“Derek! You’ll be late for school!” Mom shouted from the bottom of the stairs. I stared into the wall with my head buried in a pillow, unmoved. I didn’t want to go to school, it would be better to stay at home.

“Derek!” Mom shouted again, her patience waning. I groaned, yanking the covers off and shambling over to my dresser. I didn’t want to go, I really didn’t. I’d seriously considered dropping out and just getting my GED. Mom would hate it, of course, but I often thought it would be worth suffering through her disapproval. The thing that kept me going was the knowledge that once I graduated high school everything that happened there would be a distant memory. I trudged down the stairs a few minutes later, dressed and ready for the day in spite of my lethargy. Mom and my sister, Valerie, were already at the door.

“Took you long enough. Come on Derek, let’s go,” Mom ordered. I sighed, trying to play off my dread as typical teenage angst.

“Dude, why do you hate school so much?” Valerie asked, “You don’t get bullied, you get decent grades, people like you, so what’s the problem?” 

Poor Valerie. Of course she didn’t know why I hated school. Nobody did. She could go to class day in and day out without a care in the world. 

“There’s no time for this Valerie, let’s just go,” Mom stated, mercifully ending the line of questioning. 

I entered the car silently with Valerie, her straight black hair falling in a curtain over her face. The drive over was quiet, as was typical of our morning commute. Valerie stared silently out the side window while I stared straight ahead out the front. Soon enough we were in the parking lot of East Haywood High School, my adrenaline spiking just seeing the sign. Mom ushered us out and drove off in a hurry, already late for work. Groups of my classmates chatted aimlessly outside the building while individual students gradually filtered inside.

“Seriously Derek, what’s your problem? You weren’t so angsty until this year, is the senioritis hitting you that hard?” Valerie prodded, unwilling to just let the issue die.

“Yeah, guess so,” I replied with an unconvincing shrug. Valerie sighed.

“Well, if you ever want to come back down and join us in the real world, feel free,” she offered sarcastically. I didn’t like acting like a teenage prick, but it was the easiest way to mask the real reason my mood spiralled so much at school.

Valerie quickly split off to join her friends. Good, the less I saw of her today the better. I held my breath and closed my eyes as I walked through the front door, uncertain of what I would see. To my relief, I saw a normal school. Friends were chatting, teachers were hurrying between classrooms. Things were… Normal. Maybe today would be alright. 

I made my way to my first class, biology. Emily waved me down as soon as I walked in, her smile as bright and welcoming as ever. Her and I had been close friends since we were kids, and I’d admittedly developed a crush on her once we got to high school. I’d even been thinking of asking her out before everything changed. At this point a relationship just felt plain impossible.

“Derek? Jeez, you look exhausted,” she observed with concern in her soft blue eyes, her initial excitement to see me replaced with worry. She had a head of curly, light brown hair tied in a loose ponytail and wore a cute but simple white blouse and a pair of jeans that hugged her curves in all the right ways. She wasn’t the type of girl to turn heads in a crowded room per se, but anyone who looked past her unassuming outfits would find that Emily was very attractive. That was certainly how I saw her.

“That obvious, huh? Yeah, I didn’t sleep too well last night,” I admitted. Not technically a lie, but nowhere near the full truth.

“You’ve been having bad sleep for a while now. I can cover you if you wanna skip second period for a nap,” she offered with an adorable wink.

I flashed her a tired smirk. “I might take you up on that.” Emily might look like your classic girl next door, but she wasn’t afraid to bend the rules a bit when it counted. She’d even let me copy her homework on occasion, but only when she was in a particularly good mood. Still, there was a rebel hidden under that straight-A student, something I’d always appreciated about her. 

I jumped in my seat as the door swung open, breaking the gentle chorus of morning chatter in the classroom. To my relief, it was only our teacher.

“Good morning, everyone, sorry I’m late!” a flustered Ms. Shae announced, speedwalking across the room and setting her papers down in a hurry. The young instructor’s flowing ginger hair swayed as she came to a halt at her desk, her square glasses framing a round freckled face. Evidently she could be a tad disorganized, but she had a real passion for teaching that made her lessons genuinely enjoyable, at least by high school standards. 

The remaining chatter died down as Ms. Shae began her lesson on the lymphatic system. I’d lost track of the curriculum a while back, but I was trying to do my own studying from the textbook to keep up. It was hard doing so much learning on my own, but a complete lesson had become an incredibly rare occasion.

