And new behaviours

When she awoke, the feeling was gone, and she couldn’t quite remember what had happened before bed.

Those pills must have really knocked me out.

She did a big stretch and checked her phone: 7:45. 7:45! She was normally at school at 7. She threw her blouse off, leaving it haphazardly scattered on the floor, before grabbing a new one from the closet. There’s no time to pick out a matching jacket, so she went with just her pants and a light green blouse for today.

She couldn’t even remember what happened last night. She remembered getting home, starting to feel a little sick, so she laid down,and that was it.

She sped through traffic, impatiently, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. Once she had a stoplight, she checked in the mirror. She certainly didn’t look any younger. Although she could’ve sworn that she had more wrinkles yesterday.

Ew, wrinkles.

Where had that thought come from? She always tried to remain positive about her changing body, so that thought completely poured into her. There was only one stage in her life where she might’ve reacted that way, but those years were far behind her now.

It was around 8 o’clock when she pulled into her parking spot, ran her hands over her face, and let out a long deep sigh. She needed to get these scores up. Principal Flowners paced into her office, 1-inch heels click-clacking on the linoleum entryway.

“Good morning, Principal Flowners,” her cute secretary, Reynolds said. He was a younger man, still in college and looking to learn from the best. “Rough morning?” he laughed after saying it.

“Not right now, Reynolds,” said the stern principal, opening the door to the hallway that led to her office.

“But Prin—”

It was too late. The door opened to reveal her taller, more masculine vice principal. Apart from his large suit, he could’ve been on the cover of a Bass Pro Shops magazine. His name was Drake Pops, like the rapper, and he’d been vice principal since before Principal Flowners took over. He hadn’t been in the position for long, though, so instead of backing him to take over the school, they decided to hire someone else.

He resented her a little for that.

Still, he was well educated, mostly charismatic, and seemed wealthy enough that, despite having the opportunities to work in another county as their head principal, Pops decided to stay.

“Principal Flowners,” he said with a smile. She couldn’t help but notice a bit of extra gleam behind his eye. “Is everything OK? It’s not like you get here at this time.”

“Yes, I’m fine. I just slept through my alarm.” She pushed past him and made her way into her office, where she took out her laptop and prepared her documents for the day. “What’s on the agenda for today?”

“Aside from putting in all those forms, going to go help out with lunch duty, we have that pep rally we scheduled for today to open up the football season tomorrow night.”

“Pep rally.” The words brought memories of cheer, practice, thoughts of homework, and images of the cute quarterback winking at her while she performed her cheer. Her left hand reached forward, grabbed some papers off her desk, lifted them in the air, and shook them like pom-poms.

“Yes, a pep rally,” Vice Principal Pops looked at her like she was crazy.

She felt crazy. “Perfect. I will be there, and we will be talking to the students about our new initiative to help raise scores.”

“We’re finally addressing the app?”

“Finally?”

“Apologies, that sounded more rude than I intended. It was just a problem. I’ve been taking care of a couple of classrooms for a week or two, but I’m glad it’s being addressed after consideration.”

She stared him down for a little bit to remind him where his place was. “Anyways, yes ,the problem is being addressed.”

He stood for a second. “Perfect. Can I know what the plan is?”

“Yes, of course.” She hadn’t really had too much time to think about it, but the idea came naturally, like it had been there all along. “We will have a short-term plan and a long-term plan. The short-term plan is for the teachers and principals of the school,yes, that means me and you,to become more involved in the education of our students.”

She stood up. “Actually, before I continue, why don’t you walk and talk with me?”

“OK,” he said, following her out the door. “Where are we going?”

“Right now, we’re losing the students because though the system was working, it became two separate things. We were separating the idea of a teacher from the student too much. Standing in front of the classroom, barking our orders, behind our desk, filling out paperwork, that doesn’t let the students know that we care and value their education.”

They passed through the literature and reading hallway, downstairs into the math hallway, and then outside into the courtyard.

“This new strategy is going to make sure the students never feel like they’re dealing with something outside of their control,or someone who doesn’t care about them.”

