The Magic Students Disasterous Art Lesson

The Magic Student's Disastrous Art Lesson

By Gildsoul,  copyright 2017

Susie was dissatisfied with her art class assignment. Her class was at the nearby community college, Cloud Ten Community College for Magical Arts. Susie was living temporarily with her parents, this summer class would complete her basic college credits. She'd been accepted to the prestigious Transylvania Supernatural University, TSU. That fall she was going to move from home to a campus dormitory. Susie's high grade point average and high Supernatural Activity Test, SAT, score  was the reason she'd been accepted by TSU.

She sort of liked art, but found other areas of her education more interesting. She had to get an A in the art class as to maintain a high grade point average.

Susie was a pert twenty year old witch. She had short close cropped hair, framed by a set of dark horn rimmed glasses. She wasn't the prettiest girl in the college, but was above average in looks.

Susie sighed, she just wasn't into art that day, she had a case of artists block. Their assignment was to do a self portrait of themselves using a mirror. She'd finished sketching a pencil drawing on the paper and was just starting to apply acrylic paint.

“Merlin's mustache, I just can't get it right!”, Susie exclaimed as she tossed her paintbrush onto the mixing palette on her drawing table.

“Got the old artist block again Susie?” One of her close friends, Lori, at another drawing table to the right continued, “ Your artwork still looks better than mine!”

“Don't worry, you'll snap out of it!” Catherine, another friend at a table to the left commented, “Susie you have a knack for pulling off last minute miracles!”

Susie suddenly got a look of inspiration on her face and whispered to her friends, “I know how to finish on time and have the best looking self portrait in the class!” Her low voice loud enough for her friends to hear her and quiet enough to insure privacy.

“And how do you intend to finish your self portrait, Susie?”, Lori questioned in a hushed voice.

Susie, with an excited look whispered, “Lori, remember that class on advanced transformations we took last semester?”

“How could I forget, it was a hard class! Susie you aced the class, for you it was relatively easy.!”

“It came to me in a flash, instead of painting a self portrait, why don't I cast a transformation spell on myself. I could use blank paper and you both do a spell to turn me into two dimensional wet acrylic paint! The spell would bond me to the surface of the paper as a layer of paint and instantly dry me!” Susie murmured with a triumphant look.

Catherine spoke up in a low voice, “How can you turn in the artwork to the teacher when you're a layer of paint stuck onto a sheet of paper?”

“Easy!” Susie said softly, “After I'm transferred onto the sheet of paper you use a matter duplication spell on me and create an exact copy of the painting I've become! Then after the duplication is finished you simply use a re-transformation spell on me and bring me out of the painting! Then I turn in the duplicate self portrait!”

“That's a rather long set of steps Susie.” Lori interjected in a faint conspiratorial tone, “After you transfer to the painting you'll have to allow time for your form to stabilize before a matter duplication spell can be used. You'd have to remain a painting for at least an hour for the spell to work properly!”

“No problem, This is my only scheduled class, normally I go home at noon. Everyone will assume I went home!”, Susie continued in a secretive voice, “Then after an hour, you use the matter duplication spell on me. Then change me back to normal. I'll take my duplicate self portrait home in my art portfolio. Come Monday morning I'll turn in the duplicate!”

Lori and Catherine stood back a few feet, admiring their magical handiwork in the empty classroom. There, on Susie's drawing table was an excellent self portrait of Susie. Only it wasn't a self portrait, it was Susie transformed magically into a thin layer of paint on the heavy drawing paper. The spell also had made Susie look like she was made of brush strokes.

“Wow Susie, you should see yourself, you look great as an acrylic painting!”, Lori said, “I'll holdup the mirror you were using so you can see your reflection!”

Susie, if she could of, would of giggled in delight at the sight of herself in the mirror! Susie was completely immobile, a layer of dry acrylic paint on a sheet of paper. It was an odd sensation and yet rather pleasant. Susie the layer of paint thought, “ This is fun!”

Susie saw Lori and Catherine leave for their other classes, leaving her alone on the drawing table in the unoccupied classroom. After about forty five minutes several other students came into the classroom.

“There, those are the finished paintings we are supposed to gather up and take to the polyester coating and lamination workshop” One of the students said, as the finished paintings were gathered up,  Susie was one of the paintings.