Today, however, the whole class was normal, everything felt right. I didn’t often get chances to appreciate a typical classroom, so I took it all in. My classmates taking notes, Ms. Shae energetically talking about lymphocytes, Emily sitting with one leg crossed over the other in the neighboring desk. A normal student might find this boring, but I’d learned to treasure these moments of peace, because I knew they didn’t last.

My moment of tranquility ended when I saw a flash of motion from the door, revealing a familiar figure whose inevitable appearance I’d been dreading. A thin, sandy-haired boy came into view as the door shut behind him. His appearance was completely unremarkable for a teenager, but I knew his arrival signalled an end to my lesson proceeding with any amount of normalcy. His name was Henry Mitchell, and he was the reason I dreaded coming to school.

Henry walked into the room without drawing any attention to himself. Ms. Shae continued her lecture, and not one student looked up at him as he walked directly in front of the board. Okay, I thought to myself, we’re not supposed to acknowledge him right now. I kept my attention focused on the lecture, suppressing the impulse to look in his direction as he meandered up and down the rows of desks. My pulse spiked as he passed by me and Emily, who was completely oblivious to his presence along with the rest of the class. Soon enough Henry had positioned himself at the side of the room, leaning casually against the wall.

“...Now in addition to its other functions, the lymphatic system also transports antigens throughout the body. Can anyone remind me what an antigen is?” Ms. Shae asked the class, standing in front of a projected diagram of the lymphatic system. 

Emily raised her hand, sending a jolt of panic through my body. She was a good student, someone who would engage with the lesson as much as she could, but doing so right now was dangerous. I didn’t want her drawing attention to herself while Henry was in the room.

“It’s a foreign element to the body that can trigger an immune response,” she answered confidently.

“Exactly, very good Emily!” Ms. Shae exclaimed, switching to the next slide on the projector.

I gripped the side of my desk, stress pumping through my veins. I tried to avoid looking directly at Henry, but I was terrified that he would shift his focus to Emily. If he did, there was little I could do to stop him.

“Well this is boring,” Henry said aloud. Nobody reacted to his comment, despite its abrasively rude nature. Thankfully he didn’t seem to be paying any particular attention to Emily in spite of her raising her hand. I loosened my death grip on the desk, the immediate panic leaving my body. 

Henry snapped his fingers and a simple black TV remote materialized in his hand from thin air. It was still uncanny to see an object appear from nothing, such an event would have seemed impossible to me just a few months ago. 

“Why don’t we change to a different channel,” Henry said, his comment once again going unnoticed by the rest of the class. Ms. Shae continued her lesson, oblivious to Henry just like her students.

“So, when an antigen is introduced to the body it triggers an immune response, which begins the formation of-”

Henry aimed the remote at Ms. Shae and pressed a button. Immediately, the scene in front of my eyes changed. Ms. Shae was no longer wearing her long green skirt and white blouse, instead donning a stylish blue suit. The anatomical diagram projected behind her turned into a map of the local area, covered in numbers and symbols.

“-a low pressure system emerging from the south, possibly bringing rain this afternoon with a chance of thunderstorms in the evening.” she announced, the topic of the presentation changing mid-sentence alongside her surroundings. I snuck a few glances at my classmates, none of whom had reacted whatsoever to the shift. They themselves seemed unaltered for the time being, so I just kept watching. Hopefully Henry would get bored soon and move on to something else. Ms. Shae, transformed into a weather reporter, carried on with her forecast. 

“Over the next seven days, we can expect a-” Henry pressed the remote again.

“-Deep calm to wash over you…” Ms. Shae whispered in a soothing, meditative voice. She was now standing on a yoga mat, wearing a tight tank top and colorful workout shorts. The map behind her turned into an oil painting of a sunrise.

“You’re going to want to take a deep breath in…” she inhaled while slowly reaching her arms to the ceiling.

“...And out…” she followed, touching her toes and pointing her rear upward. It seemed like Henry was enjoying this particular view of the teacher-turned-yoga instructor.

“Now, I want you to imagine yourself in a new scenario… Picture yourself-” Henry changed the channel again

“-with this brand new, state-of-the-art product!” Ms. Shae explained excitedly, holding a small plastic object in her hand. She was now in a short purple dress, bright makeup, and shiny heels, her hair styled in a professional bun.

