I attend a diverse public school named WoodRidge Secondary School For Learners, now i hang around with all sorts of people, and i have a friend group that will be important later. We had a new transfer teacher and no one really knew where he came from or what he taught, everyone knew he was just “inspecting” the school and pupils.
Obviously no teenager pays attention to what’s going inside of school everyone is keen on getting out.
Now let me address who i am so everyone can be comfortable. Im fourteen year old female, attending a school for 2 years, now everyone has to wear uniform - dark grey and bright green stripes at the front only. This also matches the school’s building which was a little odd for me.
So this new transfer teacher was a huge suprise because there was no teacher slots available in the school, everyone knew this but everybody knew that this teacher was the hotspot. Meaning, he was a very handsome man - dark skin and big light eyes, with a mop of black curly hair
Me and my friend Neveah first ignored the rumours about how he was single, and he owned millions of sports cars and had a lot of money. Obviously that was not true, but that’s when we noticed that some of the rumours were starting to get a little disturbing.
I was on my way to assembly with a deep sigh because i knew the topic was going to be the same as last weeks topic. I remember clearly that everyone was muttering and gasping excitedly, i was the only one confused seeing as i didnt know what was going on.
“I want everyone to settle down please!” I heard a loud voice commence.
I sat comfortably on the chair as my ears blurred out the principals speech about the schools motive. That’s when we were all introduced to the app, THE app.
Apparently the school has collaborated with another school on this working app. It allows students to learn and write about news around the school and anything that sparks their imagination, now this was another way of doing whatever the hell you want, you can write about anything that “sparks” your imagination.
So being teenagers who do not know boundaries, that’s where the issue and the accident happened.
The app. Well everyone calls it that but when it was introduced it was called SocoSide, very interesting.
Socoside not only allowed students to share news about things going around the school but they were able to comment on eachothers posts. Yes is like tiktok, but its not - not anymore.
The new teacher was the head of this app and controlled almost every single post, which was good because there wasnt any hate.
Now i was in my english class when we heard the door click - the man standing their with a warm smile, assured us that we can get back to our work seeing as he’s just inspecting the class. I didnt think much of it until he whispered about seeing my work and sat next to me. He carried that same warm smile that cooled of the grudge i was holding for a long time.
The new transfer teacher was just a couple of years older than me, no wonder why girls in my class obsessed over him. After staring and smiling at my paragraphs he finally allowed me to get back to my work. That was the first incident, everyone had a similar incident but never thought much of it.
A couple weeks go by and im sitting outside with Neveah and other friends, we were discussing about our troubles at home and i awfully changed the subject to the new transfer teacher. All my friends were shocked and disgusted when i mentioned his name, they all shouted and whispered rumours about the guy and what he was actually up to.
I finally went on the app, we had to download it on our school’s computer and it was monitored daily by the teacher. I scrolled through recent posts eying the headlines, thats when i noticed a headline saying, “a group of fine girls.”
I caught my breath as i stared at the picture of me and my friend group in the playground discussing our thoughts on the new teacher. This was just one of the posts of us.
Soon after, multiple posts about my friend group and others were posted on a regular - they were sent to the new teacher who took them down. But now the rumours were not going ear to ear but to post to post, this was all about the teacher.
People were calling him a pedophile, soon afterwards the app was deleted. The posts were gone and the transfer teacher was questioned on suspicion of grooming, obviously me and my friends blamed the guy because we always caught him looking us in a weird way, or touching us when he was in a good mood.
But for some reason I believe that is not the guy, because when the app was deleted there was a new way to get daily news.
A new way for people to still comment on eachothers posts. Because how come im walking home with police officers and cars, people watching the roads and bushes to see if theres anyone hiding. But i am still being watched, someone or something is still taking pictures of me and other kids in my year. And is not only girls, boys as well - the headline is always something disturbing when your phone dings.
Every person probably got new phones now after the incident blew of, nothing really happened after the app was gone and a new fresh year started.
That was the day i was talking to Neveah and my other friends about this new student transferring, for some reason there’s something off about this. I cant really wrap my head around - but everyone is talking about a new school app, something is missing.. That’s when i heard a ding. A notification..?
“You’ve been in this situation before guys, i just made sure you forgot!”
From SocoSide.