Jon looked down at the stone in his hand. How did this happen to him? Things were going fine, and then everything went wrong. He looked at himself in the mirror again and shuddered. He was a freak. No way was he going to go out like this. He didn't even want to leave his room.
He put the stone down and grabbed his cellphone, calling Karyn.
"Hello? Who is this?" she asked.
"It's me. Jon."
"I don't know anyone named Jon," she said. "How did you get my phone number?"
"Karyn. It's me. Jon Gibson."
"You're that freak boy, aren't you."
"Karyn, listen to me. Steve came here and used the stone on me."
"I don't know what you're talking about and I don't care. Don't call me again."
Then Jon heard someone in the background talking to Karyn. And then that person talked to Jon. "Don't call her again or you'll regret it." It was Trevor. He was with Karyn.
Then the line went dead.
Jon sat down on his bed and stared at the wall. Karyn didn't remember anything. They weren't even friends. Now she was friends with Trevor, who was probably a lot like Jon now. But unlike the wishes Jon made with the ten girls and then with the eight guys, Trevor didn't remember who he really was. Steve forgot to include that in his wish.
Jon needed help. And the only ones who could help him now were Zoe and her friends. They used to be Goths and were into the occult. The stone was useless in this situation. Maybe they knew of some way for him to change back to normal. Of course, he never stopped to think that if they knew of some way to change back, they would have already done it.
The problem Jon had was that he had to leave the house and go to the mall. There were lots of people there and he didn't want to get a lot of stares. But if that's where Zoe was, then that's where he had to go.
The whole walk to the mall was awkward enough. People who he had seen before in his neighborhood suddenly treated him as though he were nothing but trash. Most of them turned their heads away from him, like he was too disgusting to look at. And he got the same reactions at the mall. Jon swore that if he ever got back to normal that Steve (or rather Athena) was gonna pay. Big time.
He went to the food court and waited for his sister to arrive. The food court was in the middle of the mall, so everyone passed by there at some point. And after about ten minutes of people looking away from him and making expressions of disgust, Zoe finally showed up.
"What are you doing here?" she asked. She was acting a little disgusted herself, even though just a week earlier she was also Goth.
"Zoe, I need help. Athena switched me with Trevor Blake and ..."
"Trevor? You mean that loser that hangs around with the blond chick?"
"You don't remember?" She should have remembered Trevor as a Goth boy. "But, you're supposed to remember. I made sure of it."
Zoe groaned. "What are you talking about?"
"You were switched with Sarah, remember?"
"Yeah. What about it?"
"Well, someone switched me. I'm not supposed to be Goth!"
"You've been Goth for years, Jon."
He wasn't gonna get through to her. Somehow her memory was changed so that Jon had always been Goth. It must have been the way that Steve made his wish. When Jon made his wishes, he planned them out, making sure they were what he wanted. But Steve just wished for something spur of the moment, without putting much thought into it at all.
"Jon, can you just get out of here?" Zoe asked. "You're ruining my image."
"Since when do you worry about your image?"
"Since now. There's no going back, Jon. I'm a popular girl, I have to accept that. Now get out of here. You're making my friends nervous."
Jon stood up from the table and walked away, pausing briefly to look back over his shoulder at the four ditzy girls babbling to each other about what they wanted to buy next. They weren't any help. They weren't Goth anymore. He needed a Goth.
Jon walked up to Sarah's house and knocked on the door.
The door opened, revealing Sarah and Amber.
"Hi, Jon," Sarah said.
"We need to talk. Can I come in?"
"Sure," she said, letting him in.
"Listen Sarah. This might be a little shocking, but ... I'm the one that switched you with the Goth girls."
"You," she said, astonished. "Why would you change your own friends into cheerleaders?"
Jon sat down, grabbing his head and sighing. "I'm not really Goth. Someone switched me with Trevor Blake. Just like you were switched with Zoe."
"Trevor Blake? You mean that guy that hangs out with that blond ..."