“Oh no! I forgot about the plan to coat finished painings with a layer of protective plastic! Susie thought frantically, “As an inanimate layer of paint I can't move, speak or tell them it's me, I'm totally helpless!”

From inside the stack of paintings Susie could hear the muffled voices of the instructor and students in the class. Soon every sheet of paper, including Susie was removed from the stack.

“So students, first we mix a batch of liquid polyester resin with a liquid chemical catalyst to start the curing process that will harden the liquid plastic resin into a clear solid. We mix a small amount of catalyst in the resin to slow down the hardening process. The slow curing will give us enough time to thoroughly saturate the fibers in the sheets of paper with the clear liquid polyester plastic resin.” The teacher droned on, “Now we pour a thin layer of liquid plastic into the large metal trays on the table and make sure it completely covers the interior of the tray. Good, students, I see you've covered every bit of the metal trays in liquid plastic. Now we must hurry a bit before the liquid plastic begins to harden. Each of you take one of the sheets of paper and carefully lay it at an angle in the liquid plastic to avoid trapping any air under the paper..”

Susie felt herself lifted up and placed into one of the trays. Susie could feel a strange sensation within moments of being placed atop the liquid plastic. Susie realized it was the liquid plastic seeping into the porous paper she was bonded to. Susie could feel the liquid plastic chemically reacting to her flat acrylic self. Susie the paint layer had no sense of smell or taste. Yet it was like the familiar lavender scented chemical smell of liquid polyester, a tingly smooth wet feeling and an almost sweet taste all combined into a wonderful perfumery lavender smell/feeling/taste combination

“Now students pour the remainder of the liquid plastic onto the sheet of paper, completely covering it in the liquid.”

Susie could see the container of liquid plastic resin tip over above her and pour its lovely liquid essence onto her to completely cover and infuse into her.

“Now students, use the supplied roller to push out any bubbles from the paper and liquid plastic. Press down with moderate force and push the roller back and forth to expel any bubbles. The roller will force the liquid plastic to saturate the paper fibers.”

Susie felt the wondrous sensation as the roller passed over her repeatedly, each pass pushing out bubbles and forcing liquid plastic into every fiber of the porous paper sheet. Now the chemical reaction was on top of her, not just her underside. Susie could feel the polyester resin merging with her very substance, if she could talk she would of moaned with pleasure!

“Now students, now that any bubbles are removed, pour the last amount of liquid plastic into the trays to cover the paintings in a thin layer of liquid plastic. Once you finish don't touch the surface of the hardening plastic.. It will take about a half hour for the plastic to fully harden. Everyone take a half hour recess and when you come back the liquid plastic will have fully hardened.”

Susie lay there, luxuriating at the incredibly pleasant sensations she had as the clear liquid resin she was part of hardened into rigid plastic. A half hour later the students returned, the clear plastic was rock hard.

“Students, carefully remove the sheets of hardened plastic from their trays. It should be easy, the trays have a non stick coating on them.”

Susie, the layer of polymer paint embedded in a sheet of clear plastic felt herself lifted up out of the metal tray. He no longer felt flexible as she'd been when she'd been bonded to the paper.  Now she felt, hard and rigid. Next the students used a trimming tool to remove excess plastic from the edges of the plastic sheets. When the sheets were neatly trimmed the next phase began. The upper surface of the plastic was slightly wavy. This was fixed by laying each sheet onto a flat table and running a sander with fine grit over the plastic until its surface was completely flat. The plastic sheets then went under a polishing wheel to smooth the plastic surface to a glass like finish.

Susie, loved every moment, she was in a state of euphoria, it felt so good, it was unlike anything she'd ever experienced.

“Now students, the last stage to prepare the art for display. We will put them through a lamination machine that will use heat and pressure to bond a clear, tough layer of acrylic sheet onto both sides of the self portraits. Then they will be ready to be framed for display at the school art show.”

At two o'clock Lori and Catherine came into the art room to create a duplicate of Susie, and bring her back into the three dimensional world. Both stopped in surprise when the arrived at the drawing table where they had left Susie a few hours before. Susie was there, but looked different. Instead of a sheet of matte paper with Susie painted upon it, Susie was now a shiny, glossy sheet of plastic about an eighth of an inch thick! Lori gasped!

