"It was so dreamy," Jonatha cooed to the other cheerleaders at the table at lunch. "Nicole knows how to make a boy tick," he sighed dreamily as he took another forkful of chicken salad.
"Ooh, ooh! What did she do?" Brandi asked, curious as ever.
"Well, we had dinner and then we went to a movie. She knows how to pick good ones!" Jonatha looked up and down the table of smiling, eagerly interested cheerleaders.
"You're lucky to have a girl like her," Trina Blake chimed in. Suddenly, the cheerleaders' attention was diverted when someone abruptly got up without taking their food and stomped away from the table. Jonatha immediately realized it was Jade. Why did that, of all things, make him upset?
Hearing about Jonatha's successful date made the contrast with Jade's own disaster even more striking. From the moment he'd set foot in that restaurant, everything had gone down the tubes. Ash couldn't pry her attention away from the hockey game. She lashed out at a girl who used the opportunity to make her own conquest, and he'd come strikingly close to encounters he would not have consented to otherwise at Cait's place. Jade couldn't bear to admit it to his friend, but he was downright jealous of Jonatha. Wanting to get as far away as possible from the cheerleaders, Jade sat alone at a table in a dimly lit corner of the Valley Lake cafeteria. A moment later, however, the chance arrival of someone else prevented him from sulking too much.
"You OK?" Jade looked up to see a boy with long, shimmery dark hair and wearing a pentagram necklace. "I don't often see a cheerleader over here," he added in some confusion.
"Yeah...well, I went on a date on Saturday and it went poorly, and something one of my friends said made me think of it."
"A bad date? What happened?"
"Well, the girl I went with got into an argument with another girl who was able to muscle her out of the picture. He—I mean, she was a quarterback at Sapphire State, I guess." Jade sighed, realizing he was having a trouble getting a grip on reality after everything that had happened. The boy tilted his head.
"That sounds...odd," he replied, noting the odd pronoun slip-up.
"What's your name again? I've seen you around a few times, but we've never talked."
"Danielle Alyssa," he answered. "And believe me, I've had a strange weekend myself."
"Oh?"
"Well... You know I'm a witch, right?" He held the pentagram necklace, emphasizing its existence. "I was out in the woods, and... You know Sarrah McMillan?" Jade jolted a bit at hearing the name. "Well, I went to kiss her, and I had this weird vision as I did. A world where boys looked like girls and girls looked like boys."
Jade's heart skipped a beat. "Oh?" His expression of intrigue served to mask a sudden feeling that what Danielle had to say was important.
"One of them had hair on their face. I've never seen that before."
Jade's jaw dropped. Another link to the past! (And no, not the video game.) "Oh my..." He hesitated again. "I... Well... Let's just say that there is magic afoot in this world. Yes, the world was once like that — at least before someone made a wish..." The bell rang, interrupting their conversation.
"I guess it's time to go," Danielle sighed. "But obviously there is something here. Take my number." He hastily wrote down his cell phone number on a scrap of paper and handed it to Jade. "Text me after class. If you know others that might have a clue, let me know too."
"I will," Jade added. "And get ready for a wild ride."
