Jon's head was spinning: everywhere he looked, something was a bit different. He was trying to make sense of the world he was living in, but how could he make sense of any of it? Sitting on the bench, trying to take a breath with two women patting his back was helping to calm him, but how calm could he be given the circumstances? Even the smell of the air was different, almost minty.
He broke down crying. It had been forever since he cried, but now he just needed to express himself. The wheels had well and truly come off.
"Yannah, please, we're here for you!" Razzah pleaded, hoping to get her sister's mind to yield whatever it was that was making her so emotional.
"It's just..." he manages between snotty sniffles, "I had this stone..." followed by more guttural weeping... "And I made a wish, it was so dumb! And I was never even here before! I had never even worn a thong or bra before..." Now Jon was screaming, near the top of his lungs, in a register he was most definitely not capable of on his home world. I was a guy!"
The other two recoiled in shock. The words out of Yannah's mouth were the diametric opposite to the girl they'd known their whole lives—and hers. Yannah was the head cheerleader, captain of the team! How could a guy do that? How could a guy be their sister? Neither of them could parse any of this except to think to themselves, What got into her?
Jon parsed the silence as an invitation to keep going. "Y... You're... You're Zoe and Sarah! And you don't think this is strange!? None of this existed until not that long ago! These trees! This body! I was a guy! Sarah, you used to bully me because I had a crush on you! Zoe, I used to tease you and pull the backs of your bra straps to pick on you! None of this was real! The sky was blue, I tell you! Not this weird orange color! _The sky! Was! Blue!" He held the last word for a moment before sighing and relaxing his shoulders, feeling his new body move in unfamiliar ways, flipping his hair behind his shoulders and beginning to feel tears streaming down his cheeks.
"Well, uhh..." Razzah was at a loss for words. Clearly, that head injury had done a number on her. Jon looked out at the park, only to see another woman with thick, curly blonde locks walking toward them at a brisk pace. His 'sisters' seemed to stiffen up slightly, like they knew she was a familiar presence looking over their backs, one that was a matriarch in their lives.
"Momma Zambreelinah!" Razzah and Zayliah shouted in unison. sisters shout. "We didn't expect you to be at the park! We're just walking with Yannah... We promise our sewing homework will be done this time tomorrow! And our reports on the history of Vogue will be done tomorrow! We're just looking after our sister!"
"It's okay, girls, we just need a moment," she explained in a surprisingly soothing voice. "Momma just needs a moment with Yannah. You two can scurry home." Jon watched as two people—the two people from his old life that reminded him of who he was—fluttered away on their heels in tiny thongs, running and sashaying them like it was the most normal thing in the world. Nothing in this world made sense...
"Please don't get offended by me asking this, but you're not from here, are you?" the unfamiliar woman whispered gently as she put a comforting, consoling hand on her shoulder that soothed some of her stress. Zambreelinah whispered gently. Jon wanted to say something, feeling like he was understood, but he was bubbling and swelling with tears too much to get a word out. "Shhhh.... it's okay, you don't have to say anything. And I don't mean from here as from Santa Paula or Brasil..." She looked closely at Yannah. "I can tell, you're new to this place... The way you look at the sun, how shocked you are by the trees. Look, believe it or not, it happened to me too. I was like you once too. It's like I fell into a pool and was in a new universe where nothing made sense. And, believe it or not, I was a guy before. But it's all going to be okay. You're different. I'm different. It's okay. Just breathe. C'woman... We just need to get you home."
Jon felt like he was in a daze as he walked hand in hand back home, his hand holding hers and not caring, staring at his feet to avoid all the crazy sights of the world around him. Every time he looked up he saw gigantic men passing him on the sidewalk, but holding and grasping her hand made him... her? feel safer. It was soothing, but all Jon could do was look down at his bare, perfectly shaven legs and pointed heels; the shoes were frightening enough, but the fact that he was walking perfectly in them was crazy! And he seemed more comfortable in them than when they were off!
Zambreelinah patted her on the back. "You need some rest. I'll see you at school tomorrow, we can talk more about this then." She made her leave and Jon took a deep breath, gathering himself to face the world. Opening the door, he saw a living room with a big, built-in replacing any couches in front of the big, backend-heavy TV. Three angry people were there, standing, glaring at him. One was a guy.
"Girl, where have you been!? Cheer practice started 30 minutes ago! Coach is in a real pissy mood now!"
Jon couldn't process the fact that Zayliah had just said "girl" gir-luh. He was staring up at the guy's face and noticed just one thing.
"Karyn!?", Jon blurted out, the words exiting his mouth as quickly as he thought them.
"Who the frig is Karyn... I'm Rin, your cheer manager, dummy! I know you hit your head, but you're late," the goliath bellowed, leading the three girls toward cheer practice.