Lori picked up Susie, instead of flexible paper, Susie was an extremely stiff, hard sheet of rigid plastic! Lori held up the large sheet of stiff plastic and rapped it with her knuckles, the dull clunking sound of hard plastic came off the sheet!

“Oh oh, we forgot about the plastic coating and lamination class, Susie's been laminated!” Catherine exclaimed!, “Merlin's mustache! We're all going to get in a lot of trouble for this!”

“We'll be suspended for sure! We'll have to figure out a way to remove the plastic without altering Susie so much it'll be even harder to reverse her transformation!”

“Don't worry Susie, we'll find a way to get you out of there!” Lori said.

Luckily the duplication spell worked and soon an exact copy of Susie the laminated painting was on the drawing table.

“There, at least we have a copy of Susie to leave here!” Lori said.

Catherine spoke up, “Now how do we find a way to get Susie out of there!”

“Lori, we should take Susie to your place! There we can figure out a way to restore Susie before everyone starts to wonder where she's gone!”

They slipped Susie into a portfolio case and put the case in the trunk of Lori's car. They then drove to Lori's house. Luckily Lori's parents were gone for the weekend, giving them time and privacy to find a reversal spell.

There was one other detail they had to deal with. Tony, Lori's little brother. Tony was very smart for his age, showed above average magical potential and was a bit nosy. They didn't want him finding out about Susie's condition, he'd blab to Lori's parents and they'd be in real trouble!

“Whatcha got in the big folder Sis? Tony asked when they entered the house.

“Oh, just an art project of mine.”, Lori said as calm as possible, trying to hide her nervousness.

“Can I see it?, Tony asked

“It's nothing important.” Lori replied, trying her best to act normal.

“Sis, I can tell you're trying to hide something! If you don't show me what's in the folder I'll tell Mom and Dad!”

“No you can't, it's none of your business! You're always sticking your nose into other peoples business!”, Lori hissed with irritation. “Now scat!”

“I'm gonna tell Mom and Daddy, you're going to get in trouble, nah, nah, nah!” Tony said noisily as Lori and Catherine went to Lori's bedroom and locked the door behind them.

They removed Susie from the art folder and put the stiff sheet of laminated plastic on Lori's desk. There it stood, leaning upright at a slight angle against the wall.

They spent hours trying various spells, none of them worked! They were still unable to rescue Susie from her enchanted state!

Both decided to take a break from their magical labors and drive to a local drive in to pick up some burgers and fries.

While both the girls were gone Lori's little brother sneaked into his sisters bedroom, they'd forgotten to lock the bedroom door!

Spying the sheet of plastic Susie propped against the wall Tony figured that it was whatever his sister and her friend were trying to keep a secret from him.

He picked up the sheet of plastic and banged on it with his fist, liking the sound the hard plastic made when he hit it. After a minute of banging it in different places to hear the odd sounds the sheet of plastic made he stopped banging it. Tony started to think of what to do with the sheet.

He thought about using it for something. He could magically lift up the Formica top of the living room table and sandwich the sheet under the Formica, no, too hard!”

There were some cans of spray paint in the garage. He could spray paint it with silver paint and make it look like a sheet of metal and put it with the scrap metal his dad kept for minor repairs.

Tony remembered that his father had a potion that turned inanimate substances into different substances. Potions to turn things to marble, granite, bronze, brass, porcelain, glass or a host of other substances. The potion only worked on inanimate objects, a safety feature to prevent family members or pets from accidentally becoming a statue. Tony had been disappointed when he found out that the potions wouldn't work on people. He wanted to get even with his big sister by turning her into a statue, that would have been fun!

He could use the potion to turn the plastic sheet into actual aluminum instead of painting it silver! Then it would fit in with the scrap metal in the garage even better!

Or he could turn the sheet into rubber and put it in the bathtub so everyone would think it was a bathtub mat. Or hide it under the front door mat!

On a nearby street new asphalt was being laid down. He could make himself and the painting invisible and put the painting down flat on the pavement! Then the invisible painting would be covered in asphalt and become part of the road! No, that was too far to walk.

He could turn it into wax and melt it down, add a wick and it would be a great candle! No, it would take too much effort.

