That evening Jon, Karyn and Athena sat in the back of Zoe's mother's station wagon. Zoe sat in front next to her mother Linda who was taking them all to the party. They had just collected Athena and were now on the way to Sarah's house.
Jon sat in the middle holding on tightly to his backpack. He noticed Linda kept glancing at him in the rear-view mirror. "Jane?" Linda asked. Jon was distracted for a second until he remembered Jane was his new name. Zoe and Karyn had decided on it at least, he didn't seem to get much choice in the matter.
"Yes Mrs Madison." He almost called her mom. He kept having to remind himself that this woman wasn't actually his mother. They had met briefly when she brought Mikey back from soccer earlier. They had barely had a chance to greet each other before Zoe bundled him back into the bedroom.
"It's just you look so familiar. Are you sure we haven't met before?" She asked.
"I don't think so." Technically he wasn't lying. "I haven't known Zoe very long."
"What is your surname?" Jon said the first name he thought of.
"Gibson." It was technically his name. He was still a bit confused about that. Linda returned her attention back to driving briefly. It was at this point Zoe decided to enter the conversation. She turned to her mother.
"You've probably seen her in town. Lake Point isn't exactly huge." Zoe told her. Linda glanced back towards Jon.
"Oh, so you grew up here?" Linda asked. Jon got a little annoyed with Zoe. The conversation seemed to have ended and now it was starting up again.
"Yes. My family is from the area." He told her.
"Oh, did your mother go to the high school?"
"Yes." He could tell from the glances he was getting from the others in the car that he should expand on that. He realised his conversation style was still somewhat masculine. Short to the point answers with no emotional component. "She always goes on about how much she loved it there. I guess it was a great time to be a teenager. Nineties music is so cool."
"Yes it was a great time. When did she graduate?" Linda asked. It was clear to Jon she was still fishing. He couldn't actually remember when she graduated. He knew it was the mid-90s. He felt like a terrible son for not remembering. He quickly worked it out from her birthday. At least he knew that. That gave him 1995, so he picked a different year
"Uh..., 1996 I think." Jon told her.
"Same year as me. I must have known her." That didn't make sense to Jon. He worked it out, it was 1995. It was then he remembered she'd been in a car accident and broke her leg when she was twelve. She'd been off school for months and had to resit the whole year. He silently cursed himself for forgetting that. "What is her name?" Linda asked.
"Jenny. Her maiden name was Merlin." He lied using another of 'his' names.
"Jenny Merlin? Hmm..." Linda went back to her driving again obviously trying to recall the fictitious student. Jon took a chance. He knew human memories were unreliable. Often people would fill in blanks after getting a few details. It was a process called confabulation in psychiatry.
"She was on the swim team, I think. I was always surprised by that. She's never been the outgoing type. Always kept herself to herself. Wears glasses." Before he could pick any more details from thin air, Linda interrupted him.
"Jenny Merlin of course. She always used to sit at the back. I liked her. I didn't speak to her much though."
"That sounds like mom." Jon told her reinforcing the idea. Linda smiled and returned her concentration to the road ahead. Jon quietly sighed with relief.
Their journey was uneventful until they neared Sarah's house and Linda spoke again. "I hope you don't mind girls but I'm going to drop you on the corner. I have a few errands to run." She stopped the car and everyone piled out. They all waved as she drove off down the side street.
"I'm glad the interrogation is over." Jon told them. Everyone laughed. Jon noticed Athena was now staring at him.
"I'm Athena." They had pretended to know each other in Linda's presence but now they were alone, she was introducing herself.
"I'm Jon." Zoe spun round.
"No you're not." She told him.
"Okay, I'm Jane." He corrected himself as he continued talking to Athena. "I do know you. A version of you at least. You are a friend of my sister in my world."
"So you are really a guy?" She asked. Jon nodded. "It's amazing what that stone can do."
Karyn extended her hand towards her. "I'm Karyn." Athena took her hand but gave her a confused look.
"We've met. Quite a few times in fact." Athena informed her. Zoe laughed.
"She not my friend Karyn. She's his Karyn." Zoe told Athena.
"That's not strictly correct. Actually," Karyn said with a grin, "he's my Jon. There is a difference."
Zoe pointed at the large house up the street. "That's Sarah's house." Jon looked around getting his bearings. He looked at the sign beside them.
"The mini-mall should be on this block." Jon told them. Karyn looked around and nodded in agreement as they started walking up the street.
"It used to be." Zoe told them. "It burned down when I was a baby. They couldn't afford to rebuild so Sarah's parents bought the land cheap. They built a big house and filled the other lots with rental properties."
They walked off the street and on to Sarah's drive. They quickly reached the front door of the house.
