"Let's get on to the lesson, which is about how to live without being restricted," Miss Circen said with a look on her face no one in the class could name.
"Now," she began as she paced across the front of the classroom, "Today's society is full of so many rules and regulations. Don't speed. Don't sleep too long. Don't overeat. Don't fight. Don't this, don't that. What other restrictions do you have in your lives, children?"
The students had been skeptical of Miss Circen, but this lesson seemed sort of all right. One tentative hand went up from Cindy, a shy girl who sat in the front row. "Don't talk to strangers?"
"That's a good one," Miss Circen said with approval. Cindy beamed. "Others?"
Hands went up all across the room. "Don't eat dessert first." "Don't play games before you finish your homework." "Don't wear the clothes you like." "Don't do your hair that way." "Don't run." "Don't butt in line." "Don't argue." They went on and on, and with each one Miss Circen's smile grew with appreciation.
"Yes, yes. You are all excellent at this. You're ready for the next part of the lesson: the activity." The students squirmed a bit in their seats, wondering what she might make them do. "It's very simple. All you need to do is focus on the restriction in your life that bothers you the most, and then imagine yourself doing the thing you're not allowed to do." She was met with mixed reactions. Several of the students looked eager to please, ready to do what she'd asked. Some looked skeptical--was she for real? Kevin was downright hostile.
"This is stupid," he mumbled. "We're not kindergartners." The teacher's eyes flicked to him, unnoticeable. Perhaps he needed a different lesson than the rest of the class.
"Now students: close your eyes and concentrate." Everyone's eyes closed except for Kevin's. "Speak aloud the restriction as you visualize yourself breaking through it." Murmurs started throughout the room. Kevin couldn't believe it--they were actually doing this? Why? What was the point? It was stupid, he thought.
But then something started happening.
"Don't wear the close you like," Marissa whispered on repeat. The girl was always in buttoned up shirts or turtlenecks and long skirts. As she mumbled her words, eyes squeezed shut, her pink turtleneck began to dissolve, exposing her bra underneath that hardened into two pink seashells, the straps disappearing. Her long green skirt seemed to suck into her legs which fused as the cloth changed texture, looking like nothing so much as shimmering scales. She was turning into a mermaid, but didn't even seem to notice.
"Don't fight." The whispered words came from Bruce, a bully of the school whose hands even now were clenched into fists on his desk. Before his eyes, Kevin watched as Bruce's neck lengthened as his body expanded, testing the strength of the desk at which he sat. His clothes burst at every seam as red scales covered his muscular body, two sharp horns bursting from his head and fangs appearing under his rapidly enlarging snout. Wings unfurled from his back and smoke began trickling from his nose. He'd become a fierce looking dragon.
All around the room, students were transforming into monsters and creatures. Sammy, who had a problem with overeating, had become a giant ogre--and for some reason, a cyclops to boot. Kevin watched aghast as his two eyes merged into one large one in the middle of his huge forehead. Serena, who hated all boys, had a mass of snakes bursting from her head to replace her hair, no doubt becoming a medusa with the ability to turn boys to stone. Tom, who loved to steal things from other students, was shrinking into some sort of horrible hobgoblin with a nasty looking grin on his face and sharp claws on his elongated fingers.
"Excellent, children," Miss Circen said. "You are learning to live without these restrictions that have been placed on you." She turned her eyes on Kevin, who was beginning to shake with fear. "Now what lesson should *you* learn?" she asked thoughtfully.