As if on cue, I heard the doorbell ring. Not thinking about the fact that I was still only wearing a thin t-shirt and a pair of rather flashy underwear I walked over and answered the door. Standing on the other side was
Like an idiot, or more accurately like the teenage guy I'd been until this morning, I just stood there for a moment staring at the young brunette standing in the doorway. If things had been equal, and certain mitigating circumstances hadn't been at play I probably would have found her extremely attractive, and might have already started entertaining certain thoughts and fantasies about her. For the moment, although I felt a little attraction which was enough to tell me that even though I might have been trapped inside Tiffany's body it was still my mind in control, sex was the furthest thing from my mind.
The mystery woman, who was probably Tiffany's age, had short, dark hair that stopped just above her denim covered shoulders, and bright blue eyes that seemed just a little put out right now. Her skin was fair and, even without the makeup she was obviously wearing, it wouldn't have taken much for those luscious red lips to draw attention. Her body looked athletic, like she kept it in good shape. She was wearing a short sleeved denim jacket over a black t-shirt that said Princess in pink stylized letters. The jacket was a perfect match for the mini skirt she was wearing, which left most of the length of her smooth, slender legs exposed. The look was finished by the pair of black heels she was wearing.
"You okay Tiff?"
Her voice shook me back to reality and served to remind me of who I was supposed to be. With all of the things that could go wrong if the other Jon found out about me in the wrong way, I had to try and play my part. Shaking my head slightly I tried to offer up a smile, but I was pretty sure it came across as rather lame.
"Yeah," I said, "Just fine."
"Uh huh," she said, rolling her eyes and nodding in what I thought was a rather sarcastic way. "You sure about that hon?" she asked as her eyes traveled up and down my body.
Glancing down, I suddenly remembered that the only thing I had on was a thin pink t-shirt and a pair of rather skimpy undies. I quickly looked back up, trying to erase the image from my mind. Right now the only thing that was holding me together was the certain knowledge that I wasn't this girl. I was Jon Gibson, a seventeen year old junior in high school. More importantly I was male. That was the most important part and every time I had to look at this body, it made it a little harder to accept that.
Not for the first time today my mind began to race. Why did this have to be happening? Why did Grandpa even have to send me that stupid rock? It was turning out to be nothing but trouble. If I ever managed to escape this nightmare, if I ever managed to get my old body back, I was tempted to just wish the stupid thing away. Not if, I corrected myself, when. I had to believe that it was actually going to happen. If I thought for a minute that I might be stuck in this body for the rest of my the rest of her life, I knew I was done for.
"Um I " I'd never been a particularly good liar, something that Karyn had teased me about on more than one occasion, and I wasn't well versed in the art of improv either. "I just wasn't um "
The brunette, I wished I knew her name, but I wasn't sure I'd ever seen her before, raised her eyebrows and slowly nodded her head, encouraging me to continue.
" Slept in " I nodded firmly, a resolute expression crossing my face. "Yeah," I said firmly, "I slept in this morning." I shook my head in annoyance. "Damned alarm didn't go off." My eyes moved upward as I thought about the statement, scrutinizing it.
For a moment she looked a little skeptical, but it passed. "Well," she said, "You need to hurry up and get dressed. Everybody else is ready to hit the mall."
"Everybody else " I began, wondering just how confused Tiffany's face looked right now. Glancing over her shoulder I saw the red sports car parked against the sidewalk, and I could just make out at least two other girls, one in the driver's seat and one in the backseat. Apparently noticing me, they waved. Unsure of what to do, I cautiously waved back.
"Are you like on something Tiff?" the brunette asked carefully, "You're acting kind of freaky." Through her callous self-absorbed tones I was sure that I detected just the hint of concern.
"No!" I said, possibly a little too quickly. I was totally messing this up. Any second I was going to do something stupid, or rather stupider, and everybody was going to realize that I wasn't really Tiffany Sanders. Word would get back to my body, and he would do something to fix it. It probably wasn't quite that bad, but in my paranoid state that was the only chain of events that seemed reasonable. "No," I repeated a little more calmly this time. "I just " Think Jon, I willed myself, "I didn't sleep well. I'm a little tired." Something else occurred to me. "The mall?" I asked, "Shouldn't we be going to school?"
She tilted her head in puzzlement. "School?" She asked, "Tiff, skipping today to head out to the mall was your idea. You wanted to chat up that cute guy working behind the counter at Hot Topic. Seriously girl, what's gotten into you?"
"More like who." I mumbled to myself.
"What?"
"Nobody," I said instantly. "Nothing," I corrected, hoping she hadn't noticed, "Nothing's gotten into me." Why did this have to be happening to me? A week ago things had been so simple. I'd been your average, slightly nerdish teenage guy. My biggest concern had been whether or not to tell the girl I'd known for half of my life that I wanted something more than simple friendship. From that to worrying I might be pregnant in less than two weeks. Now that was impressive.
"Look," I finally said, hoping to end this failed attempt at a conversation, "I don't wanna hold you guys up." I ran my hand over my eyes and faked a yawn to emphasize my point. "I'm not even dressed yet "
"That much is obvious," she said. Gesturing toward my chest she added, "Looks like the morning breeze is gettin' to you Tiff."
Looking down, I could see Tiffany's nipples outlined in the fabric of the t-shirt. I jerked my head upward again, trying to forget what I'd just seen. Under other circumstances I might have enjoyed the chance to experience Tiffany's body first hand, but the current situation wasn't in anything remotely resembling my control and I was more freaked out than anything. I just wanted my body back.
"We can wait a few minutes," she said. "Go get dressed and come out when you're ready. We'll be in the car." Without giving me the chance to refute her, she turned and made her way down the sidewalk toward the car. For a moment, I found myself watching her walk away. The mere hint of a tingling between my legs reminded me of what was going on and brought me back to reality. Stepping back I quickly shut the door and leaned back against it, slowly sliding down to the ground.
What was I going to do? If I had any hope of returning things to normal I had to get to that damned rock and if I knew well, me, I'd probably be too worried about leaving it at home where my mom or Zoe might find it so the odds were pretty good I'd have it with me at school, so my best bet was to get there and try to find well, again, me. Even if I did, what was I going to do? I buried my head in my hands as I tried to reason my way through this.
Think Jon! Think!
I obviously couldn't walk up to him and just ask him about the rock. That would be stupid and it would probably mean oblivion for me when he tried to use the rock to return me to Normal. I had to play this close to my suddenly well-endowed chest. Like any other guy my age, I was pretty much at the mercy of my hormones when it came to girls. I could try seducing myself. As disturbing as the thought was, and despite the ways it could potentially head south really quickly, it was one of the better plans I'd hatched. There was Karyn too. Maybe I could somehow befriend her and work my way in through her.
I froze when I heard a noise coming from upstairs, and all of those thoughts were put on hold. There was somebody else in the house. Trembling, I slowly made my way up the staircase toward the second floor of Tiffany's house. The noise was coming from behind one of the closed doors, and it was definitely being made by somebody moving around.
Carefully, my heart racing, I turned the knob and pushed the door open. Standing in the bedroom I'd revealed was
