The Jon who was with Karyn at the phones at school waited for her to finish. "Any luck?" she said.
"Who... oh. Jon! I guess I should have remembered what you look like but it is pretty obvious. Aren't those clothes a little, oh, inappropriate for school?"
"Yeah, I was surprised but I figured that I wore the same amount of fabric total, split among two people."
"Huh? Jon, you weren't surprised like that when I split in two."
"True. Hmm, maybe it works differently. Maybe it's just the same as whatever clothes I wore before the split. Or maybe I have to do it by thought. Or something. Maybe I should wish that the clothes split up in a way that would cause me the least problems."
"Not now, Jon. We're going to mess up wishes if we don't take the time to plan them out first."
"So anyway, Karyn, what did they say?"
"I just spoke to Eric, the one of me who's on the bus is calling Stephanie. I have the location, we just meet at the front gate at 4:30."
"And the other one of me is calling Gabe, so I'd better call Pete."
Jon put her money in the phone and dialed Pete while Karyn went off to talk to her history teacher. "Hello?" said the voice on the other end.
"Hi. Pete? I just need to be sure about exactly where we're meeting and when."
"It's 4:30, babe. At the front gate."
Jon was a little surprised at that remark since she wasn't used to being treated as a girl at all, let alone dating as one, but kept her composure. And somehow she found it not unpleasant to be liked by a boy, anyway. Must be hormones. "But who's meeting who?"
"Uh, Jonnie, it's me, Gabe, and Eric, with you, Karyn, and Stephanie."
"Yeah, but it's supposed to be something of a triple date, so who's with who?"
"Jonnie, are you sure you don't turn into two bimbos? Once we separate it'll be me and you, Gabe and Karyn, and Eric and Stephanie.
"But there are two of me."
"Yeah, like I told you, I don't mind if you both come with me, but you never wanted to do that before. You said it was hard enough getting used to girl things at all, you didn't want the strange looks you'd get if you seemed to be two girls dating the same person. Did you change your mind?"
"I'm not sure. Anyway, I'll talk to you later."
"Okay, see you!"
After hanging up, she triggered the power, combining into one Jon, again male. It was confusing trying to remember the last few minutes as two people but he must have been used to it in the new reality, because it wasn't that hard to recall everything. The second Jon (it wasn't the 'other' Jon--he was both of them) had called Gabe on the bus and pretty much gotten the same answer from him as Eric. She had gotten off the bus and was outside her home, where the two Jons had merged.
Now it was time for a few wishes. As Karyn had said, Jon really should take time to think about them. He went to his room, sat down, wrote the wishes down and looked them over, and finally made them.
"I wish that if I'm split into two people and one of us hears the wish, it counts as if both have heard the wish. I wish the same for Karyn." That was important--Jon didn't want to split into two, make a wish, and have half of him think things were always like that and the other half think they weren't.
"I wish that when I'm two people and I combine, or when I'm one person and I split, what we wear changes sex and size if needed, and combines or splits in the way that seems best. I wish the same for Karyn." That one was also important. There were so many different ways clothes could split or combine, that Jon couldn't possibly list all of them. So his wish had to be vague, yet clear enough that he won't become half naked by accident.
Jon tried a few experiments. He had on a white Star Wars T-shirt and slacks; he split into two girls and each one had on an identical white Star Wars T-shirt, and a dress in the same color and fabric as the slacks. They both thought they looked pretty attractive. They also had on female underwear--Jon's male underpants had become female underwear, even though that included a bra and was more fabric than he had started out with.
Jon combined again and tried another split, thinking about it differently. This time he became two girls with the same shirts and wearing slacks that looked the same.
The next experiment was for one to change her shirt to a plain black one. When they merged, the now male Jon had a grey Star Wars shirt on--the white Star Wars shirt and the plain black one had combined. Looking at the shirt that one of his female halves had taken off, Jon realized he now had an extra shirt, and chuckled. But if he really wanted extra clothes, he could just wish for them anyway.
Soon Karyn came and they walked together, taking the thirty minute walk to the fairgrounds. On the way, Jon and Karyn got all their information straight--it seemed Karyn wasn't split at the moment, and she hadn't been able to contact Stephanie. Jon explained the extra wishes, which Karyn agreed did make sense.
They finally reached the fairgrounds. Waiting for them were Pete, Gabe, and Eric.
"I see everyone's here," said Karyn as she walked over to Gabe, who seemed happy to see her. "Except for Stephanie."
"I don't know where Stephanie is," said Eric. "If she isn't here in another ten minutes, I'm going to call her."
"Jon!" said Pete. "You'd better change..."
"I know," said Jon, and split into two girls in identical outfits--a blouse, skirt, and everything else with colors and designs just like what he was wearing as a guy. Neither girl had more jewelry than a watch--Jon's watch, now duplicated but with the wristband in a narrower, more feminine, style. While Jon could duplicate the watch when he split he couldn't just make earrings or necklaces that didn't exist at all.
"Did you really want to come as two people?" asked Pete. "You know I won't mind. Or was one of you going to stay home like you usually do?"
