Walking down the front steps, Jon looked over toward the driveway. There, he saw his mother's mini van pulling away, and a sedan that he recognized as belonging to Athena DeVries, his sister's best friend.
Athena had moved to town about 5 years ago, after her parents had gone through a rather nasty divorce, in which her mother had received full custody. Zoe met Athena not too long after she had moved in, and the two were instantly drawn to each other, Athena being only a few months older than Zoe. Zoe offered Athena friendship in a new home, and Athena had introduced Zoe to the goth lifestyle, which was a way for her to express herself and stand out from the crowd. At first, their mother had worried that Athena would be a bad influence on Zoe, but it had turned out that she was actually a pretty good kid.
Athena did well in school, and from what Zoe had said on the occasions her friend had come up in conversations, she was quite the gifted artist. This didn't come as much of a surprise to those who knew Athena's mother, Veronica. She supported herself and her daughter as a freelance artist, a career that she was apparently quite good at. The DeVries family was far from being among the wealthiest in town, but they were fairly well off, to the point that when Athena had turned sixteen a couple of months prior, her mother had given her a used, but in good shape, car. Though Jon had not seen any examples of Athena's artistic abilities, Zoe claimed that she had inherited her mother's abilities.
Jon made his way over to the car and opened the passenger side door, then climbed in. He buckled his seat belt and looked over at the girl driving. Like his sister, she was very pale, and had black hair and dark make-up. Unlike his sister, he was unsure whether or not the dark color of Athena's hair was natural or dyed like Zoe's.
Unlike Zoe's choice in clothing, which was pretty basic, Athena's could only be described as...more elaborate. Most of her clothing looked to be mixes of modern fashion and Victorian Era clothing. As a matter of fact, the sleeveless black dress that she wore now bore a strong resemblance a Victorian era dress, other than the fact that it only went down to about her knees.
"Earth to Zoe." Athena said. "You listening to me, or what?"
"Um, sorry, what was that?" Jon asked, snapping out of his thoughts.
"I said, you've got kind of a minimalist look going on. Can't remember the last time I saw you without make-up on." Athena said as she began to back out of the driveway.
Jon took a quick look in the passenger side mirror to see what Athena meant. In getting ready to head to school, the idea of make-up had never once crossed his mind. Guess I'm not gonna be able to get through the day without attracting any attention. he thought. "I'm having kind of an off morning. Guess it slipped my mind." he said.
"Does this have anything to do with your brother?" Athena asked as she took off down the street. Jon's eyes widened.
"Wh-what do you mean?" he asked. "Why would...he have anything to do with it."
"Well, you said he's been acting strange since you all got your inheritances from your grandfather, and you were trying to figure out what was up..." Athena said. "I figured there may have been some sort of revelation."
"Oh, um, no." Jon said, mentally kicking himself for the way he reacted. "I just didn't sleep too well last night, and it's thrown me off a bit."
"I see..." Athena said. Jon could tell she wasn't quite buying it, but he wasn't going to admit to her what was really going on. He looked out the window and saw an opportunity to change the subject. "This isn't the way to school..." he said.
"We're going to get Zelda." Athena said, sounding more suspicious than she did a few moments before. "You know, like we do every morning."
Jon inwardly sighed. He was screwing this up left and right. Maybe he should have just faked sick and waited for his body to return home with the stone before trying to get it back. But then again, that would have left about seven hours for something else to get screwed up by that stone, and Karyn's foolish wish from yesterday, as well as the situation he now found himself in, were testaments to the fact that all it took was a minute to royally screw up when the stone was involved.
"Alright, Zo. Seriously, tell me what's up. Did you suddenly get into hardcore drugs or something?" Athena asked.
"Oh yeah, that's it." Jon said, sarcastically. "Heroin and coke all night long, you caught me."
"See, there's some of your normal sarcasm." Athena said. "You're not a lost cause yet. So, what's up?"
"Honestly, it's nothing. Just tired." Jon said. He looked over and caught the look on Athena's face that showed she really didn't believe him. "Seriously. I'm fine. Don;t worry about it. I swear I'll be completely back to normal by the end of the day."
"Hmm, alright." Athena said. "I guess I'll accept that."
Jon breathed a sigh of relief. He had stumbled at first, but it seemed he had satisfied Athena, at least for now. All he had to do was get through the rest of the ride to school, hunt himself down, get the stone, and he could set everything right.
