while Lena froze, clutching her shirt to her chest, eyes wide with shock.