“What is it?” He wiped some sweat off his brow. He wasn’t used to walking this much. “I feel like I’m watching a suspense movie or something.”

“We are going to have our teachers sit with the students, talk to them as if they are peers rather than teacher and student. We are going to break down those walls that keep the students distracted.”

Finally, on the other side of the courtyard, they found their way to the school gym. A large brick brown structure where the pep rally would take place later that day. They burst through the doors into the cold gym where trophies lined the cabinet. The sound of children playing below was clear before they could even see them. A game of basketball was being played on half-sized courts so that all of the high schoolers in the class could play at the same time.

One person on the court shot a basket from beyond the three-point arc and celebrated. “Nice basket, Coach Ellie!” Shouted Principal Flowners from the stands. Coach Ellie just waved back.

“Do you see how involved the students are in her class?” She pointed to some of the traditionally more quiet kids. “We still have them running around, having fun. They respect their coach, but they also realize there’s someone they can have fun with in a way that’s still rewarding. We started to do this in all of our classes. The students won’t need the app anymore.”

Vice Principal Pops took a moment to watch the basketball being played. It was hard to see a flaw in her logic on paper, but practically, the ideal would be a lot harder to pull off.

“Sure, that works for some teachers, but what about those who don’t believe in this learning style? Those who we hired based on their ability to lecture, not their ability to make friends with students.”

“How do we expect our students to become good learners when our teachers refuse to learn?” she said. “They need to adapt to the changing times.”

“Fair enough,” Pops said as she left the gym, and he followed. “But you also mentioned a long-term plan alongside the short-term plan.”

“Yes. Our long-term plan won’t be announced tonight. I want you to reach out to the people who made Habla. I want you to ask them to make a version for teachers in schools,at least to raise the age,so that we may sign up for the app. If we can get firsthand insight into how it keeps our students engaged, or at least keep track of what they’re posting, it’ll give us a step up on the next trend. Or, as soon as students find out the teachers and principals are on the app, it will instantly stop being cool, and our students can go back to learning.”

He hated to admit it, but when she was right, she was right. As much as the plan was a long shot, they tried every other method, but the addictive qualities of the program had made it nearly impossible to keep a student’s attention for the whole hour of their learning.

“I’ll get on that today.”

“Good idea,” she muttered. “I’m going to head back to my office to get some more paperwork done. But I will see you at the pep rally.”

Principal Flowners made her way back to her office, though she kept having to fix her pants on the way back because they kept slipping down more than usual. Normally they were a tight enough fit that her belt was just for show, but today she had to readjust it. Never in her life did she think that eating three slices of cake would help her lose weight,but it seemed that’s what had occurred today.

She even went to her personal bathroom, where she undid her pants and lifted her shirt up. She still had a belly, but her skin seemed tighter, and there was more of a shape to it that flattered her body. She ran her hand over her stomach.

I have to get my lesson plans ready for my class.

She lowered her shirt, buckled her belt, and stepped out of the bathroom only to find herself in the principal’s office.

What am I doing in Principal Pops’s office? Am I in trouble?

When did she leave the bathroom? It had been a weird enough day already, so she chose not to think about it too much. What was important now was to finish signing these budget forms for approval and then heading to lunch.

So she spent the rest of the morning reviewing files, sorting documents, signing her name, emailing distributors and county chairs, though she was less focused than usual as her mind wandered to her younger days.

She imagined herself,just skinnier,in a pair of low-rise jeans and a T-shirt teaching her class. She would be teaching literature, or science, or maybe even team sports. She imagined that there the boys could play football and she could teach the girls,or even join them. They could all wear their cheerleading uniforms. It would be wrapped nice and tight around her large breasts, but the top would end above her belly button so she could show her toned stomach, and her skirt would be so short that the edge of her butt cheeks could tease the boys as they popped out from the sides of her panties while she shook her cute cheerleading butt for all the totally cute boys!

She lost track of time again, and she woke up to see that on her document she had typed, “ssssssssssssssss” all the way down the page with her face on the keyboard. She cleaned some drool off the side of her face.

I don’t know why I’ve been so sleepy.