"Wh-what are you going to do?" Steve asked. Ingrid smiled. "Ah, now that's a good question. Me, I call it..." Another stream of alien syllables poured out, and Steve's body was instantly racked with pure brain fire, like every neuron in his body was going off at once. The world was a single giant, colorful, agonizing fireworks display, and then everything went black.
When he woke up, he was in the school infirmary. He could feel a damp washcloth on his forehead. Mrs. George, the school nurse, was smiling down at him. She must have noticed his confusion. "You fainted, dear," she said.
"What?" his voice sounded strange to his ears. He tried to get up, but it was hard. It felt like there was a weight on his stomach, pressing him down.
"I'll help you, dear," Mrs. George said, sliding her hand under his back. "Slide your legs onto the floor." He did so, and suddenly, the reason why he felt so strange became clear.
He saw it, not only in the body below him, but in the mirror hanging on the wall. Staring back at him was a female version of himself....and she was hot. Smoking hot. Even though she was...his knees started to feel weak as he saw the bulge in his own midsection.
Ms. Fletcher entered the room, looking at him with cold blue eyes. "May I have a moment with Stacy, Margaret?" She asked Mrs. George.
"Oh, of course, dear," the older woman said, leaving them.
"Stacy?" Steve gulped.
"Stacy "The Slut" Farber...or so it says on the wall of the boy's bathroom on the third floor, next to...for a good time call," she said. "It only seemed fair. Let's just say that I transferred Tiffany's fate to you. You still have the same parents, although if you tell them you're supposed to be their son instead of their daughter, they'll think you're crazy."
"What about Tiffany?" He asked.
"Very good, Stacy. Thinking about someone else. That shows real growth. Well, since you're the slutty cheerleader who got herself pregnant...she's someone else, isn't she? She's spent a lot of time alone since you knocked her up, wishing she'd been more responsible, less slutty. I figured she deserved at least that...at your expense, of course." She smiled. "Well, I'll see you in class. Have a nice life. If nothing else, motherhood can be very rewarding. I've never done it myself, but there is a maternal bond that forms...after the hours of painful childbirth, of course."
"So...everybody thinks I'm Stacy?"
"Yes. The old reality has been edited around you. But a punishment wouldn't be any good if you didn't know you were being punished. There are always a few people who have a low-level sense of what's going on. Weird feelings, but they fade after a few days. Maybe one in a million remembers the old reality, but they'd be thought just as crazy as you, if by some chance there is such a person in this school. I'll leave you to your life, such as it is. See you in class." Ms. Fletcher left him...and he was all alone.
