Later that afternoon, Jon was coiled up on her bed, wondering what was going to happen to her and wishing it would hurry up and be Friday already. She didn't know whether or not her grandfather would know where the stone was, or if he'd even know about the stone at all, but even if he knew nothing and she was stuck as a snake-girl for the rest of her life, at least she'd know; this uncertainty killing her.
But there was nothing to be done about it; Grandpa Morty operated on his own timetable, even moreso after Grandma Rachel had died some years back. He didn't have a cell phone, and even his home phone was off the hook a lot of the time; Jon gathered that in his years of archaeological globe-trotting he'd gotten used to not being at anyone's beck and call, and he refused to give that freedom up now. She could sympathize, but it definitely didn't make it any easier to get ahold of him.
So Friday it was. Even if he did know about the stone he probably wouldn't have it on his person, but she could at least explain the situation and ask him to help. The trick would be finding a good moment when she could be alone with him long enough to explain; if she tried to do it in front of her family, they'd think she was crazy. Of course, if her grandpa didn't know what she was talking about then they'd all think she was crazy, but that was a risk she was willing to take.
"Jon!" her mother called from downstairs. "Company's here!"
"Coming!" Jon replied, unspooling herself onto the floor and making her way downstairs. Moving in a serpentine fashion was a bizarre sensation, but her subconscious handled all the details, as long as she didn't think too hard about it. Which was good; she'd probably slip down the stairs and faceplant into the carpet if she tried to do it herself.
She arrived downstairs with no trouble and made her way over towards the kitchen. On the way she saw Mikey curled up on the couch with a book; Jon wished she could, but no, she had to do this visit thing. Oh well, best just to get it over with...
Sarah and her mother were waiting in the kitchen with Mrs. Madison. Jon's mother smiled. "Hello, dear," she said. "This is Sandra MacMillan, the lady I was telling you about this morning, and this is her daughter Sarah."
Jon nodded and put on a reasonably pleasant smile. "We've met, actually," she said.
"Oh, have you?" Mrs. MacMillan said. The two mothers looked pleasantly surprised. Sarah nodded. "Just a couple of times, but yeah; we're in the same class."
Sarah's mother smiled. "Well," she said, "now's your chance to get to know each other better, then. We were hoping you two could provide support for each other if you're ever having trouble with your new bodies."
Jon nodded and sat down as her mother poured up the coffee. With their mother's watching, the two naga-girls made a game attempt of getting acquainted, though neither of their hearts were really in it. To Jon's surprise, Sarah was actually fairly pleasant to talk to, outside of the context of high-school social games. Of course, that didn't mean she was going to be any more pleasant at school. Still, maybe it was her altered look and the fact that she was going incognito, but Sarah had seemed less overtly haughty this morning...
They talked for a while, drank a little more coffee, and then said their goodbyes. Jon hoped that this would be the end of it, but at least it hadn't been as bad as she'd feared.
That night, Chris slept soundly, as usual. the incident with Erica in the lunchroom that morning had been infuriating, but not enough to make him lose any sleep over it. He'd figure out a way to get back at the demon-girl and her freaky friend soon enough.
But if he had been paying attention when the teacher had been talking about viruses and means of transmission a couple weeks ago, he might have been more worried. The milk had been in the mouth of Erica, a recent transformee, and had wound up in his mouth. Mostly that was just disgusting, but it also meant that any viruses that hitched a ride from Erica were now loose in his own body, and that included the change virus. And Kevin, asleep in his own house in another part of town, had undergone the same thing...
