Up until 6th period everything had been going well for Mr Ritz.
He had found that his fellow teachers and his new pupils were all somehow refreshing to the fusty boarding college in Coventry where he had been an English teacher before. Here were American students and teachers with their fresh irreverence and lack of uniform or regulations. And Summer Heights as a modern Californian school came without the ode to God and everything else he had feared from the US system.
And now these girls threatened to ruin everything.
He had been warned of the girls before of course. In the staffroom at lunch, when he had asked "is there anything I should be aware of?" (more to pass the time than to glean information) he had witnessed the sly smile exchanged between Miss Fern and Mrs Porter.
Miss Fern was in her early twenties, one of the many hip new teachers who dressed almost as inappropriately as some of the more risqué student but defended herself with standoffish sassiness. Her smile forced the nose stud higher on her face and her green eyes shone.
"Watch out for some of your sixth formers."
"I will," Mr Ritz had said, though not understanding what his colleagues found so funny.
Now he did. But he couldn't quite bring himself to smile.
"Ladies, if you could please close your books and put away your phones, we can start the test."
There is no reply to Mr Ritz's request. The girl closest to him turns a page in her biology textbook. The one by the window scrolls through something on her phone.
Somehow Mr Ritz is hesitating. He knew he was going to come across problem-students sooner or later on his first day; rebels who would want to at least test what kind of teacher he would be. He just hadn't expected them to be in his senior class.
And he hadn't expected them to be girls.
He considers his next move. The rest of the class is waiting patiently before their paper, a little anxious to start the test and get it out of the way. A few have noticed an altercation is brewing and are watching Mr Ritz and the girls curiously.
Mr Ritz opens the clipboard he's holding and scans the seating pattern.
"Emily Reese," he says.
The girl beside him looks up and smiles.
Like her friend, Emily looks far older than just a Senior year student. It isn't just how she's dressed, in a black, strapless dress, or even the hockey player figure it hugs. It's the look in her pretty blond face that displays a confidence far beyond her years.
And it's because of this, and her undeniable prettiness, that Mr Ritz loses the ability to speak. His stern resolve to chastise Emily and make an example of her fails him.
"P-please put away you book," he says. And then looks away, almost embarrassed. "It's a test," he mumbles.
But Emily just sits there, continuing to look at him.
Mr Ritz feels himself turning red. He starts to sweat. He hastily puts a test paper underneath Emily's book. He shuffles towards the other girl.
At the nearby desks, the audience that have been watching start muttering. One girl gasps in gleeful shock. A handful of students snicker.
Mr Ritz becomes so flustered that he has to check for the other girls' name again.
"Hannah Jackson" he says.
Hannah's look takes Mr Ritz aback for quite different reasons. Where Emily showed confidence, Hannah shows outright hostility.
From his years in the boarding school and abroad teaching English, Mr Ritz is quite unused to such anger.
Hannah is dark skinned and dressed in sporting gear, also a member of the hockey team perhaps. She is even more muscular than Emily and her anger makes her frightening. But it can't camouflage her prettiness. Stretched back in a tight bun, her black hair can't cause a blemish on her clear, brown skin.
But Mr Ritz knows he can't repeat the previous display of amateur weakness.
"Hannah, put away your smartphone. It is time for a test."
Mr Ritz is pleased to hear his voice doesn't shake, even if it is a little too loud. A few heads look round.
Hannah keeps looking at him.
"Hannah, do I have to teach you English from the very start?" Mr Ritz tries.
A few students chuckle and for a second Mr Ritz almost relaxes. But then Hannah looks back at her smartphone. The class behind Mr Ritz grows too silent.
Mr Ritz clears his throat and finds himself still somehow unable to look at Emily. So he says, "very well girls, in that case you will both find yourselves with detention and a visit from the Principal later."
Flustered, Mr Ritz, leaves it at that and hands out the rest of the papers. He starts the test.
The class is silent and in a way that seems to be the end of it. Most of the students are busy taking the test. But Mr Ritz can't get over the fact that Hannah and Emily continue to do their own thing.
They start talking - not all that quietly - and laughing. A few of the students look at Mr Ritz and he wants to say something. But somehow he still can't look straight at Emily. He grows angrier but does nothing.
Five minutes before the end of the class, Mr Ritz calls an end to the test. He goes around collecting the papers off his students. But he can feel that he's lost all respect from the class and he needs to get it back.
Don't show that you need the Principal.
"Emily Reese and Hannah Jackson, please stay behind."
Strangely, there is a lack of "oohing" or "ahhing" from the class. They start to shuffle out fast, but as they are, Emily says "Kim, Sophie, stay as well."
Two of the girls step out of the line that's leaving and make their way over to Emily and Hannah who have now risen to their feet.
"Wha-?" Mr Ritz begins, flustered. "Kim and Sophie have done nothing wrong and will go to their next classes!"
"Stay," says Emily decisively.
The girls stay.
Mr Ritz looks at them for a second. Kim is a short, Asian girl, pretty but very conservative looking, with girlish pigtails. Sophie looks like the local high school diva in a short skirt and blouse with pretty red hair. Mr Ritz looks back at Emily.
"What is the meaning of this?" he asks.
Bizarrely, the girls advance as if this is planned and stop short of the front desks.
"I want them to see this," says Emily. Finally Mr Ritz forces himself to make eye contact with Emily and sees that she is still smiling, but with somehow even more gleeful determination in her eyes. Then she looks down to get her phone. She holds it up.
"Tell us your name," she orders. Mr Ritz gets an uncomfortable feeling looking at the black camera lens.
"You girls are all in serious trouble," he begins.
"Well, I guess we can tell it's you," says Emily. "It would be polite if you said your name though. Is it Mr Tits?"
Kim and Sophie begin giggling behind their hands.
"How dare you?" says Mr Ritz, feeling himself grow red.
"Mr Tits! Mr Tits!" says Emily
The girls begin to shriek with laughter.
"My name is Mr RITZ!" Mr Ritz finds himself barking.
There is a silence. Then Hannah steps forward. She puts her school books down carefully on a desk.
"Good boy!" Says Emily. "I want the people to know it's you. Before we do this.
"Do wha-?" Mr Ritz starts, but the wind is knocked out of him by the first punch to the face. A second blow strikes his stomach and Mr Ritz falls to his knees gasping.
When he looks up he sees Hannah's white sneakers and her dark, muscular legs.
