The Case of the Crystal-Clear Disc

On screen, a younger, more frazzled Janine was trying to inflate balloons for a “Career Day” carnival. The high-definition audio captured her saying, “What’s the worst that could happen?” right before a balloon the size of a small car lifted Mr. Johnson off his feet and carried him toward the ceiling tiles.

Barbara Howard walked in carrying a stack of permission slips. She froze when she saw the package. “Janine, where did you get that?”

Ava Coleman, who had been pretending to do payroll while actually shopping for a gold-plated foot massager, snatched the package. “Ooh, is this one of those ‘motion pictures’? Did somebody finally make a documentary about how I turned this school around? ‘The Avaissance’?”

Just then, the monitor flickered. A new message appeared on screen, typed in a sleek, sans-serif font: