On my way home I bumped into my sister, Zoe. She was 16, two years my junior, and very different from me. Where I was a quiet, introspective type, with few but good friends, she was outgoing, spontanous and confident in herself. She dressed in dark colours, wore lots of makeup, and had long, bleached-blonde hair. In other words, she looked like a typical goth. Today, she was dressed relatively normal, in a pair of tight leather trousers, some reddish top and a trenchcoat.
"Hi, Jon," she said as she approached me. "What's up?"
Despite our different nature, or maybe because of it, we had a good relationship. We shared a couple of friends, had similar tastes in music and movies, and generally got along far better than siblings according to popular culture should. However, secretly I envied her for her popularity and confidence.
"Not much," I replied. "Just sat here talking to Karyn. She just left, and I was on my way home." We walked home together, and arrived just in time for dinner. The rest of the day was spent doing homework and playing some games on my Playstation. Just before going to bed, I remembered the stone in my pocket, and walked down to the hallway to get the box. On my way back up to my room, I had an idea.
"I wish I was more like Zoe," I said, taking the stone out of the box. Nothing strange happened, and I assumed it had just altered my personality slightly. Hiding the box, I went to bed.
