As they were walking the hallway, Jeff figured it was likely best to leave the school. After all, it was Friday afternoon, spring break, as Tommy had said before transforming into his new brother--there was no reason for Jeff to stick around other than to shepherd his growing class of first graders. And while the elementary grades were still technically in class, it would soon be time for them to go home in 45 minutes or so anyway--and usually about then as Jeff recalled, teachers gave up trying to teach anything on the Friday before a long break, and just let the kids have a little downtime and get ready for dismissal while helping to clean up the room--or if they were very lucky the elementary teacher might quick dash out of the room for some reason, leaving the kids an opportunity to play a few games they might have while they attended to something else outside the classroom.
It was just as Jeff was recalling that last option that he suddenly realized that meant the elementary teachers might just be in the halls.
"There they are!" exclaimed a voice that Jeff recalled all too well. He turned around to see the past normal retirement Miss Eliza Wolf. One of the two first grade teachers the school had hired, and one that Jeff recalled having been scared by when he had been a first grader himself. The woman was in hindsight a big personality, when she was in a good mood she was the soul of generosity and good cheer. When she was not in a good mood, she could cut you down to size quicker than in the throw of a knife. On more than one occasion Jeff had been in her path on a day when she was in a particularly bad mood. Many a time he'd been sent to a corner or to Assistant Principal Swift's office for saying the wrong thing or drawing attention to himself, or even worse being belittled in front of the rest of his class. After he had left her class, every time she'd seen him, she'd been more cordial and attentive to greeting him in the hallway--and in this reality asking him about Tommy after he'd been born. At first this behavior had confused him, but he later came to see it was her poor attempt to try and make amends for what she had done to him, sometimes without cause.
"Mr. Davis, I see you've found your brother and his two friends--they seemed to have lost their bathroom passes as well."
Jeff noticed that as Miss Wolf drew closer that Tommy immediately grabbed his hand harder and hid behind Jeff's legs, and even Ryan joined Tommy there as well. It was only defiant and determined little Jane who placed herself between the "boys" and Miss Wolf. Those reactions alone told Jeff all he needed to know about what life for his three new charges was like in the teacher who should have retired before Jeff had been in her class.
"And just what kept my three students out of class until now?" asked Miss Wolf, as she looked down her glasses perched on the tip of her nose
"Jeff was just showing us an app on his phone," declared Jane.
Dammit, that tendency to blabbermouth was at it... again.
"And which app might a teenager have that might attract the attention of a trio of first graders?" asked Miss Wolf to Jeff, with a suspicious glance of her own.
"The Chronivac App! It can make kids grownups and grownups kids!" said Ryan, poking his head out from behind Jeff only to quickly withdraw it after having shared his piece.
"What nonsense were you showing them, Mr. Davis?"
"Nothing, just a silly program that scans and makes 3D models of people and then allows you to change the models... like photoshop, yeah, like photoshop."
"Well, if it's captured the attention of my students, I'd like to see this 'silly program' myself," said Miss Wolf decidedly.
Jeff knew where this was going, and sighed--yet another kid was going to be added, and well... maybe he wouldn't feel so bad about this one, if it made Tommy's second life in first grade a little easier.
"Sure, but why don't we get these three back in the classroom, first," suggested Jeff.
"An excellent idea Mr. Davis. You three, run along and your desks better be spotless and organized, inside AND out when I get back in there," declared Miss Wolf, and with a bob of their heads, the three first graders hurried down the hall towards the first grade room.
Once the three were out of earshot, Miss Wolf said "You and I Mr. Davis are going to the Assistant Principal's office. Spring Break might have already started for you, but keeping your brother and his friends out of class for so long is inexcusable behavior from someone who might be expected to be something of a role model. That is the reasoning behind an all-grades school, after all--that the young ones learn how best to behave from the older ones."
