Round The Clock - Pre-teen to young adult
School Runnings - Teen to middle age
Ultimate Nature Guy - Middle age to old (young adult to middle age in the previous chapter)
Finally, another chapter I wrote called Swapping Dreams For Reality, which you can read below, with added pictures!
Frank scoured the hallway for his first target. He didn't have to teach a class for his first period and knew that this would be the perfect time to try out this strange remote. He was looking for someone popular and with a hopeful future so he could snatch it away from them. As the hallway cleared of teenagers heading to class, Frank spotted the perfect test subject, leaning against a locker and flirting with a cheerleader. Joel Fischer was the typical, arrogant football player who was as dumb as a post yet excelled at playing the game he loved. All the teachers were expected to give him passing grades so he could stay playing on the team and he'd already achieved a scholarship for the local college based on his gaming skills. Frank despised that this idiot was cruising through his educational life because he could throw an oval ball about while other, more deserving students couldn't even afford to go to college to further their learnings. He decided that enough was enough, if he was going to change the hierarchy then he'd start with the star player.
Joel was chatting up a beautiful lady, one whom he'd never really seen around before. But she was smoking hot and he couldn't let his goal of sleeping with all the cheerleaders slip by so easily. He'd made good progress and was about to ask her out when, out of nowhere, Mr. Maynard came stomping up to them. He pointed at the new girl and sternly growled "You, head to class!". She nodded and scampered off quickly. Joel was about to protest his lost chance but second guessed it upon seeing the manic look on his teacher's face. "And you, come with me". He turned and walked in the opposite direction, leaving Joel to follow at his tail.
"If this is about the assignment, I swear it's almost done. I just need a few more days, tops"
Frank turned back and snorted. "The assignment I set you 2 months ago? That was supposed to be in 2 weeks ago?". Joel nodded silently. Frank laughed ominously "Oh you won't have to worry about that for much longer. This is a different matter entirely".
After a minute of walking, Frank stopped outside a door with frosted glass. He opened it and held his hand out, signalling Joel to enter. But he was hesitant to follow him. "I can't go in there, it's the teacher's lounge"
"Consider yourself an honorary teacher and get your butt inside". Joel hesitated again, but couldn't see any way out of his predicament so with a shrug, he darted past his teacher and into the room.
It was a dingy room with a few tables scattered with paper and pens, several chairs were tucked under them. There was a counter at the far end with a small fridge and coffee maker, plus various kitchenware haphazardly spread across it. The room was empty, save for the two of them as all the other teachers were getting ready for their classes. Joel looked back to Mr. Maynard, who motioned his head towards the nearest table. They each pulled out a seat and sat on opposite ends of the table. Mr. Maynard had grabbed his briefcase and was digging through the mess to find something. Joel watched his teacher for a minute before coughing to grab his attention, asking "If you're not pestering me about the assignment then why did you bring me here?"
Frank replied "You were lucky enough to receive a scholarship recently, correct?" The blond teen nodded his head. "Congratulations. So as your tutor, I wanted to talk about what your plans were for college and the future".
Joel thought it was weird that Mr. Maynard of all people wanted to talk about his future, yet they were beginning to dig into first period and if he stalled long enough, he might be able to skip his dull world history class and head straight to gym. "Well I got it after being scouted for my awesome football skills, obviously. I wasn't even thinking of going to college until then so I haven't decided on what to take as a major. I figured I'd wing it for the first year, doing whatever interests me and declaring a major based on that. And I'm hoping I'll be scouted again while at college and I can begin my journey as a professional football player. That would be..."
The quarterback took his sweet time describing his future plans, which suited Frank just fine. He only brought it up to give himself some time to find the remote and alter the settings, making sure that Joel would be unaware of the change. He'd brought the quarterback into the teacher's lounge for a very specific purpose. The first setting on the remote was to change a person to suit their environment. He was hoping that, if it worked, it would set Joel on a career path he probably never even considered. By the sounds of it, fame and fortune was all he could see in his future and now it was time to change that.
Joel trailed off once he noticed his teacher wasn't even paying attention to him. He was the one who asked about his plans as well! He could see something in the man's hands, an oddly shaped device that looked like it came out of a comic book movie. Before he could question what it was, Mr. Maynard pointed it towards him and pressed the large green button at the very top of the device. A beam of bright light shot out and hit him square in the chest, enveloping his entire body. His last thought was that he couldn't feel a thing.
Frank almost fell backwards and out of his chair in shock, the cheap-looking thing really worked! The dumb jock was frozen in place with his own look of shock on his face. Nothing happened for a moment and Frank wondered whether he'd accidentally used the wrong settings on the remote. However, he began to spot the initial, subtle changes happening to Joel's body. His face had become a little more gaunt, losing any traces of baby fat that remained as he left his teenhood behind. He had grown about an inch taller and significantly broader around the chest, making his already small shirt look even tighter as it clung to his growing muscles. It rode up his torso, exposing a strip of tanned skin above his jeans. Blond hairs slowly but surely made their way across his exposed stomach and presumably up his toned torso as more light hairs poked out from his shirt collar and crept down his forearms. He looked like a fine, strapping example of a young college student with hopes and dreams. This irritated Frank who was hoping for more to happen. However, he wasn't done just yet.
