As Jon and Karyn made their way to homeroom, both were wary for anything obviously caused by the errant wish, but so far everything seemed normal. However, as they walked into their homeroom classroom, their teacher, Ms. Nakahara stopped them. "Black, Gibson, you both need to head to the front office. The Headmistress is looking for you."
"Why does she need to see us?" Jon asked, somewhat confused. The stern Japanese teacher gave him a flat stare, and sardonically answered, "I don't know, I imagine if you did as you were told she might tell you. All she said was that the two of you were to be excused from homeroom, though I couldn't fathom a reason why." If there was one thing Ms. Nakahara hated it was when students bunked off.
Jon and Karyn shot each other a sidelong glance, before turning around and heading back towards the front office. "You think this is the result of the wish?" Karyn asked skeptically. "If it is, I'm going to have a conversation with the rock about the definition of interesting. Randomly getting sent to the Headmistress's office isn't exactly thrilling," Jon shot back. Eventually the two of them arrived at the entryway to the front office and Patricia Levine, the Headmistress's secretary, told them to sit and wait there until Ms. Lafayette was ready for them. After a few minutes the pair was joined by Kyla Leeson, a nerdy shy girl who tended to fade into the background, Lily Vanderfield, a preppy brunette who was chair of the Honors society and captain of the girl's tennis team, and Leonard Drullers, an overweight boy who was very intelligent but rather socially stunted. Jon was wracking his brain as for what Ms. Lafayette could need with the five of them in particular and based on the looks of confusion on their faces, the other three were as clueless as he and Karyn were.
"Ah good, you're all here," Ms. Lafayette noted in her typically patrician tones as she stepped out of her office, gesturing for them to join her. The five of them shuffled in, taking seats on the chairs that had been lined up across from her desk. The only other person in the room was a bespectacled woman in a white lab coat, standing to the left of Ms. Lafayette's desk who Jon did not recognize.
"Thank you all for joining us this morning," Ms. Lafayette began as she sat down at her desk. The Headmistress was a tall imposing figure with aristocratic features and a consistently dignified aura. "Always happy help out, Ms. Lafayette," Lily chirped. Lily was something of a brown noser, and one might think she was a goody two shoes if they didn't know she threw some of the wildest parties on her family's sprawling estate at the edge of town. The brunette had something of a rivalry with Sarah McMillan for queen bee of Lakeview Academy.
"Well to start, I'd like to introduce you to Dr. Morgan, who will be facilitating the program," Ms. Lafayette gestured to the woman to her left who gave a friendly wave. "Put simply, the PTA has decided to implement an exciting new program to foster empathy in our community and the five of you have been selected as our student representative." Karyn, Kyla, Jon and Leonard exchanged confused glances while Lily looked excited. Why would the five of them have been chosen? Kelsey made sense, but the other four were hardly the sort chosen for most school spirit type activities. If it were done by grades it might make more sense, since Leonard, Kyla, and Lily were in contention for Valedictorian, but then why were Karyn and Jon there?
Ms Lafayette continued oblivious or uncaring of our confusion, "I'm sure you're all very proud to be selected, so we'll get right to work. The program is...."