“The Mini-Masher™ is a cook’s best friend, letting you chop away with none of the hassle of a traditional knife!” She held a beaming grin that never once faded during her product demonstration. My classmates continued taking notes through the infomercial as though it were a proper lesson. I glanced to my right to see what Emily had written down next to me.

• Lymphatic system carries pathogens

• Chance of thunderstorms

• Imagine self on beach

• Buy the Mini-Masher™

The absurdity would have made me laugh if it wasn’t someone I cared about being manipulated like this. I had to wonder what these students would think if they decided to review their notes after school. Or rather, what they would be made to think.

Ms. Shae positioned the product on the desk in front of her. “Don’t believe me? Let’s do a demonstration!” she declared, bringing her hand down on the Mini-Masher™ right as Henry pressed the remote again. In an instant, her surroundings changed once more. She was now seated in an egg-shaped chair, the product she had been demonstrating replaced with a giant red button that emitted an ear-splitting buzz as her hand came down on it.

An announcer’s voice echoed through the room from seemingly nowhere. 

“Alright, Cara, for the million dollars - which scientist is credited as the first to discover the structure of DNA?”

Ms. Shae shifted in her seat nervously, now wearing a tasteful skirt and colorful blouse. “Can I use a lifeline?” she asked in a nerve-wracked voice. I frowned. The real Ms. Shae would easily get this question right, Henry had clearly restricted her knowledge to some extent. 

“Alright, Cara, you can ask a member of the audience for help. Is there anyone among you that wishes to help our contestant?” the voice boomed. Suspenseful music from an unknown source filled the air at the voice’s prompting. I saw motion out of the corner of my eye and quickly reached out my hand, stopping Emily from raising hers. Emily, stunned at the motion, looked back at me with confusion.

“What’s wrong? I know the answer,” she whispered.

“I know, just… I’ll explain later.” I answered unconvincingly.

Emily continued eyeing me suspiciously, but acquiesced and lowered her hand. Thankfully the music drowned out our exchange, otherwise it may have caught Henry’s attention. 

“I see a helpful audience member now, come up on stage!” the voice bellowed. I looked back and saw that Natalie, a short, shy blonde girl, had raised her hand. She marched up on stage as Ms. Shae smiled at her gratefully. 

“I think it’s Rosalind Franklin,” Natalie said, nervously fidgeting with a gel pen. 

“Are you sure?” Ms. Shae queried. She was clutching the sides of her chair like she was on a rollercoaster without a seatbelt. Natalie pondered for a moment before looking back at her with steely determination.

“Yes, absolutely,” she affirmed. Ms. Shae let out an anxious sigh before turning her attention to the board behind her, which had morphed into a screen displaying the question. 

“I’m locking in Rosalind Franklin,” she declared, a slight tremble remaining in her voice.

“That answer is…” the voice boomed, leaving a suffocating silence to build suspense. Ms. Shae was visibly sweating, while Natalie clasped her hands over her face.

“...Correct!”

Ms. Shae leapt up from her chair, bouncing up and down in jubilation as celebratory music blared from the invisible speakers. The class erupted in applause, giving our teacher a standing ovation. I rushed to follow suit and blend in, feigning excitement for my teacher’s big win. Ms. Shae and Natalie embraced in a tearful hug while confetti rained down from the ceiling. The whole class was aflame with excitement.

Then the scene stopped. The overload of music and cheering died in less than a second, giving way to unnatural silence. The confetti hung still in midair, Ms. Shae and Natalie remained locked in an unmoving hug, and the entire class held their hands in awkward clapping motions. I thanked my quick reflexes, stopping my own movements before Henry had a chance to notice. He was holding the remote out once more, having just paused the scene in front of him. 

“Fuck, gotta piss,” he said to nobody in particular, sliding the remote into his pocket and speedwalking out of the room, leaving me alone among my immobilized classmates. 

I sighed, sliding back in my chair and letting my head hang freely over the back. As I stared numbly into the white tiled ceiling I took the opportunity to gather my thoughts. Today’s interference wasn’t as bad as some others had been, but it didn’t mean I was happy about it. I missed normal lessons, I missed talking to my friends without worrying that they might turn into different people mid-coversation. 

I didn’t think anything of Henry when he first transferred to our school early on in my senior year, but that ambivalence was incredibly short-lived. I realized that Henry was more than your simple high school student when he walked up to the front of the gym in the middle of an assembly and declared himself king of the school. I chuckled, leaning over to crack a joke about it to Emily only to find her bowing down in his direction, along with hundreds of other students, teachers, and staff. Not knowing what else to do, I joined them. 