That one wasn't the worst she'd ever done, clearly she was a bit out of practice, but it still caused him a twinge of guilt and annoyance. At the same time, getting out of the hallway and into somewhere private like the Assistant Principal's Office might make the transformations easier, as Miss Wolf clearly wasn't going to be the only one needing to be changed at this rate if Jeff was going to manage staying out of any further trouble.
Playing the part of the obliging older student, Jeff followed Miss Wolf to Mr Swift's office. Harlan Swift was a bald middle aged man with a furrowed brow and a sour look that seemed permanently etched on his face.
"And what might be the cause of this happy reunion? Is it our ten year anniversary already?" quipped Mr. Swift as he tried massaging his temples--as though the mere sight of Miss Wolf and Jeff were enough to give him a headache.
"It's very simple, Mr. Davis here kept his brother and his two friends out of the end of their final English lesson before Spring Break, looking at a modeling app."
"Found a new passion Mr. Davis? I never took you to put much stock in such superficial stuff and nonsense."
"Harlan, have some shame... the poor boy's already got much in the way of the world working against him--no need to twist the knife in that deep--you're liable to puncture a hole through him."
Jeff all this while was beginning to remember the times Miss Wolf had dragged him into Mr Swift's office, and how the two of them would, like now, take turns cutting him down until he'd burst out in tears--then be chided as he was told that only babies cried. Anger and resentment at though years had passed he was by accident now back where he had started a decade ago. Deftly, Jeff slipped out his phone and began unlocking it with his code. The Chronivac App was but a quick tap and soon it was open and scanning the room for stats on both Miss Wolf and Mr Swift, returning with the following information:
Name: Eliza Wolf
Age: 83
Mental Age: 83
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 247 lbs
Hair: White (close cropped haircut)
Eyes: Gray
--Vision: Myopic (glasses correctional)
Build: Overweight
Body Fat Percentage: 12%
Gender: Female
Name: Harlan Swift
Age: 42
Mental Age: 42
Height: 6’1"
Weight: 231 lbs
Hair: Bald (shaved haircut)
Eyes: Brown
Build: Husky
Body Fat Percentage: 11%
Gender: Male
Do you wish to activate previous transformation on current subjects?
Jeff without a second thought, clicked yes and then set the phone down on the desk decidedly, knowing that whatever they did or said in the next few minutes wouldn't matter as he'd get the satisfaction of seeing the two people who had made him feel small, insignificant, and worthless would soon be small and insignificant themselves, and having figured out the clothing option,
Name: Lizzie Wolf
Age: 6
Mental Age: 6
--Memory
----Relationships: Jane Warner (friend), Ryan Huff (friend), Tommy Davis (puppy love crush)
Height: Auto
Weight: Auto
Hair: Strawberry blonde
Eyes: Gray
--Vision: Slight myopia (glasses correctional)
Build: Auto
Body Fat Percentage: Auto
Gender: Female
--Alter reality to fit? Yes.
--Change clothes to fit? Yes.
Name: Harry Swift
Age: 6
Mental Age: 6
--Memory
----Relationships: Ryan Huff (friend), Tommy Davis (friend), Jane Warner (friend), Lizzie Wolf (friend)
Height: Auto
Weight: Auto
Hair: Dirty Blonde
Eyes: Brown
Build: Auto
Body Fat Percentage: Auto
Gender: Male
--Alter reality to fit? Yes.
--Change clothes to fit? Yes.
Miss Eliza Wolf was an overweight elderly woman, who was older than Jeff had suspected--eighty-three and still teaching? He was doing the school a favor making her join her class as a student. Apparently she still had much gusto and gumption for her age, because she wasn't the least bit frail--instead having a rather hearty behavior that exuded from her. She was dressed in a simple long gray dress that ended just above her ankles, exposing her slip on flat shoes. Her blouse was a white peasant blouse with a collar.
