A light knocking on her bedroom door startled Ken somewhat, but she could determine its source from the daintiness of the knocking. That, and the fact that the sound was coming from the bottom third of the door. Ken thought, deprecatingly, that it was not unlike a cat trying to be let into a closed room. "Come in," she said, still feeling a little jarred by the natural honey in her female voice. It wasn't much different from her mother's, which made sense, but she wasn't used to being its source.
Jon pulled the door open, noting dryly that the simple act of opening a door was completely different now that she was only three feet and seven inches tall. Genetically, she took after her father, which was where she got her hair color (though hers was slightly redder,) and, apparently, her height, because her father wasn't even five feet, now, and Jon looked like she'd be lucky if she got that much.
Jon noted that her father was still within the height requirements to be in the Air Force, though now she was exactly the minimum height, which gave the new girl some sliver of hope that she could still follow in her father's footsteps if she wanted to. She had, before this drastic shift, been considering enlisting as an alternative to college, since she'd always wanted to be a pilot, but like all the opportunities she'd once had, she worried that this one would be ripped from her. That was why she'd decided to make these wishes in the first place
Of course, if the family had agreed to make wishes to alter reality so that their changes were normal, that was a good thing, because it meant both her parents could still have their histories relatively unaltered. Though if they did do that, she didn't see how reality could explain how anybody other than her father could have bore her. She didn't think that would have made a big difference, but she wondered how her parents would take it.
"Hey, Dad," she said as casually as possible to the person she knew was her father. Her own voice was young and pure-sounding, but almost guaranteed to have the same pitch as her father's would, for better or worse. "I need to make a wish. Is that okay?"
Ken paused, taking a moment to examine the child who she knew had the mind of her seventeen-year-old son. She was wearing her long auburn hair down, and instead of wearing the jumper outfit the wish had given her, she was wearing one of Zoe's metal T-shirts, which draped her like a long dress. She had what looked like a black scarf tied around her waist to keep the makeshift robe from flaring everywhere. It looked ridiculous, but it definitely brought out more of Jon's character than the implied innocence of the clothing she had been wished into.
Ken suddenly realized that, whatever clothing they decided to wish up for her daughter, it should do exactly that, making this little girl seem like Jon, not just some carefree and innocent second grader. Within the bounds of decency, obviously.
Ken crouched down, looking into her daughter's eyes warily. "I thought we agreed that we'd make adjustments to our family as a family, when your mother gets home. It's the only fair solution."
Jon nodded, trying not to make the gesture looking adorable. Ken knew that Jon was going to be stunningly beautiful when she became a teenager again, just like her own sister had been. Unfortunately, she'd died in a car accident shortly after graduation; Jon never met her, though her smiling portrait was hanging on the wall beside them. Ken supposed that her own body probably resembled her sister, too, if she had gotten a chance to raise a family of her own.
"I don't plan on making any wish that affects anybody but me," Jon assured her father. "And even that will hardly be noticeable, if it ever is. I'm not as irresponsible as Mikey. I've been thinking about this all day."
Ken shrugged. "Then I don't see why we can't wish for it later. It can wait, can't it?"
"Technically, yeah," Jon said, "but I'm embarrassed to talk about this one. And like I said, it's really subtle. I don't even know if it'll work."
Ken sighed wearily, rubbing her chin in contemplation. "You shouldn't be embarrassed to make this wish in front of us "
"Dad, Grandpa left the rock to me because she knew I'd be responsible with it. Besides, technically, I own it," she said, before a solution popped in her head. "Wait. There's no point in arguing about this. Why don't you just wish that whatever wish I make next won't go into effect if anybody in the family would have disapproved of it?"
Ken blinked. That actually wasn't a bad idea, though it was strange hearing it in her daughter's juvenile voice. "You're mature enough to handle this. The rock didn't do any damage to anybody until Mikey got a hold of it. That sounds fair, but don't tell Zoe I let you do this, because then we'll never hear the end of it," she said, moving to retrieve the rock from a safe in her closet. When she had it in her hand, she held it out to her daughter, but kept her hand clasped until the wish was complete.
"I wish," Ken began, "that whatever wish my daughter, Jon, makes next on this stone will not go into effect if anybody in our family would have disapproved of it." Then she opened her palm and let Jon take the stone.
"Thanks," Jon said gratefully. "I'll be right back with this."
"You're welcome. Just be careful, okay?"
Holding the stone as if it were the most important thing in the world (which it quite potentially was,) Jon strode out of the room and went into the basement, which was currently empty since her family, with the exception of her mother, was all upstairs. Still, she whispered her wish, careful that nobody should hear her when she made it. This was her secret, and she was never going to tell anybody else about it.
"I wish that my romantic destiny has not been altered, severed, or transmuted by this stone's magic, or my body's magical change, and that it will proceed as it was supposed to."
And then it was done. Jon returned the stone to her father, not knowing if the wish was approved by her family, or if the wish did anything at all. Then she went up to her room and read World War Z until she got bored and took a nap.
He wasn't even sure if the wish did anything. There were no signs of anything having changed, no magical tingle or sound effects. Perhaps one of her family members would have disapproved of the wish, or perhaps, as she suspected could be the case, there was no fate for him other than what she made for himself. Or, perhaps, the stone's magic wasn't strong enough to mess with the strings of Fate. Or maybe her destiny had taken the stone into account, and she was always meant to someday be this little girl. Then again, maybe the wish did exactly what he'd intended, and everything was going to be okay.
The wish was supposed to ensure that whoever was out there for the male Jon would still be there for the younger, female Jon. If she and Karyn were destined to be together before the wish, they would still be together some day; under different circumstances, perhaps, but still together. It was the only way to preserve the integrity of her future without getting into the complexity and grotesqueness of sexualities.
Sighing, Jon fell asleep, slowly accepting at least one part of this new person she now was as herself.
