“Magic isn’t real and I’ll prove it to you. I wish I was a kindergartner."
Noah gasped, held his breath and stared at Mr. Croston, but for a few seconds, nothing seemed to happen.
"See? I told you that magic wasn't real, now here, I'll do you a favor and take this coin and scratch away its gold foil--oh... ow!"
Mr. Croston had reached into the box and touched the coin to pull it out of the little box, only to find that when he did a sort of shock went through him, causing him to pull back from the coin.
"Bought a trick coin, huh? I should send you to Principal Savage just for bringing something like this on school property--if someone with a heart pump were to touch this--ow!"
That time Mr. Croston hadn't even touched the coin, but there seemed to be something off about him--the aging Mr. Croston's gray, almost white, hair, was beginning to regain its brunette hair coloring. His skin, lined and beginning to show wrinkles was beginning to smooth somewhat and his musculature--already impressive, seemed to be growing--straining at his now too tight clothes which had caused him to yelp in pain. Although these changes were small, they were quickly becoming fairly noticeable to both Noah and Mr. Croston.
"Why are my clothes so tight?"
"Maybe you're getting younger, like you wished?" suggested Noah, though he was immediately silenced with a glare.
"Magic isn't real, how many times do I have to explain that to you? No, I must be gaining weight..."
At this point, Mr. Croston's hair was more brown than gray, and he appeared to be in his early forties and about to re-enter his thirties.
"Why are you staring at me, Mr. Luston?"
"You look so... different," said Noah.
"Fine, I'll entertain your fantasy for a mere moment," said Mr. Croston, who pulled out a mirror from one of his desk drawers, and looked in it.
"All I see is the same thirty-seven year old face that stared back at me this morning, Mr. Luston," said Mr. Croston, which struck Noah as odd--he wasn't recognizing that he was losing his age--he was still thinking that whatever age he was at that moment was his natural age.
"But you were closer to fifty-seven a few minutes ago," countered Noah.
"Fifty-Seven, and still teaching? God help me if I am," said the now clearly young adult Mr. Croston, as he passed into his early thirties without a single gray hair on his head, and a tan that came from working out outside. His clothes were rather tight, and thankfully Mr. Croston hadn't moved too much--or else they might rip on him.
"How long have you been a teacher," asked Noah, curious as suddenly Mr. Croston's clothes seemed to be a little less tight as Mr. Croston's well-built body frame seemed to shrink a little.
"Almost a decade, and if you don't start getting ready to get a move on, you might join me for just as long in detention."
"That's not long, in fact it wasn't so long ago you were a student yourself," said Noah with a smirk as he saw Mr. Croston's clothes appear more natural for his body frame now.
"That's generally how you get to be a teacher, you go from a student to a teacher. You have a point to all this time wasting nonsense?" asked Mr. Croston, clearly shrinking back to a well-defined, if noticeably less bulky twenty-something young adult.
"I've wondered sometimes, what it might be to be a teacher, still deciding what I want to do with my life," answer Noah as he watched the youthening Mr. Croston lose not just tenure, but look closer to being a student teacher than a full teacher.
"If you're really curious, I'd go and ask the guidance counselor, not waste my time when I've got another class to prepare for," said Mr. Croston as he stood up. Though as he stood, apparently he was hit by a wave of vertigo which caused him to nearly fall over if he hadn't grabbed a hold of his desk. Noah noticed that Mr. Croston was now definitely looking like a student teacher, in fact the badge with his name on it now read "JUSTIN CROSTON - STUDENT TEACHER". Mr. Croston also seemed to have shrunk an inch or so in height which might have caused him to feel unbalanced. When he had steadied himself, Noah noticed the way Mr. Croston held himself was far different than a moment ago. A moment ago, Mr. Croston had been far more sure of himself and his position in life, now he was standing awkwardly on his feet. His face seemed to be losing some of its angular prominence as it began to soften and round a little bit here and there.
"W-what was I saying?" asked Mr. Croston, who seemed to be going through a late in life growth spurt in reverse as he fast forwarded through his college years, his clothes shifting from the professional wear he was clad in to the comfortable though stylish attire of a college student, his badge shifting to say: "JUSTIN CROSTON - TEACHER'S AIDE". His dress shirt shifted into a well-fitted polo shirt, and his khakis transforming into canvas khaki pants that could pass as either professional or casual wear. His dress shoes, shifted to sneakers. His neatly kept hair grew a bit longer as though he had quickly run a comb through it to appear presentable before exiting his car.
"I was just asking if I needed to do anything to apply for some math tutoring," said Noah, thinking of the first thing he could think of off the top of his head, knowing that it wouldn't matter in a moment anyway.
