Jade walked quietly across the living room, eyes scanning. Randi and Delia were still asleep even though it was nearly 11. Not that she was one to talk. She hadn't woken up until a few minutes ago either. That was weird. Not just for her as Jay, but for Jade as well. She had to chalk it up to the stress and the long nights of researching that she had been doing trying to piece together how... all of this worked. She could only keep that up for so long before it caught up with her, right?
Making her way to the kitchen, she spotted a bag of bagels with a note from her mom telling her and her friends to enjoy. A nice effort, but a bit hollow. She could remember having friends over as Jay and her mom making breakfast for them in the morning. This was the norm for Jade, though. A rushed pick up of bagels or muffins or something before they rushed out for their day of socializing with people they worked with or hoped to get grants from or...
She reached into the bag and retrieved a chocolate chip bagel. A favorite of hers as Jade or Jay, and set about heating it up. She glanced over at the couch, considering heating some up for the others. If they didn't wake up, though, they'd be worse...
Better to just heat hers up for now. She popped it into the toaster and got the cream cheese out. As she waited, she could recount the numerous times this situation had occurred. Not always with Randi and Delia. Sometimes it would be Jen, or Nadine. More rarely Karyn or Sarah. Almost never Trinity. The latter was them being less close and Trinity being more comfortable heading home at night. And able to drive. And...
And her memories of her new life were coming to her more easily. She was recalling things without needing to be presented with context. Not that there wasn't context here, necessarily, but... the memories were coming more easily. Definitely.
The bagel popped up and she retrieved it. As she spread cream cheese on it, she could hear a stirring from the couch and see Delia lift her head. Jade waved at her and watched as she stood, walking into the kitchen.
"We fell asleep, huh?" Delia asked, reaching for the bag and looking inside. She pulled out a poppyseed bagel after a bit of a search.
"Yeah, I let your moms know. Mostly so Randi's wouldn't freak out."
Delia chuckled. "And she definitely would. Good call," she said, walking over to the toaster and putting her bagel in.
"I think our memories are changing more easily," Jade whispered. "Or... we're able to access our new memories more easily? Something."
Delia stared at her, clearly still tired, and nodded. "I... maybe? I just woke up."
"Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about it when you woke up."
"'bout wha?" Randi asked, lifting her head over the top of the couch.
"Jade thinks our memories are changing more."
"Not necessarily changing," Jade clarified. "But I think we can access them more easily than we could yesterday."
"Mmm," Randi said, sinking back into the couch and out of sight. "My mom's gonna freak out."
"I texted to let her know you fell asleep here. It happens from time to time now."
Randi raised her hand and gave a thumbs up, which then fell back out of view.
"We're supposed to go to Sarah's later," Delia said, pulling her bagel free of the toaster and starting to put cream cheese on it. "Gonna need to go home and change and stuff."
"-can drive you on my way home," Randi said. She still sounded like she was mostly unconscious. Jade grabbed a cinnamon raisin bagel and popped it into the toaster. Randi's favorite, and the sort of thing her mom wasn't big on letting her have.
"That'd be great," Delia said.
They ate in silence until Randi's bagel popped up, and Jade put it on a plate and brought it over to her friend. Randi cracked an eye open, took the plate and smiled. "You're a saint," she said.
"I think that's more Nadine's area..." Jade said. Randi snorted, shook her head, and sat up.
"The old Nadine, maybe..." she said, picking up the bagel and taking a bite. She swallowed her bite, then added "The new one puts on the facade, though."
"Yeah..." Jade said. She could recall all the ways the new Nadine didn't fit the 'saint' label. She would probably be struggling with that. Not that she knew the old Nadine well enough to really know.
They chatted and ate, and after a bit Randi and Delia left to go home and get ready for the afternoon. Leaving Jade alone... She returned to her room and logged onto her computer. There had been no communication from any of the other girls, so she had no idea exactly when they were supposed to go to Sarah's. Even in her new memories, it was rare for them to turn up at each other's houses unannounced or uninvited.
She had a few messages from other people. Likes on photos from both popular kids and her old friends. Kyla Leeson asking for advice on clothes. Jade wasn't the most stylish of the new clique of cheerleaders, but she had picked up enough from Sarah, Randi, and surprisingly Karyn to do alright. She offered to take Kyla shopping one night this week. The other girl responded almost immediately thanking her and expressing how great she was.
She wasn't sure she was that great. She didn't hang out with Kyla enough in this new reality. It would probably drop off more with this cheer thing, if it happened, which...
Why was it happening? Did the team even meet this late in the year? There was only a couple months of school left, and then they'd all have graduated. What was the point?
Something to ask Sarah, she supposed. A few of the less popular guys had sent messages too. Mostly in a group chat talking about a Dungeons and Dragons game they were all in. Still in, she was happy to see. She checked her character and... it was different. Not an orc warrior but an elf cleric. Fair enough. They hadn't had a healer before, so it would be better. They were asking when she could play next. She shot off a message saying she'd let them know, had to look into things.
Then a message from Sarah came through to a group chat. She said they could come over any time after 2. A quick glance at the clock showed it was just a bit past noon. That'd work. She got off her computer and started gathering what she'd need for her shower and to go swimming.
