As Jon was still walking to Derek's house, Derek decided who he wanted to change next. He picked "babe magnet" Steve Farber. But he was nowhere to be seen. Derek reached into his pocket and touched the wishing stone. Then he whispered "I wish Steve Farber was walking in our direction." The stone grew warm in his pocket, then just moments later, they saw Steve and he was walking towards them.
"That was lucky," Chris said. "I never thought that he'd come to us."
Luck had nothing to do with it, Derek thought.
"Hey, Steve," Chris said.
Steve recognized the voice. "Chris? Is that you? Where are you?"
"In here. In the trees."
"What are you doing in there?"
"Come over here, Steve."
There was something off about this situation, that's what a part of Steve was telling him. But he knew Chris. He trusted him.
After walking past the first few trees and underbrush, someone grabbed him. And another jumped out in front of him. The second guy had something in his hand, something black. Then the guy's arm made a swooping arc at Steve. The pain was instantaneous as he witnessed his arm being slashed.
Then he started to feel ... weird.
Jon knocked on Derek Lettman's front door and when it opened, he was met with a chubby middle-aged woman.
"Uh, hi. I was wondering if Derek was here."
"Are you a friend of his?" the woman asked.
"Uh, yeah. I am." Jon didn't want to lose his chance to figure out who stole the stone. If it took a lie to get this woman to give him information, then so be it.
"He already left with his friend Chris. They're probably at school by now, if he didn't skip."
"Okay, thanks." Jon turned around, but then stopped. "Wait a minute. Did you say Chris?"
"Yeah, that was his name."
It couldn't be a coincidence could it? Could Derek's friend Chris and Chris Morgan be one and the same?
"What did Chris look like?"
Mrs. Lettman thought back. "About the same as my son. Heaven knows why they grow their hair like that."
"Uh, yeah. Listen, I've gotta go." Jon turned and ran back down to the street.
Jon put two and two together and he did it fast. He was sure now that Derek had the stone and he used it to turn Chris Morgan into an emo boy.
He took out his cellphone and called Karyn. He started to get worried when she didn't answer. If she was looking for Chris, then she might had suffered his same fate. It horrified Jon to think that Karyn was now an emo girl. But maybe it wasn't too late. Maybe he could still save her.
So, Jon ran as fast as he could to the high school.
Meanwhile, Karyn was at home getting ready for school. She was going to go straight to the high school, but thought that since her house was on the way there, she could just stop off to grab her books and such. It just happened that Karyn was in the bathroom at the moment that Jon called. She left her cellphone in her bedroom, so she never heard it ring.
