The door opened and the deputy principal waved for the brother and sister to enter the office. They took a seat on either side of their mother. Sophie Lyons took her seat behind her desk and began. “Now children your mother and I have been speaking to Miss Pittman from my daughter's school this morning and between us, we have come up with a better outline for this experiment to proceed.” The two children turned and looked at each other at the same time. Whatever had come from Saturday night and the day before was now well beyond their control.
Sophie continued “Now Susan this is the last day that you will wear that uniform you will return to wearing our own as of tomorrow.” Susan felt the weight lift from her shoulders. “However as the experiment was about seeing the world from another point of view you will help here in the office after school until the school is closed for the remainder of the week. That way you will get to know how it feels to be a member of staff here.” Susan sat not saying a word knowing how light her new role was to be for that week.
“Now we get to you Tom or is it, Tammy?” Tom slowly sank further into the chair he was sitting on. “You have a much greater role to play. For the remainder of this month, you will continue to wear the uniform that you are currently in to allow you the chance to understand the difference between the two of them. Your mother will help you fulfil your role. I can’t thank you enough for the help and support that you are both giving my Tina and I will make sure that you both get an equivalent amount of credit on your records here for your participation, now if you both wait outside for a few mins I will get you something to take to your classes to cover the time that you have been absent for.”
With that Miss Lyons got up and opened the door to lead them back to where they had been sitting a short while ago. Tom and Susan slowly rose from their seats in the office to sit back down outside it. Once the door was closed Susan turned to her brother or was that now sister to see how he was. Even through the makeup, she had put on his face earlier that morning she could now see that he was a lot paler than before and that he was mumbling something to himself quietly. “End of the month.” He kept repeating the same four words over and over and over. Susan did not know what to say so she said nothing and just put her arm around her brother and held him.
