Chapter 17-The Screenshot
1822 Words
The first message arrived at 6:42 in the morning.
Lena was still sitting at the dining table, finishing her breakfast, when her phone vibrated.
She glanced at the screen.
It was from Carla.
CARLA:
Did you see this?
A screenshot followed.
Lena opened it.
It was a post from an unfamiliar account discussing the recent DepEd selection process.
The post mentioned that some applicants were already talking about the ranking.
Lena read the first few lines.
Then she stopped.
One sentence caught her attention.
“Some applicants seem to have an advantage because of their connections.”
Lena frowned.
There were no names.
No specific school.
No specific person.
But the comments underneath were already becoming heated.
She scrolled.
Someone had written:
“We all know how these things work.”
Another replied:
“Experience and qualifications should matter, not connections.”
Lena locked her phone.
“What's wrong?” Rosa asked.
“Nothing, Ma.”
But Lena's expression said otherwise.
At St. Clare, the screenshot had already spread.
By the time Lena entered the teachers' room, several teachers were discussing it.
“Did you see the post?”
“Yes.”
“Someone said there are applicants being favored.”
“Do you think it's true?”
“I don't know.”
Lena quietly placed her bag beside her chair.
Teacher Grace looked at her.
“Have you seen it?”
“Yes.”
Grace shook her head.
“Social media can make everything worse.”
Sam looked up from his laptop.
“Especially when people start filling in the blanks.”
Lena understood what he meant.
The post did not name anyone.
But people were already guessing.
And once people started guessing, facts often became less important.
During lunch, Carla called.
“Did you read the comments?”
“Yes.”
“It's getting worse.”
Lena sighed.
“What are people saying?”
“They're trying to guess who the post is about.”
“Why?”
“Because people always want a name.”
Lena was quiet.
Carla continued.
“I don't like this.”
“Neither do I.”
“Do you think someone really has connections?”
“I don't know.”
“Exactly.”
Lena leaned back in her chair.
“Then we shouldn't assume.”
Carla was silent for a moment.
“You're right.”
Then she added, “But you know how people are.”
Lena smiled weakly.
“Unfortunately.”
That afternoon, another screenshot appeared.
This time, it was a cropped portion of a private conversation.
Lena recognized one of the names in the conversation.
It belonged to an applicant she had seen during the selection process.
She didn't know the person personally.
But the screenshot made it look as though the applicant was criticizing the ranking system.
The conversation was incomplete.
There was no context before or after the visible messages.
Still, people had already started sharing it.
Lena stared at the image.
Something about it made her uncomfortable.
She couldn't tell whether it was real.
She couldn't tell whether it had been taken out of context.
And she certainly couldn't tell whether the person being discussed deserved the criticism.
She decided not to share it.
Instead, she closed the message.
The next morning, the topic had reached the school.
Two teachers were discussing it quietly before classes began.
“Did you see the screenshot?”
“Yes.”
“Apparently, someone is complaining about the ranking.”
“Who?”
“I don't know. But people are saying—”
Lena walked past them.
She didn't stop.
Not because she wasn't curious.
She was.
But she was beginning to understand that curiosity was not a good enough reason to repeat something about another person.
Inside her classroom, she focused on her learners.
“Good morning!”
“Good morning, Ma'am Lena!”
She smiled.
“Please take out your notebooks.”
For the next forty minutes, she forgot about the screenshot.
Her learners had questions.
One couldn't understand the activity.
Another had forgotten a pencil.
Joshua was quietly working on his paragraph.
Normal classroom problems.
The kind she understood.
The kind she knew how to handle.
She preferred those problems.
After class, Joshua approached her desk.
“Ma'am?”
“Yes?”
“Can I ask something?”
“Of course.”
“Are you going to leave St. Clare?”
Lena smiled.
“Why are you asking?”
“Because you applied to another school.”
Lena paused.
She hadn't realized the learners knew.
“I don't know yet,” she answered honestly.
Joshua looked disappointed.
“But you might leave?”
“I might.”
He nodded.
“Okay.”
Lena looked at him.
“Why?”
He shrugged.
“We don't want you to go.”
Lena smiled.
“That means a lot to me.”
Joshua returned to his seat.
Lena watched him for a moment.
Then she looked at the papers on her desk.
The ranking process suddenly felt less abstract.
There were real choices involved.
Real people.
Real consequences.
And not just for teachers.
That evening, Lena received another message.
This time, it was from someone she barely knew.
“Is it true that you are one of the applicants being favored?”
Lena stared at the message.
Her heart began beating faster.
She read it again.
Then again.
