"Hey Karyn..." Jon said, walking up to his friend after exiting the locker room.
"Hey Jon, how's it hanging?" Karyn asked, smirking.
"Funny, Karyn. You should take your act on the road." Jon said, rolling his eyes.
"Oh, come on. Don't get your panties in a bunch, I'm just having some fun with you." Karyn said. She then paused, looking at him more closely. "You...look a little different."
"Yeah, I know." Jon said, sighing. "The ring glowed in the locker room, and I changed some more. Clearly it's not gonna stop changing me. I've just gotta hope Athena can come up with some sort of solution."
"Yeah, about that..." Karyn began. "How much did you tell her, exactly?"
"Basically everything about my situation." Jon said. "I left you out of it, for now. I figured if she can figure out how to get my ring off, we can do the same thing with yours."
The conversation between the two was interrupted by the teacher taking attendance and announcing that the class would be playing soccer. As everyone began heading outside to go to the field, Jon looked back and saw Steve Farber talking to the teacher.
"What is it, Farber?" the teacher asked.
"I, uh, pulled a muscle in my leg while I was exercising at home yesterday, and think it's be best if I stayed off it as much as possible. You know, so it doesn't affect my playing." Steve said. On top of being one of the schools best football players, he was also a valuable member of the baseball team.
"Hmmm, it's not like you to make up excuses to get out of gym, Farber. I guess I can give you a pass for today. Rest that leg up, you hear me?"
"That's weird." Karyn said. "Steve never tries to get out of gym. He played through a sprained ankle after the big game last season."
"I know...this is all too weird. Sarah being out sick, Steve skipping gym, it's all too much to be coincidence." Jon said.
"Yeah, and he's not even playing the part well. That's an obviously forced limp he's doing." Karyn added, pointing to Steve as he limped away from the teacher. "He's doing it all wrong. It's obvious he's not experiencing any pain from putting weight on his leg."
"It looks convincing enough to me..." Jon said. "How did you even notice all of that?"
"I...I don't know." Karyn said. "I just kind of...did."
"We need to figure all of this out." Jon said.