Mr. Harlan Swift was not rather thin himself, but he was practically young enough to be Miss Wolf's grandson to start with. He filled out his brown suit with a green tie to the point that Jeff questioned if he ate another meal, if the suit would still fit him. He was bald, and apparently shaved off what little hair he did have on his head. He had a distinctive thick mustache however which rested like a caterpillar over his lips.
"What are all these private statistics on us doing on your phone, Mr. Davis?" asked Harlan as he glanced at the phone that Jeff had thrown down on his desk.
"Miss Wolf was only kinda right when she said it was a modeling app--it's an app that lets you scan others and it fills in information about them based on that scan," explained Jeff as he observed the hair on Mr. Swift's head begin to grow out, drawing more attention to his chrome top, which was beginning to fill in with hair as he dropped from his 40s and back into his 30s-- his weight dropping along with his age, giving his previously strained brown suit a bit of a relax from the strain of concealing his body.
Miss Wolf launched into yet another tirade about a lack of setting a good example for the children. Her transformation was arguably occurring faster than Mr. Swift's as she raced out of her eighties, through her seventies, and back into her sixties without much change beyond her wrinkles becoming less noticeable and her hair shifting from white to a lighter shade of gray.
Mr. Swift's suit began to pull in along with his stomach, adjusting to a little more than a decade's worth of lost age and weight as he began to approach the prime of his adulthood at 30. His muscles replenishing themselves as more of his dirty blonde hair grew back in only leaving him a slight receding hairline, and his caterpillar mustache began to shrink and retreat back into his skin, leaving him looking a little younger than he was without the facial hair.
Eliza Wolf by this point began to notice that something was definitely off with Harlan, but for the life of her she couldn't recall what, he was his usual first year assistant principal, fresh from getting enough credits to take the position. As for herself as she re-entered her fifties and was now beginning to regain a bit more of a few copper streaks to her darker gray hair, still not much else had changed except for perhaps a few pounds lighter as she was more active at fifty than she was at eighty, her peasant blouse and long gray dress adjusting in a few inches.
"I mean, the scanner on this app is rather detailed for something that surely must have little capacity for any sophisticated programming," observed Mr. Swift.
As Harlan crossed into his twenties, the name plaque on his desk changed and he went from sitting behind the desk to sitting in a chair next to Jeff along with Eliza. The name plaque changing to say a name that Jeff didn't immediately recognize: Cheyenne Evans. Jeff's own memories now shifted to recall Mr. Swift as the Geography and Earth Sciences teacher who was young and good looking enough to cause the girls and a guy or two to drool a bit in class. His suit was tight, but in a way that flattered his lean athleticism, his tied leather dress shoes replaced with slip on loafers of the same leather. His head was full of what looked to be thick hair he kept a little grown out beyond a typical short haircut--not enough to call long, but enough to have his hair dust the tops of his ears. Jeff's phone was now in Miss Wolf's hands, being held onto firmly, though little attention was being paid to it in her hands.
"You did not have to come Mr. Swift. I am not so old as to need assistance," chided Miss Wolf.
Miss Wolf was now re-entering her forties and changes were now begging to become more apparent as her weight sucked in further than it had before, along with her dress and peasant blouse--which began to compliment her returning figure somewhat, while her hair was beginning to grow longer as its lustrous red sheen began to overpower the gray strands of hair, though not completely conquer them just yet. Her wrinkles by now had smoothed over all lines but the faint beginnings of what would emerge later with a passion. Her sensible brown flats started to shift a bit however as they grew a wedge heel, and shifted more into a pair of clogs.
"How else am I to learn how to handle such... uh... situations like this when I'm a teacher?" asked Harlan, and Jeff turned to see that Harlan Swift was no longer a graduate, but instead a fresh-faced college kid, taking his student teaching semester. His suit pants were looking rather new and cleanly pressed. His suit jacket faded into nothing, leaving Harlan in a shirt and tie, with the shirt's sleeves quickly shifting up his arms until they ended just above his elbows to become a short sleeved dress shirt--that was also well starched by the look of things. The new sleeve length exposing a metal wrist watch of all things. Jeff sniggered a little--clearly Harlan Swift had gone through a phase where he'd also put some stock in superficial "stuff and nonsense" it seemed.
