"I know. I know. I know." Jon sputters. "I was not like this just 10 minutes ago."
"Why would you even make a bet that could do this? You had everything."
"I Know!" Jon insists. His voice came out shrill and perturbed. His face was tightly scowled and impatient.
"Yikes." Karen pauses, then quips. "I guess she zapped your attitude too." She crosses her arms. "Alright. Spill the beans. What's the bet?"
"It wasn't a bet." Jon states.
Karen's eyes widen, and she leans in conspiratorially. "Do NOT tell me Zoe got the stone."
Jon jolts upright. "What? No! She didn't win a bet. She tricked me into agreeing to the conditions of a bet, and then she just didn't follow through."
Karen looks skeptically at him, but Jon elaborates, sharing the mornings events. The weight gain, the heels. How he had all the leverage he could have wanted. He could have made Zoe a personal maid, or had her do his homework for months... And then...
"She just didn't thumb wrestle." Jon states flatly. "She walked off. So far we're 1 game out of 5. If I win 3, I get to change back."
"And now she's got her height back" Karen concludes thoughtfully. "I talked with her in the hall." Karen laughs. "I know I'm a bit on the tall side, but with those boots of hers, I had to look up to meet her eyes. I started to ask about her weight, but she was so smug. She just told me she played you, and that you were out here."
"I got played alright." Jon states sourly.
"Serves you right for turning my hair blond, and growing my boobs." She eyes him wryly.
"Wha!?" Jon looks up, pale pink lips agape. "You did that to yourself."
"Details." Karen brushes him off.
Jon realizes suddenly that he was actually looking up at Karen, and not because she was standing on the step to the door. With an exception of one long month when he was 12, he had been taller than Karen for their entire lives, but for the first time he finally started to appreciate how tall, and athletic Karen looked... Or at least could look if she weren't swaddled in her baggy hoodie.
"Still... First the betting games, and then the stone. Your family really does have all the luck."
"I don't feel lucky right now."
"Aww. Cheer up Jonny boy... Jonnie girl?" Karen crosses her arms. "What is your name anyway?"
Jon pauses, reluctant to attempt to summon his new memories. As long as he didn't try to recall, he wouldn't recall. That's how the bets new reality always worked. And right now, he didn't want to recall. He didn't want to lose that part of himself. He didn't want to succumb to being this dark and sorrowful girl. At least for a little longer, he could still pretend this hadn't happened. If it hadn't touched his mind, it hadn't really changed his...
"Speak up Missy." Karen interrupts his spiral of his melancholy. "Otherwise, I'll just call you Persephone."
"Hades wife?" Jon found himself perking up with sudden interest.
"Drug down to the underworld against her will." Karen teases. "I think it's appropriate. So, Perseophone, what is it?"
Almost instinctively Jon sought to recall "It's..." Jon pauses, then suddenly smirks in a curious amusement.
"What's that?"
"Mina." He declares.
"Awwwww." Karen cooes. "It's so cute! Just like Sailor Venus."
"No. No. No." Jon growls defiantly. "It's not cute. Mina is the heroine from Dracula, it's at least mysterious."
"Whatever you say Sailor Venus."
"Do not call me that." Jon insists indignantly
"But it's your name." Karen gave Jon a playful shove, causing him to tumble back, startling the both of them. "You're so light!" Karen declares.
"Duh!" He snaps. "I'm a girl."
"Yeah. But I'm a girl too, you derp, and I'm not this thin." She grabs his bicep, and ponders. "I bet I could fit my fingers around your arm."
"Let go!" Jon pushes her back.
"Ahh hahah. I did it." She declares triumphantly, pinching her thumb and middle finger together in an 'O'. "Goth you is so skinny."
"That wasn't around my bicep." Jon protests lamely.
The bell interrupts Karen's teasing, and Jon cuts in quickly after. "Let's get to class already. I'm not going to stand here and be mocked all morning."
"Apparently Goth you is also touchy." Karen rolls her eyes, but trots along side her friend.
"Uhhh. Paramore." Jon states evenly. "Flyleaf?"
Karen nods with every band he lists. "Flyleaf isn't bad."
The pair had finished their classwork early, and were huddled in the back of the class flipping through Jon's smart phone, checking out "Mina's" Music collection from this new reality. His backpack, previously deep navy, with light leather straps, had been replaced by a smaller, black canvas pack with a crescent moon on the back, and it apparently held much more than just books. Its various pockets were filled with cosmetics, tarot cards, and a diary, which Jon obstinately kept from Karen's Hands.
