Lucy gets her new ID

It only took a few minutes for Lucy to make her way across campus to the administration office. After a quick chat with the receptionist at the front, she was directed to a cubicle where a thin, older woman with graying red hair was sitting

"Um, hi, Mrs... Carrow?" Lucy said, reading the plaque on the woman's desk, "I'm having an issue with my student ID, and I was told you could help."

"Oh, you must be Lucy!" she said with a smile, "I just finished reading the email the library sent over. Can I see the card in question?"

"Of course," Lucy said, handing over her card. Mrs. Carrow took it from her and set it aside as she swiveled in her chair and started to type on her computer. Lucy sat down in the empty chair on the other side of the desk and waited for her to finish.

"Well, I think I found the problem," the older woman said after a little over a minute, "Looks like the data for your student ID has been deleted from the system. I can't find you anywhere on here."

Lucy's eyes widened, "Deleted? How is that possible?"

"Can't really say," Mrs. Carrow responded, turning to face her monitor again so Lucy couldn't see the edge of her mouth twitch, "Could be any number of things."

"Can you fix it?" Lucy asked.

"I can't recover the data, but I should be able to issue you a new ID," she said, "It'll have a new number, but other than that it shouldn't be too much different from your old one. Just give me a few minutes."

Lucy nodded, and waited while Mrs. Carrow typed on her computer for what felt like an eternity. Eventually, the thin woman stood up and said, "I'll be right back. Stay in that seat."

While she was gone, Lucy leaned forward and tried to peek at the computer screen out of curiosity. She saw her own information on display, including her picture, though it didn't look like the one that was on her student ID. In fact, it more closely resemble the one on her driver's license, but it definitely wasn't a scan of said license. Why would the school even have that? In fact the form itself looked like it had quite a bit more information than she expected to see...

Before she could read any further, she heard Mrs. Carrow's voice behind her snap, "Hey, what are you doing? Down! You're not supposed to look at that!"

There it was again. That odd inflection on the word 'down' was very similar to the Professor Morris used when barking orders at her in class earlier. The harshness of the woman's tone was enough to make Lucy comply before she even properly registered it, but once she did she looked at Mrs. Carrow in shock. Surprisingly, that expression was mirrored on the older woman's face, along with a hint of nervousness.

"Sorry," Lucy said sheepishly, "I didn't know."

"It's okay," Mrs. Carrow responded with a sigh, "It's a student confidentiality thing, so... anyway, I have your new card here."

She hands Lucy the new ID card, which looked nearly identical to her old one save for the new number on it and it using the photo from her driver's license. Lucy took it and slipped it into her pocket, "Thanks."

"Of course," Mrs. Carrow said, giving her a smile that looked a bit ****, "Might I suggest getting it on a lanyard? You could keep it around your neck rather than in your pocket, where it might get lost."

"Um, no, I'm good, thanks," Lucy said, starting to get a little weirded out by the woman.

"Well, just think about it, okay?" Mrs. Carrow said, "Anyway, I've kept you in here long enough. Go, get out of this stuffy office and back to enjoying this beautiful day!"

"I will..." Lucy said, giving the woman a wave before walking out and texting Kim that she was on her way back.

Mrs. Carrow breathed a sigh of relief as she sat back down at her desk. She was an idiot for leaving Lucy alone with her computer. If she had been a little more nosy...

No matter. From the looks of things, she didn't see any more than what was already on the screen, which was all just personal information she'd know about anyway. If she had noticed the form was supplied by the state rather than the university, she might get a little suspicious, but nothing that couldn't be explained away if she asked questions.

Mrs. Carrow opened a new window to make sure the special features of Lucy's ID were online. It was ingenious, really: while the card she gave Lucy looked identical to a normal student ID, it was actually linked to a separate security program that the IT department whipped up that morning just for her. While they didn't have time to install the micro-GPS that they wanted to, the card still logged the location of every use of the ID, which included things such as the use of a student meal plan at the cafeteria, checking out books at the library, and entry to several different facilities at the school. And more importantly, it allowed anyone with administrative privileges to selectively revoke access to these features at any time, letting them set places as 'off-limits' to the girl and effectively control where she could and could not go or do. It would need to be used responsibly to avoid having Lucy catch on to her new status, but it allowed for far more control over her life than would have ever even been possible back when Mrs. Carrow was a student.

"Technology nowadays is amazing..." Mrs. Carrow said to herself, then closed the window and started composing an email for the dean informing him of the latest development.