"We'll talk about this later," said Miss Wolf firmly, her voice regaining a certain strength to it as she re-entered her thirties and her hair was now shoulder length and a coppery strawberry blonde color. Her weight had pulled back into a curvy figure, and her skin had smoothed over enough to give her the appearance of rather flattering woman who seemed both fire and steel all at once in her composure.
As Harlan traveled backwards through college, he lost more and more muscles, leaving him a lean high school senior with shaggy dirty blonde hair. His dress clothes shifted, his nicely pressed slacks shifting materials to become what looked like a pair of designer jeans. His white shirt and tie shifting into an green Alternative Rock band t-shirt and an orange bandana ascot tied slightly askew to draw attention to his face which was beginning to lose some of its angular squareness in favor of slightly rounding edges. His leather loafers transformed into a pair of white pumas with no-show socks, and the wrist watch shifting into a decorative tribal bracelet made of leather and beads.
"Whatever you two were showing my first graders, it can't have done anyone any good," declared the now youthful Miss Wolf with a determined boldness. She had reached the edge of her twenties and her thirties where she had been in the prime of her womanhood, with a curvy figure that filled out her smaller peasant blouse. Her gray skirt having shortened to be mid-calf and shifted colors to green to match the imitation emerald necklace that had appeared around her neck and rested just above her full bosom.
"Jeff and I didn't mean the firsties any harm, did we?" said Harry, as Jeff's mind was beginning to think of Harlan as. The senior had lost a few more years, shrinking to become equal in age to him, and acting as though they were cohorts in whatever crime they'd been accused of and dragged to the Assistant Principal's office for. Not much had changed for Harry clothing-wise. His shirt became a little baggier, and less form fitting as more of his muscles faded away along with a few inches in height to reveal a completely lanky build. His ascot vanished only to be replaced with a hemp necklace with beads similar to his tribal bracelet. Harry smiled at Jeff in a conspiratorial manner which revealed much to Jeff's surprise a mouth full of metal as braces appeared in Harry's mouth.
"That doesn't matter Mr. Swift, it still doesn't excuse that Mr. Davis shouldn't have known better before getting a freshman like you involved with taking a few first graders out of class early--excuse or no excuse," declared the twenty-five year old beauty with a firmness that seemed to be bordering on overcompensating. Her voluptuousness had begun to fade a bit, though her clothes continued to shrink in size with her.
"But Jeff's mY riDe HomE--if H-heee stAys, I goTTa sTay," whined Harry as his voice screeched through puberty as he shrank a few more inches and went from one side of puberty, to the other. His clothes changed again, shifting to a more younger teen's sense of style, the alternative rock band t-shirt shifting into that of the Green Lantern t-shirt. His necklace disappearing along with his bracelet. His jeans going from designer to just a normal pair one might find at a department store, and his white pumas with no-show socks transforming into white sneakers and ankle socks. Harry still had a mouth full of metal from what Jeff could see, and his hair was now a bit messy rather than tactfully shaggy.
"You two will have to go along with what I say. If Ms Lamb or Mrs. Evans found out I lost three first graders on a bathroom break, I'll surely get written up," said Eliza Wolf, who had now returned to her own student teacher days as her peasant blouse and mid-calf skirt melded together to transform into a rather conservative and professional looking green dress with a white and green sweater to match. Her wedge heeled clogs having transformed into a pair of bright pink heeled sandals that showed off her pink nail polish toes.
"Yes Miss Liz..." repeated Harry as his height now began to pull his feet up off the ground as he sat in the chair and went from preteen to a child, with his clothes only shrinking in size along with him for the moment. His braces vanished, leaving behind a mouth full of crooked teeth that hadn't grown in straight for some reason as he left the double digits for the single digits once again.
