onyx: poltergeist

twenty-four

ADAM

My head hurts. It's hard to explain how I got it, I couldn't remember anything that could have made me feel that way. The only thing I do remember though, was how the hallway was spinning and the lights were dimming before the world suddenly went black.

I blinked repeatedly until my vision finally cleared up. First thing I made out from my surroundings was that I wasn't in the hallway at all, second was that I woke up in such an awkward position - seated in a chair but slumped over by a table lazily, pressed against a stack of what smelt like papers.

Where am I? How exactly did I get here from the hallway? And why am I seated by a staff room office table face-planting against a stack of papers?

"Adam?" I made out the slightly muffled sound of someone calling out to me, "Adam, wake up."

Adam? I don't remember any students calling me by my first name, I've always stuck with "Mr Lambert" when it's coming to students.

I shifted myself back into an upright position, turning to the side to see who was calling my name. Turns out it wasn't a student standing on my left, the person I was staring blankly at was one of my colleagues, who was also a fellow teacher.

"You okay there man? You passed out," he raised a concerned eyebrow.

My gaze wandered from the questioning look from his face to the things at the table in front of me. Apparently everything on the desk seemed to belong to me - the files, the stationery box, the red ink pen threatening to roll off the edge, the open laptop which probably went to sleep leaving a dark blank screen on its monitor...

I briefly caught a glimpse of my reflection in the blank monitor and froze. Hold on, did I just see what I think I'm seeing?

"Adam?" my colleague asked over my shoulder.

"Wait," I whipped back to check my reflection in the laptop screen. There it was, my gelled coiffure and moustache, the familiar lip freckle and thick dark eyebrows.

The person staring back at me in the makeshift mirror...is me. Everything worked.

"Oh my god," I whispered under my breath, "I'm back."

"Who's back?" said the voice behind me. Great, now I feel guilty for leaving my colleague hanging.

"Uh, I meant I'm fine, I'm just really sleepy," I lied, forcing a smile back at him, "maybe I'll get a coffee for myself and I'll wake up."

"Well then," he pulled a face back at me, "it's best that you wake up soon, you missed your class after lunch and I had to grab a substitute to take your place."

Oh? Crap.

I lazily flashed him an 'okay' hand signal. "I'll settle myself, don't you worry," I reassured him, before he turned around to either return to his desk or rush to a staff meeting.

I turned back to the front of my desk, catching my pen before it dropped off the edge. The stack of papers in front of me were quizzes I was supposed to give to one of my freshman English classes, albeit halfway marked, but I was glad that Jayda really stepped into the role of a teacher to help me out. Not to mention how meticulous she was in styling my hair and picking out my outfit for school, so consider that as her stepping into my shoes as a whole, literally and figuratively.

I whipped out my phone from my pocket and opened the chat window to the Emergency group. I had to delete two entire conversations with Celine and Jayda off my phone before doing so, the last thing I want to happen to me is Mr Jackson calling me out for sending weird messages to a student, let alone two. Then again it's a heart-warming sight just seeing how the two best friends have their own down time on the phone with each other even when Jayda and I swapped bodies.