Chapter Two

Mr. Turner scolded Nicole for arriving late to class after lunch. His face turned red in two seconds after seeing her enter. He rallied on about how "disrespectful" she had been by being tardy. Funny thing was, there were plenty of students who arrived on time that called him "Mr. Beets" due to his red face in private conversation. And by lecturing her during class time, wasn't that disrespecting the time of the punctual students' who were there to learn? At least, the ones who weren't hiding their phones behind the textbooks. And wouldn't it have been disrespectful by leaving the mess for the lunch lady to clean up? So, wasn't Mr. Turner in turn being entitled and disrespectful to the lunch lady?

Under normal circumstances, Nicole would apologize and explain her tardiness. But with her evidence strangely absent, Nicole just stood there and tolerated his rant. Her reason wouldn't have mattered to him anyway.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Turner." She didn't bother with the 'it'll never happen again' line cause who knew the future?

Mr. Turner just grunted, and Nicole was able to take her seat.

TTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

Nicole had forgotten all about the new app on her phone until her walk home.

"Hey, Miss Piggy." Roxie shoved passed her on the sidewalk. With no audience, Roxie was able to let her true colors show.

"You really shouldn't talk out loud to yourself. People'll think you're crazy."

"Ooh, burn." Unbothered, Roxie strode ahead.

Nicole's anger flared up. Here was another instance where she couldn't do anything. Left to suffer a slow death of a thousand cuts.

Then it all came back to her; the man. The mess. The app. Maybe there was something she could do after all. Nicole brought out her phone and picked up her pace. She pointed her phone straight ahead of her at Roxie and pushed the icon. In front of her very eyes, Roxie's body turned into mist leaving Nicole alone on the sidewalk.

"Hey!" A tiny voice shouted from the phone in Nicole's hand.

"Uhhh…" Nicole blinked at what just happened. This was impossible. She didn't know what she had expected to happen after clicking the app, but her school bully being sucked into her phone had not been on the list. A quick look around showed the surrounding area void of other people. Too stunned to do anything else, Nicole minimized the app and finished her trek home on autopilot.

Her mother was working tonight, so the house was empty. Nicole dumped her backpack on the floor and took a seat at the kitchen table. Scared, but also curious, she pulled up the app again. Roxie was still inside; a miniaturized version of herself huddled in the bottom corner of the screen, arms wrapped around her legs.

Since the initial shock of what just happened had worn off a little, Nicole took the time to look around the app this time. It took up her entire screen; tiny Roxie was stuck in an empty cell that took up three fourths of the space. A column on the right side displayed a bunch of buttons.

"Let me out!" Roxie shouted as she got to her feet. Her fists pounded against the other side of the screen and Nicole could hear tiny thumping noises.

"Yeah, about that…don't suppose you see a door anywhere?" Nicole pressed down on the middle button and found when she dragged up or down more buttons appeared. As far as she could see, there wasn't a door or exit sign. The icons on the buttons were confusing. There was a spark button, one with a boot, one with a toilet, and one with a squiggly line that had a star at one end.

Maybe the boot will take her somewhere?

After a second's hesitation and not knowing what else to do, Nicole tapped on the boot. A shoe appeared in the cell and began to stomp on Roxie. Roxie and Nicole both screamed at the same time. Nicole screamed in shock. Roxie screamed in pain.

Nicole pushed away from the table, her phone falling to floor. The phone landed screen side up so Nicole watched as Roxie's screams continued. Each scream caused Nicole to shudder. She had backed up against the fridge and stood staring down at her screaming phone.

Nicole summoned up her courage and picked her phone back up. Roxie still screamed each time as the boot came down on her body. It stomped her in the stomach. It stomped on her head and hands. Roxie's clothes even started to look dirty and there were red spots on her skin.

Blood. Roxie was bleeding.

"Um…stop?" Maybe the thing worked on voice command.

A small STOP sign appeared in the top left corner, along with the bullhorn icon most apps used as the volume button and a circular arrow. She tapped on all three; the boot disappeared, Roxie looked back to full health, and all Nicole could hear was her own breathing.

"No way," Nicole finally said out loud. The very thing she had wanted, dreamed about, total control over her bully had somehow been granted.

Roxie had gotten back to her feet and was saying something inaudible. Another tap on the volume button brought back Roxie's voice.

"Let me out you fat, stupid donkey!"

"Why?" Nicole asked out of curiosity. Perhaps it was the calmness she felt that caused Roxie to gulp.

"Answer me." Nicole laughed. "Convince me."