His mind buzzed with his confrontation with Karyn, but no matter how he tried to parse it, his feelings were divided, and he couldn't quite tell which were Jon's, which were Zoe's, or even if the difference was really as big as he originally thought. He wondered, for a moment, if the feelings were actually how he would have felt if he had grown up as the girl he now was, or if the magic was manipulating his mood and emotional responses as much as his behavior. He scowled and bickered with himself, but finally resolved to forgive Karyn, and maybe even apolo... No he didn't have anything to apologize for, but he could forgive her.
He sighed, and tried to lean back, but the back of the seat pressed the corset lacing into his back so he opted to sit up straight instead. There would also be no slouching forward, at least not if he wanted to breath, but that was fine with him. He felt proper, sitting with such a proud posture, and wearing the garment of Victorian ladies, but rebellious and sexy too being so out of time and out of place, and mixing in his own gothic themes into the anachronistic formal wear. It was a surprisingly decadent cocktail of emotions, and soothed some of his self consciousness from the hall. He certainly wouldn't want to wear it tomorrow, but for now, he felt proud.
He appreciated his pretty flowing handwriting, as he absently took notes on the class lecture. His former hand writing could be described as serviceable, but now? It was practically artistic. Mrs. Harrow droned on about the symbolism in 'Much Adu About Nothing', and while he wasn't paying attention, he couldn't quite tune it out either. He vaguely remembered the play from the prior year of his real life, and found himself only moderately more interested in it this time around. Despite a natural love of reading both before and after his bet, Mrs. Harrow had a knack for making everything slightly more boring than it would have been on its own. It was a distraction, he realized, and had helped tug his thoughts away from the introspective cyclone that had threatened to consume him at the start of class.
The boring lecture had become a welcome distraction, but boredom brought other things with it. Things like... The irritated skin under his corset. He never would have guessed his work out would give him a sort of swimmers itch, but as his skin had dried, it had become more and more irritated. He finally realized why goth Zoe never exerted herself during PE. He scratched at the hard-shell of the corset uselessly, but he tingling only got worse and more demanding. She pressed her side, where the itching was the worst, into the back of the seat and rubbed... But that was just as useless. She huffed and clenched her fists, but the tingling and itchiness only grew as the teacher droned on. He glared foreword paying less and less attention to the teacher as the itching faded in and back out. He tried to wiggle around inside his corset, then his eyes fell on his pencil.
Practically desperate now, but refusing to be seen as anything less than in control, he slowly took his pencil, slipped it down between the corset and his undershirt, and scratched.
Bliss.
He had a weapon against the itching now, and weathered the class with more or less attentiveness than usual.
"Hey, did you take Lit notes?" Athena asked as she swooped in next to him. The final school bell had rung and the pair were reunited in sophomore hall.
Jon pursed his lips to the side and asked. "Again? How many times is this?"
"Every time, but you know you're going to share them. You don't read the book, you just take notes in class. I don't care about class, but I actually read the book." She smiles wryly and and concludes with saccharine endearment. "You complete me."
"I just want you to actually graduate." Jon stated.
"I'm not that bad, besides, we hang out every day anyway. Why bother in class, when I can get the notes then?"
Jon Paused. That's right. In this life, they did hang out every day afterschool, which meant he would leave Karyn hanging. "Actually, uhh... I need to go straight home today."
"That's no problem, I'll walk with you, and we can chill at your place."
Jon paused as that internal conflict flared up again. He did actually want to hang with Athena, or at least didn't want to just sit in his room alone all afternoon, but his mind started to confront the possibilities of Zoe getting the stone while living his life, and scowled.
Athena's eyes narrowed, as if peering past his eyes into his mind, "Something to do with my reading this morning?"
"No, I mean. Maybe, but probably not. I just have to take care of some stuff at home. I can't chill tonight."
Athena crossed her arms. "You gonna tell me what's going on first?"
"It's nothing."
"Yeah right. I felt the spiritual pressure, I did the reading. You know I'm tied up in this, so spill."
Jon slung his backpack over his back and shut the locker. "Not this time, Athena. Sorry."
She stared at him piercingly, then walked behind him. Jon heard a zip and felt her rummaging around in his pack. "H-Hey what are you doing?"
"Getting your notes."
"You could have asked."
"Hey can I borrow your notes?" She zipped up his backpack, and walked back around to face him holding his Literature folder.
"Fine, but don't lose them."
"When have I ever?"
The pair walked to the school exit together. Jon broke the silence when they got to the sidewalk.
"So what are you going to do tonight."
"After I copy your notes? Probably work on the van. meditate. See if I can figure out what this morning was about." Athena shrugged "You?"
"I don't know." Jon replied
"Ahhh, Pinterest and Instagram all night again?"
"No!" Jon insisted defensively as his new memory told him "probably"
Athena smiled. "I know you so well. Just don't keep me in the dark about this spiritual stuff too long. The hanged man! Your sister's stuck in limbo."
"Yeah yeah, I'll see you tomorrow."
"Later" Athena called out as she turned to leave.
The walk home was longer and quieter than he remembered, and surprisingly he'd seen neither Mina, nor Karyn. Slowly his house came into view, and he identified old Halloween decorations, both in the lawn and on the house, that had apparently never been taken down. A skeleton sat on top of a bush, and plastic bats hung from the drainage gutter. Cartoon ghosts and pumpkins were still taped to the inside of the windows. He chuckled at that amusing quirk of the bets and pushed into the door.
