I started by organizing the different groups into squads. The scout squad was in charge of watching Erica wherever she went, during recess and when she went home. I was informed of all her movements by cell phone. Their leader was Troveto.

I also had some of this squad watching the teachers, just in case the school workers tried to stop our mission.

The action squad consisted of the kids who would carry out all the actual missions, like scratching Erica's desk, hiding her PE bag, stealing her pencils, scratching notebooks, burning notes, filling her pockets with mud and the like. Their leader was Pekos.

The support squad would get all the materials that the other squads needed, especially materials for the action squad, like paint and the like. Their leader was Galica.

And I was the commander. I gave orders to the leaders, who passed them on to their subordinates. Some took the hierarchy as a game, but we all knew what would happen if we failed, so no one stepped out of line.

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Our first assault was meticulously planned. The support squad got themselves a copy of the keys to the room, thanks to a deal with the janitor. At the end of class, Erica left as usual. The rest of us did the same, or so we made her think.

Troveto and another boy from the scout squad followed Erica as she went home, until she took the bus. Of course, they did their best to stay hidden. Meanwhile, Galica passed the keys to the room to Pekos. Together with him and his group we went in, scratched Erica's table and chair to the last corner with unkind messages.

-Why don't we break it?- Pekos asked excitedly.

-No, not yet. We have to start small, or later assaults won't impress her.

Pekos lowered his arms, somewhat discouraged, but nodded anyway. Before I left, I looked again at Erica's table, scratched all over. We had used permanent markers, paint and knives to carve into the wood. Messages like "Go away, bitch!", "Whore", "Murderer", "Nobody loves you", "Erica loves cock" stood out. Mostly generic insults. I knew the murderer thing would make her feel a little bad, but I wasn't sure it'd really hurt. I wondered how I could really provoke her, make her cry with frustration.

But I was getting ahead of myself. Our mission was over for the day, so we packed up our things and left. There our revenge would begin.

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The next day I arrived excited to the classroom. I think we all were, I noticed several people looking at Erica's desk more than usual, but I couldn't resist either.

When Erica arrived, she stared at her desk for quite a while. I heard some nervous snickering on the other side of the room. I turned around with angry eyes to shut them up before they ruined our whole operation. I couldn't believe the lack of discipline of those fools.

I returned my gaze to Erica. She took off her backpack, ran a hand across the seat of the chair and sat down. She sat still for a long time, staring at the swear words on the table, feeling with her fingertips the engravings Pekos made with his knife. Then she stopped, and turned her head faster than I expected.

Everyone looked away, no one wanted to take responsibility, but at that moment I felt that hiding was out of place. I held her gaze, confident. Outwardly my face remained expressionless, I made sure of it, but inside something was beginning to dance and sing.

-Suffer! Suffer and go away!- I thought.

But I didn't look at her for more than a second. I didn't want it to be obvious, just slightly suspicious. I knew she wouldn't attack me without proof, without being sure. I started to arrange my things for the first class, she did too.

The professor arrived in a hurry, as usual. He left the class book on the table and started talking right away.

-Very well, children. If you look at your textbook on page fifty-one...- then he looked at Erica's desk, puzzled- Miss Sanz, what happened to your desk?

-Someone scratched it- she said.

The professor approached her desk and examined it for a long time.

-Go find another table, Miss Sanz. Ask for one in the next room or something.

Erica looked at her desk for quite a while, then reluctantly stood up and left. The professor made sure the door was closed before standing in the middle of the room. He put on his serious face that he used to put on when scolding us.

-Whoever it was, I won't try to find out for their own good- he said- but be clear that acts like this put us all at risk inside the school. I will not tolerate any more vandalism, understood?

No one responded.

-I hope it won't happen again- he concluded.

A short time later Erica appeared with another table. She settled in and we continued the class.

The teacher could have solved that issue for in the short term, but our mission remained a success: the message had been delivered. From that moment on, Erica understood that her strength mattered little against so many of us.

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That same afternoon we went to the plaza to celebrate. In addition to those of us who started our meeting, we were joined by more people from the class and even some from IV°A and IV°B. The word had spread fast and had reached everyone. There even appeared a small group of very enthusiastic girls whom I didn't know, but whom Troveto told me were Krois' friends.

I looked at the group of Solis' friends. They also seemed very enthusiastic about our campaign. I understood that they wanted revenge for what Erica had done to both sisters, but in my opinion, they had both done equally horrible things. First Solis by shooting with a gun at school, then Krois by putting a bomb inside Erica's backpack. The way I saw it, they were not worthy of revenge, not like Ocko, who had only tried to help.

However, they were contributing to our numbers, and that was good. I had to concentrate on leading our group, I had to give a speech to inspire them.

I stood at the highest place, on the roots of the big tree, while the others commented on what they had done.

-Comrades- I began, and waited a moment for them to keep silent.

Trying to speak to so many was a torment, since only a portion of them bothered to listen to me at times, but after a few seconds I managed to make myself heard.

-My comrades, today we have taken a great step towards our goal. Our enemy got the message, now she knows that someone is after her and that we will no longer tolerate her behavior. Today was a small victory, from tomorrow we must persist, we must be constant and disciplined. She may have the strength of a hundred men, but she is still just one girl. One of her punches may shatter a wall, but it is still a single punch. We have a huge advantage over her, we just have to apply it with ingenuity. We can do it, team! We, together, and only together, can do it!

I finished my speech with my breath hitching from nerves, but I managed to get my message across. To my surprise, my colleagues applauded.

At that moment, one of Solis' friends wanted to climb up on the roots next to me to speak as well, but I stopped her with a gesture.

-Now let's discuss strategy- I indicated to her and the rest- Then you can talk.

