Chapter 9

After explaining to Mr. Cashol about hiding him in the staff room next door to his classroom, I gripped my hands in Cashol’s, before I tried to drag him. But I only dragged him a few inches before I had to stop and rest.

“But won’t the other science teachers see me if you hide me in the staff room?” asked Cashol, as I began to drag him again across the floor.

“No....they won’t...” I replied with a small grunt as I gave the teacher another tug.

“I will make sure they won’t see you”.

I put down Cashol’s upper part of his body on the ground again and rested for another few seconds to catch my breath.

“Why do you have to be so damn heavy?” I asked, gripping her teacher’s hands and began to drag him again.

“Because of this twenty five pound tail” replied Mr. Cashol, as he looked down at his five foot long merman tail, which was dragging across the floor.

I let out another grunt, as I turned a corner, around an island lab counter, before continuing my way towards the staff room door and replying back to him.

“That was a rhetorical question; you weren’t supposed to answer it”.

Right out of the blue, while trying to drag Mr. Cashol, I felt a quick whoosh of wind pass by me and then felt a material clip onto my chest and shoulders.

Before I could fully process the next thought, the cape yanked me quickly into the staff room, pulling Mr. Cashol along too. Once inside, I locked the other two doors (the one that leads to the hallway and the other to another science classroom), being grateful that there weren’t any other teachers in the room right now.

From there, I darted back to where Mr. Cashol was, lying on the ground; only a few feet away from the gaping doorway they had just come through. Then, the school bell rang, for the next period class to start.

“Vanessa, I need you to help me figure out how to get my legs back, so I can teach my next class” said Mr. Cashol, in a hushed voice as he craned his neck up to look at me.

I moved my gaze from the doorway down to my panicked science teacher.

“No, Cashol. That will take too long. They’re going to notice that you’re gone” I said whispering back.

Then I looked up at my levitating cape that was floating on the other side of Mr. Cashol, directly across from me.

“Cape, watch over Mr. Cashol and help him dry off. Make sure no one sees him” I ordered.

Unexpectedly, my cape shook its high purple collar ‘no’.

In response, I furrowed my eyebrows at it.

“What do you mean “.

My cape gestured to itself, before lifting the right bottom of it, showing me the purple side of the cape.

“Okay, fine. I’ll call you that” I replied in a hushed voice, as I let out a sigh.

“Violet, watch over Mr. Cashol and help him dry off. Make sure no one sees him. Understood?“.

My cape nodded its collar ‘yes’, before it started rubbing itself over Cashol’s blue scaly merman tail.

“Wait, where are going?” he asked in a hushed panicked voice, seeing me starting to walk towards the doorway back to his classroom.

“To buy you some time” I said, looking back at my science teacher as he watched me shapeshift into an identical copy of him.

His jaw fell open and his eyes grew as big as baseballs as he watched me give him a smirk, before I confidently entered Mr. Cashol’s classroom pretending to be him.

“Sorry I’m late class, I was just printing some last-minute things” I said, in Mr. Cashol’s baritone voice.

I walked up to the front of the class and stood by the teacher’s desk, facing the full class of bored students. They all stared at me, paying attention to what I was about to say next.

“So today, we’re going to....” I said before I trailed off and looked at Mr. Cashol’s desk, to see if there were any hints on what he was actually going to teach them.

But all I saw was a pile of animal dissection worksheets.

I Then an idea came to mind.

“...to watch a documentary on the animal food chain. Get out your pencils and some lined paper”.

The students complied as they brought out their writing utensils and some paper, as I turned on the projector and found a half an hour documentary on YouTube; the same one I watched in my science class a couple weeks ago. Thankfully, it took up the rest of the class time and the bell rang for lunch.

After the students left to go eat lunch with their friends, I let out a huge sigh of relief I didn’t realize that I was holding in. Just then Mr. Cashol walked in with my purple cape trailing behind him after it closed the staff room door behind itself.

“Did all the students leave?” he asked as he approached me.

“Yes. They’re gone for their lunch break” I replied, before I stood up from his desk, with a smile on my face.

“Um Vanessa, do you mind changing back” asked Mr. Cashol, his hand to me, since I still look like an identical copy of him, clothes and all.

“We need to talk”.

I nodded my head.

“Yeah, we can talk”.

I shapeshifted back into my regular self, shrinking back down to five foot one. Instantly my purple cape clipped onto my now slim shoulders, before I continued to talk to my science teacher.

“First, the whole ‘shapeshifting into a clone of me’ thing you did earlier was creepy and second, you’re that girl who saved that Christian camp in Watertown from those Muskcores?“.

I gave him a warm smile.

“Yes, I am. I’m also the one who saved your behind from the giant albino snake”.

Mr. Cashol’s eyes lit up.

“That was you too??? Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you’re " he replied, leaning his left side against the lab counter that was next to him.

Then came a question I never expected him to ask.

“So, how did you end up with a superpower?“.

“Do you remember that last hands-on experiment we did together in your grade nine health science class last year?” I asked, brushing back a loose grey strand of hair behind my ear.

“The body lotion experiment? Yes, I remember it quite well...“.

“I um, I got my power from the lotion I made in the class because I accidently added more Benedict’s solution than I should have,” I confessed.

“So then, I got rid of the lotion....“.

Mr. Cashol suddenly leaned closer to me, locking eyes with mine.

“You got rid of it?!? Where did you....” he asked, before he trailed off and another thought entered his head.

“Did you happen to leave it on your desk before you left class one time?“.

“My mind is a bit foggy on the details, but I think so. Why??” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Because, I-I took your lotion home that night and....experimented with it” he confessed.

My eyes went as big as baseballs after hearing that.

“You EXPERIMENTED with it?!?!? Cashol isn’t that a little, I don’t know, DANGEROUS?!?!“.

He sighed.

“Yes, it was unsafe, and it was stupid of me to do it”.

I furrowed my eyebrows at the science teacher.

“Is that how you turned yourself into that....“.

“Yes,” replied Mr. Cashol, answering my question before I could finish asking it.

“And the whole ‘fishtail’ thing you have right now too?“.

The teacher shook his head.

“No, not at all; I haven’t touched your body lotion since the giant albino snake incident. To be honest, I’m sure how or why I’m a merman now”.

I crossed my arms in front of my chest and raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, right”.

I walked behind Mr. Cashol’s desk and retrieved my school bag out from underneath the long island lab counter that’s right next to it.

“No, seriously. I swear I haven’t touched it” replied Mr. Cashol, following me to the lab counter.

I slipped my purple cape into it, before zipping it up, slinging the bag over on my shoulder and turning back to face Cashol again.

“Look, I’ve got to go have lunch, get to my next class and come up with a story of where I was in the last period. Here’s my phone number just in case you get stuck in your fish form again”.

I handed the teacher a small, folded piece of paper with my cell phone number written inside. I started to walk towards the door when my teacher called my name.

“And Vanessa?“.

I turned my head in his direction.

“Yes?“.

“Are you going to keep my fishtail a secret?“.

I confidently nodded my head.

“As long as you keep my identity a secret”.

“Oh, I will” he responded, nodding his head to me.

Turning on my heels, I walked out of Mr. Cashol’s classroom, with my stomach growling like a lion. The only thing I was looking forward to was eating lunch.