Alyssa Black was someone she knew both very well and not at all. As Jon, she had been the mother of his best friend, but Jennifer Madison had never met the woman. Until now that was. Alyssa Black, a stylish woman with long flowing red hair, looked stunning as always, wearing a lavender keyhole blouse that accentuated her stunning breasts, and a midlength white wrap skirt, alongside magenta 4' heels. The woman had honestly been an early crush of Jon's, and his attraction to her was something he kept firmly under his hat, to avoid angering Karyn, who was irritated that her mother was considered a massive MILF by most of the male population of their school.
Alyssa was actually rather similar to Jen, having her child as a result of teen pregnancy and then raising them themselves due to an absent father. While Jen's situation with Robbie was .... Complicated, Alyssa had never really been involved with Karyn's father beyond that one night, according to Karyn. Alyssa was strictly into girls, but as a sixteen year old, not out of the closet, she'd done some dumb things to try and prove her supposed 'straightness'. Jen felt a surge of identification with the woman, which was so weird. She empathized with her because she was another single mother like Jen, but she only knew that fact because of her Jon memories. Gah, the inside of her head was so confusing right now.
"Sorry to bother you, but I've gotten turned around and can't find room 415. Could you point me in the right direction?" Alyssa's voice was as melodic as Jon remembered it, but the tone she took was new. Due to Jon being the same age as her daughter, and knowing him since he was in preschool, she never spoke to him like a peer as she was for Jennifer; it was weirding her out a little, but she supposed it made sense. At 33, she was only two years older than Jen.
"Uh, yeah I'm actually heading that way myself, you can follow me if you want."
Alyssa smiled gratefully, "Thank you so much, I always get lost at these things."
Jen chuckled as they started walking, "It's no trouble. I actually went here myself, so between that and Zoe's conferences fall semester, I've got the lay of the land."
"Well I'll trust the expert, shall I?" Alyssa teased, "I'm Alyssa Black, by the way."
Jen smirked back at her, a little playfully, "Jennifer Madison, charmed. How have your meetings been so far?"
"Fairly good as far as academics, Karyn's a bright kid, like her mother," Alyssa's eyes sparkled mischievously. "Behavior's more of a mixed bag. She's gotten a few detentions for arguing with this Tiffany girl, and apparently it's distracting her in class, particularly phys ed. Personally it sounds like this Tiffany is a bit of a bully, but then again..." Alyssa sighed, "It's tough, y'know? I try to teach her to stand up for herself, but it sometimes feel like she interprets that as having to die on every molehill."
"Hey, those molehills can feel pretty big when your their age," Jen replied, "Everything seems to matter so much in highschool. Kids can be ... mean, and I say it's a good thing she's advocating for herself." They came to a stop outside Mr. Peterson's room, "Well, here's room 415, I'm right across for Zoe's english class."
Alyssa nodded, "Thank you so much for helping. It was really nice chatting with you!"
Jen smiled brightly, as Jon she already knew her, but the Jen part of her was genuinely rather glad to meet Alyssa. "Same! Maybe we'll bump into each other again, sometime."
"Yeah," Alyssa started to turn to leave, before rotating back to face Jen, her face uncharacteristically apprehensive. "Um, maybe we could make sure we do? I could give you my number and we could meet up and get coffee sometime?"
Jen was momentarily stunned, was Karyn's mom asking her out? The Jon part of her was warring between his longtime crush on Ms. Black, and the weirdness of the situation, while the Jen part of her was cautiously really excited. Jen was bisexual, but hadn't had the most stellar dating history with either gender. Most folks had turned tail and run when they found out she was raising Zoe by herself. Alyssa was a knockout, and seemed really sweet, plus knew exactly what being a single parent was like.
"I think I'd like that, in fact I insist on you having mine as well." Jen teased, "Maybe we could do it this weekend even?" Alyssa grinned widely and they exchanged their numbers, "That sounds brilliant, I'll text you for the details." At that they both really had to turn and go to make their meetings on time, but both women were quite excited at their good fortune that night.
After the meeting, Zoe was doing well with an A- and no demerits, Jen made her way back to the lunchroom to find her sister. When she found her, she could instantly tell her big sis was fuming. "I'm going to strangle that boy! Mike's got a C, three Ds and he's failing Trigonometry! He's just been blowing smoke up my-"
Jen pulled her sister into a hug to forestall an eruption, gently rubbing her former mother's back. "Shh, calm down Lin. Trying to think up what to do while your mad's a bad plan. Let's get out of here, cool down, get some drinks and we'll figure out what to do." Jen was a little torn thinking about the issue of Mike. Jen thought the world of her big sister, and would be forever grateful to her for letting Zoe and Jen move in with them, but her memories as Jon were giving her pause about something. Mike was, well he was her nephew, but Mike was a pretty bad kid, one of Steve Farber's gang of hooligans. Then there was the Zoe of the old reality; Jon loved his sister but he couldn't deny she was a bit of a brat, rebellious to a fault and consistently a C student. Her Zoe, on the other hand, was a good student, constantly helpful and friendly, well adjusted, and just generally delightful. (Jen might be biased, but it was her daughter, so sue her.) Unfortunately the common denominator between the old world Zoe and the new world's Mike was Linda's parenting, considering Roger Gibson had passed away quite some time ago.
Still, Lin was Jen's sister, so she'd support her and try to help. Linda sagged into the hug, releasing the tension in her shoulders, before separating. She shot her sister a raised eyebrow "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you just want to hurry and get to dinner, sis." Jen smirked, "I never said I didn't have a secondary motivation. Come on, let's go, I can tell you how my night went on the way."
Linda rolled her eyes as they started walking out, "Going to brag about how well Zoe's doing?"
Jen stuck out her tongue, "No. I mean she is, but I was going to talk about something else. I kinda maybe sort of.... got a date."
Jen was a little offended by how much Linda's jaw dropped.