Jeff went from being amazed at the small boy that "Harry" was compared to Mr. Swift to looking over at "Miss Liz" who apparently now was now a senior girl who was helping the teachers for "extra credit" and "experience", Jeff's mind was telling him of the rather pretty red-headed girl sitting next to him. Her conservative green dress had transformed into a lime green sundress meant for an average teen girl. Her imitation emerald necklace had now transformed into a sliver necklace with her name "Eliza" in silver letters. Her heeled sandals flattened into actual sandals, though her toe nails and finger nails shifted in color from pink to yellow to match the pair of leggings that stretched down to capri-length from under her dress.
Harry reached first grade in the next few moments as his green lantern shirt shifted into a smaller green t-shirt with Oscar the Grouch on it. His white shoes changed into the same pair of sneakers that Tommy and Ryan wore with the lights in their heels that he was now distracted kicking against the legs of his chair to light up. Harry's longish hair settled into a mullet. Memories of Harry being Tommy and Ryan's third partner in crime when Jane wasn't around suddenly came to mind. He was arguably the one who got the three of them into trouble by leaping before thinking. He was a boy always on the go and eager for anything--which was why Ryan and Tommy were arguably closer to one another than they were with Harry. Not that they weren't friends with Harry, but they just weren't best buds with him as they were with each other. Babysitting Harry when his Mom and Dad were out of town--like they were now for Spring Break (they had gone to the Bahamas for a "workcation"--was a pain, as he was always getting into something he shouldn't or breaking something because of how much like a bull in a china shop he could be.
"You two shouldn't have been out in the halls, and that's just all there is to it," said Liz with a decided air, despite now having grown younger than Jeff. A hall monitor's sash had appeared over her clothes, which had remained the same, just shrinking with her as her hips pulled in and her breasts shrank into her chest as she settled at just shy of 15.
"I won't get a pink slip, will I?" asked Harry with a genuine look of fear and shock appearing on his face. Ahh, the dreaded pink slip, the school's version of a "permanent record" that they held above the heads of all the younger grades to encourage better behavior.
"You'd only be so lucky," said the now squeaky prepubescent 12 year old whose sundress was looking more childish by the minute with embroidered flowers, and her yellow leggings had thickened up into a pair of khaki capris. Her sandals turned into pink sneakers with light blue socks to match, the hall monitor's sash disappearing to be replaced by a Jr. Hall Monitor's ribbon that was pinned to her sundress.
"But Jeff... I just wanted to see the app that Ryan and Tommy said could make us grownup..." whined Harry as Liz shrank past her preteen phase and she shrank to age nine. Jeff's phone returned to his hands and he found himself checking the time quickly wondering where Mrs. Evans was. Jeff began thinking of her as Lizzie, her Jr. Hall Monitor's ribbon vanishing with it, and suddenly Jeff suddenly remembered catching the two elementary students out in the halls as he had been returning his brother and his friends to class before Ms. Lamb could catch them having overstayed their bathroom break to attempt "growing up" with his Chronivac as they'd called it.
"Well, it didn't work Harry, or else Tommy and Ryan would be teachers now, instead of your classmates. That still doesn't mean you should have snuck out of Ms. Lamb's class.
"It's no fair, you like Ryan and Tommy more than me, but I'm just as much their friend as they are!" protested Harry with a decided pout.
Jeff ignored Harry, knowing that playing into the tantrum he was about to work up into would do no one any good. Instead Jeff turned over to where Lizzie sat and watched as she too settled in as a first grader. Her sundress was now shorter, stopping just below her butt. Her capris had shortened into short girl shorts which just barely poked out from underneath her sundress. Her pink sneakers acquired rainbow shoelaces, and her blue socks prints of strawberry shortcake. Her long red hair was now braided into two pigtails with yellow hair ties at the end. Lizzie was a much sillier girl than she had been at older ages Jeff recalled. She was eager to laugh and tell jokes, and had a bright and happy smile--especially when she was around Tommy who often made her blush as red as her hair when he stopped to help her up if she fell down or asked if she was okay if she was in one of her rare moods where she wasn't smiling and giggly. She clearly had a bit of a crush on Tommy, and he like any boy his age was completely oblivious to it. Jeff had decided that if his clueless little brother continued to be a dolt then he'd have to start playfully teasing him about his "girlfriend" in order to get him to realize Lizzie's crush existed at all.
