Jim Reid considered himself a lucky man. At thirty-two he had settled into a pretty comfortable life. For the last five years he had been assigned to a large middle school as a Phys Ed teacher. Unmarried, he managed to continue to play the field, and he liked it that way. He dated regularly and actually liked a few of the women he dated enough to consider marrying them, but always at the last minute he would back off, uncommitted. He resigned himself to the fact that he was not the marrying kind and he chose to devote a lot of his time to the children under his care. He coached a variety of sports depending on the time of year, and offered his help to the Principal whenever he could, aiding the discipline office or helping the guidance counselors. He hoped eventually to become a principal himself, but for now he was content with teaching, coaching and devoting himself to the school.

All this was to change when he met William Earle, also known as Billy the Kid.

Billy had only been at school a week when the Principal asked Jim to consider taking this kid under his wing. Billy, only twelve years old, had been moved from school to school—behavioral program to behavioral program, juvenile home to juvenile home. On his last release he had been assigned to a family named Philby in this school district and he showed up with a file bigger than a briefcase and an attitude bigger than the state.

The first day Billy was at school he threatened Mrs. G, his English teacher, told Mr. R. his Social Studies teacher to fuck-off, was caught smoking in the washroom during lunch, kicked the vice-principal in the shins, made an obscene pass at his Biology teacher, broke the baton of his music teacher and skipped his detention after class. Needless to say the school was not enamoured of him.

Since everything had already been tried with Billy, the school did not know where to turn or what to do. Jim Reid had had considerable success with some very hard core cases, so they decided to transfer him out of Biology (the teacher actually threatened to quit if he wasn't removed) and into Phys Ed. His beginnings in Phys Ed were not exemplary either. He and another boy had stayed behind in the locker room to share a cigarette. When they came out Jim could smell the smoke on them and he accused them of the act. The companion looked frightened and panic stricken, but Billy looked Jim right in the eye, and said: “So fuckin’ what!” Jim grabbed him by the back of his shirt and transported him down to the office where he intended to have him spend the rest of the class. He would talk to the boy after class. By this time the office had almost come to expect the boy as a visitor each period. There was no one he hadn't alienated.

After the class Jim decided he would try a different approach. He told the boy that they were going out for lunch. He wanted to talk to him on neutral ground. They went to a nearby McDonalds's and the ploy seemed to be working. Once off the school grounds Billy started to treat Jim a little more respectfully and after a while started opening up to him.

The background of the boy appalled Jim, although he didn't know at this point if he could believe it all. Finally, Billy was getting antsy to have a cigarette and didn't seem to want to talk anymore. Jim told Billy how sorry he was that he was smoking at such an early age and how bad for his health it was going to be.

Billy countered with: “Yeah. You have no idea what it's been like to be me. You'd smoke too.”

“You're right. Sometimes I wish I had been in shoes like yours so I could understand better.”

“No shit. Well, I'd give anything to be you instead of me.”

Suddenly their worlds reversed. Their wishes came true for whatever crazy thing fate had planned.

Jim suddenly was looking at himself. So was Billy.

“What the fuck!” said the older man.

“What's happened?” said the boy.

“I don't fucking believe this! Shit. I'm you!”

The boy who used to be Billy was stunned into silence.

They tried for a few minutes to make sense out of what had just happened. Jim, now Billy, started to panic. “Oh my God. We have to get help. This is impossible. Oh my God! What am I going to do?”

“I guess that's your fuckin’ problem—Billy. I think I got the best of this deal.” He reached over and grabbed the cigarettes in front of Billy, took one out and lit it.

“Hey, what are you doing. There's no smoking in here! I don't smoke!”

“You do now, runt.” He took a deep drag on the cigarette, but his new body, not accustomed to smoking, started choking. He was glad he had stolen Marlboro Lights from his foster father rather than the Reds he was used to.

“See, I told you.”

“Tough shit. I'm gonna learn. Now listen here motherfucker. I'm you now and I like being you. If you fuckin’ say anything to anybody about this, I'll tell him or her your crazy and it won't take much to lock you up. Not with *my* background. From now on I'm Jim and you're Billy. Got that straight, fuck ass?”

