Lonna arrived at the museum a little after 10 that morning. She had decided to be on her best behavior while at the museum after all no matter how she appeared to the world she was still a member of the staff at the school. In her head, she was still plotting her revenge on the boys from the bus. She would make them pay one way or another.
Her class walked into the main area of the museum to find the usual mixture of exhibits. These were made up of paintings and statues and a few things in glass display cases. She had seen this sort of thing a thousand times before and found it very boring. She looked over towards her history teacher ms Smith, who was standing next to a poster for a lecture that was happening in the museum that evening. As Lonna got closer to her teacher she saw a wide grin on her face, looking at her teacher that reminded her of a teenage girl who was looking at a poster of her favorite boy band.
“Oh, I didn’t see you there Lonna. I guess my mind was elsewhere.” Ms Smith told her student as she finally noticed Lonna standing next to her
“Is anything wrong Ms?” Lonna asked she had never seen her her so animated at any point, either as her student or her colleague.
“Nothing is wrong Lonna. I didn’t know that the professor was giving a talk here today that is all. I just wish I had the time to attend. I have followed her work years.” Ms Smith told her.
“Oh. I wasn’t sure. I have never seen you like this before Ms.” Lonna told her teacher honestly. She still wasn’t used to thinking of her former colleagues as her teachers. Yes, they were older than her but was only due to the stone that Ms Tran had found at the start of the week.
“I suppose I sound like a child but her work is so inspiring. I only hope that one of these days I can meet her in person. I would like to let her know how much she means to me.” Ms Smith said to the younger woman in front of her.
Lonna turned to look at the poster that had grabbed her teachers' attention as her history teacher went to deal with a group of boys who were being unruly or so she thought at the other side of the hall. Lonna saw a small picture of a pretty redhead in her late 30’s she thought but she was never that good at guessing ages. Under the woman's picture was the picture of an intriguing-looking book adorned with a decorative design. It suggested a classic and sophisticated aura surrounding the book which gave it an elegant appearance, hinting at the possibility of it being a collector's item or a piece of significant cultural value. Come and see Professor Black read from and discuss her latest book The Lost Jewels of Puck a History. She will answer any question on the jewels such as The Blue – The Switching Stone or The Brown Stone – with The Power of the Elements. The poster went on to name a few more of these stones but Lonna only had eyes for one of them. As her teacher had told her the professor would be holding the talk that very evening in the room to her left.
She went over to the reception desk at the entrance to the museum. “Hi, I was wondering if you had any tickets left to the event this evening with Professor Black?” She asked the woman sitting there.
“I will just check. Yes, there appears to be some left. You don’t seem to be the professor's usual audience is it for you? She asked.
“I know my teacher would love to go and I just wanted to let her know about it,” Lonna said trying to hide the blush on her face saying that the ticket was for her teacher. Even though it had been almost a week now since Ms Tran had become her teacher, she didn’t want anyone to know the fact. “Fantastic I will let her know when we get back to school this afternoon,” Lonna replied.
Back to school she had almost grown used to going to school each day. She barely gave it a thought anymore. This was Thursday morning and her fourth day as a student. On Monday she had been a 35-year-old chemistry teacher as usual and here she now was a 24-year-old student at the school. This had all happened after she had bumped into (literally) Ms Tran wait she had been the one who had bumped into her.
It was only then she realized that Lauren had not been Ms Tran at this point. She had been someone else entirely. Lonna had been Ms Tran on Monday. She was still Lonna Tran who had Lauren been. Not Lauren Tran, she had been Lauren Rodriguez. Yeah, that was right but why had she thought that she was Ms Tran? Something had changed with Lauren overnight and it was something big.
Why hadn’t Lonna noticed when she had seen her earlier that morning when she had spotted her out of the coach window? Suddenly it hit her like the proverbial ton of bricks. Lauren was now much like Lonna was now a Vietnamese woman instead of the Caucasian he had been on Monday morning. Did Lauren know? She must have noticed the change unlike the changes in their ages or hair colour that had happened so far during the week this was a big change. If Lauren hadn’t noticed how would Lonna tell her?
She had something else to tell her first and as soon as she could otherwise, they might miss out on this chance to get some information on the stone before it became too late and there was nothing of their old lives to get back to. “Is there any chance of putting a couple of tickets under the counter until I can speak to her?” Lonna asked sweetly.
“I will let you into a secret honey, there are plenty left just don’t tell the boss I said that. So, I am sure there will be a ticket left until you speak to her.” The young woman told her with a smile so big that you could fit one of the display cases into it.