Then Tony remembered that just before his sister had arrived he'd accidentally broken a window in the garage. Not wanting to get in trouble for breaking a window he came up with an idea. He was too young to have mastered a reassembly spell and repair the broken window glass magically. He came up with a plan. The sheet of plastic looked like it was the same size as the pane of broken glass in the garage window!

Tony carried the sheet of plastic into the garage and held it up to the window. The sheet of plastic was almost the exact same size as the broken pane of window glass!

Tony carefully removed the broken glass and put the fragments in the trash. Standing on a chair to reach the window he was able to slip the sheet of plastic into the empty frame that had held the broken glass pane. The sheet of plastic was slightly smaller that the original glass pane,  it was a bit loose and jiggled slightly in the frame when he pushed on it. Nevertheless it fit well enough that no one would notice.

Tony went to the cupboard, standing on a step ladder he got out the glass potion. Going to the garage he pulled out a glass stopper from the bottle of potion. Upon the tip of the thin rod of glass sticking out of the stopper was a slightly iridescent drop of transformation potion. The stuff was very powerful, only a tiny drop would be needed for the plastic sheet.

Tony touched the center of the plastic sheet, in an instant the sheet of plastic turned into a sheet of clear glass! The plastic covering, the sheet of paper embedded inside the plastic and Susie all became transparent window glass! Tony looked carefully at the glass, there was no sign of the painted paper sheet. It looked like an ordinary pane of glass, it worked! Tony tapped the new window pane, it gave off a satisfying glass sound. He sighed with relief and proceeded to remove any sign of having been there.

Smiling evilly Tony left to visit the neighboring kids and play the afternoon away.

Lori and Catherine got home an hour later, they'd decided to eat at the drive in rather than go through the drive through get takeout. As soon as they entered the hallway leading to Lori's bedroom they saw that the bedroom door was ajar. Realizing that they'd forgot to lock the door they went into the bedroom to discover that Susie was gone!

“That little brat, I know he must of taken Susie!” Lori growled, twisting her hands in a strangling motion, “Tony, when I get my hands on you...”

Susie was aware the whole time, Lori's little brother had used her to replace a broken window pane in the garage. Susie first had to endure mistreatment when Tony first found her. The utter helplessness of that little brat picking her up and repeatedly striking her with his fist like she was a drum! Then holding her and looking at her with an evil grin, not knowing what he was thinking or going to do next. She could tell he was thinking something insidious, that was made it all the more unsettling!

He'd stood there for a while, he had been clearly thinking of different plans for her. He'd get thoughtful, put on an evil grin, then frown, clearly discarding what ever devious idea he was considering. Then repeat the same cycle of thoughtful looks, evil grins and frowns. This went on for a while, whatever number of evil plans he was considering and what they were was a mystery. Unfortunately as an inanimate object her magical powers were locked up, so she couldn't read his mind. After a number of obviously considered and discarded plans he suddenly lit up with a particularly evil smile and began to carry her along!

When Tony held her up to the broken window in the garage, obviously comparing her size with the cracked glass in the window frame she began to suspect. He'd leaned her against the garage wall, giving her a clear view of what he was up to. Susie witnessed Tony remove the broken glass from the window frame and put it in a trash bin in the corner of the garage. She found herself picked up and fitted into the window frame. Susie wondered why he'd think a laminated portrait stuck in the window wouldn't be noticed by anyone.

When Tony left the garage, she wondered what he was up to, it had to be more than just putting her in the window. He was gone for a few minutes, when he returned with his mischievous smile, holding a bottle of magic potion she guessed what he was up to. As the little brat came close she could read the label on the potion bottle. The label read, “Glass Transformation Potion”. Susie instantly knew what he was about to do! In the back of her mind she sort of admired his brilliant idea while condemning him for being an insufferable little brat!

She could see the tiny droplet of magic potion on the tip if the dropper, sparkling with latent energy as Tony moved it towards her. It touched her, instantly she felt herself become glass! It was another new sensation, quite pleasant, she felt definitely harder and stiffer after becoming glass. It was strange, yet exhilarating! She had changed from an ultra thin layer of paint upon a sheet of plastic saturated paper embedded in a plastic laminated sheet to a astonishingly thin layer of glass inside a glass window pane! She was transparent glass within transparent glass and thus invisible. She could actually feel the wonderful sensation of light shining through her physical essence. Susie felt a sense of utter peace and contentment, her irritation at Tony faded away, replaced with a joyous euphoria.