For the rest of the day girls were fanning him with palm leaves and feeding him grapes while he sat on a throne he had materialized into the middle of the gym with a snap of his fingers. He made the football players fight like gladiators, had the choir serenade him, and had various students that caught his eye perform a sensual strip tease in his honor. To my horror at the time, one of them was my sister Valerie. That first day when I truly had no idea what was happening was beyond terrifying.

I remember the way Emily looked at me like I was crazy when I asked her what was going on. “We’re worshipping the king, Derek, are you feeling alright?” I was able to fly under the radar that day by laying low and avoiding him as much as I could, but staying undetected had proven a challenge ever since. I have no idea why I’m the only one who’s immune to his influence, but keeping up with his reality-bending shenanigans had been utterly exhausting ever since. I’d avoided detection for three months, and I knew that I could keep my head down until graduation if I tried hard enough, but I really missed my old, boring life. I missed being able to show up to school knowing that my reality would be consistent with everyone else’s. It had felt like a long time since that was a guarantee.

I stood up from my desk, stretching out my neck and my arms while I had the chance. There was no telling when I’d next have to hold an awkward pose to blend in. I turned to look at Emily, frozen mid clap with her mouth open in a wide, congratulatory smile. I actually wished I could be unaware like her, that I could go to school without knowing anything was wrong. I wished I could just accept the chaos like everyone else, but I couldn’t. Unlike everyone else, I saw what he did, and I remembered it, too. I didn’t want myself or anyone I care about to be a target of it. That’s why I needed to remain hidden, the less interesting I was to Henry the better. 

Moreover, I had no idea how he would react if he learned somebody was immune to his abilities. How would a god react to learning their domain was less than infinite? I didn’t know what Henry was, let alone who, so gauging his reaction to anything was near impossible. If I ever became a target of his for any reason, there would be virtually nothing I could do to fight back. It would be game over. All the more reason to stay hidden and keep my head down until I could get far, far away from him.

I looked Emily up and down. It wasn’t every day that I could observe the effects of Henry’s powers like this without him present. I tried waving my hand in front of her face to no reaction. I poked her cheek. It was soft, but she remained immobile and unaware.. Carefully, I slid my hand into hers, interlocking our fingers and caressing her frozen palm with my thumb. It was still warm, despite her unusual condition. I gazed at her face, letting myself get lost in her pale blue eyes for a fleeting moment while I held her hand. 

“I wish I could do more to protect you, Em, but I promise I’ll do everything I can,” I whispered to my frozen friend.

Hearing footsteps approaching, I quickly returned to my desk, assuming the same pose I had been in before. Henry marched back into the room, returning to his spot at the side of the room and hitting play on the remote. The scene roared to life again, with Ms. Shae ecstatic to have won the million dollar prize with Natalie’s help. Moments later, the celebrations died down and Natalie began to return to her seat. 

I watched as Henry hit another button on the remote. To my surprise, the scene began moving in reverse. Natalie walked backwards, reversing onto the stage and back into an embrace with Ms. Shae. The class stood back up, producing an indescribable sound by clapping in reverse. Henry paused the scene again as the student and teacher embraced, a devious grin forming on his freckled face. 

Henry pressed a button on the remote, altering the scene once more. Ms. Shae and Natalie held their embrace, but were now both dressed in lacy black lingerie. The desk had been replaced with an ornate, red velvet sofa, and the screen behind them had become a roaring fireplace. Even the lighting had changed, the blaring spotlights of the game show set replaced by the warm glow of the fire and a few small tinted lamps dotted around the room. Henry hit play on the remote, starting a new scene.

Natalie jumped back a little bit. “Oh! I’m so sorry, I-” she began before being cut off as Ms. Shae placed a delicate finger over her lips.

“Darling,” the teacher whispered, “you have nothing to be sorry about.” Ms. Shae cupped her hands over the shy blonde’s cheeks, staring deeply into her eyes as she pulled the girl in for a deep, romantic kiss. I was pretty sure Ms. Shae had a fiancé, but I doubted that was a concern for Henry. What started as a slow, passionate kiss quickly evolved into a passionate makeout session. Ms. Shae held Natalie’s head firmly in place, hungrily exploring her mouth while Natalie ran her hands up and down Ms. Shae’s back, sliding her fingers under her bra strap as she traced her hands the teacher's smooth skin.

