The table could have seated six people. Actually sitting there were Karyn, Jon, and Jonnie. Jon and Jonnie had dressed the same this day, in jeans, sneakers, white socks, and a green T-shirt bearing a Cartoon Network logo. Their hair was pretty much the same and Jonnie's face was as it always had been a female version of Jon's. It was quite striking; they completely looked like twins, but they couldn't possibly be. About the only thing that could have drawn as much attention would have been a big-breasted blonde.
"I think they're staring at me," said Karyn.
"They're staring at us too," said Jon.
"A little bit, I think," said Jonnie.
As she spoke, one boy who had just glanced their way glanced away. There wasn't quite a crowd of people; just slightly more than average sitting at the nearby tables, and people pausing a bit when they passed the table. One guy introduced himself as Todd Burke and asked Karyn if she was seeing anyone, but she wasn't particularly interested in him. A girl looked at Jonnie, then at Jon and seemed about to ask something, but didn't.
Jonnie decided to answer what she was no doubt thinking anyway. "I'm Jon's clone. We have a cloning machine and clones can be opposite sex when we use it."
"Oh, that's interesting," said the girl.
"You aren't going to say 'there's no such thing'," replied Jonnie, knowing very well that that she wouldn't.
"No, I just never met a clone before. I'm Sydney Westmore."
"I'm Jonnie, and this is Jon, my, er... who I was cloned from." She grinned.
Saying outright that she was a clone drew some more attention. Nobody, of course, had met or even seen a clone before. The wish wouldn't let them think clones were impossible, leaving them to recognize that clones were just very, very, unusual, which was enough to make Jon and Jonnie celebrities until the novelty wore off in an hour or so.
"So how do you get a cloning machine?" asked one boy, who Jon later found out was named Dan DeVries.
"Oh, I inherited it from my grandfather," said Jonnie.
"But if you're a clone, you shouldn't have a..."
"Jonnie and me just about everything," explained Jon. "So we're sharing our relatives too. And we share our past too. Anything from before I was cloned happened to both of us, in a way. We're the same person up to April this year."
"You mean she feels just like she turned into a girl and can't change back?"
"Yes, I do," said Jonnie, "but Jon adjusted the machine a little. I'm still a guy in my heart, but this way it's not like being a transsexual. It doesn't make me constantly miserable."
"You mean you're a lesbian?" asked Sydney.
"I'm a lesbian except that there's one guy I like. Jon."
"Really," said Sydney. "So are you two...."
"I think we had better just say everything we can," said Jon. "I can hear people whispering more things than they're asking, and they're asking plenty. Yes, I am dating my clone. Yes, our parents are okay with it. No, we don't call ourselves brother and sister. No, we're not in the same dorm room, even though we tried. No, we're not telepathic; there isn't any such thing. And yes, you can borrow the cloning machine if you want; we tried to make some rules for it but they didn't work out. You just need to make a reasonable request, and remember that clones don't disappear when you want them to go away. Any other questions?"
One boy asked "So if your clone's your girlfriend, then your friend there isn't? I mean, the blonde."
