Appears to be Anne

Miss O'Neill's face suddenly returns, when the headset flickers back to the original settings. She glances around, confused as to why she was seated in the principal's office. Once her eyes rest on James, she smiles a bit in a friendly way--quite a bit more friendly than usual--before her head snaps back toward Principal Iverson, curiously.

"Anne, are you alright? You've been out for a few minutes now." The principal furrowed his brow, waiting for confirmation of the results of the AscendOS settings.

Anne blinked a few times, running a hand through her hair as she tried to get comfortable. "Uh, yes sir. I feel a bit strange, maybe I didn't have enough to eat this morning. What's going on, why am I here again..? And what's this on my face?" After prodding around the bezel of the Ascend headset right at her hairline, her hands came to rest on the armchairs, though a conflicted expression made James think that Luke's influence might have made her be a bit more handsy, had she not been in the presence of other people. But, that was just an educated guess, knowing Lucas.

"Right. So... about that..." The principal tried to think up a convincing enough lie. "...You volunteered to try a new neural stimulation device! Hideki gave us one for a trial. Basically, you'll be auditing a few classes for a week, doing homework and taking tests and such. The stimulation device is programmed to amplify old memories, so we're going to put you in a few classes you hadn't taken in a while to see how well the device helps your old math or history recall. Since Lucas Grisham is out for the time being, you'll just follow his schedule to see how well the device works. It might be a breakthrough in academic progress if we can help solidify knowledge in kids that are struggling with absorbing information to be able to recall this knowledge easily. Understood?"

Upon hearing that she would be basically attending class on Lucas's behalf, her eyes widened like she had a moment of realization--or a brief identity crisis--but she just nodded. "I guess that makes sense. I don't have any upcoming tests to give my students, but as long as Mr. Willis can monitor them during labs then this shouldn't be a problem. How long do I wear this thing, by the way?"

"All the time, for this trial run, for a week. We'll have a Hideki analyst come out sometime next week to evaluate the headset." The principal pulled out a charge cable, setting it in front of Anne. "You'll need to charge at least once, the headset has a three day battery life, I'd recommend charging every night if you can though. A half-hour should be enough. It's waterproof and all that, so you can wear it in the shower."

Anne's lips flickered briefly into a smirk at that, and she took a slightly pronounced breath. Something about that thought lingered in her mind, though she didn't understand why. What was so exciting about wearing a mask into the shower? She brushed it off, however. "Understood, seems easy enough. Honestly, it'll be good to take a break from classes. Do you think I'll be able to still spend some time with Mr. Hunter throughout the week?"

Anne glanced back at James as she said it. The way she spoke, it was sort of like Luke's ideas were running through a translation filter in Anne's brain, and popping out with how Miss O'Neill might say it. Luke clearly still wanted to hang out, but he was going to have to do it in an all-too-convincing disguise as his teacher--one he couldn't even drop if he wanted! The outer layer that was Anne didn't even seem to register that this was an unusual query. She and James had never actually discussed anything outside of the classroom, and yet here she was thinking they were like pals, to some degree. It was hard exactly to know how she framed that thought in her mind, but clearly she was convinced that this was the norm.

"I suppose there will be some downtime where you can discuss things with Mr. Hunter about the mask and such. This mask is important for his friend Lucas, keep in mind, since we don't want him falling behind in his studies because of his accident. So, you two can work together on that front, but if anyone else asks it's just a trial run."

Anne smiled brightly, satisfied and even slightly relieved that she'll be able to discuss this with her star student. She never realized it before, but now she seemed to want to get to know him better. She shook her head a little, remembering she still had work to do. "Well, uh, I guess I better get going. Can I have a copy of Mr. Grisham's schedule? I'll start right away, after I go fetch a few things from my desk. I didn't think I'd be attending high school again..." she giggled at the thought, like she was going undercover as a student or something. How silly! With her signature finger-wiggling hand wave at Mr. Iverson and James, she was up and out of the office, taking the charging cable with her.

James stared at Anne as she strolled out of the room, carrying the mind of a teenage boy at her core but still seeming very much like a teacher, albeit much friendlier toward James than usual. He glanced at the principal, who shrugged. "You really think this will work, Mr. Iverson?"

"Well, we're going to find out soon. Lucas definitely seems like he's in there, but it's covert enough that I think nobody will notice. You'll have to help steer them during classes though, if things really start to veer off-course then we'll need to reassess the situation. I'll set aside an hour study session in one of the empty rooms where she can indulge some activities that Lucas might enjoy--video games and such. I suspect she'll readily play them. I imagine it's a lot like Lucas is her GPS, at the moment, she'll follow whatever he says, just how she does what Luke wants is up to her."

James was almost positive that there were activities that the Lucas side of Miss O'Neill would enjoy far more now that he had access to a body like that. He rubbed his neck, face a little red at the thought of what might happen with some alone time with his hot teacher piloted by his best friend... "Uh, wouldn't it be better to just change modes after classes and stuff so like I could talk to Luke directly, or so she could go home as herself?"

The principal sighed. "If it's not broken, son, don't try to fix it. The less we tinker, the better it'll be for when we get that mask off her. If there are problems, come to me and we'll work on it, but try to make this work how it is, got it? It might be a delicate mental state Luke and Anne are in now, so just go with the flow, don't push her too hard one way or the other towards how one of the minds should be behaving, observe and report issues. Stop by around lunch and I'll give you info on that study session."

With a nod, James picked up his own stuff and headed off towards his first class. It would be a couple classes before he would see what his friend within a teacher was up to, but James was already certain it was going to eventually spiral into trouble.

And with any luck, it was going to be absurdly fun to watch.