She seemed frustrated, but resigned herself and went back down to her little group. I felt a little sorry for her, but I'm sure she wanted to take the opportunity to badmouth Erica and get people to agree with her. I would have liked something like that too, but getting them all together there hadn't been easy, and I wasn't going to waste my efforts to let some random person vent.

I proceeded to introduce the new guys to the squad structure and leaders. We then brainstormed to discuss our next moves.

Several ideas came up, most of them very straightforward to consider. That we would beat her to a pulp, set her on fire, rape her, break her teeth, poison her. It was as if they didn't know who they were up against, those dumb bastards.

Fortunately, some good ideas came up as well. After the session, we got into a discussion between Pekos, Galica, Troveto and myself, and we managed to put together a schedule of assaults.

We couldn't give her time to rest, so we planned one round per day, sometimes more, depending on the magnitude. We risked running out of original ideas quickly, but we had to hurry, we didn't know when Erica might kill another one of us.

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The next day, when she went to read at recess, we took her backpack and cut a big hole in the bottom of it. Erica didn't notice anything when she came back or for the rest of the day, until it was time to leave, she stuffed all her stuff inside and her books fell straight to the floor. As with the previous time, some people laughed. I didn't bother to shut them up anymore, Erica wasn't going to do anything to them anyway. She looked around the rest of the class for culprits, but again found no one specific. Then she turned her backpack upside down, stuffed her things in it again and took it away like an open bag.

On the third day, Friday, Erica didn't come out during the first recess. I assumed she had realized we were going to continue our assaults. It was normal, but my classmates began to get nervous. Several sneaked up on me to ask what we were going to do about that day's plan if Erica didn't leave. I calmed them down by telling them I would think of something. And indeed, I had already considered that possibility. Erica not leaving was not so much an impediment, more like an obstacle, a mere nuisance.

Without wasting any time, I went to Pekos to tell him about my plan. He was surprised, and a little disgusted, but ended up agreeing.

In just a few minutes, before recess was over, he arrived with a couple of guys from his squadron after they had gotten what they had come for. Then they waited for the right moment, the instant the teacher entered the room and started talking about the class. At that moment, Erica had her attention on him, while the professor was too busy arranging his things on his desk to pay attention to the mess of the class. Little did he know that, within that mess, one of our classmates sneaked up behind Erica's station from behind and slipped something into her coat's pocket. He then retreated without either of us noticing what he had done. The plan had been a success. I congratulated the boy with a gesture from a distance, also to Pekos. Now all that remained was to wait.

The class proceeded normally, only that suddenly a strange smell emerged. Several of us noticed it after a while, but we kept quiet. I noticed Erica wrinkling her nose and looking around, confused. Clearly she still didn't know anything.

The first to point this out was the professor himself, which was to be expected, since he was the only one who was supposed to speak during class.

-What's that smell?- he asked- It smells like....

-Poop!- exclaimed a classmate.

Immediately several of the other students began to complain, but no one pointed to the source, they just played dumb. We opened the windows, acting as confused as the teacher. Erica looked around from time to time, trying to identify the source of the stench, but to no avail. The open windows evacuated the heat inside the room, and soon we began to put on our coats. Erica did the same, and as soon as she reached into the right pocket, she pulled it out in alarm and looked at it.

-No!- she exclaimed softly.

She felt her pocket, puzzled. Then she stretched out her feces-stained hand to move it as far away from her face as possible.

-What's the matter, Miss Sanz?- the professor pleaded.

Erica stood up.

-Someone put a turd in my coat!- she exclaimed.

Without waiting a second, she grabbed her backpack and left the room. I waited for her to finally flee the school.

Then the professor stared at us, enraged.

-What did I tell you?! What do you think you're doing?! You can't go around provoking this girl!

Nobody said anything. I figured this was a good time to set the record straight, so I stood up.

-No, professor!- I cried out- we're going to continue, whether you want to or not. The school refuses to take action, so it's up to us.

-What does this mean, Miss Kroem?!- he exclaimed, furious.

-It means that we will stop at nothing until that monster is out of our school. We don't own the system and we can't force her to leave by force, so we have organized ourselves into a terrorist group concentrated on one person. Now you must decide: Are you going to tell on us? Are you going to tell Erica what we did? Do you know what that means? Or are you going to tell the director? He doesn't do anything about one or two murders inside the school or at school activities. Do you think he has the right to lift a finger against us, against people who are trying to save their lives?

The professor, for once, was speechless. He needed several seconds to gather his thoughts.

-Miss Kroem, your methods... I cannot accept your methods.

-Then remain neutral and do not disturb us. But don't try to force us to keep quiet and do nothing while our classmates, your students, die one by one.

-But... but what you are doing... you are bullies, haven't you seen yourselves?

-We're fighting for our lives!- I replied- we're going to use everything at our disposal, everything we can get our hands on. Civilized dialogue died a long time ago.

Troveto stood up too.

-It's not just us. The other classes and some of the third level think the same way- he said.

Pekos and Galica also stood up, several of our classmates followed. Soon the whole class was standing. The teacher raised his hands.

-All right, all right...!- he sighed and put a hand to his hair, puzzled- I won't say anything, but I won't be a part of it either. Just... go easy, will you?

I raised my hands in victory. The others also celebrated, elated. We had achieved the professor's neutrality, that was good news.

After Erica returned to class, no one talked about it and no one pointed fingers. She looked furious, glanced at us several times, as if she could identify the culprit that way and punch them to death. But she couldn't, because it was all of us.

If the teacher snitched on us to the principal later, I don't know, because we didn't receive any kind of reprimand. We had the indifference of the school, we could act freely.