It wasn’t long until the women were stripping each other down, tossing what little clothing they had haphazardly to the corners of the room. Ms. Shae laid down on the sofa and Natalie fell on top of her, kissing her body as her head moved further down. Soon Natalie was on her knees at the end of the couch while Ms. Shae stared down at her with a wicked grin. She placed her hands around the back of Natalie’s head, guiding her mouth onto her waiting pussy.

Natalie, holding no trace of the reserved girl I was familiar with, began feverishly licking her teacher’s clit, eliciting a wave of moans and gasps from Ms. Shae. The teacher’s body began convulsing with pleasure, her supple thighs tensing around Natalie’s head as she continued to go down on her. Natalie’s eyes were closed, fully immersed in the task in front of her. She alternated between long, teasing licks and intense, focused tongueplay while Ms. Shae drank in the experience, quickly becoming overwhelmed with pleasure.

It was nothing I hadn’t seen before by this point, but to call the shift from teacher and student to passionate lovers jarring would be a wild understatement. I glanced over at Emily, finding her still taking notes despite the scene in front of her. I was glad I stopped her from raising her hand when I did, otherwise she would have been the one eating out our teacher in front of the class. I couldn’t protect everyone I cared about from Henry’s influence, but I needed to take opportunities to get them out of his way when I could. It was my one, tiny act of rebellion.

My thoughts were quickly interrupted by Ms. Shae reaching climax, her whole body tensing and shaking while Natalie gripped her thighs, her head buried in the teacher’s pussy. As Ms. Shae fell into a state of post-orgasm bliss, Natalie emerged from her legs, tenderly crawling over the couch and lying at her side. The two women laid side-by-side, holding each other in a loving embrace while they softly kissed and caressed each others’ bodies. 

Then they stopped, as did the rest of the room. Henry had paused the scene once again. He hit another button on his remote, causing the women to rewind for a second time. Natalie crawled in reverse back down to the end of the couch as Ms. Shae was once again thrust into the throes of passion. It seemed like Henry had found a scene he liked, one he wanted to see again. As a side effect, I too witnessed the scene once more, watching Ms. Shae receive orgasm after orgasm from Natalie while Henry admired from the sidelines. 

In spite of how much I just wanted Henry to get bored and move on, I couldn’t deny how hot it was. I felt myself getting hard watching it over and over, the way Ms. Shae’s body convulsed with erotic joy every time she hit the apex of her looping climax. Not everything Henry did was enjoyable to me, not by a longshot. I could only find anything appealing about this moment because I wasn’t particularly close with its participants. Not to mention that I wasn’t likely to get caught. Other situations he brewed tended to be a lot more tense.

Eventually the ringing of the bell snapped me out of my distracted state. First period was over, thank goodness. I began gathering my things alongside the other students, doing my best to blend in as usual.

“Well, that was fun!” Henry declared, snapping his fingers and causing the remote to vanish into thin air. The remote was a new idea of his, usually he just snapped his fingers to make stuff happen. I guess even a god, or whatever he was, needed to shake things up once in a while. 

“As for you two…” he pondered, eyeing the lovers in front of him, still trapped in the throes of passion, “Ah, I know!” 

With a snap of his fingers, the women' s hair and skin was replaced by smooth white marble. They remained entwined in a stone embrace, a statue that wouldn’t be out of place in a classical art museum. A chill ran down my spine, realizing that he had just transformed two living beings into stone with little more than a thought. Experience taught me he would turn them back eventually, I’d never seen Henry permanently alter anybody with his powers, but it was still an unsettling sight. For now, my teacher and my classmate were nothing more than decorations until Henry decided to free them. 

I wandered out of the room with the rest of my classmates, trying not to stare at the new marble sculpture on the way out. Emily quickly caught up to me, stepping to my side.

“So, what was up with that question? Why did you stop me from answering?” Right, of course. That was what Emily had questions about after that class. Not any of the reality-altering nonsense Henry pulled, but my subtle attempt at preventing her from meeting Natalie’s fate.

“Yeah, I… Umm…” I stammered, conjuring the best lie I could on a dime, “I thought you were gonna say Francis Crick.”

“Dude,” Emily responded with mock indignation, smacking my arm, “The guy that stole Rosalind Franklin’s discovery? You really think I would have gotten that wrong?”

I shrugged, not knowing how else to respond. Emily rolled her eyes.

“Honestly, Derek, you’re a great guy but sometimes I swear you have no idea what’s going on around you.”