"I wish I could date who I want and that whoever that is couldn't refuse." The stone glowed. Time and time again, she got interested in someone, but got turned down because of her lifestyle choices. Well, not anymore. Now they couldn't say no.
Stephanie was about to hand the stone back to Zoe, but she suddenly felt strange. Like something wasn't quite right. She looked down at the stone and that's when she noticed that her hand was different. It wasn't pale anymore and her fingernails were covered in red polish, not black. "What ..." Her voice cracked. What was happening?
She looked up at Zoe, and then down a bit. Was she taller? Why was she taller? She looked down at herself and watched as her clothes slowly morphed into an entirely new outfit: a red blouse, black miniskirt, and black heels. While the colors were acceptable, the style was not. She was no longer Goth, and that definitely bothered her.
She watched Zoe sling her bag over her shoulder and then look at her with worry in her eyes.
"Uh, Ms. Wright?" Zoe asked. "Could I have that back?"
Ms. Wright? What's she talking about? Why doesn't she just call me Stephanie? she thought.
"Please? It's ... uh ... really important."
"Zoe, why are you talking like this?"
"Talking like what?" Zoe asked. Now she started to get a little impatient. "Just give it to me, okay? It's mine."
"I know it's yours. You just gave it to me."
"What? Why would I give a teacher ..." She stopped talking suddenly, then just snatched the stone and ran away.
"Hey! Zoe, what's going on?!" Stephanie yelled. She never felt so confused.
"Stephanie," a man's voice said.
She spun around and saw one of the high school teachers Mr. Frederick. He was one of the literature teachers.
"Something wrong?" he asked. Then he shook his head. "I've got those tickets. You know, if you still want to go out."
Go out? With a teacher? Stephanie thought.
"Can you tell me what's going on?" she asked.
"How do you mean?" Then he checked his watch. "Maybe we should talk about this later. Don't you need to set up?"
"Set up what?"
"Your class. Isn't today the day of the poetry contest? You've been talking about it for weeks now."
"Poetry contest?"
"Yeah. Because you're a poetry teacher?" he said slowly, as if it were obvious knowledge.
I'm a poetry teacher? Stephanie thought. I'm a teacher?
"Listen, I've got to run. See you later, then?" Then the literature teacher hastened his pace towards the school entrance.
Unknown to anyone (Stephanie would notice eventually, though), the person who swapped ages with Stephanie was Physics teacher Bradley Collins. Now, he was a teenager who thought that he was supposed to be a teenager. All knowledge of his "previous" life was completely gone.
