Teaching a Lesson Part 04

Third period was a study hall in the lunchroom. Mr. Duport was pretty much just a babysitter for the hour, as the students were just supposed to sit quietly for the hour and work on things they needed to finish for class. But his was filled with seniors, and none of them wanted to do anything. ‘I already did it at home,’ or ‘I don’t have any homework,’ were the two most popular excuses but they were also made by students who were failing classes. 

Except for Paul. He seemed to still be working on something, despite also being fairly close to failing several of his classes. Part of it must have been him being on the soccer team. Though, he wasn’t all that good at that either. Soccer players weren’t exactly known for their size or prowess but he didn’t have either, or even endurance to run across the field. 

Paul let out a heavy sigh and dropped his head to the table. “Damn it…” he groaned.

“Something wrong, bud?” Mr. Duport tried to sound as friendly as he could. The way everyone stayed out of his way, he figured that his size made him intimidating enough. And that would just make it even harder to get information out of someone. 

It didn’t seem to work, as Paul jumped in his seat. “Oh sir!” he tried to look busy. “I’m fine,” adding a fake smile while he shuffled his papers and tried to go back to work.

“Don’t really sound like it,” Mr. Duport shifted his weight so he could fit into the cafeteria booth across from him. He didn’t quite realize how tight his near 300 pound mass would barely be able to fit. And it only seemed to make Paul look a bit less comfortable, now with the teacher who squeezed himself into a tiny area across from him. “What’s going on?”

Paul seemed to struggle with what he wanted to say. He kept biting his bottom lip and struggling to keep it down. “I’m fine,” he lied again.

“Just tell me what’s going on,” Mr. Duport stated. He was getting uncomfortable in the booth and didn’t want to play around, trying to get the answer to a question.

“It’s just that yesterday when I told Niki that I didn’t want her having sex with Cody, she got really mad at me and broke up. I mean, I know why she’d want to… But he’s usually not very safe about it. And then this morning she sent a text with them together…” Paul brought his hands to his face and did his best not to break down. Somehow he looked even smaller than he had a few seconds ago. His shirt seemed to hang a little looser on him. 

“You okay?” Mr. Duport asked. There was a look of panic on Paul’s face that quickly disappeared as he shifted his weight back and forth. He’d forgotten that Paul always shrank down whenever he was feeling really depressed. It was such a weird birth defect, but no one seemed to know why. “It’s okay. It’s okay,” Mr. Duport tried to fix his faux pas. The teachers had been told not to upset him, just in case one of the times he didn’t grow back to his normal size. 

Paul let out a sniffle. “I know… I’m sure she’s happier now. But still… I wanted her to be happy with me…” His last sentence ended with a wail and all the students looked over. Again his body started to cave in on itself. Slowly shrinking smaller and smaller. Arms and legs pulled in on each other, making it so he couldn’t touch the floor. The medium sized shirt he was wearing was nearly a dress on him and a shoulder was threatening to come out of the neck hole.

“It’s fine! It’s fine!” Mr. Duport wasn’t great at this kind of conflict resolution. His college teaching classes never gave any information on high school drama. He could only do so much. “What if you could have someone just as good?”

“There’s no one as good as Niki!” Paul belted out. His face went to the table as tears rolled out of his eyes. Still he shrank in his seat, making the booth far too large. While Mr. Duport was overflowing on the one side, Paul was barely even taking up any room on the other.

“Not Niki. As good as Cody,” Mr. Duport offered. 

Suddenly Paul stopped. Curiosity had gotten the better of him. “As good as Cody? How’s that even possible?” No one in the school came even close to being as attractive, popular, or interesting as Cody. Part of that was the reason why Paul didn’t want Niki being with him. If she had a taste for the best, why wouldn’t he end up like all the rest. 

“Well…” Mr. Duport didn’t know how to answer honestly. He clutched Cody’s phone tightly and looked around the lunchroom. There were a couple of girls chatting at one of the table. Some of the jocks were at another. But then there was Andrew by himself playing on some gaming system. Mr. Duport never cared to find out what they were called. But he knew it was supposed to play games. “What about Andrew?”

Paul burst out laughing. His fist hit the table hard. “That’s a good one sir. But I don’t think so. Cody can make straight guys want him. And no offense or anything, but Andrew can’t even get women interested in him.”