Susie could see with an astonishingly precise clarity, she could see the landscape of suburban lawns, trees and houses outside. Simultaneously she was able to see the interior of the garage with equal clarity. She saw a triumphant Tony running happily across the lawn towards a neighboring house. Susie didn't care, she was glass, part of a pane of glass in a window frame, that was her purpose now, glass, I am glass, I am a pane of window glass. I am happy glass, so happy, because I am glass, I'm part of a window, I'm so happy to be something useful, I'm glass.

Lori and Catherine looked all over the house for Susie with no luck. They went into the garage and didn't see any sign of the missing enchanted artwork. Susie could see both of her friends enter the garage, obviously searching for her, she couldn't speak or signal them in any way. She was a sheet of window glass after all, that was her reason to exist, let light in, allow people to see through her and keep the outside elements like rain, snow or dust from getting inside. Susie the window glass was now useful, she was so happy to be useful!

Susie's two friends left the house, calling Tony's name, he was nowhere to be found. They went in opposite directions along the street keeping an eye out for the little brat and the missing Susie.

Lori walked up the street with a mix of anger and dread. About a block away she saw that the next street was having new asphalt put down. A thick layer of hot asphalt was being flattened by a steam roller as a truck continuously dumped a thick layer of steaming, sticky hot asphalt coated gravel mix onto the roadway. For a second she had a fear that Tony might of tossed Susie in the path of the road building machinery. At that moment Susie might already be sandwiched under the hardening asphalt just smoothed out by the steam roller! Several hundred feet of asphalt had already been put down. Susie could be anywhere along the street under a thick hard layer of solid asphalt, as part of the roadway!

Along the street a new building site had a line of cement trucks unloading wet concrete into a building foundation. Could he of tossed the sheet of plastic into the concrete foundation being poured. Could Susie be embedded inside several feet of hardening concrete? She tried to avoid that thought.

Catherine, walking along in the other direction had similar thoughts. Up the street a waste disposal truck had just finished emptying a recycling trash bin into its hold and was driving away. Could Susie be among the trash inside the truck, on her way to be sorted, mixed with similar plastic, melted down and formed into blocks of recycled plastic and made into new plastic items? Susie, being an immortal magical being wouldn't die, but she could be trapped forever, her scattered consciousness part of soda bottles to irrigation pipes!

She circled back towards her friends house, taking a side path to cover more area. Nearing Lori's house from the back she heard some kids playing what sounded like a game of baseball. Past a set of shrubs and a fence she saw a baseball diamond and kids playing baseball. She saw a kid slide into home base tearing a pillar of dirt and dust from his feet. Catherine with a shock noticed that third base was a sheet of material about the size of the missing artwork. She thought with dread, could Susie be home plate? Looking closer she sighed with relief, the plate was too square to be Susie, she was more rectangular. But what if they'd sawed part of the plastic sheet off to make it square? That was too far fetched, she hoped!

As Catherine walked closer, scanning for Susie and Tony one of the kids at bat hit a home run. There was a crack of bat hitting ball and the baseball soared across the outfield to the excited shouts of the players. The ball arced towards Lori's house, it was going to hit their garage. There was a loud crash as the baseball struck a garage window and shattered the glass! The baseball disappeared into the garage interior to the unmistakable sound of breaking glass!

Then Catherine recognized one of the outfielders, it was Lori's brother Toni, staring at the broken window, upon his face was a look of sheer panic!

“You!”, Catherine yelled!, “Tony where have you been. We've been looking all over for you!”

To cries of, “Lets get out of here, and Oh boy, are we going to get it! The base ball players scattered to escape the inevitable wrath of the property owner whose window they'd broken.

Tony stood alone, with a shocked look, staring at the broken window, then at Catherine, back at the window, then he bolted and ran.

Catherine glanced to see if anyone was watching, pointed a finger surreptitiously at the running Tony and cast a minor spell. Tony fell over, the shoe laces on his tennis shoes having “accidentally” becoming tangled with each other causing him to trip.  

Catherine marched towards Tony, anger in her eyes as Tony struggled to untie the tangled shoelaces holding his feet together. Every time he got the shoelaces apart they'd magically retie themselves.

