Author's Note: I'm afraid I wanted to adjust this one as well a bit, and wrote this alternate version that fits my thoughts a bit better to add onto.
"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 moved to help Zoe pick up her books, but she suddenly felt strange. Like something wasn't quite right. Her vision suddenly blurred, as if a flash had gone off in her eyes. She looked down at the stone and...it was gone.
Not only that, but 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 around. Zoe was gone. No...she wasn't in the same place. She and Zoe had been near the school...now she was right next to the door.
Was she taller? Why was she taller? She looked down at herself. Her clothes...she could see the faint outline of her normal outfit fading, and watched as an entirely new outfit took its place: 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.
What was happening? It was as if reality was rewriting itself around her, which she knew the stone could do, but her wish hadn't had anything to do with this...Maybe instead of changing other people to like her, it changed her to be more likeable?
"Stephanie," a man's voice said.
She spun around and saw one of the high school teachers Mr. Frederick. He was one of the English teachers, holding the door for her.
"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. A lot of the girls in school had a crush on him, and he was kind of cute, but...
"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?"
"Isn't today the day of the poetry contest? You've been talking about it for weeks now."
"Poetry contest?"
"Yeah. Because of National Poetry Month," he said slowly, as if it were obvious knowledge. "I don't know how you got Davison to give you money for a prize. But I guess you have that effect on all of the other faculty...the male ones at least," he smiled.
I'm a teacher? Stephanie thought. Poetry? It boggled her mind. She and Zoe both wrote, but writing and teaching were two different things.
"Listen, I've got to run. See you later, then?" He hurried into the school, leaving her by the door.
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.
Stephanie stood there, dumbfounded for a few more moments. Then she saw Zoe coming toward her. "Hi, Ms. Wright," Zoe said. "I'm really looking forward to the poetry contest. Do you really think my entry is good?"
Ms. Wright? Why doesn't she just call me Stephanie? Then she remembered, Zoe had stopped to pick up her bag...maybe she hadn't heard the wish, and now she didn't remember Stephanie as her friend.
"Can I speak to you alone, Zoe? Please? It's ... uh ... really important." She focused on Zoe. The way she was acting was so different than Stephanie was used to. Zoe didn't really like school or teachers, but she seemed to like Stephanie still.
"About what?" Zoe asked.
She lowered her voice to a whisper. "The wishing stone."
"What?" She stopped talking suddenly. Ms. Wright was her favorite teacher. In fact, her class was the only thing at school Zoe actually enjoyed. Ever since she started sharing some of her poetry, with Ms Wright's encouragement, she'd felt much better about herself, and some other students stopped looking at her as a freak. But she hadn't told her about the stone. "How did you?"
"You told me...I made a wish...and now everything's different. I..."
"Is everything all right?" A male voice said. They both turned. It was the Principal, Mr. Davison.
"Yes," Stephanie lied.
"Well, Ms. Madison needs to get to class, and so do you, for that matter." He stared down Zoe. "Now, Ms. Madison." She ran off, with an apologetic glance at Stephanie.
"Big day for you today, isn't it?" He said. "I know everyone thinks of me as a hardass, Stephanie. But I just want discipline around here. This could be the best school in the state. And you are helping with that." He had this atypical friendly look on his face.
Stephanie had wished that she could date whoever she wanted and that they couldn't refuse. As part of that, more people now found her rather attractive, including it seemed, Mr. Davison. For him, it came in the form of friendliness, something he wasn't known for even with the teacher. And it was creeping Stephanie out. "I have to go...prepare for the contest," she said, and hurried off.
Postscript: National Poetry Month in the US and Canada is in April, which makes it consistent with the story time period of Spring. However, in the UK it is in October.
