Jon struggled with the advanced material in the books before him. It would take a miracle to be able to understand any of this and finish his homework.
'Wait, I made another wish, right?' Jon finally remembered. He had made it so he didn't have homework during the active period of the swapping wish. Stephanie had told him to complete his normal work out of habit, but she couldn't know he wouldn't be assigned any for days to come. 'That saves me for tonight, but what will I do for classes? What if I have to take a test or something?'
For the moment he did what he could to understand as much as he could while helping Sarah and Susan. The younger girls were taking courses above their level as well, but Jon was luckily familiar with it all. They each had their own issues with the material, but understood concepts he hadn't learned until he was older than each of them were now.
"Hey Jon, can I play my violin now?" Sarah was blushing again, speaking quickly in her excitement.
"Sure Sarah, I'd be happy to hear you play." Jon gave her a smile.
Sarah nodded and quickly took off for her room. It wasn't long before she returned with her violin case. She set it on the table and began preparing.
"Susan, could you give Jon and I some privacy?" Sarah asked.
"I'm still working on things. I don't want to move everything." Susan complained, earning a stern look from Sarah. Jon saw the shadow of her original self in that look, and couldn't help laughing to himself at how the former queen of his school was this nerdy Asian girl hoping to impress her crush with music rather than her looks or status.
"Sarah, remember what I said before. It won't hurt to let her finish while you play." Jon reassured her.
"I wanted to give you a special performance, but I guess it's fine." Sarah pouted a little, but still lifted the violin to her chin and got ready. She took a deep breath and began playing.
Jo had never imagined he'd spend a night like this. The original Sarah made it clear numerous times she'd never want to see him outside of school. To have her serenading him with beautiful music, often stealing glances at him and blushing like crazy, was such an oddity. He lost himself in the soothing melody, taking the time to forget about the worries that had been building up. He'd been stressed most of the afternoon since his life had changed so much, but he found himself feeling more relaxed. Sarah was very good, and though she stumbled once or twice when she saw how he was looking at her, she played masterfully.
"That was excellent Sarah." Jon clapped his hands after Sarah had performed a few songs. "You really took me in with your playing."
"Well, th-thank you Jon. I wanted to play my best for you." Sarah was beyond happy right now! She had panicked when she missed a couple notes, but Jon looked elated during the performance. Her mom would have stopped her and made her start over, but Jon saw her performance for what it was. She felt closer to him, like she was finally closing the gap between them.
The phone ringing stopped things from going further. Jon turned to answer it, and Sarah swore under her breath. The moment had been perfect and now it was ruined!
"This is the Kim residence." Jon said after picking up the landline.
"Jon, I have some good news and some bad news." Stephanie was on the other side.
"What's the good news?" Jon asked, hopeful she had found his phone. Even if it was in bad condition as lone as he could use the app it was fine.
"The good news is I just received a call from Zoe Brewer. Her daughters were singing your praises as a tutor and she wants to hire you. After I pick you up tonight she wants me to bring you over so she can meet you." Stephanie was beaming with pride. Her boy's intelligence was being recognized more every day, and now people were reaching out for his help. How could a mom be more proud?
Jon froze for a moment. Zoe was still in the life of a Brewer, which meant she was still an obese woman hoping to get immobile someday. He had hoped that somehow she had been swapped into a different life and be better off. Instead it sounded like she now had more kids, at least one more daughter than the day before. She had known him the day before, speaking with him and Samantha when she picked up Carly. She had even encouraged Carly to go after him for a date. Now she wanted to meet him for the first time.
"Okay, I look forward to it." Jon knew he didn't sound thrilled, and he wasn't, but he needed to face what he had done. The last time he'd seen Zoe was on the camera feed of the app, naked and stuffing herself while watching Netflix. He couldn't run away from what he had done. "What's the bad news?"
"Your phoe wasn't at the McDonald's. None of the workers there saw it, but they did remember a woman from the trailer park in town who is known to take some of their supplies home with her. If we can prove she has your phone we might be able to get it back. They think her ame is Athena something. Not many people with a first name like that, so she shouldn't be hard to track down." Stephanie explained.
With each word Jon's heart sank. His phone was gone, and because his wish had changed Athena she may have stolen it. The day before he had more contact with people he hadn't known before his wish. He wondered why he was coming in contact with so many people he'd known before it all, and why things seemed to be working against him today.
