"Hello students, I'm Ms. Prescott and I'll be filling in for Mr. Benson today." Jon had barely considered substitute teachers. From what he understood they could be called in to schools all over the county. Just because this Ms. Prescott was his geography teacher today didn't mean she had been swapped yesterday. It also meant that if she swapped into a new family this afternoon it could be hard for her to get back to her original life. The stone had a limited range, and Jon began sweating as he realized some people may commute to school from outside the range the reality changes were imperceptible. What would happen to the women who went home and found their husbands didn't know who they were for example?
As Ms. Prescott began her lesson Jon felt he had to know who she was. If she hadn't been swapped the day before there was a chance she could leave school today completely herself. Unfortunately Ms. Prescott had been a junior the day before.
The woman teaching class now was a thirty two year old single woman. She was on the plain side, though it could simply be the lack of makeup and unflattering hairstyle she had right now. Her clothes screamed boring, and she lacked any interest in what she was teaching as she pointed to locations on the map and called on students to review what they'd learned about them. Despite still being fairly young it felt like this woman had given up more than Jo Redwood had. Jon checked her profile, and learned that Lacy Prescott had never wanted to be a teacher. She had needed a job, and managed to convince the school district she was a qualified substitute. The chubby woman was audibly yawning as she moved her pointer.
Jon found that Lacy had been Lacy Warbly the day before.In that life she was on the path to being a deadbeat loser, nearly ready to flunk out of school. She'd normally ditch morning classes to sleep in, and show up sometime after lunch. The only reason she came to school was to sell pot and smoke with the stoners when classes let out. She had been a chubby girl with a round potbelly and thunder thighs, likely from her usual case of the munchies. Jon shuddered as he realized that somebody had been forced into that life.
Before he could see what Lacy was like originally, or who had been unfortunate enough to take over in the Warbly family, he heard Ms. Prescott call on someone with a familiar voice.
"Yes, you have a question?" Lacy asked, sounding almost annoyed.
"Jon here is on his phone in class." It was his original mother Linda who had ratted him out. He turned to see her smirking condescendingly at him.He still couldn't get used to seeing the girl with his mom's face and his enemy's life looking at him like he was garbage.
Lacy sighed, and slowly made her way to Jon's desk. Her thick thighs rubbed together the whole way.
"Give me the phone." Jon had no choice but to comply. "You can have this back after class, and I'll have to give you detention."
Jon silently fumed. He could feel Linda's eyes on him, and though he couldn't hear it he was sure she was laughing to herself. Even the people around him seemed to joining in with her.He loved his mother, but he wasn't sure what kind of influence Sarah McMillan's life would have on her going forward. Would she be a bitch in each family now? He hoped it would be something benign like an interest in cheerleading, or the blonde hair.
Now he'd be forced to stay late, and explain to whoever his mom would be after detention why he was kept after school. While classes let out earlier this would put Julie in danger of swapping into a new family more than she'd been in before if she was still going to pick him up.
He knew that students were the most likely to swap. That meant former adults like Linda and Susan were at a much greater risk until they became adults again. Karyn, Zoe and all the other girls who'd switched from high school age to adults would get fewer mixes of new traits. In some ways that was reassuring, knowing people he cared about like Zoe and Karyn would stay more like their original selves. On the other hand Jon knew Samantha, Linda and others could be a mix of up to five more people by the end of his wish. How much of his original mom would be left by then?
Jon could do nothing but sit through the class with his thoughts. When the bell rang he went to Lacy's desk and got his phone back. She told him the room to report to for detention.
"How dumb can you get? You really didn't think I'd call you out for that?" Linda had waited outside for Jon to rub it in his face.
"I'm not in the mood Linda." Jon said simply.
"Your sister is so lucky to have me as her role model now. I'm sure she's ashamed to have a loser like you be related to her." Linda's laugh was so grating. It sounded high pitched and annoying, nothing like the one Jon knew his mom to have.
He knew from his experience with Sarah the more he engaged the worse it would be. Linda would swap to a new life, but Jon would be stuck with whatever consequences came from a fight with a McMillan. Detention and the likely scolding from whoever his mom would be was bad enough. He let Linda have the last laugh and walked to detention.
