(Note:That was stupid of me. I got the timeline wrong. It's summer; no math tests.)
Jon(nie), her clone Jonnie, and Karyn were all sitting around in the Jonnies' room, discussing upcoming college plans. It seemed that Jon and Karyn had ended up going to the same college. Jonnie too, of course, even if they hadn't quite decided how to handle it. But Karyn was sharp enough to notice something slightly "off" about Jon. "Is something wrong?" she asked. "We've been friends forever. I can tell."
"Wrong with who?" asked Jon. "Me or my clone?"
"ither of you," replied Karyn. "It seems like you two are, I don't know, thinking about something."
"Sort of," said Jonnie. "We're always on the verge of not using the stone but we never get around to stopping. There are too many things you really need a magic stone to do. In fact... Well... I'm not really sure how to explain this."
"Let me do it," said Jon(nie). "Here's the story, Karyn. I already used it. We were going to tell you sometime, but we wanted to wait a while to see what happened."
"You were going to tell me..." answered Karyn. "Wait a minute. You used the stone? You did something to me? How could you? What did you do?"
"Take it easy," said Jon(nie). "I didn't do anything to you. Nothing more than a normal wish that affects memories because it has to. You see, I'm really a guy. Or do you remember that? We told you last time we were girls, but I'm not sure it carries over."
Karyn relaxed a bit. "Seriously? You used to be a guy and you wished to be a girl? That means you and your clone were going at it as guys. Ooh, that's hot."
"It's not like that," said Jonnie. "Jon was a guy, but when he cloned himself, I became a girl. So he was straight. I was straight except for him."
"You're confusing me. You were a straight girl except for liking a guy?"
"Karyn, we're Jon. We're both Jon. A guy. I just have a girl's body. We tried being girls, and everyone remembered us as straight girls. Everyone except us. Imagine that there was such a thing as a sexual orientation pill. It was like we had a bottle of them and every time we needed to go on a date with a guy, or wear dresses or something like that, we'd pop a pill. Except without the pills. Finally we said 'enough is enough' and wished to become lesbian girls. So we get to act a little more masculine and make out with each other. I think. Then we sort of decided to see what's different."
"That's what we were thinking about," said Jon(nie). "I wanted to know if things would be different between you and us. I guess it's not. Or if it is it's so subtle I can't tell. Did I ever go on a date with you, for instance?"
"Once," said Karyn. "It really didn't happen? Oh, man. I was so embarrassed. You asked me, you said it was an experiment, and I agreed. You told me you felt strange because it was me, but it was a lot worse on my end. It was like when you needed a pill to go on a date, except I didn't have either pills or stones."
"It did happen," said Jonnie. "Except Jon was a guy. It just felt strange for both of us but there was no orientation problem. Two weeks after that I started going out with Katie. Or if you want to get technical, Jon did."
"She's not a lesbian," said Karyn. "You started going out with Melissa. After you two broke up you inherited the cloning machine and the rest is history."
"It looks like most things are the same," said Jon. "Sort of."
"Not everything," explained Karyn. "I bet that if you're really guys you didn;t really go shopping with me in Victoria's Secret the other day."
"Well, no," said Jon(nie), "but I think I can guess that there are a bunch of new shopping trips, gynecologist visits, and such in history. I know that there has to be. When we were straight girls we ran across all of that. I just want to figure out if there's anything really big. Like finding that suddenly my Dad has disowned me because I'm gay."
"Hmm," said Karyn. "Not that I know of. What I don't get was, first of all, why you don't just ask the stone, and second, why you just went and decided to be a girl in the first place."
"Oh, that's my fault," said Jonnie. "I got tired of Jon always being a guy so I asked him to turn into a girl for a while. He was sweet enough to do it. And as for the other part..."
"As for the other part, I admit it," said Jon. "We don't really need to ask you." Jonnie nodded as Jon continued. "It's just that you're really the only other person in the whole world we can talk with if something did change. And hiding secrets gets to be a chore. I mean, yeah, we could wish that hiding secrets doesn't bother us."
Karyn giggled. "That's silly. You know what I'd advise? Maybe it's not right since I'm used to you being girls anyway, but I'd say to forget about expecting something special to happen just because you're girls. At least unless you want to constantly dwell on how amazing it is that you're going to Victoria's Secret and being called 'Ms'. Now, let's wish up some snacks...."