"Tutoring? What do I look like some teacher's pet?" asked Mr. Croston as he clearly left college and returned to high school. The lanyard and name tag vanishing in an instant. In that instant Noah recognized the man--no boy, definitely more boy than a man now--in front of him not as Mr. Croston the hard-ass math teacher, but as Justin Croston, a varsity member of the soccer, wrestling, and track teams. A letterman jacket appearing around him, and his polo shirt shifting to a t-shirt. He was still somewhat of a dick to most people, but everyone in school respected his athletic capabilities enough to let him get away with it.
"No, but I figured you might at least know someone who might?" said Noah, though that statement was quickly becoming not reflective of reality. Justin was beginning to lose more muscle at a faster rate than he had previously, the well-defined young athlete was quickly losing his physique to puberty in reverse as he went from being a Senior, to a Noah's age, and then younger. His height also shrank until Noah now was just taller than Justin, and the letterman jacket vanished, exposing Justin's thin chicken-like arms he had at the beginning of High School.
"I'm not even in your grade, why would I know someone?" asked Justin, as though he expected Noah to then react badly. Almost without thinking, Justin prepared a flinch as though he expected to be punched.
"What are you doing?"
"Aren't you gonna punch me?" asked Justin nervously.
"No, if you don't know kid, then you don't know. In fact, let's get you back to your orientation group," said Noah as Justin clearly appeared more of a middle schooler visiting the school he would be attending next year, rather than a full fledged high schooler any more, in fact at this point, Noah could quite clearly look over Justin's head with ease.
Justin put the coin down and grabbed his backpack which had minutes ago been a laptop bag. This action allowed Noah to take the magical coin back and slip it into his pocket, before escorting the middle school aged Justin out of the classroom and towards the front office--because Noah figured that by the time he and Justin got there, Justin might need to be at the School Office for some reason in the new reality that would take shape by the time they got there.
Walking through the hallways as Justin continued to shrink back into Elementary school, a few of the girls stopped and made comments on how cute Justin was and if he were Noah's little brother. Noah kept everything vague as he watched the now pre-pubescent Justin blush at first to all the attention before an even younger mindset settled in and erased all sense of shame.
As he predicted, by the time Noah had escorted Justin to the front office, he looked like he had finally reached his wished for age: Kindergarten. The boy had at some point wormed his hand into Noah's, probably when the other high school students had started looking less like cool babysitters and more intimidating giants to him. His tan had faded into simply an olive complexion, his icy blue eyes appeared wide and innocent on his face, and his hair was now a messy and unkempt mess of tangles that no barber would want to touch without a shears to buzz it off. His pants had turned into canvas khaki colored overalls, his sneakers into smaller versions of themselves, and his t-shirt had acquired a striped pattern that was visible under his overalls. Noah had to admit that the giant intimidating hard-ass jerk Mr. Croston, sure made for a cute and innocent looking kindergartner.
"There he is! Justin, come to Mommy!" exclaimed a woman's voice as the front office door opened, and Justin's eyes lit up as he dropped Noah's hand and went running to the woman right behind the door of the office.
"Everything's all right, baby, Mommy's here," soothed the woman who clearly had some resemblance to Justin.
"How in the world did he end up here?" asked one of he secretaries."
"Mommy, I got onto the bus all by myself this morning!" exclaimed Justin proudly.
"He must have mistaken the high school bus for the kindergarten one," suggested Noah, instantly knowing he'd likely hit upon the excuse this reality had created for having Justin Croston, five year old kindergartner in the high school building.
"Well, then I'm surprised the bus driver just let Justin onto the bus without saying anything," said the secretary.
"I found the little guy in one of the classrooms, knew he didn't belong and figured I'd bring him here, just in time too," said Noah.
"Well, thank you. What's your name?" asked Justin's mother.
"Noah Luston."
"Well, Noah, I don't know how to thank you for making sure Justin didn't get any more lost than he did,"
"It was no trouble... as long as I get a hall pass to get back to class," said Noah as the bell rang
"I'll fill one out for you," said the secretary immediately.
"Bye Justin," said Noah, bending down to Justin's level. For a moment there seemed to be some confusion behind his eyes, as though he were struggling to make sense of something before Noah was caught off guard by a rather sudden hug from the little boy.
"Oh, he seems to have taken a liking to you... you know, do you babysit?" asked Justin's mother.
"Uhh, sure," said Noah.
"Good, because you seem like just the kind of young man I'd wish for Justin to be like when he grows up some day... a good role model for him. Let me give you my business card..."
As Justin's mom fiddled with her purse the secretary handed Noah a hall pass, and he felt the coin shift in his pocket--suddenly a look of confusion passed over Justin before fading away, leaving Noah to wonder just what Justin's mother's wish might have done for Justin's future self.
"Here you go, my cell phone number is on the bottom right below my email. I'll look forward to hearing from you," said Mrs. Croston.