It was then Mrs. Evans, who Jeff was surprised to recognize as Mr. Swift's former secretary, came in. She was dressed for casual Friday as the staff now all did Jeff seemed to remember all of a sudden.
"Jeff, thank you for bringing Lizzie and Harry in to see me--even though it is Friday before Spring Break, they shouldn't be out wandering the halls."
"It's no fair! Ryan, Tommy, and Jane get to do whatever they want, and Jeff doesn't turn THEM in," whined Harry.
"Is that true, Jeff?"
Jeff suddenly knew better than to lie to Mrs. Evans. Not that he was afraid to, but because there literally was no point--the Assistant Principal would find out someway even if he did lie--and Jeff didn't like the idea of disappointing her.
"I did catch my brother and his friends down by the gym playing dress up with the "high school" clothes in the lost and found," said Jeff, his memory shifting as reality now altered that he was the responsible one bringing in the two kids caught out of class.
"You should have brought them as well. And I guess this means I'm going to have to deduct five stars from Ms. Lamb's class," said Mrs. Evans with a sigh as she looked both Lizzie and Harry in the face.
"No! We almost had enough for a pizza party!" exclaimed Lizzie
"That's not fair!" whined Harry with his mantra.
"It's perfectly fair, Harry. Five first graders were caught out of class, five stars get taken away."
Both Lizzie and Harry suddenly looked rather glum.
"Maybe next time, you both will consider what consequences might happen if you try to skip your lessons. Now hurry back to Ms. Lamb's class, Jeff and I have something to discuss in private," stated Mrs. Evans matter of factly.
And so with dejected looks, both Harry and Lizzie got up and left the office to return to Ms. Lamb's class.
"Jeff, I know you care for your brother a lot, especially considering how... sensitive he can be. But covering for him when he does something wrong like you did isn't going to help him learn that actions have consequences that he will have to live with. That's a hard lesson to learn in first grade, but it's an important one, and in a few years, big brother won't be around to look after him--he's going to have to learn to stand on his own two feet, and your protecting him--while admirable--isn't something sustainable forever. He eventually has to make his own mistakes and learn to live with them. Do you understand me?"
"I... I do," said Jeff, suddenly feeling extremely guilt ridden.
"Good, then you'll also understand why when you come back from break I want a five hundred word essay on my desk about how it's important for young children to learn from their mistakes. It shouldn't take you long to write if you think about it long enough."
And with that Mrs. Evans dismissed Jeff and he made a mental note to grab a book from the public library about child development--if he was going to write about it, he needed to know all he could. Jeff was so caught up with his thought that he hardly noticed the school bell ring and the elementary students run full speed out of their classrooms and into the hallways, swallowing him in a sea of prepubescent screams and cheers at school being over for the week. It wasn't until he felt a tug at his sleeve and he looked down to see the doe-eyes of his little brother that Jeff realized that he and his friends had gathered round where he stood as the rest of their classmates pushed past them to scramble for the bus.
"Time to go home kids!" announced Jeff and he signaled for the five of them to follow him towards the back exit of the school where his car was parked, ready to take home the five kids he was paid too look after until either their parents got home from work to pick them up, or they returned from vacation.
It was a big responsibility, but someone had to look after the little monsters. It was at moments like this as Tommy, Ryan, Jane, Lizzie, and Harry followed after him, Jeff wondered if this was exactly how Steve Harrington felt looking after the kids on Stranger Things.