It's been so long since I've seen Principal Ishayama in an episode that I realize I'm just making up her characteristics to suit the story. Sorry if they contradict canon, but I don't remember her being a well defined character anyway.

Chapter Two: Escalation

The Casper High ruling body had to finally acknowledge that something was amiss when the record levels of unattendance continued to rise into the following week, as well as considering the inexplicably bizarre behavior of their normally most sensible teacher.

An investigation had been launched, eventually, amidst the grumbling of other staff members that it was a ridiculous waste of city and school funds so see if there truly was any paranormal activity in the hallways.

Most of the teachers believed that it was a series of pranks that had gotten wildly out of hand, and had snowballed with students joining in the chorus of "ghosts! ghosts!" as soon as they realized that they were being taken somewhat seriously, if only to cater to the vice principal's whims.

At first, it had started as Lancer's class only, infected as they must have been by the delusions he spouted from the front of the classroom. That was understandable. The impressionable children following in the deranged speeches of an authority figure that found the need to empty a fire extinguisher more days than he left the red metal canister alone.

But once it had been started, the original population of students claiming to have seen something or been attacked by the said mysterious something had been joined by hordes of others. As news traveled through the school of why the freshmen were acting so strangely, students of every grade started joining their ranks, claiming that their classes, homework, group projects, and tests must all be postponed until the school had been purged of any threats to their safety.

The school secretary, after putting up with a sharp increase in the forged letters of absence for a few days before fielding the inevitable calls from concerned parents until she simply couldn't put all of them on hold at the same time without the system crashing, had decided to leave in the middle of the afternoon, starting the backlog of vacation time she had been stockpiling for years with almost no notice.

Her sudden absence threw the entire system into absolute chaos. They had thought that it was bad before, but suddenly schedules and meetings and decisions and discussions ground to a halt or were rushed over or forgotten. Teachers tried to keep the unruly or terrified student population still in the classrooms under control and rarely had time to get through the new material on their daily calendar.

Strangely enough, Lancer's class seemed to be the most calm one left in the school, despite being the ones to have started the entire mess.

Ishayama stumbled through the hallways trying to instill some sense of order with her very presence as she suddenly appeared in doorways, looming over insubordinate students who should have been doing practice problems from the textbook in complete silence.

The effect she was going for was a bit diminished now, because, while she was normally an impressive figure despite her lack of height, the disheveled hair, and the voice that fought to make itself heard above the din of a classroom in upheaval, plus the fact that she had been making the rounds nearly nonstop for the past three days and was now a staple of nearly every period for every grade, made it a much less impactful visit than she hoped.

But Lancer's students were seated quietly at their desks, paying attention to a class that was actually being taught and, while the fire extinguisher was perched stolidly in the middle of the teacher's desk, and various students clutched strange items from the depths of the gym closet, they were remarkably well behaved. Unlike the behavior that seemed to have spread to the class clowns of every single class, no one here was screaming or jumping over desks. None of the students were huddled together determining the finer phrases of petitions to spread around guaranteeing them an extended period of no school.

As Lancer stopped lecturing and turned to face her, wondering what was wrong—as if he didn't know the madness that had spread throughout the school—she made up her mind.

"You," she pointed to her vice principal. "My office. As soon as classes are over."

He raised his eyebrows.

"You be there," she added, as if what she had meant wasn't clear enough.

"I will," he replied, and he had the nerve to blink at her, like she was the crazy one around here.

"Good," she breathed as she listed heavily against the doorframe. Then, before anyone could say anything else, she turned back into the hallway to make her way to the next class.

Lancer stared after her for a moment, then turned to the class long enough to say, "Behave yourselves for a minute," before following the short woman out the door.

"Ishayama!" he called gently once the classroom door was closed behind him and they were both out in the empty hallway.

Sighing, she turned around. "What?" she asked wearily.

The man was slightly taken aback.

"I just… wanted to know if you are alright. You seem… frazzled."

She stared at him. "Frazzled? Frazzled? You think I'm…?" Her voice rose into a near screech by the time she was gaping wordlessly. "You're darn right, I'm frazzled."

"Oh," was all he could think of to say, despite the degree in English.

"Oh?" she parroted. "Oh yes. And do you want to know why I'm frazzled?" she asked in a tone that meant there could only be one answer.

Before he had a chance to give it, however, she continued. "Because the entire school has gone crazy! Half of the students are home 'sick' and it's all that I and the rest of the teachers here can do to keep the rest of them in line. Productivity has plummeted. I don't even know the last time a test was given!

"The troublemakers think they've been given free reign and their chaotic behavior has spread to students who, even though they would normally be acting perfectly well, realize that they can get away with anything they want! And what can we do? Call special parent teacher conferences with every single parent out of the blue? While my teachers are running around like chickens with their heads cut off? I don't think so!"

She turned, then, from ranting at the rows of lockers lining the sides of the hallway to looking straight up at Lancer.

"And do you know," she asked with a low voice, "whose fault this all is?"

He shook his head dumbly.

"Yours!" she shrieked, unbelievingly. "Yours! It is your fault. This entire thing is your fault. You are the one who started this. Who started talking about ghosts and going crazy and shooting the fire extinguisher into thin air every day. It's your students who started believing they were being attacked in class and telling their friends about it in the cafeteria. It's spreading like the plague, now, and it all started with you!"

Lancer stared at her for a moment. "I-in my defence," he began slowly, hoping not to set the principal off again, "my class has never been unruly or misbehaved during the past week. They are not behaving out of line and my students are not part of the problem. They have adjusted remarkably well to the notion that they may be attacked by a ghost at any point in time."

Ishayama stepped forward until she was poking at finger at her second in command's chest.

"You think this is all a game, don't you?" she finally seethed. "You still try to tell me that ghosts are real and that they are attacking the school? And then expect me to believe that the entire school population freaking out isn't happening because of you?!"

The English teacher opened his mouth to reply but a glare from Ishamaya stopped him.

"Not another word. I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear anything from you except an explanation of how on earth your class—the one that believes in ghosts—seems to be the only sane one left in the school. So you will report to my office as soon as your class is over and you will explain to me and the board and your fellow teachers how to control these kids."

They both flinched as sounds of a desk being upturned onto the floor, accompanied by a mix of laughter and screaming, clearly came from one of the neighboring classrooms.

"Do… I make myself clear?"

And thank you for your continued patience. Writing in general has slowed (still have nothing for the 10th Danniversary on April 3rd yet eep!) and this story has become especially hard to write because every time I feel ready to write it again, something else seems to change in my life.