Part 4

John glances at Lars and smiles briefly and crisply. It had succeeded, the ring seemed to work. His thoughts ran through his head as he turned to Mrs. Briant. Fortunately, he had shed his smirk. The whole class stared at him, some were puzzled, others looked at him reproachfully. As he walked past his classmates, he looked at Mrs. Briant.

"You know that wasn't fair. You should feel regrettable..." he thought. He took the note from her and saw her expression change. It was only for a moment, but John had seen it. So the ring's ability affected her too, a fact he had to test out. As soon as he had the note in his hand, he headed for the door. Once at the door, he turned to the class and decided to test the ring again, just to be sure.

He faced the class.

"Everyone stand up, turn around once in a circle, sit back down and forget you did this!"
The thought had just finished when the whole class stood up and all spun around once. As soon as they had done that, they all sat down again, even Mrs. Briant sat down. John could hardly believe it, but now he was sure about the ring. It existed and it was his. The ring opened up unexpected possibilities for him. Something was bothering John, but something he couldn't put his finger on, so he pushed the thought aside and left the classroom with a grin. What was certain now was that he was going to get a long monologue from his principal, which would almost certainly end in a suspension. The bad thing was that Mrs. Osbourne would even welcome another suspension. The only problem was that he would then lose his place at university.

Mrs. Osbourne was an elderly lady who attached great importance to the school's reputation and, of course, to the donations that the parents raised in addition to the school fees. His father was rather tight-fisted when it came to donations. He was convinced that the school fees were more than enough to finance the school, so he always donated quite a little. Which was probably one of the reasons why Mrs. Osbourne had such a bad attitude towards John. She had already extracted a generous donation from his father by calling it compensation, which was ultimately nothing more than a bribe to keep John from being expelled.

With the power of the ring, however, he could get around the suspension, or at least mitigate it. But that was something he had to test out, how far he could go. He had read about such things several times before, items that granted powers to the owner or wearer, and now he was the one who had come into possession of such an asset. According to the information he had received from the ring, it could change the thoughts and nature, i.e. the character, of the people around him. But that wasn't the only thing, he could change people's bodies to a certain extent. Unfortunately, he did not yet know what the limits were, but he would find out in time. The only thing he knew for sure was that everyone would notice if he used the ability. He could make sure that the people concerned didn't notice, but he couldn't influence everyone. The visit to the principal was therefore a welcome opportunity.

After he had strolled along the corridors and arrived in the anteroom of the principal's office, the secretary looked up at him. He didn't know her, but John knew that the previous secretary had retired. The new secretary seemed surprised to see a student at this time of day.

 "How can I help you?" the young woman asked kindly.

"I need to see the principal, here is the letter from Mrs. Briant," John replied calmly and handed her the note he had received from his teacher. The secretary read the note and used the intercom.

"Mrs. Osbourne? Mr. Wilson is here. Mrs. Briant has dismissed him from class."
It took a moment for an answer.

"Send him in and give him the note, Mrs. Smith," they could both hear Mrs. Osbourne's annoyed tone. Mrs. Smith looked up at John, handed him the note, and then nodded towards the door.

As soon as John had the note, he went to the door, knocked and entered the office after being invited in.

"You again, Mr. Wilson. And on the first day of school ... Come here and give me the note ..." he heard her say once he had closed the door.

The office was stately. The solid mahogany desk was a real eye-catcher. It was large and well-kept, probably even custom-made. Behind the desk was another custom-made cupboard with large glass doors. You could see the marble tiles under the large oriental carpet. There was no mistaking that a lot of money had been invested in the office. John knew that the room next door was furnished to the same high standard. This room was only accessible via the principal's room and was used as a meeting room for interviews.

Mrs. Osbourne sat behind the desk and looked at him critically. He went to her and handed her the note.

"You hit a classmate? IN LESSON? Before you say anything. You know that's absolutely not on ... I thought your father would have had a serious word with you! Unfortunately, I see no other option than to suspend you for now ..." she began her lecture as soon as she had read the note. However, her expression was now indignant. Her voice was now louder.

"You stay seated and be quiet now," John said in a nervous voice. He hadn't tried it this way before, if it didn't work, he was digging his own grave. He also had to summon up all his courage to say it out loud. Mrs. Osbourne fell silent immediately and looked at him in surprise. He could see that she was trying to say something and stand up, but neither worked. She sat in the chair with her eyes wide open, while John stood in front of her and could hardly believe it. A smile formed on his face as his confidence grew.

"Calm down. It's perfectly normal what's happening... right now," he added as soon as he had caught himself. It was time for him to test the possibilities of how body control was faring, after all, he was alone with her now.

"Stand up and come in front of the desk," he said, still nervous. Mrs. Osbourne immediately stood up and walked around the desk until she was standing in front of it. Then John wondered what he should try. She was a bit older, but he was sure she was a real looker in her younger days. She seemed to have put on a bit of weight over the years, but she did her make-up well and looked younger than she was. What surprised him was that she didn't dye her hair, but he had to admit that the gray hair suited her. He wondered what she looked like when she was younger. Even as he wondered, he saw how she was changing. Her skin tightened, the clothes she wore seemed too loose as she also became slimmer, her hair turned back to a chestnut brown at the roots. Mrs. Osbourne didn't notice this at all. He looked at the now young, handsome woman in front of him with raised eyebrows. 

Before she noticed, he undid the changes to her. His abilities were now clear, and there were already several ideas running through his head. However, he would get the current problem off the table first and with the ring's ability that wasn't clear. 

"Sit back down and give me the note back. As soon as I'm out of the office, you'll forget I was here," he said with a broad grin as she continued to look at him, frightened and confused. As soon as she had sat down, she took the note in her hand and held it out to him. John reached for the note. But before he left the office, he wondered if he could let the physical changes happen for a longer time. She should get her younger figure back first, he decided. 

He thought to himself, "You'll lose weight every week until you look like you did when you were 20," before finally leaving the room. 

"Forget I was here!" he said in a firm voice and strode back to his class.

Chapter 5 Back in the Classroom

Chapter overview