She didn't know how to respond.
Favored?
Why would anyone think that?
She typed:
“I don't understand what you mean.”
The reply came quickly.
“People are talking.”
Lena stared at the screen.
She wanted to ask who.
She wanted to know what people were saying.
She wanted to defend herself.
But she stopped.
She remembered Sam's advice.
Don't react to everything immediately.
Lena put the phone down.
The next morning, Carla arrived at school looking upset.
“Lena.”
“What happened?”
Carla showed her phone.
Another screenshot.
This one contained a short message discussing applicants who supposedly had an advantage.
Again, no names.
But someone had added a caption.
“Some people already know who will get selected.”
Lena felt her stomach tighten.
“This is getting ridiculous.”
“I know.”
“Who started all this?”
“I don't know.”
“Do you?”
Carla hesitated.
“No.”
Lena looked at her.
Carla quickly added, “I just heard things.”
“What things?”
“Nothing confirmed.”
Lena nodded.
“Then let's not spread them.”
Carla looked at her for a moment.
“Okay.”
Later that day, Lena received a message from an unknown number.
It contained the same screenshot.
Below it was one sentence:
“Be careful who you trust.”
Lena stared at the screen.
For a moment, she felt uneasy.
Not because of the message itself.
But because she suddenly realized how quickly an ordinary conversation could become something else once it was copied, cropped, forwarded, and shared.
She remembered all the conversations she had with Carla.
Things they had said privately about their applications.
Their fears.
Their hopes.
Their worries about ranking.
Nothing malicious.
Nothing intended to hurt anyone.
But words could travel.
And once they did, she couldn't control where they ended up.
She deleted the message.
Then she stopped.
Maybe deleting it wasn't enough.
Maybe she needed to be more careful about what she said.
That evening, Lena sat at the dining table.
The house was quiet.
Her notebook was open.
She wrote:
Today's lesson:
Not everything I see online is the whole story.
She paused.
Then continued.
A screenshot can show words without showing the conversation around them.
A rumor can sound like a fact when enough people repeat it.
And I should never judge someone based on something I don't fully understand.
She looked at the page.
Then added:
I also need to be careful with my own words.
Lena closed the notebook.
She thought about the people involved in the selection process.
Applicants.
Teachers.
School leaders.
Friends.
Everyone was waiting for something.
Everyone was nervous.
Everyone had something to lose.
And perhaps that was why people were talking so much.
Fear made people speculate.
Competition made people suspicious.
Uncertainty made people look for answers even when there were none.
Lena understood the feeling.
She was afraid too.
But she didn't want fear to turn her into someone who judged others without knowing the truth.
The next week, the official announcement was expected.
Until then, the rumors continued.
Some were harmless.
Some were exaggerated.
Some contradicted each other completely.
Lena decided she would not participate.
When someone mentioned a rumor, she simply said, “I don't know if that's true.”
When someone showed her a screenshot, she asked, “Do we know the whole context?”
Most of the time, people changed the subject.
One afternoon, Teacher Sam noticed.
“You're being careful.”
“I don't want to get involved.”
“That's wise.”
Lena looked at him.
“But what if something is actually wrong?”
Sam thought for a moment.
“Then find out what is true before deciding what to do.”
Lena nodded.
“That's harder than it sounds.”
“It usually is.”
He returned to his work.
Then he added, “Remember, Lena. Professionalism isn't only about what you do when everyone is watching.”
She looked at him.
“It's also about what you refuse to do when nobody is.”
Lena let the words settle.
That night, she received one final screenshot.
This one was different.
It included a name.
Her name.
ELENA MARQUEZ.
Lena's breath caught.
She read the message beneath it.
Someone had written that she was supposedly receiving special treatment in the selection process.
There was no proof.
No explanation.
Just her name attached to an accusation.
Lena stared at the screen.
For the first time, the rumors were no longer about some unknown applicant.
They were about her.
She felt anger rise inside her.
Then fear.
Then confusion.
She wanted to respond immediately.
She wanted to explain.
She wanted to ask who had started it.
But her finger stopped above the keyboard.
She remembered what she had written in her notebook.
Not everything I see online is the whole story.
She took a deep breath.
Then placed the phone face down on the table.
She didn't know yet who had created the post.
She didn't know why her name had been included.
And she didn't know how far the rumor had already traveled.
But Lena knew one thing.
Whatever happened next, she would need to be careful.
Because this was no longer just a rumor.
It was beginning to affect her.
And sometimes, the hardest part of being a teacher was not standing in front of thirty learners.
It was knowing how to remain calm when the world outside the classroom started talking about you.
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