As all the chaos died down, Jon looked down at himself - herself. She was a girl now, and perhaps worse, she was eight years old. She'd have to go through the past nine years of her life all over again as a girl. What would Karyn say? Did she even know Karyn anymore? She pondered these questions as she went up to her room, clearly a little girl's room, though not stereotypically pink. The walls were the same white, and she had a Bratz bedsheet, as well as many dolls and stuffed animals and posters scattered across the room and the plush carpet. No TV, no computer, no cell phone. No books. She clearly wasn't a particularly... literate girl. As a boy, she had been. "Well, I guess that's a thing of the past. I do want some books, though..." She sighed, looking around the room for hints of a name. It wasn't necessary to look very far; Katie was all over the room. "So that's my name now, huh?" She said out loud, trying to get used to her new voice.
Katie sat down on her bed, fighting the urge to cry. Why did this have to happen to her? Zoe was at least the same age, and Mikey was the age she should be! That selfish brat clearly got the best part out of this. There was something she could do, at least, she thought as she walked back out of the room through the suddenly much larger house. It hadn't seemed this big since she were a little boy... a period which seemed decades, even centuries away. "Dad!" She yelled, and followed the soft yell in return. "Can I see the stone for a minute?"
"Sure, honey. Anything to make this easier for you. The two of us are probably the worst off, you know?" She nodded. She probably knew that better than anyone.
"I'm Katie now, by the way." Katie forced a smile up at her dad. "I saw it written in my room. Your new name is probably somewhere too. I wish I was able to know things about my new life as they came up." That was safer than just wishing to know everything, she thought. Memories of an entire life, even eight years of it, could turn her into a drooling invalid due to information overload for all she knew.
"Good ideas, honey. Both of them. I'll be taking it back now, okay?" Dad took the stone back from her gently, and on a whim, picked her up too, making her squeal in surprise.
"Daddy!" She would only realize later what she'd said. The simple joys of her childhood came rushing back as she sat in the motherly embrace of her father, resting her head against her shoulder and feeling the whole of her weight supported by one arm. All the chaotic events of the day went rushing away as she heard Dad say something, and the only response she got to her mumbled question was a kiss on the forehead. Her eyelids slowly drooped, and before she knew it, she was asleep.
Ken smiled down at the sleeping child in her arms, rocking her for a moment before heading upstairs to deposit her in her own bed. She marveled at the difference between the two rooms, her old one and current one; it was impossible to believe that the angelic little girl she tucked into a bed with Bratz bedsheets was Jon.
