Edits - Ch 4.3.5

Chapter 4.3.5 - He turns Mr. Jacobson into a baby.

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Tim decided that he wanted to test the limits of the device. Just how young could Mr. Jacobson become? He could change the teacher’s age to 0, but there might be some unexpected reality alterations to try to explain the presence of a newborn in the classroom. Things might get really weird.

“Weird is what I want, though,” he muttered to himself as he erased the 45 for Mr. Jacobson’s age and replaced it with a 0.

When Tim saved the change, a new text box appeared that asked him “Do you wish to automatically revise the rest of the caption to better match the subject’s new age?” There was a “Yes” and a “No” button beneath the question. Tim pressed “Yes.”

A new popup appeared with a loading bar filling up as it started “Initializing changes.”

Tim watched Mr. Jacobson closely, looking for the first signs of the change. It took a few seconds before the teacher began to look subtly younger. His scattered gray hairs darkened to match the rest of his brown hair. The lines on his face faded away, smoothing out his skin. Looking fresh-faced and energetic, his lecture became more passionate. As a consequence of his revitalization, the students who had been paying little attention to him started to notice that something out of the ordinary was happening. Their teacher seemed less like a veteran educator and more like a man just out of college. Then, he looked like he belonged in college.

Through all of the changes, Mr. Jacobson had not noticed anything different. That only lasted until he descended through his teen years and hit puberty going the wrong way. Becoming a pimple-faced boy, his voice cracked up awkwardly and his clothes hung loosely from his dwindling frame. He cleared his throat, tightened his belt, and tried to continue his lecture. Hearing him sounding like a croaky boy, the students started whispering and giggling. Again, he tried coughing his voice back to normal, but he no longer had an Adam’s apple to clear.

“Children,” he said, “grow up and pay attention.” His voice grew even squeakier as he spoke, and his attention turned from his students to his own dwindling body.

Mr. Jacobson looked down at himself just in time to see his pants slip from his hips and drop to the floor. A sudden reverse growth spurt indicated that his body was heading the same direction.

He shrieked and cried, “Oh, God! Help me, somebody!”

Students were standing up now, craning around each other to see their shrinking teacher as he fell below four feet tall. Most of the students had a phone in hand, documenting the impossible spectacle of a grown man regressing into a preschooler.

Tears filled the boy’s eyes as his clothes hung loosely enough to appear like sheets draped over him, his hands disappearing up his sleeves. His features rounded out, his skin getting smoother, looking more babyish with every second that passed, big ears, cowlick, red cheeks, button nose dripping snot… All the while, mass melted away from his flesh.

“Pwease, hewlp me,” he begged between sniffles.

In response, a pudgy girl sitting near the front of class stood up and knelt down beside the toddler teacher, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder just as his legs gave out. She gasped and lunged to catch him just before his head hit the floor. She sighed in relief. “It’s okay,” she said, attempting to sooth him. “We’re going to find a way to help you.”

The standing students crowded in close to gape at the sight of their teacher regressing into a smaller and smaller baby, obscuring Tim’s view. Not wanting to miss the final changes, Tim stood up and weaved his way through the crowd to make it to the front of the semicircle they had formed above the pair.

The pudgy girl appeared suddenly uncomfortable, wincing in pain. “Oof,” she said, putting a hand on her stomach. “I feel like I’m going to be sick.” Her belly began to swell as she sat back on her butt, spreading her legs to position the baby between them. “What am I doing?” she asked and shrieked as her jeans and underwear suddenly disappeared. A tube of flesh snaked out of her bare crotch and attached to the belly of the baby just as he finished regressing into a newborn. With that umbilical cord attached, the bodily changes were complete.

The final alterations occurred next. The teacher's clothes vanished, replaced by a dark, wet stain on the floor around him. Then, the girl’s underwear and jeans reappeared beside her on the floor, as if she had removed them and laid them there. She collapsed onto her back, appearing suddenly exhausted. All around, students muttered in confusion, too shocked to do anything but stare.

Then, that familiar high whine started up from Tim’s phone, growing more piercingly loud until a burst of blinding light lit the room.

After that, the only sounds to be heard were the cries of a new-born baby and the heavy breathing of the girl who had just given birth to him.

The door to the classroom opened, and an authoritative woman’s voice shouted, “Step aside. Make way for the nurse.”

The students parted, clearing a path for a pair of women to reach the girl and her baby.

“Oh my,” said the woman who had spoken. Tim recognized her as the school’s vice principal. “She’s already done.”

Meanwhile, the nurse checked the girl, making sure that she was not in immediate danger.

“She looks stable,” the nurse said. “No bleeding. And, the baby appears to be breathing well. They should be fine until the EMTs arrive.”

“Good,” said the vice principal before turning her attention to the students. “Everyone, grab your things. We need to clear the room. All of you are going down to the cafeteria for now.”

They hesitated a moment before complying, packing their bags and filing out of the room. Wanting to see what happened next, Tim lingered as long as he could, long enough to hear the pudgy girl on the floor say, “I didn’t even know I was pregnant.” She sounded deeply confused. The nurse handed the girl’s newborn son to her, and she worriedly cradled her former teacher in her arms.

“Where’s the teacher?” the vice principal asked, turning her attention from the baby to the door.

Tim’s phone buzzed, and he checked it. A notification had appeared: “Would you like to select a subject to be the new teacher for the class?” He pressed the notification and saw that all of the pictures he had taken for the app were available in a gallery, including his photo of Danielle and his selfie with the whole class.

He could pick any of them to be the new teacher.

Who would he choose?

He turns himself into the teacher.

He turns Danielle into the teacher.

He turns a girl in the class into the teacher.

He turns a boy in the class into the teacher.