Jon spotted their school bus approaching through Karyn's window. "We really gotta go now!"
Whew, thought Karyn. "I'll explain later ... not on the bus, not in class ... not where people can hear."
"Okay," said Jon. They ran out of Karyn's house, giving Mrs. Black, no, Mrs. O'Brien quick waves goodbye before dashing to the bus just in time.
Jon and Karyn usually talked on the way to school but Karyn was too disturbed to say a word. She had to figure out what to reveal to Jon. She couldn't lie to him, but she could hold back ... but how much? He'd figure out sooner or later that he lost his mother. Maybe he already had. He knew that she had lost her father and gained Lauren's father. "Jon ..." whispered Karyn. "Did you see Lauren get on the bus?"
Jon lowered his volume to match hers. "No ..." He realized what she was hinting at. "Oh no ..."
Karyn struggled to hear him. The other kids were so loud. They had nothing to hide, unlike them ... and especially unlike her. How could she have done this to Jon? She didn't know she had the Omission Stone. She didn't mean to delete his mother. But she did it. Maybe it was fair that she lost her father. Nonetheless she still felt guilty. More guilty now. I might've messed up Lauren's life too, thought Karyn. Even though I never cared for her, still ...
As soon as Jon and Karyn got off the bus, they walked together to their homeroom, assuming no one could hear them.
"If Lauren's dad is my dad now," said Karyn, "and if Lauren isn't on the bus, she's sick or she's changed so that she's not a student anymore. Not a high school student, at least. Either way, she's probably not an O'Brien anymore unless she became her uncle's daughter or something. She's not my sister or else she'd have left the house with us."
"Maybe you're the daughter of some uncle of Lauren's," suggested Jon. "Lauren could still be intact ... at home in bed. Unlike us." Jon clenched his fist. "Why is the stone doing this to us?"
"Jon, we're almost at homeroom. At least we can still walk. It could've turned us into quadriplegics or something. We'd tell everybody we used to walk and they'd think we were crazy."
"Yeah ..." Jon entered their homeroom with Karyn right behind him. Two walking side by side couldn't fit through a doorway. They both stopped when they saw their homeroom teacher Miss Robertson. Kelly Robertson was gone. In her place was ...