There was a sickening crunch that echoed around the empty room. Frank shuddered and looked under the table, seeing that a plaster cast had appeared around Joel's right leg and foot, coated with personalised messages. After several seconds had passed, the cast disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Getting back to his feet, Frank could see the broken limb had had an effect on Joel. While he was still in good shape, he looked more haggard and messy than he had earlier. A sparse stubble had grown across his face and his floppy, layered hair had seemingly been cut short to a more manageable style. A swirling blue tattoo blazed into existence along the inside of his left arm, travelling up into his tight sleeve.
As Frank watched the teen-turned-man enter his thirties, he could tell that his hard-earned muscles were beginning to fade. Little by little, they seemed to reduce in definition and size. At the same time, his short hair got even shorter as his hairline slowly crept upwards, the temples receding faster to give it a curved M shape. Subtle creases appeared at the corners of his eyes while existing lines deepened across his expanding forehead. His stubble had lengthened into a short beard less than an inch long, growing in thicker around the moustache and chin while the cheeks were patchier. Grey hairs were now staining his facial hair, initially unnoticeable amongst the blond hairs but gained traction as they increased in prevalence. Frank rubbed his hands together in glee, Joel would openly boast about his sexual exploits, and attributed his luck with the ladies to his incredible good looks. Now those looks were fading with every passing moment.
After losing a significant portion of his muscle over the years, he suddenly began bulking up again. This surprised Frank at first, until he noticed a significant amount of the weight being gained was fat. His flat stomach began to spread outwards, causing his tight shirt to slide up over the growing bulk, exposing his softer, hair-coated stomach to the world. His face rounded out a bit as his chin grew heavier, threatening to double into a second chin. Meanwhile, a bald spot had appeared at the back of his head and quickly spread, meeting up with his receding hairline and almost clearing the top of his head. A small island of hair sat at the top of his forehead, surrounded by increasingly thinning hair that vaguely connected to the thicker hair surrounding the sides. Not that it mattered as it was all shaved down to stubble by an unseen force. His ears looked bigger than usual, whether it was a sign of aging or because he had no hair to hide them now was unclear. The grey hairs that spread through his sparse beard had overtaken its original dark blond. His skin dulled and roughened all around. There were heavy bags under his sunken eyes and deep crows feet at the corners, making him look constantly tired and overworked.
The physical changes had stopped. Frank was now looking at a worn-out ex-jock in his mid forties, his smooth head and almost grey beard making him look slightly older. He had a heavyset body that had definitely seen better days in his youth, his strong muscles partially overtaken by flab, especially around his stomach. The clothes Joel was wearing started to change to fit his new persona. His shirt darkened and its design changed to advertise the school's athletic department. It expanded and lengthened until it covered his bigger belly. However it was still a bit tight, his pectorals and stomach pressing against its fabric confines. His jeans shortened until they were a little above his knees. The fabric shimmered as it changed from a blue demin to a black polyester. A silver whistle materialised around his neck, as well as a baseball cap in the school colors that perched itself over his bald head.
Frank returned to his seat just as the vague light surrounding Joel faded away. "Jesus, Frank!" he cried out, slamming his hands onto the table. "What the hell was that? I'm seeing spots over here!"
Grabbing the remote and shoving it back into his briefcase, Frank replied "Sorry, it's a little toy I got for my nephew's birthday. I just wanted to make sure it worked".
"Well if it's supposed to blind people, then yeah. It works." Joel grumbled as he rubbed his eyes. "What were we talking about again?"
"You were telling me how you came to be a teacher at this school".
"Oh yeah..." Joel scratched at his bristly chin in thought. "My dream was to be a professional football player, like a lot of boys do. I was great at the game, I was even scouted during high school to join the best college in the state. But that dream was shattered in my final year after I was tackled in the midst of a very rough game, I broke my leg in three different places and practically destroyed my right foot. It's a miracle I can still manage to walk today, but that's not good enough for the game. I was super depressed and didn't even finish college. I got a few odd jobs here and there until I realised I was getting nowhere happily. A friend suggested that I apply to be the assistant coach here and the rest is history. But who knows where I'd be now if I hadn't had that accident. To think it was 25 years ago this year...". He sat back in reminiscence and melancholy.
Frank stood up from his chair and walked over to Joel, patting him on the shoulder. "That's a tough break alright. And now you're stuck with the rest of us chumps".
Joel got up from his own chair, standing taller than the physics teacher. He winced slightly as he put his full weight on his right leg. Even after 25 years, it still hurt from time to time. He'd grown numb to its pain as the years went on yet for some reason, it felt particularly fresh to him today. He patted his own hand on Frank's shoulder. "You could say that, but I feel I owe it to those kids to push themselves, to reach their potential so they can go onto great things without making the same mistakes I did". As he took his hand away, he looked at his watch and gasped. "Aww geez, is that the time? I better get to the changing rooms before second period starts. The boys get rowdy if I'm not there to keep them in check. See you around Frank!".
"Have a good'un Joel" Frank replied as the middle-aged man quickly limped out of the room. Once the door closed, he quietly cheered in success. The remote actually worked! It turned the school's star football player into a washed-up gym teacher like he hoped it would! He could turn all of his troublemakers into functioning members of society. He could change the spoiled, privileged brats into hard-working, humble individuals. He could turn the dunces into brainiacs. So many possibilities and it was only the beginning of the day. He was going to change this school into his own vision of the better.
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