"You had a Good Morning, I trust?" He states flatly.
Jon sneers. "See. Leonard. Normal people ASK if someone had a good morning. The way you say it makes it sound like you did something creepy to make it good."
"Ever ungrateful. I could change that, you know."
"You better not." Jon hissed as she pushed past Leonard and started walking. He turned and matched her pace. "This is weird enough, you want me to be grateful?" Jon asks.
"No... I guess not. But I did make sure you had a good morning. Good enough anyway. I didn't want to make it so good that it felt good... No. More like the perfectly happy mundane morning."
"Congratulations. You've invented a device that can change the universe to give me a normal day."
"You're snippy." He smirks. "That's definitely Karyn coming out." The two walked in silence for a short while before he interrupts the silence. "Notice anything?"
"Other than the fact I'm in the body of my best friend?"
"Yes."
"No." Jon stopped and glared at him. Leonard merely looked up with that annoying smirk. Jon broke the silence once again. "So?"
"So what?" Leonard quipped.
"What did you do? What didn't I notice?"
"Karyn's life. I bet it all felt perfectly natural."
Jon paused and reflected on her morning, realizing just how true it was. Still, not wanting to give ground, she snorted. "Nothing about this morning was natural."
"Of course not. But it FELT natural, didn't it? You felt just like Karyn. See. People Placer 2.0 swaps someone but leaves them feeling out of place about it. 3.0 let's me make it so everything feels perfectly normal!"
"Well, you failed. I don't feel like Karyn at all."
"Now you're just being argumentative. Did you even check out your body? Karyn's pretty hot, in case you hadn't noticed."
"I noticed, you fucking dweeb!" Jon flushed at the comment. The guy ruining her life was the last person he wanted calling her hot, she crossed her arms over her chest self consciously as she wondered if that was the only reason she felt so flustered at the statement.
"Uh huh. I'm sure you did." He glanced down at that damned tablet. "By the way. In case you were wondering. 2.7%"
"I wasn't wondering, and I don't know what you're talking about." Jon started walking again, but Leonard was right there beside her once again.
"That's how much interflow you experienced while sleeping. It seems the subconscious mind, uninhibited by sequential processing is a lot more leaky than the conscious mind. Almost all of that interflow took place during REM sleep."
"You were watching me sleep? I knew you were weird, I didn't realize you were a pervert too." She spat the word 'pervert'.
"Are you sure you want to go there?" He holds up his tablet. "I've been playing nice, you know."
Jon whirled around and slapped him, hard. The utterly bewildered look in his eyes as he staggered back was her reward. Encouraged, her eyes go wide and wild as she starts grasping for the tablet. Leonard clutched it tight, so she just pushed him instead. "Playing Nice?! You're playing Nice?" She cries. "Because my mom has MY old body right now, and is stuck working at some perverted bar instead of the bank job she EARNED. You think you're playing nice?" She grasps for the tablet again, but her advances are easily deflected. "You think making me wake up as my best friend is nice?"
Leonard steps back easily avoiding her continued aggression, and meets Karyn's wild gaze. "Maybe. Maybe not." He smirks. "But it's interesting, isn't' it Jonny boy? And it's about to get a lot more interesting thanks to your outburst."
"Oh screw off." Jon brushes her hair back with her fingers. "You want to be nice, maybe you can start by giving me a bra that fits."
"I've been wondering about that actually." Leonard states clinically, as if he hadn't just been assailed. "I can't seem to change your cup size."
"You tried to change my boobs?" Jon stated incredulously. "I knew you were just a pervert."
"I warned you." He starts to tap on his tablet. "I've got to say. Karyn's personality is a lot more fiery than your old one. I'm not sure if it's going to be the best for experiments. But it'll be fun at least."
Jon recoils back in surprise as her hoodie starts to writhe around her body, then she yelps as a vision assails her mind.
A pair of scissors in her hands, eyes puffy and angry. She was sick of it. She felt like a freak, like a weirdo. Every change her body was going through was bad, and getting worse. Her bottom lip trembled. Like she had some target painted on her back... Or more like her chest. She heard the nicknames the boys called her behind her back... More like, She heard a lot of different nicknames. To be highlighted, teased, the focus of whispers from people you don't even know. Even Jon couldn't keep his eyes off them. The girls were hardly any better. If she hid them, and talked about how hard it was to deal with them, they teased her for being whiny and complaining. If she tried to just be natural and wear normal clothes, she was a slut with a slut body, and she should go be a slut somewhere else. Sometimes they even mixed it up and called her a ho, or skank, just like her mom. She punched her bed until the tears stopped.
She fell in gym class today. Dodge ball. She was at the front, like she always was, but she was just off balance. Her whole damned body felt off balance these days. She fell, and landed right on her chest. It hurt bad, but the hoots and laughs from the boys as they leered hurt more. In that moment it felt like the whole world was staring. Getting pegged in the face was just salt in the wound. She cried, at first, but she wasn't one to give in. In that moment a resolve poured over her. If that's the hand she's been dealt, that's the cards she'll play. Fuck dodge ball and fuck them. She wasn't going to hide her body anymore. If all they saw was a pair of tits, she'd own it. If she's just a slut. Fine let them call her a slut now. She took her favorite hoodie, and started cutting. Tears welled up with each snick of the scissors.
As Jon came to, the thing that draped from her shoulders was hardly recognizable to the frumpy green hoodie she had before. For one, it barely covered her chest now, instead being cut off just beneath the bust. A chill wind blew across her body causing her to cross her arms. The thing was damn near useless for the purpose of keeping warm. Her back was exposed between the top of her camisoles and bottom of her sweater, and the high cut in front only served to emphasize her bust. The frayed hoodie strings hung farther down than any other part of the sweater. The sleeves were still long and baggy, but the shoulders had long horizontal slits in them, exposing skin. With a scowl, Jon realized that the hoodie that once hid her body, now only served to invite attention.
"Looking good." Leonard laughed.
Jon showed him her favorite finger.
"I mean it!" He held up his hands defensively. "The sweater, the jeans, the makeup. You're pretty sexy."
"Makeup?"
"Oh yeah. You've got this punk rebel thing going on that really works for you."
Jon wanted to bite back, but instead just crossed her arms. "You changed my past... You changed Karyn's past, you asshole." Jon muttered quietly. "What I just saw, remembered, whatever. That was really personal. Keep your dirty fucking device out of my past."
"But that's what today is all about!" Leonard claps loudly as he beams a big smile. "You think just being Karyn, as Karyn is interesting enough? I'm modifying your... Hmm... Let's say your archetype. I want to try a couple of different ideas out, and you're getting the full suite of changes. Nature, nurture, apparently there are even psychic social streams out in the ether that I can plug you into."
Remembering his wish Jon shuts his eyes tight and states evenly, "I thought you were just making things interesting for me. Why are you involving Karyn and Mrs.Black?"
"You ARE Karyn, Jonnyboy. You WERE Mrs.Black. I am just making things interesting for you. Now you run on to school, I need to get back to my lab and make some updates."
Quietly Jon pondered out loud. "Is this really you Leonard? Did I do this to you with my wish?" She rubbed her eyes as they get red and puffy. "You've lost it Leonard. You've really lost it. And I've got to find a way to fix this."
