"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....but with some significant differences. She looked younger...probably a freshman. And she was dressed in the prim and proper manner that Steve would normal like to try and corrupt and deflower...even it wasn't him inside it.
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 Farber, freshman," she said. "It only seemed fair. I stole your equipment...I've given you several extra years of life. Try not to make me regret the extra years you'll be spending at the school. 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. And if you annoy me more, I'll have your father working in Cleveland."
"What about Tiffany?" He asked.
"Very good, Stacy. Thinking about someone else. That shows real growth. Well, since you're the one who got her pregnant...she isn't pregnant anymore. She's spent a lot of time alone since you knocked her up wishing she'd been more responsible. She'll remember that, on some level, and maybe turn her life around." She smiled. "Well, I'll see you in class. Have a nice life."
"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
