Not all revenge involves shouting or pranks. Sometimes, it’s quiet, calculated, and deliciously petty.

When a teacher’s smoker stench filled the classroom, one student decided to fight fire with… a pen.

And it worked better than he could’ve ever imagined.

You’ll want to read on for this one!

Petty revenge on a smelly teacher

At my school I went to for years 9 to 11, the Language Dept head teacher was a heavy smoker.

She came to surveil our class one day for some reason, and she sat one row over and one row back of me.

Being near her was quite the unpleasant experience.

She had that lingering-deathcrud smell of a smoker, and I didn’t appreciate having to smell it.

So I took revenge: I rummaged a Bic Biro pen out from my knapsack.

This revenge was quite subtle.

That’s the cylindrical white plastic kind (versus the previous clear hexagonal design).

What else is white and cylindrical?

Yup, I held that pen between two fingers, occasionally put it in my mouth and then took it out again, periodically flicked it with my thumb or tapped it with my pointer finger.

Right in her line of sight. Not big exaggerated motions that might get me pinched for disrupting, just enough for her to unavoidably see, and to centrepunch her nerves.

But it worked like a charm.

She grew steadily more antsy-fidgety as the class period dragged on, and when the bell went she flew out of the door and down the corridor, in the direction of the staffroom.

Nothing like a little subliminal messaging!

Reddit is sure to get a kick out of this one.

This user seems quite familiar with this pen — and not in a good way.

The best kind of revenge is one you can plausibly deny!

This commenter is scheming up ways to get her husband to quit the bad habit too.

In that moment, the student became the master.

Nothing like a little psychological warfare before lunch!

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.