SMC: Tales From Ohio Academy #0

[Andrew Perron]

Clarence Grzanowski wasn't doing well in Chemistry. But Clarence Grzanowski 
had two things: amazing shapeshifting abilities, and a Plan!

Clarence stood by the sink in the bathroom of his dorm room. He closed his 
eyes, cleared his mind, and pictured the principal of the school. Middle aged, 
Middle Eastern, middle-of-the-road. Bits of gray hair, and some wrinkles...

His astounding powers would let him shift his skintight suit into some 
appropriate clothes, too. He would probably be wearing, like, a boring suit 
and a boring tie... yeah, that was pretty much it...

He opened his eyes and looked in the bathroom mirror. Gray eyes under bushy 
brows looked back. A perfect duplicate!

Now to put his Plan into action!

Clarence opened the dorm room door a crack and peeked out. Time to act 
natural. He stepped out and walked in as dull and as suit-wearing a way as 
possible, down the hall and out the fire door.

He ran across the square to the Schwartz Annex, head flipping back and forth, 
watching out for anybody who would realize the principal wasn't supposed to be 
in this place at this time. There were a few other students around, but heck, 
if he saw the principal running around somewhere, he'd probably just think he 
was doing principal things, right?

"Mr. Ahmadi, what are you doing?"

...right?? Clarence stopped and sloooowly turned around. Oh, it was Kayla, 
from the junior class. Well, this was just a minor hitch in his Plan! "Oh, I 
was just... keeping physically fit. Can't expect my students to work out if 
I'm not willing to work out too, ha ha ha!"

"Oh... ha ha." She had one eyebrow raised.

"Ha ha. So yes, you'd better get back to class, young lady!"

"Well... I would, but classes have already ended for the day."

Oh yeah. That was kind of why he'd come out in the first place. "Ah, well 
then... I had better get along! Ha ha! Goodbye, young lady!"

He jogged to the Schwartz Annex, turned the corner, and collapsed against the 
wall. Well. He had handled that rather nicely!

He turned, tripped over his own feet and scraped his legs on the pavement. Ow, 
crap, crap, Mr. Rodriguez *said* he needed to practice moving with a different 
center of gravity, owwww...

Okay, okay. He pushed himself back to his feet, glancing from side to side. 
Nobody saw that, right? Right. He closed his eyes and pushed his knee cells 
back into place, the scrapes disappearing. Okay, good, let's keep going.

Two more steps and he made it to the side door. He slipped carefully in and 
closed it behind him. Almost there. Third door on the left.

Step, step, one. Step, step, two. Step, step, step... three! He opened the 
door quickly, slipped in, closed it behind him, and turned around.

Ms. Andersen, his Chemistry teacher, was sitting at a desk, looking at him 
with an odd expression. "Fariad. Pleasure to see you... and could you tell me 
what's going on?"

"Ms-- ah, that is," what was her name WHAT WAS HER NAME "Gertrude..." He sat 
down in the chair across from her, folded his legs, unfolded them, and sat 
back, hands very seriously folded on his lap. "I'd like to talk about Clarence 
Grzanowski's grades."

She looked him up and down and said, "I see."

"You see, he's a good kid. Not a perfect student, but I think the score you 
gave him on your last test was rather harsh; with some encouragement and 
perhaps the chance to earn some extra credit, I feel he could be an exemplary 
student." It had worked! He felt extremely confident in his disguise, and in 
the fact that Ms. Andersen didn't suspect a thing.

Ms. Andersen sighed. "Clarence, I know it's you."

...oh. The form of a middle-aged principal melted away, and a very embarassed 
teenage boy in spandex was left sitting there. "um. sorry."

"You know, you could have just *asked* for extra credit."

"sorry. um." Clarence coughed into his hand. "Uh... what gave me away?"

She sighed and smiled, standing up and walking around her desk. "I'd like to 
say that it's because most young shapeshifters, when they're copying the form 
of a specific person, make it *too* consistent. They forget all the tiny 
little imperfections that real human beings have - sort of like cheap CGI. Any 
teacher who's worked with shapeshifting Extras can spot it like that." She 
snapped her fingers.

"Oh. Wow." Clarence rubbed the back of his neck. "I guess I have a lot to 
lea-- wait, you'd *like* to say that?"

"Well, yes." She took off her glasses, cleaning them on her blouse. "In this 
case, I didn't really need that. Because frankly, Clarence? Next semester? You 
might want to consider an acting class."

And that's how Clarence Grzanowski got detention.

Andrew "NO .SIG MAN" "Juan" Perron, check out the other two DO IT NOW