Mr. Duport knew Paul wasn’t wrong. The guy had been the mascot for the last 3 years and only had something to put on his college resume. Andrew had thought it’d get him closer to the cheerleaders but it hadn’t done anything like that. If anything they mocked him more for looking nothing like the ‘warriors’ mascot he had to wear. His short frame was fit, but a lot of the girls just said they didn’t like being as tall as him. They wanted someone more like Cody. Someone who always looked like he was looking down on you, even if you were taller than his 6’6” stature.

“Just give me a minute…” Mr. Duport groaned. He watched Paul’s body stiffen up and stare off in the distance. ‘Must have a minute,’ the teacher smirked to himself. He kept forgetting just how powerful it was to tell the students what to do. Turning back to Andrew he started typing into the small device in his hands. ‘Andrew has the mind and body of a warrior. Being the school mascot has that kind of privilege to it. The longer you are, the more and more of a true warrior you become. He’s still able to fit in with his classmate

Instantly the boyish features of the 18 year old started to disappear. The soft curves and angles of his face, straightened out into hard lines. Though, thick hair was rapidly filling in on his soft skin. His eyes tightened and almost looked to be in a constant scowl. Muscle was rapidly forming around his frame. He had a small amount that he’d have to had used for stunts, but that was quickly building onto something far more substantial. 

Thick, dense and massive muscles grew out where the lean ones had been. Even as his spine and bones were growing longer, the size of his muscles only did so as well. It didn’t matter that they needed more space to build on, they still bulked out and filled out his frame. His wide shoulders didn’t want to be contained by sleeves any more and burst from them. The shirt sewed itself back together to be a sleeveless one, while his khakis quickly changed to something more breezy and more comfortable. 

The change went all the way down to his sneakers, which had turned into open toed sandals. It was probably hard to find tennis shoes that would properly fit on those massive feet, but it looked more like he just liked showing off his body as much as possible. Even though the sandals wouldn’t offer too much comfort, the ability to show off a bit more.

To Mr. Duport’s surprise it didn’t look like he was wearing any underwear. And the ‘magic’ of the mascot must have made sure he was a proper spear bearer, as his legs couldn’t come close to closing at all. Andrew let out a deep grunt. Then flipped the hat he was wearing backwards. His attention was still on that gaming system he was playing but his body no longer reflected the doughy or soft features it had before. Instead, there was a hardened man, scrapes and cuts running up and down his arms. His skin tanned and looked as tough as sandpaper. 

“You sure you don’t like Andrew?” Mr. Duport asked Paul again.

Paul shook his head, waking himself up from the minute break that he’d been told to take. His mouth hung open. What was it that he didn’t like about Andrew again? The question sat on his mind. Sure he was no Cody, but he was pretty good looking in his own right. Strong, firm and powerful in ways Cody only wished he looked. A bit of embarrassment crossed his mind and Paul retreated into the booth, bending over as though he didn’t want to be seen checking out the other man. 

“Well?” Mr. Duport teased. He figured Paul must have been feeling at the very least a bit better as he was no longer shrinking. His clothes were still far to large for his tiny body, but at least it wasn’t getting even worse. 

“I mean…” Paul stared. Andrew’s nipples grew hard as though he knew someone was checking him out. In return, Paul’s face grew redder. “He is handsome. But he wouldn’t like me.” 

“You know that for a fact?” Mr. Duport asked. The question hung in the air as he rested his head on his hands. It was more of a taunt than an actual inquiry. “He doesn’t have a girlfriend…”

“Doesn’t mean he wants a boyfriend!” Paul shot back. He instantly felt regret. “SORRY!” Again his body started shrinking again. His shirt shifting to one side, and a shoe falling off of his foot. 

“Why not go and try?” Mr. Duport continued. “You clearly feel bad about not…”

“How can you--” Paul cut himself off knowing how the teacher would know. His other shoe fell off and even his socks were starting to  fall down over his feet. “Okay… Okay…” he hopped down off the booth, just barely taller than it and grabbed his shoes.

Mr. Duport went back to the Chronivac. He hated seeing Paul only shrink. ‘Paul grows bigger and more muscular whenever he’s happy.’ Why should his sadness only dictate his size? He watched as Paul tried to strike up a conversation with Andrew. Instantly, he was invited to sit next to him and watch him play his video games. Andrew’s wide and strong arm wrapped around Paul’s minuscule body. But that was slowly starting to change as Paul’s legs and arms started to grow longer again. 

“That’s better,” Mr. Duport smirked to himself.