Joyce entered Mr. Langtree’s math class in room 213 like any other day but Mr. Langtree immediately looked up at her and told her she had the wrong classroom.
“Wrong classroom?” Joyce asked in confusion as Mr. Langtree crosses his arms and gave her the evil eye. He probably thought this was a prank or something. But since the girl looked absolutely confused he turned to his computer and opened up the class listing.
“Name?” He asked in deadpan.
“Joyce Zane,” Joyce replied feeling annoyance surge through her. Me. Langtree turned to the monitor and scanned down it until his finger fell on the name “Billy Zane.” Seconds later the computer screen fizzled into static and Mr. Langtree smacked it. It came back to life and suddenly the name Billy was replaced by the name Joyce.
“What in the name of Sam Hill?” Mr. Langtree asked before a splitting headache wracked him for a few seconds and everyone in the room got a distant look. Joyce just blankly walked to her seat like any other student and Mr. Langtree returned to his original position watching the students enter while sipping coffee. Joyce blinked back to reality and took a seat at the desk Billy had been assigned to. Normally she would have turned to her left and chatted with Joey about their game that evening but now she turned to her right and began talking with Frieda Blanche. Frieda took on a smile and they began talking about a horror movie opening that Friday night and plans to see it. Conversation filled the room until Mr. Langtree stood up and greeted everyone with a chipper “Good morning,” that was returned in unison by his students.
“I have a reminder that the Boys Soccer team will be playing against Maverick High tonight. You’re all invited to come and cheer the boys on. Another reminder about school pictures next week, wear your best, and finally a request for Gum to stop being put under your desks. Anyone caught doing it will now get detention scraping it off,” Mr Langtree explained in a casual manner before pulling out the projector remote and starting the math lesson. Joyce remained pretty much the same as she had been in math, a pretty basic C student who generally disliked the subject. She twirled her pen while Mr. Langtree talked about triangles and was extremely relieved when the bell rang and Mr. Langtree assigned a minimal amount of homework for the next day.
When Joyce walked into chemistry class she found that Miss Rickles was just completely aware of her, no odd interaction had to be erased from her mind as Billy had already been deleted from the memories of anyone who looked at the class listings. What did change however was her lab partner. Typically Billy was paired with Susan Pek but due to Miss Rickles rule of pairing opposite gender partners she sat down next to Darcy Krumm and the entire relationship he’d had with Susan vanished. Susan was exceptionally good at science and Billy had slacked off in chemistry before but now Joyce was paired with Darcy whose grades hung on by a thread. The guy spent the lab texting while she suddenly took the reins remembering all those equations she had left to Susan in the past. She had failed the first exam of the year miserably and had picked her game up since. Now she was expertly measuring chemicals and performing litmus tests as her grades through the year skyrocketed and her hand occasionally raised to answer questions Miss Rickles poised. A ripple seemed to go through her because of this and her grades in math climbed upwards into A level grades. She was now really good at math, so good in fact that she enjoyed it immensely. She’d been a poor student until this year and could recall feeling stupid after that failed test. Now she was at the top of the class and Miss Rickles smiled whenever she passed her. To her Joyce had been one of those student success stories. Someone uninterested in school until she got a great and passionate teacher. Now Joyce was just as passionate about her work and went above and beyond. So much in fact that she did better on her own than most students in pairs did. Joyce finished the lab and cleaned the equipment properly before sitting down to do a small report on what she had finished. Darcy just copied her but she wasn’t too bothered by this. Miss Rickles could tell she did the work and Danny did not. She actually showed how she got the answers.
After the bell rang Joyce stayed and asked Miss Rickles a few questions alongside Susan. She was nowhere near as smart as Susan but they shared a knack for Chemistry that allowed them to get along despite their differences. They walked out of the lab together now at least friendly enough to talk to each other. An absolute far cry from the unvocalized hatred Susan had for Billy.
“I can’t believe how dumb Gavin is,” Susan stated in full deadpan as they walked towards the cafeteria, “It’s like talking to a brick.”
“You think that’s bad,” Joyce laughed before lifting her jersey up and showing where Darcy had spilled bright pink chemicals on it. She had spent a good five minutes in the bathroom washing the chemicals off but the stain was there to stay. Susan just rolled her eyes at that and walked into the lunchroom. Joyce stopped at her locker and drew a paper bag out of it before entering the room herself. By this point their conversation was dead and Susan was in line so Joyce scanned the room for someone to eat with.