"What?" Karen laughs. "It's not like it's YOUR diary. What do you have to hide?" Jon didn't relent though, and kept it tucked away in a sidepouch of his pack, feeling every bit as protective as the rightful owner. He would never admit how he actually did feel like the rightful owner.
His phone was covered in a white etched black rose case, and the contents were proving interesting to the both of them.
"Halestorm, Evanescence, Lizzy Hale." Jon continues. "I haven't even heard of most of these bands, but I feel like I know them... Like, not just a memory but a feeling. Some sort of emotional resonance. It's a really deep sort of remembrance, almost like I always knew them."
"Don't start waxing poetic on me." Karen muses. "What else is in there?"
"Fallout Boy... Pretty Reckless, A couple I don't recognize, and My Chemical Romance."
"Any Ozzy?" Karen asks, as she slouches over Jon's shoulder to look at the screen.
"Osborne? No I don't see any." Jon flips back through the playlist.
"The cure? The cult? Sisters of Mercy?"
"I... Don't see any." His thumb flips up and down the screen, then pauses. "Oh. There's a few singles from The Cure."
"Hate to tell you this, Sailor Venus, but you're emo as fuck."
"I-I am not!" Jon protests. "Zoe Specifically said 'goth' in her terms. And stop calling me that."
"Yeah. but haven't you said your bets are heavily influenced by perception. Maybe Zoe or you didn't quite understand the difference."
"I understood it well enough."
"Well enough to be dark and moody at least."
"Better than a tomboy who wants big knockers."
"Shots fired." Karen smirks. "I'm paying my price, you're paying yours, but if you 'Rawr' at anybody I'm putting a stop to this."
"I'm not going to 'Rawr' at anybody." He emphasizes the word with disgust. "Hopefully this won't last past the end of the day."
"Are you sure?" Karen prods. "You sounded hella cute when you said that. I'm sure you could get any straight guy from the art department to fall hard for you."
"Yes, I'm sure!" He states hastily. Jon put his phone down and held his hands up in exasperation. "And I don't want any guy to fall for me."
"Maybe a girl then?" Karen wiggled her eyebrows at him. "It's a big school, I'm sure we can find you someone."
"Not a girl either."
"Wow. Not interested in girls. I never would have gu..."
"Would you stop?!" Jon snaps.
"Snippy snippy." Karen retorts "Goth you is no fun." She sighs, and acts as if she were leaning back, but at the last second reaches over and grabs the phone.
"Hey!" Jon shouts. "What are you doing?"
Karen starts to scroll through the phone, while keeping one arm out towards Jon, like a Heisman trophy. "I'm getting the definitive answer." She suddenly pauses and 'oooohhh's'. Jon was able to push past her arm, but didn't snatch the phone away, instead looking over her shoulder.
"It looks like Mina is into guys." Karen states, showing Jon a pictures of a shirtless guy on the phone. His bangs are long and shaggy in his face, obscuring his green eyes, and he has a black ring on either side of his lower lip.
"T-That's Blair." Jon states with a sudden revelation.
"Damn, girl, Blair is cut. I didn't think we had any fit goth kids in our grade."
"He's a year younger than us actually." Jon admits, as more memories start to come to him. He stifles them before they took him places he didn't want to consider.
"And who's she?" Karen swipes a few more times revealing a gorgeous woman, goth, but more elegant than either Mina or Zoe. She was sprawled out on a shimmering grey crushed velvet blanket, completely topless save a few straps that did the opposite of protect her modesty.
"Athena?!" Jon stammered, not even needing Mina's memories. "That's one of Zoe's friends. I had no clue she was... She might have..." Jon put a hand to his head. "What if she and Zoe?"
"Easy there Mina. Don't get carried away. Maybe this is just a glam shot she wanted your thoughts on before sending it to someone else. Or maybe she just wanted to show off a good photo."
"Yeah. Maybe." Jon stammered, then snatched his phone back before Karen could browse any more. "How come you're enjoying all this so much."
"Duh! Supernatural shenanigans!" Karen declared. "Wishing Stone! My best friend transformed into a girly goth! This is the most fun this prison school has offered in years." She steeples her hand and leans back, taking on an exaggerated deep and mysterious tone. "Speaking of... Are we going to meet up at your place to investigate the stone this afternoon?"
Jon shrugs. "Sure, may as well. I'm probably going to wish myself back to normal too."
"No way! You shouldn't just use the stone to get an advantage on these bets."
"Zoe cheated, I may as well too."
"She outsmarted you, and as long as I'm your friend, I'll make sure you conduct yourself with the utmost of honesty and integrity in competition." Karen declares with false heroism.
"And keep me goth?" Jon concludes flatly.
"And keep you goth." Karen laughs, as the bell rings.
