Sarah said the magic phrase. Instantly she was looking at Jon. What had happened? Then she looked down at herself. She was wearing black, even on her fingernails, and a whole lot of things about her fashion just seemed wrong... she had, after all, become Zoe.
No, that was wrong. Sarah was somewhere else. She looked around to see where Sarah and Athena were standing. She didn't become Zoe, she had always been Zoe, but now she thought and remembered as if she was Sarah. But when you come down to it, that's what it means to be Sarah. So maybe she was Sarah after all.
She winked at Athena, who also had her mind. Athena winked back and she saw Sarah and Athena giggling.
"Zoe?" said Jon. "We can't let Sarah keep that stone. I'll tell you what, if you help me get it I'll give you as many free wishes as you want..."
"Er, hold on, Jon," said Zoe. "Athena's with her... lemme go talk to her, okay? I think I can manage something. Just stay here."
Jon said "No! Zoe, you can't have that stone..."
"Jon," said Zoe, "either I do this--alone--or I don't help you at all and you try to get the stone from Sarah by yourself. Athena's my friend, I have a much better chance at this than you do."
"Fine," said Jon. No doubt he was planning to take the stone from Zoe later. But it didn't matter. Zoe walked across the street to where Athena was; Athena just waited with Sarah. And as soon as Zoe reached them, she said "Sarah, take us to your room, quickly, as soon as that coming bus passes."
Sarah made the wish. The bus passed by, blocking Jon's view of the three for a moment, and when it left there was no sign of them.
Back in Sarah's room, Sarah, Athena, and Zoe (all with Sarah's mind) were talking. They laughed at each other's jokes and generally got along pretty well. Then Sarah got a thought. "Wait a minute," she said. "We're having fun now. But how long before we're choking each other when fighting for the stone?"
"Yeah," said Athena. "It's my stone. I only let you have it at all because you're using it just like me."
"But I want it too," said Zoe.
"I wish," said Sarah. The other two looked at her suspiciously, but interrupting a wish at the wrong word could be bad. Then Sarah finished. "... that we'd always be each other's friends and would always want to share the rock with each other. I wish that if I give anyone else my mind they're part of that too."
Athena and Zoe both relaxed. Then Zoe said "Okay, I'd like to use the rock."
Sarah immediately handed it over. Zoe giggled, Sarah-like (certainly not Zoe-like). "Just testing," she said and handed it to Athena.
"I wish we had a DVD of Titanic," said Athena. "I love that movie," she added as the DVD appeared.
"We all do," said Zoe. Sarah nodded. She took the stone from Athena again.
After they finished watching the movie, Sarah said "It's time for dinner. I could invite you two over here but Athena and Zoe aren't supposed to get along with me. So I'll see you later. Bye!"
Athena added, "Zoe, we didn't make you rich, so if you want something you don't have, just come over to my place, okay?"
Athena could go home without problems, and left. But when Zoe went home, she'd have one problem--a brother who wanted his stone back. Normally she'd just ignore Jon. That was one thing that Sarah and Zoe had in common, neither of them cared for Jon's company much. But she'd have to say something to him. She had lied to him--said she planned to get the stone back by talking to Athena. What would she tell Jon?
