"Did you say Sabrina?" Melissa asked, notably interested, standing up from the "guest" chair.
"Yes, why? Has she done something else? I swear, that girl has gone too far. No more suspensions for her. After this, it's going to be an expulsion!" Simon yelled.
"Calm down," Melissa demanded. "No, she hasn't done anything, besides whatever you're upset about. Well, that's not totally true either. The truth is, no one can find her. Or her friends, for that matter. Sarah McMillan and Gena Gibson. They were here less than an hour ago ..."
"They obviously skipped school," Simon said. "Duh."
Melissa glared at him. "Yes, I know that. But what are they up to? Sarah was given an ultimatum of sorts. She wouldn't just carelessly throw away a second chance like this. She may be part of the Goth crowd, but I get the sense that it really is just a phase for her. She isn't the type to cause trouble."
"You mean like Sabrina."
"Or Gena. Goodness, you have to stop obsessing over that Sabrina girl, Simon," Melissa said.
"I'm not obsessing. That girl is trouble. What's wrong with putting an end to it all? The faster she's out of this school, the better."
Melissa sighed, then sat down behind the desk.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"What do you mean?" she asked, confused.
"That's my desk," he said.
"Since when? I'm the principal."
Simon blinked. Was Sabrina not the only one playing a prank on him today? "What do you mean, you're the principal? I'm the principal."
She chuckled. "Very funny, Simon. I've been the principal at this school for almost 20 years now. You've been the assistant principal for half that time. I know you criticize me sometimes for my lapse in memory, but maybe you should take a look at yourself. It's not good for someone younger than me to be having similar problems."
"Younger? I'm not younger than you," Simon said. But the moment he said it, he knew it wasn't true. After all, just look at her. With that graying hair and those wrinkles, it was obvious that she was at least 50. But wasn't Simon nearly the same? Thinking about it, he knew he wasn't. He couldn't be that old. Right? No, he was barely over 40. And now that he thought about it ... yes, he was the assistant principal. How could he think anything else? "Okay, forget that I said that. I'm just ... this whole thing with Sabrina is having a detrimental effect on my mind, it seems."
"Maybe you've just been working too hard," the principal said. "Take some time off. Clear your head."
"Thanks, but I think I really should do something about that Sabrina girl. You don't know what she did to me. It was humiliating. I'm just glad no one was around to see it." He turned towards the door. "I'll be in my office, if anyone needs me." Then he left.
As Melissa sat there, the nameplate on her desk blurred for a moment, then changed from "Simon Davison" to "Margot Smith", as Melissa came to the end of her transformation. At 54, she wasn't nearly as old as the original Grace, but the original Grace also didn't have a career in education. Being a student at the high school caused the reality changes to have a direction, keeping Melissa at the school, but changing her from student to teacher, then eventually the principal. But an elderly woman couldn't be the principal, so that was why the magic of the phenomenon had "decided" to stop her transformation at age 54.