“You're gonna need me,” said the new Billy. “How are you gonna know things you need to know.”

“What do you mean?” He took another drag of the cigarette. It was getting easier.

“There are lots of information type things that you need to know—where I live, my bank account, my friend's names—all sorts of things.”

“I know—I'll get the Principal to suggest that you come and live with me for a while -those fucking Philby's will be fuckin’ glad to get rid of me anyhow. Particularly when he discovers I borrowed a couple a hundred from his wallet this morning. They may even send you back to detention for that!” He laughed as he drew deeply on the cigarette and noticed that he had stopped coughing. The taste was still odd and somewhat unpleasant yet.

Luckily when they returned to school (they had walked over to McDonalds—s) Mr. Philby had already contacted the school about the robbery and had arrived to confront the boy. When Jim suggested that perhaps he could move in with him, Mr. Philby was all to happy to get rid of the boy and said he wouldn't press charges.

By the time all this was decided upon, the afternoon was over and Jim had missed his afternoon class. Luckily he had no game tonight, so on the new Billy's advice, and he cancelled the practice and took off for home.

Driving was the first big obstacle. Luckily the old Billy had stolen a few cars so he had actually driven a number of times. Still, it was different driving in city traffic in the daytime than it was on empty roads late at night. Since Jim didn't live far from the school, the ride home went fairly smoothly.

That night Billy watched as the new Jim began to taste his freedom. Billy couldn't stand to watch himself smoking, much less drinking heavily, swearing prolifically and eating things that hadn't been in his mouth or stomach for years. He got very frightened when Jim said he was going out and he wanted to tag along just to protect his old body, but Jim wouldn't let him.

Jim called in sick Thursday and Friday. Over the four days he sold his car and picked up a Harley. The ten thousand that Jim had managed to save was taken out of savings and Jim went on a spree. He bought clothes that were much more to his liking, particularly a very expensive leather jacket. For the first time in his life he had all the smokes he wanted, having bought a couple of cartons on Wednesday night. Also on Wednesday night he had picked up a hooker downtown and he had his first sex with a girl in a seedy motel—but in his eyes a little bit of heaven. He loved being a big guy; he loved being Jim.

His biggest problem now was what to do with his old self. The kid was sure to spoil all this for him if he had a chance to. He solved the problem by drugging Billy and keeping him locked in the spare bedroom. He would tell the school that the boy had run away, and that would be that. And now on to the good life!

The changes that took place in Jim were noticeable to a number of people at his school. The science teacher, Miss Jeffrey, noticed most notably the change. When Jim was Billy he had been immediately turned on by the buxom brunette but his immaturity had caused him to be very vulgar around her and for that he had been punished in the office.

His lust for Miss Jeffrey had not subsided and so he decided that his new self would try to fuck Gladys Jeffrey. He roughly asked her out on a date, and she accepted. Little did Jim know that she had been hoping for a year that he would ask her out.

The boys in gym class knew quite quickly that something had changed. Their favorite teacher seemed so different. He wore his hair differently, smelled of cigarette smoke, swore at them—and generally didn't give a shit what they did. There seemed to be a whole new set of rules in the class. Jim seemed attracted to the rebels of the class, pulling them aside and spending a good part of the period talking to them. Actually what Jim was doing was preparing to use the kids for a little scam he was dreaming up to get some extra cash. He was going through Jim's savings too quickly.

The new Jim was really enjoying watching the new Billy squirm. He could tell that Billy wasn't feeling all that well, either.

That night he forced Billy to suck in the smoke from one of his cigarettes, holding him down until he did. The smoke went into new Billy's experienced lungs and the pleasure that the new Billy got from it confused him. Jim laughed to see that his old body still desperately wanted the nicotine, even though its new owner didn't know it. From that point it was easy to keep Billy smoking and the new Jim got a big kick out of feeding his old habit, both in the old Jim and in the new one.