Lori heard Catherine's telepathic shout, “I've got him, I'm taking him to your house!”

Lori arrived breathless from running to find Catherine holding her little brat brother by his collar in the yard behind the house.

Lori roared between gasps of breath from her running, “Gasp, OK, you little varmint, Pant, where did you put the painting that was in my room?”,  His little brother stood silently, looking down with a defeated look.

“It wasn't my fault!” Tony meekly replied.

“What wasn't your fault?” Lori sternly asked.

“The broken window, Jimmy hit the home run that broke the window!” Tony replied sheepishly.

“The broken window is the least of your problems! Where did you put the painting you took!”, Lori hissed.

“The painting is in the garage.” Tony answered.

“Take us to it, and if it's damaged you are really going to get it!” Lori promised.

The three went into the garage, this time Lori had her brother by the collar.

“Where is the painting! Talk you little brat!, Lori's voice was full of menace.

“It's it's sca sca scattered on on the floor...” Tony pointed at the shards of broken glass strewn around the garage, his voice cracking with fear.

“What did you do, tell me!, Lori barked, “Tell me NOW!”

“I accidentally broke a window in the garage, I didn't want to get in trouble!” Tony replied, “I noticed that the painting was the same size as the window.”

“Then you did what?”

“I cleaned up the broken glass and put the painting in the window. It was almost too small to fit the window frame. It would jiggle loosely in the window frame only if you touched it, so who would notice?”

“ I don't see a painting in the window!”

“After I put the painting in the window I got out one of Dad's magic potions. I used the glass potion to turn the painting into glass as a replacement window pane!”

“WHAT ! You turned her, I mean it into glass! Using the potions you are forbidden to even touch!” Lori shouted! Oh, you are really going to get it! You go to your room now!”

Lori's frightened brother left, as soon as the door leading into the house closed both girls, visibly upset, got to work.

“Actinium, totalis restoreo transformus!” Lori waved her hands and every single fragment of glass, down to microscopic bits floated up into the air and merged together into the window frame. Lori carefully inspected the pane of window glass and saw that it was perfectly reconstructed. The glass pane was held firmly in the frame she had trouble removing the glass sheet and used a bit of magic to free it.

Soon the sheet of glass was back in its original location in Lori's bedroom.

“Don't worry Susie, we'll get you back to normal! First to undo the potion that turned you into glass.” Lori chanted a spell as she created a de glassing spell, “Glassium restoreo transformus normaus!”

The sheet of glass glowed slightly, but nothing happened, the painting was still a glass sheet!
Lori's mouth went dry with fear. Both tried to restore the sheet of glass without success.

“We must of gotten a step wrong, glass transformation potions are supposed to be easily reversed!” Catherine said, confused., “Lets go back each step to see what we missed.”

“I reassembled the broken sheet back into the window frame. Then I took the glass sheet out the window frame. The glass pane was hard to remove, it was so tight that I had to use magic to loosen the frame holding it.”

“Wait, that's it!”' Catherine spoke up, “When Tony told us when he put Susie in the window he said she was almost too small to fit in the window frame! He said Susie jiggled loosely in the frame when ahe was touched! Yet the glass sheet you removed was tightly fit to it's frame, so tight it was hard to remove! What if you removed the wrong pan of glass?”

They booth looked at each other for a moment and rushed to the garage. Once there they noted that there were two windows facing in the direction that the base ball had come from. Lori went to the other window, she noticed that its window sill was free of dust, as if it had been swept. Swept free of broken glass! Lori put her hand on the lower glass pane, it jiggled loosely in the widow frame. They had found the real Susie!

Lori, Catherine and Susie sat at the kitchen table talking and joking about their strange adventure. They were playing a board game, a bowl of chips, chip dip and beverages were on the table. They didn't worry about the inevitable food or drink stains getting on the table top. The table was covered with a nice plaid tablecloth.

Tony was the tablecloth, afterwards Lori intended to put her bratty brother tablecloth, into the washing machine and hang it out to dry on a clothesline. Once it was dry she intended to fold it up and place it in a drawer. A short period of the darkness and quiet inside a drawer, then she'd turn him back.  Tony was on summer vacation. Lori's parents weren't due back for another week. Yes, a week as a tablecloth would teach Tony a lesson!