Jade's mind drifted as she sat in class, listening to the teacher drone on and really hammer the lesson for the day in. Troubles focusing in class wasn't new to her. When she had been Jay she had the same problem. Both versions of her were quick enough that they were able to grasp the concepts that they were being taught with one or two examples. Anything after that was just repetition and hard to keep following without being bored. Jay had tended to use the time in class after grasping a new concept to think over whatever game he had been playing or toy with new ideas for Dungeons and Dragons characters.
Which, now that she was thinking about it, Jade realized that she had gone the whole weekend without even thinking about playing a video game. They had been changed Friday afternoon and then the weekend had been full of trying to get to the bottom of the whole situation and digging into her new life as well of those of her new friends. Even still, she hadn't even thought about playing one...
She made a mental note to add that to the list of more minor changes that she had stumbled upon and forced her mind back onto track. Sitting in class, she had little to focus on aside from the changes to her body. She had momentum all weekend and pursuing the mystery of Ms. Holloway and what she had done had been a good distraction. Now, in the middle of class, she couldn't do anything to pursue that. And it wasn't that her body felt alien and was a distraction every time she moved. It was the opposite, really.
She would do something without realizing, like adjusting the ponytail that she had pulled her hair back into and only notice she had done it a few moments later, or adjusting her bra strap. Even the more subtle things like how much smaller she was now. She had never been particularly big as Jay. She had been 5'9" and thin. Now she was 5'2" and the loss of 7 inches of height didn't feel as odd as it should. And the little realizations had been coming to her all morning, in each class. Greetings from people who would never have given her the time of day before, awkward exchanges and messages from the guys who had been her closest friends when she had been Jay, Kyla reaching out for things she would only ever go to another girl for.
Things that Jade apparently edged Gladys out for, now.
And they all felt so normal if she wasn't thinking about it, allowing her mind to fall into 'Jade' mode. It felt like a trap. Like something that Ms. Holloway had snuck into her... spell, she supposed, to make them disappear into it. To really make them the girls they had been transformed into. It felt odd that erasure of their old selves had been used as a threat when it seemed like it may be happening. Maybe she couldn't just erase them? Maybe it had to be a gradual process. If that was the case, then they were working on a time limit...
Jade focused on her open notebook, ready to jot down some of these threads that her mind had started going down and paused when she saw the page. She had been holding her pencil, doodling a bit so that it looked like she was paying more attention than she really had been, and without thinking she had drawn more complete images than she had intended. A rough drawing of an elf woman that Jade instantly recognized as one of her characters. She had idly started on a tiefling girl, Kyla's character. That one was only half done.
Another difference between the old reality and this new one. Jay had no artistic talent. He had tried to learn a few times but had given up fairly quickly. Even the idle thought brought memories to the surface. A young Jade, needing something to do after school because her parents had always been busy working and meeting colleagues, had been asked to choose an extra curricular activity to eat into some of the time. She had settled for art classes because it had seemed the most interesting. Delia had been in the classes for a time, the two getting to know each other more there. But she had stopped going after a year or so while Jade had continued taking them for.
She heaved out a silent sigh. She had gone for years. Her parents had been supportive, buying her the drawing tablet she had in her room at home, even while trying to nudge her toward other hobbies that may be more lucrative in the future. The little pushes had resulted in the opposite effect, and Jade had gone harder into the art.
Shaking her head a bit, she jotted her notes down. She kept going, adding more thoughts as she wrote. When she ran out of things to add, she returned to the drawings, paying more attention to them this time. If she could commit what she was doing to her active memory, then maybe she could carry the skill with her back to her life as Jay when she got back.
...if she got back, she supposed.
"Jade?" She jumped a bit as she heard the teacher, Mr. Eastwood's, voice. "Can you come up to the board and solve this equation?"
Closing her notebook, she stood and made her way to the front. She grabbed the marker and looked at the equation for a moment, then filled it in. Easy enough to solve. She knew she had been called up because it seemed like she hadn't been paying attention. It had been so easy to lose herself in the art she had been working on. Therapeutic in the same way losing herself in a game had been as Jay. Equation solved, she put the marker down and made her way back to her desk. She could see some glances from others. Girls smiling at her, because she was popular now, and boys stealing glances here and there. Not that her figure was anything to write home about. She wasn't like Sarah, Karyn, or Jen. She was petite, but apparently attractive enough for people to take notice.
Another change, but not one she felt like noting with the others.
She sat and kept her notebook closed, waiting for class to end. She didn't want to lose herself in the art again, didn't want the therapeutic feelings that came from working on it. She would sit, wait, and try to talk with some of the others later.
