Jon had made her way down the hall and was nearly back in her room when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs at a fast clip. She turned to look behind her, just as her mother came up the stairs. Mrs. Madison looked at her and gave a relieved sigh. "Oh, there you are," she said. "I was worried that something might've happened to you."
"Uh, sorry," Jon said, still surprised by her new voice. "I didn't think of that, and I saw you were on the phone..."
Her mom nodded. "I see. Well, I probably shouldn't worry so much, anyway. But shouldn't you be in the pool? Are you sure it's okay for you to do this?"
"I think so," Jon said. "I got up here okay, and I've been feeling fine the whole time."
"Well, just promise me you'll get in the water if you start feeling dry or itchy. How are you feeling otherwise?"
"Okay, I guess," Jon replied, trying to think of a plausible answer. "I mean, I'm not enthusiastic about this, but I think I can live with it, given some time."
"That's my girl," her mom said. "But you don't always have to put a brave face on it. If you're ever having trouble or you just need to talk, don't hesitate to come to your dad or I, okay?"
Jon nodded, and she smiled. "All right. Well, I'm going to see if I can find some things of mine that will fit you. We'll need to take you clothes shopping later today, but I can't very well take you to the mall topless. Call me if you need anything, sweetie." She turned and headed down towards the other end of the hall and her room.
With that over, Jon went into her room and shut the door. Time to end this! She reached one tentacle over to the nightstand...
And the stone wasn't there. Jon looked again. No stone. Nor had it somehow fallen into the drawer, or on the floor. A panicked search ensued, but ten minutes and a lot of adrenaline later, it became apparent that the stone wasn't anywhere in the room. Where was her stone? Could someone have stolen it? Had she mislaid it? What was she to do? Without the stone, she really would be stuck as this squid-girl thing for life, and she didn't think it would nearly as easy to get used to as she'd told her mom.
She thought about it. Her mom might have thrown it away in a fit of neatness, but it was obvious from the state of the room that her mom hadn't been in there since she woke Jon up that morning. Mikey sometimes borrowed things without asking, but a rock? He wasn't six years old, for God's sake. As for Zoe, she was generally too good about asking permission to be a good suspect.
But then, who would have taken it, if anybody had? More importantly, where was it now, and how could she get to it? She had no idea, but maybe-
Karyn. That was it. She'd call Karyn for advice. It was a school day, but maybe Jon could catch her between classes.
