"Well," the dean sighed, "I think that's all we'd better do for today. I can't thank you enough, Ingrid; I've been wanting to do something about those two for years, but there's only so much you can do operating under the rules."
Ms. Fletcher nodded. "Sometimes you have to bend them a bit. I have to admit, you were right; those two are preternaturally good at covering their tracks."
Singleton raised an eyebrow. "You've been looking into their histories?"
"Only the relevant bits. I try not to abuse my power too much."
The dean nodded. "The world thanks you for that. Honestly, with what you can do, I'm surprised you're a high-school teacher. Why not something better?"
She laughed. "Depends on your definitions, Mark. Everybody fantasizes about 'the good life,' but nobody really thinks about how boring it would be. If I had all my worldly needs provided for at no cost to myself, where would I be? There wouldn't be anything interesting about it. No problems to solve, no challenges to overcome. No opportunities to grow or learn. I don't know about you, but I couldn't live like that." She sighed. "You know how every decade has a rich heiress or two who party their way into ruin and/or rehab? They do that because they're bored out of their goddamn skulls; that's why they're never happy with what they have. They have nothing to do, but they're too coddled by wealth to make themselves try anything difficult or interesting. Out comes the bottle, and the problem goes away, but only until they get bored again."
Singleton nodded thoughtfully. "Sure," Ms, Fletcher said, "teaching is hard. It's work, and some days it sucks, and other days it really sucks. But in the grand scheme of things, I'm passing on something I love to a bunch of kids who could be getting it from some know-nothing suit reading out of a 'teach yourself Visual Basic in thirty days' book. I couldn't get that kind of satisfaction out of an easy life."
The dean smiled. "You've thought about this quite a bit, it seems."
She nodded. "I admit that I toyed with the idea, back when I first figured this out. But all it took was a little thought and observation to see how bad of an idea it would be. I'm just glad I thought it out before I got too wrapped up in my own power."
"Indeed," he said. "Still, I do think you're underestimating the potential you have to help other people. You really could do a lot of good in the world, if you put your mind to it."
Ingrid sighed. "As before," she said, "I don't go around fixing everybody's problems for them. Nobody learns anything that way. I did these two to protect the other kids around here. I know your heart's in the right place, Mark, but if you keep trying to talk me into this, you might just find yourself doing study sleepovers with Stacy and Moroiko."
Singleton chuckled nervously. "I suppose you're right," he said. "I won't bring it up again. Anyway, I'd better get back to the office; I think I'm overextending my lunch break a bit."
"Take care," Ms. Fletcher replied. "I've got a few things to straighten up down here; I'll see you at the water cooler."
Stacy couldn't believe it. Nothing. Nothing. Bare breasts and shapely bodies surrounded her, and all she felt was this gnawing emptiness in the pit of her stomach, like she knew she should be feeling something but couldn't actually feel it. She tried to tell herself that it had something to do with the casual atmosphere, that maybe it was just that nudity was nothing special when it was socially acceptable. But deep down she knew she was fooling herself; they had changed her, and this was the result. She was just as un-excited in the girls' locker room as she had been in the guys', because she was a girl herself, and no longer attracted to them. And ten to one, she was going to be attracted to guys.
"What are you looking at, Farber?" one of the girls - one of the other girls - asked. Stacy said nothing, tears beginning to well up in her eyes. Great, now she was going to cry. She turned away from the scene, absent-mindedly taking her gym bag out of her locker and unzipping it. She half-dreaded the next part, but everything was so numb inside right now that taking off her clothes was pretty much an automatic process. She stared at the girl in the mirror; Stacy Farber was slender, and not especially shapely, but pretty enough. But she felt just as little at the sight of this completely naked girl as she had at the rest. She couldn't contain it any more, and crumpled to the floor, crying.
Ms. Tennenbaum, the P.E. teacher, rushed over to her. "Stacy?" she asked. "What's the matter?"
"N-nothing!" Stacy stammered. She couldn't tell anybody what her problem was, because any sane person would think she was crazy. She wanted to spill the whole story, but what would it accomplish? Nothing. But as futile as it was, she couldn't stop crying.
