Pre- (Ivy League) School

Chapter 2
Emily's Life As She Knows It

Chapter Description: David's plan goes into action.

        Emily was sitting at her desk in health class, having just finished lunch. She waited to take health class during her last semester, as she both already knew everything that was being taught, and waiting until the end gave her more time to take AP and honors classes, that were much more appealing to colleges and universities than a class about safe sex, making smart decisions, and if you learned nothing from the other instructions, changing diapers. She noticed that David was out of class today and took a sigh of relief that he wouldn’t be there to bother her over ever little thing like he did for the last decade of their lives.

She was happy to relax in this class as she had already been accepted to Harvard, and will be attending in the fall. She had put a lot of hard work and dedication in to her work at school, so she could give herself any avenue to succeed in the future. She had successfully maneuvered high school life for 4 years, being well liked by almost everyone, faculty and students alike. Being a star at softball and gymnastics earned her respect and friendship from all the popular kids at the school, and her time as president of the drama club and math olympiad teams made her queen of the nerds as well.

Contrary to what everyone thought, it wasn’t easy for her. She worked as hard as anybody to make sure that her dreams could come true. Her parents certainly weren’t poor, but they made sure that their eldest child had everything she needed in life to succeed, and it wasn’t always easy for them. Long hard nights of helping her through difficult concepts themselves clearly paid off, they clearly thought. 

Emily was hoping that all this effort could eventually lead to her own happiness and fulfillment, which she was yet to feel in this whole process. Her mornings occupied by school, her afternoon filled with plays and sporting events. She had a play rehearsal in a few hours, just after school. She had her hand mirror out that she brought with her to school to check her appearance and make sure she looked good enough for the stage.

Ms. Bailey taught health class, and to Emily she didn’t look like she was out of the classroom for too long herself. But Bailey knew that Emily was a good student and would allow her a little more slack in this instance, since she is an insightful student most of the time. She continued her lecture in spit of Emily clearly being somewhere else mentally, which Emily appreciated.

After about 15 minutes of hearing about condoms and listening to her peers ask questions about any number of things, the school announcement system came on, and then a few seconds later shut off, without any explanation. Everybody in the class noticed, but Ms. Bailey dismissed it as nothing more than a slip of the finger by someone in the front office.

Not long after, Emily noticed an irregular light flashing in the hall, it engulfed the entire corridor every few seconds. She could hear whatever it was getting closer and informed Ms. Bailey about the commotion. The young teacher seemed concerned about this, and moved everyone towards the wall as a precautionary action, as was the taught response to a potential violent school event. They could hear high pitched crying in the hallway, and knew that something disastrous was happening.

Just as everyone made it to the side wall and Bailey was going to lock the door, it swung open with a fury, and then David stepped in. Emily knew David was obsessed with her success, but didn’t imagine that it ate at him this much.

He entered carrying an object that didn’t look much like a gun to Emily. It seemed to be a tube made of some cheap metal with  a cone that had a circular point at the end, and some dials on it. As he stepped in he began to talk.

“Sorry for interrupting the class today, Ms. Bailey, but I thought I could help with teaching today!” David exclaimed as he entered the room. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything important?”

“David, I don’t know what you’re planning- ” she was interrupted.

“Well I thought I could help provide some demonstration on the infant care section of the class!” David let her begin to respond to his proposal.

“We weren’t talking about that, we were just-” she managed to say before being interrupted again.

“Well I think it’s time to change the lesson plan just a little bit” He said. He then began to turn a dial on the side of his tube and a beam of light shot out so bright that it blinded everyone in the room for a few moments. After the light subsided, it appeared like Ms. Bailey appeared to be the same age that they were! But then it kept going.

She then became a freshman, then she looked too young to be in the classroom entirely, and looked like a middle schooler touring the high school for the first time. The entire classroom watched in stunned silence while David had a smug smile on his face watching the figure of authority melt away, just as he envisioned. 

As she passed through 5th grade the former teacher started to look visibly confused,  and began crying. The sleeves of her now much oversized blouse hit the floor, as she re-entered elementary school, and the cries became higher pitched. But it still kept on going.

Baby fat began to appear around her face as she looked like no more than a second grader, her clothes becoming more and more tent-like. Then as she shrunk further, and no longer looked old enough for school entirely, she disappeared into her shirt. But the whole class heard the pitch continue to rise until it reached a stable squealing, infantile soprano.

Everyone continued to be frozen in shock against the classroom wall, did that really just happen Emily thought to herself? David began to dig through the pile of clothes.

“Oh where did you go Ms. Bailey?” He laughed, “Though it doesn’t seem like she’s much of a Ms anymore!”

He picked up a baby from the clothes, around the age of 4 months Emily estimated, with the knowledge that the baby herself had taught her.

“It seems like baby Bailey just couldn’t hold it anymore!” The poor baby had obviously urinated herself as her bottom half seemed to be wet, as well as the clothes.

“I can’t blame her for it.” Daniel continued his taunting monologue. “The size of her new bladder just couldn’t hold the same amount as it did before! Let’s all just count us lucky that she used the bathroom before class!” He went on.

“Let’s just get you into something more age appropriate!” He gleefully expressed as he started walking toward the cabinets that everyone knew was stocked with some diapers of all different sizes. It was at this point that it became too much for Emily.

She stood up suddenly and calmly but loudly asked “David, what is this all about?”

David paused a moment, indignant that she would interrupt his moment of glory, but happy that she made herself a target in such a way. “Why Emily, do you not know what my intention is by now?”

Emily had never seen David in such a good mood. “What did Ms. Bailey do to you to deserve this?” She asked.

David responded as he laid the former teacher on the large desk, “Ms. Bailey, and all those others in the hallway are just collateral damage to get to the real prize.” He paused. “You. There’s no way I’m going to let you spend the summer at Harvard while I’m stuck here wasting away.” He seemed to be getting emotional.

Emily appealed to his reason, “If you just applied to more schools, or got a handle on your mental hang ups, you could be at an Ivy League school in no time!” She was still holding her hand mirror and was trying to formulate some sort of plan to get herself out of this.

David countered, “Things have progressed far beyond colleges and educations at this point Em, I had to take control of something for once.”

Only close friends or family had called him Em and this had surprised her, but she was in no position to contest. “I can help you work through-”

David yelled firmly “The time for talking is over! For you Emily, you won’t be talking again for a few more years at least.” He said as he moved his hand toward the dial, ready to add another baby to the improvised changing table. 

As he raised the device Emily raised he hand mirror in shock, attempting to block the incoming beam. The light engulfed the room once more, but this time it was different.

The beam reflected off of the mirror, and returned to the end of the gun that it was emitted from. There were extremely loud noises that sounded like metal being torn apart.

The last thing David said was “Uh-oh.”

The entire room was bathed in light and didn’t subside for some time. Then Emily’s perspective began to change and mind started to become hazy.