Jennifer Taylor saw real concern on Linda Jennings' face. She's not faking, thought Jennifer. Not acting. I've seen great performances. This is beyond any of them. "What was this Sarah McMillan like?" Jennifer glanced at her watch. "We've got five minutes."
"I can describe her in five seconds," said Linda. "A blonde version of Lauren O'Brien. That's pretty much it. Or ... see those girls over there?" She pointed at a clique of Reese Witherspoonish freshman girls. "Like them, but our age."
"One of them looks familiar," said Jennifer. "Almost like ... Zoe."
Linda shook her head. "That's impossible."
"You changing your face is also supposed to be impossible."
"Just as impossible as you changing your face ... and hair color." Linda took out the stone. "I wish you looked the same as before."
The stone had previously swapped Linda and Jennifer's birthdays, causing Jennifer and her twin Sarah to be born with a different mix of their parents' genes. Now the stone was switching their birthdays back so that Jennifer would have the same genes as before.
"It worked!" Linda dropped the stone and hugged Jennifer, who was puzzled by the blond locks on her shoulders.
"What have you done to me!?"
Linda released Jennifer. "I restored you! You're taller! Even your voice is back to normal!"
"No, I feel funny, like I'm on high heels. I sound weird. And so do you! Your face changed again! Your hair too! We're both blondes now!"
Linda ran her fingers through fine golden hair. "Y-you're right." She didn't know that she had her old birthday back - but with a different mix of genes from Susan Jennings. This was her third genetic remix in less than an hour.
First, her original genes were given to Jon Madison when he became her new father Jon Jennings, the son of her original parents. She got half of Jon Jennings' genes plus another half from her first new mother who died ten years ago. His recessive blond hair gene was overpowered by her new mother's dominant dark hair genes.
Then she got a new mix of genes from Jon Jennings and his new living wife Susan. Linda had said she wished she had "a mom," not the deceased mother she remembered after turning into a teenager. This second time around, it was Jon who contributed a dominant dark hair gene.
And finally she got Jon's blond hair gene again plus Susan's blonde hair gene, resulting in her new hair color.
"Hey, Linda! Jenny!" Steve Farber was yelling from several feet away. "Lookin' good!"
Linda weakly waved back. "He ... recognized us. But how? He never paid any attention to us before. He's not into us theater people."
"But he is into blondes."
"And as far as he knows, we've ... gulp ... always been blonde."
Jennifer checked the time. "Two minutes. We gotta go, Linda."
"What's the point? What if we get kicked out?"
"We won't. If I didn't know this was magic, I'd go see the school nurse or a doctor instead of going to class. But after seeing how the rock rewrote my family's memories - after seeing Steve recognize us - I bet everybody will recognize us and think we're totally normal. So let's just play along for now until we figure out how to really correct ourselves." Jennifer envisioned her "old" brunette self that didn't even exist an hour ago. "Besides, we need to investigate what other changes might've happened - what other things need to be fixed. Maybe I did see Zoe with blonde hair. And at this rate, Steve will be in class before we are. And you know how much he loves classes."
"Not like I love them," said Linda, who followed Jennifer toward the classroom building. "Can't wait to rehearse, to be on stage. But I don't want to get into any more trouble with my dad for skipping that nonsense."
"And maybe your mom too. You have one again, assuming the stone works."
Linda wished Jennifer hadn't brought up her late mother. "I wouldn't make that assumption, not after what it did to us. Did it break last night or something? There are no magic stone repair guys around here."
"Just a lot of kids who shouldn't know about magic. Shhh, come on, let's go in ..."
Linda and Jennifer walked into their classroom. Jennifer had been right. No one noticed anything different about them. And neither of them realized that Linda had left the stone outside by the tree.
