Observe the consequences

Matt didn't want to disrupt the day that much, at least not all in one day, so he decided to experiment more with this gift. He jumped around the school, moving from mind to mind, letting his body move automatically through the day. As the day progressed, he saw a depth of secrets that he had never expected - a cheerleader scoring cocaine, a nerd masturbating in the bathroom, a jock reading a romance novel in secret. The secrets he had expected were common in most of the people he jumped into - the lust for power, the pull of lust, the desire for more. He jumped into students as they bullied, as they were bullied, as they kissed, as they groped. He caught the principal surfing porn, the math teacher looking up skirts, even the eighty year old librarian checking out the gym teacher.

He spent the rest of the day like this, digging into people's minds, trying to dig further into their minds, but he seemed to be limited to the knowledge that was forefront in the person's mind, and the actions they took. He worked on implanting ideas, and with some success. Matt gave a nerd an impulse to try and kiss a cheerleader, watching from a different body and laughing as the poor guy got slapped. He gave a tone deaf jock the desire to try out for the school play - he thought he had seen posters for Oklahoma, then taking over the drama teacher to give him the "bad news."

The final bell rang, and Matt jumped into his own body. He had been walking toward his locker, and he suddenly reeled, his head suddenly pounding. What the fuck, he thought, reaching out and steadying himself against the wall. The world seemed to spin as he struggled to walk down the hall, stopping by his locker to grab his bag before joining the general exodus, but he managed to make it out to the car.

"How was school?" their mom asked as Matt climbed into back seat. Lily had beat him to the car and had taken shotgun.

"Mrs. Anderson got fired," Lily blurted, "and they say she was having sex with students right there in the classroom!"

Their mom turned to look at her in disbelief. "What..." she started, then appeared to see Matt out of the corner of her eye. "Are you okay?" she asked, concerned.

"Just... just a headache, mom," he mumbled, leaning his head against the window. Lily turned to look at him as well, her confusion evident on her face.

"You were okay at lunch."

Matt looked at his twin sister, his head throbbing with pain, then lay his head against the window again. "I'm fine. I just need a couple aspirin." He closed his eyes, and the conversation between his mom and sister fading to a drone. It didn't really matter any way. What he did pick up was the rumor currently in circulation was that Mrs. Anderson had slept her way completely through the male population of the senior class, with the possible exception of Matt himself.

When they got home, Matt popped a couple aspirin and went to his room to lay down, the headache still throbbing as if his head wanted to explode. As he lay there, the memories of the day kept washing over him, duplicating in his mind, making his head throb more. For a while, Matt thought his head would split in two, and then as suddenly as the headache hit, it was gone. It didn't fade as headaches usually do, it was just there, and then not. The sudden clarity in his mind brought the realization that the headache ended at the same time as the duplicated memories had merged.

As he lay in bed, he realized the headache had been caused by the length of time he had been outside his own body, and the memory relash caused by the extra memories. He'd have to limit his time in other people's minds.

Speaking of other people's minds, there were three other minds in the house...