Tabbie hadn't slept well last night. She had nightmares of Jade screaming as Mr. Rivera poured acid over her. The fact that Jade had been completely silent as she dissolved didn't seem to matter to Tabbie's subconscious.
The next day the whole school was chattering about how great the art class was, but Tabbie found herself having a harder and harder time enjoying it. Turning Samantha into a piņata originally concerned her because the whole point of those was to break them.
Now she was concerned because people were being turned into inanimate objects and for some reason that was seeming less and less normal. The rest of the school did not seem to agree.
At lunch, the other cheerleaders were heard gossiping about why Samantha wouldn't be at the game. Some of the conversation was about how they would need to change their routine to cover for her absence, but others were focused on how fun it sounded and how they should have signed up for art as well.
In Biology Jade hung from her collar, occasionally clacking when she was moved to the front of the room. Mr. Rivera would raise her limbs and point at each bone as he named them. One boy muttered how she was lucky, Jade got to skip class and get a free A. Another complained how he had wanted to see her naked, but this wasn't what he had in mind.
Tabbie hadn't considered the fact that Jade was completely naked in front of the class. She had been distracted by the lack of skin or vital organs. She briefly wondered if Jade minded. She briefly wondered if Jade was still alive since Miss Mona and everyone claimed she hadn't been killed but transformed.
Tabbie spent the whole day in a fog until she got to art class. Erica was still in her pot, her red hair now had strands of green in it. Her white skin taking on an unusual hue of brown, becoming closer to the shade of tree bark. The pants she had rolled up yesterday appeared to have torn as her legs below the knees had merged and already transformed into a tree trunk.
Samantha's piņata was gone, her mother had already picked her up, but most of the other projects were there. Some like Alice's were half finished. She had changed her partner, Trevor, into paint and was creating a portrait of a mermaid battling a shark. Alice was the only one who had any talent before Miss Mona had arrived.
It was then Tabbie was approached by Olivia. "Hey Tabbie, can you help me real quick?"
Olivia had lost her partner yesterday when Daniel had been sent back to preschool as Danielle. "What do you need?" Tabbie asked hesitantly.
Olivia pulled out the custom wig she had spent all of last class preparing. Rather then hair, it resembled a nest of snakes. "I've got the rest of my costume from home, I just need an extra set of hands to arrange this."
"Okay." Tabbie told her. She was becoming less sure about this whole transformation process but she didn't want to crush anyone else's enthusiasm. A couple of the other students were still treating her oddly for objecting to Jade bathing in sulfuric acid yesterday.
"Thanks, I'll be right back after I change." She rushed out to head to the restroom, and Tabbie waited, watching Alice paint. She marveled at how each time Alice would dip her brush in the bucket of Trevor, the color of the paint would change to what she needed at the moment.
When Olivia returned she wore a Greek Toga. Miss Mona interrupted. "Where did you run off to?"
"I needed to change real quick." Olivia explained
"You needed a pass to leave class." Miss Mona responded. "If you can't remember to ask for permission to go, perhaps you should have feet to run off with."
Miss Mona waved her hand and Olivia stumbled as her legs merged to create a long serpent tale. "You'll have these for the rest of class, you can get your legs back when the bell rings."
"I'll be stone by then but this works out better. Thanks Miss Mona." Olivia told her. Olivia pulled herself into a chair and Tabbie began arranging the snakes in her hair. Once they were spread out, and all pulled a little bit forward as if they were reaching out for their prey, Olivia pulled out a hand mirror. "For my project, I was thinking that maybe Medusa accidentally turned herself to stone when looked at her reflection. Do you mind getting the stone paint?"
Tabbie silently went to get the paint with a pit in her stomach. She said nothing as Olivia tried to get a look of shock and horror for her pose, but kept falling into a fit of giggles. Tabbie held her tongue as she began to paint Olivia and she turned to stone, much the same way as Taylor had turned to marble.
The whole time it felt wrong. The whole time she felt Miss Mona watching her. When she finally finished, the art teacher approached her.
"Olivia was right. The snake tail really adds something to this work. I think we should call this piece, Medusa's Mistake. What do you think Tabbie?"
Tabbie tried to smile and nodded. "It sounds great." She knew she didn't sound enthusiastic. Whatever made her think this was normal yesterday was long gone and now she saw nothing but madness in the world around her. Tabbie had the speaking suspicion that the only other person to notice it was the mysterious substitute who now stood smiling at her. That was not reassuring.