"Yes. That's him. But an hour ago it was me that hung out with her. Not him."
"Okay. If you say so. What do you want us to do about it?"
"I want you to help me. I want to be normal again. I know that Tiffany is a witch now. You know where she lives, right? Maybe she can help me."
"Tiffany is barely a witch," Amber said. "All the spells she cast were just by accident."
"Then what am I gonna do?" Jon asked, feeling helpless.
"Accept it. You're Goth and there's no way going back," Sarah said.
Jon looked up at her. Did she just say that? Had everyone already accepted their fate? He knew it would happen, but not so soon.
"Maybe you've accepted this, but not me. I'm finding a way back." Jon got up and was about to leave when Sarah asked him something.
"Are you still gonna have that party tomorrow?"
Jon turned around. He had no idea what she was talking about. But then he remembered that Trevor was having a party at the same time as the football game. And now since Jon basically had Trevor's life, Jon was the one throwing the party.
"Well?" Sarah asked.
"Sure," he answered, then left.
He started walking home, but then thought that maybe one of Sarah's other friends hadn't totally accepted their fate quite yet. From what he observed, Melissa had fallen easily into her new life, so she was out. Tiffany was apparently no help. So, that left Jessica. From what he saw, she hadn't fully given into her new life, not just yet. But, of course, that was during school that day. He had missed her little trip to the cemetery.
Jon knocked on Jessica's door. She lived in his neighborhood, so he knew where she lived. The door opened and he saw Jessica, all dressed in her new black Goth clothes.
"Can I come in?"
"Sure," she said, then smiled a little.
They went to her bedroom and closed the door.
"Listen, Jessica. I ..." he said, turning back towards her, but getting cut off as she started to kiss him. He pushed her off. "What are you doing?"
"I know you won't understand this, but I've just recently been feeling more and more gothic."
"No, no. I believe you. You see ..."
"And I've been having these feelings. Towards you."
Suddenly, Jon remembered overhearing Zoe talking to one of her friends about a week ago. She was discussing the fact that Stephanie was falling for Trevor. And now since Stephanie was switched with Jessica and Trevor was switched with Jon, Jessica was falling for him.
She pushed Jon onto her bed and crawled over him. He was about to say something, but got interrupted as she began to kiss him again. This time with tongue.
After she stopped kissing, she smiled. "Do you know what I did a few hours ago?"
"No."
"I kissed a corpse."
Jon pushed her off of him and spit on the floor, wiping his mouth. "That's sick!"
Jessica looked confused. "I thought you were into that sort of thing. I was thinking we could go tomorrow before your party and make out with corpses together."
Jon stared at Jessica. This was a bad idea. Jessica was even more twisted than the others. It seemed that no one would help him.
"Listen, I've gotta go," he said, backing out of the room, then dashing out of the house.
On his way home, he shuddered at the thought of becoming more like Trevor. He had Trevor's personality right now, but his memories of his previous life were getting in the way. But, as he learned with the ten girls he changed, eventually he would end up acting and thinking just like Trevor, even without additional wishes. And when that happened, he would take Jessica up on her offer in a heartbeat. It gave him chills, imagining himself kissing a dead person.
When he finally got home and into his bedroom, he sat down on his bed. His bedroom was so different. So gothic.
Jon felt so alone. Karyn barely knew him, his sister and her friends hated him, the "new" Goth girls didn't want to help him, and Jessica was in love with him ... and the corpses. Everything was so fucked up.
Then an idea occurred to him. He could still have Karyn back. All he'd have to do is make a wish. He grabbed for the stone, but then paused. Was this really what he wanted? What if he made things worse? He certainly agreed that things were already bad, but really, how much worse could it get? He wanted his friend back. He needed someone to talk to.
He picked up the stone and said "I wish that Karyn was my friend and not Trevor's." The stone glowed.
"Jon?" he heard Karyn say from behind him. He smiled. It worked! He turned around to look at her, but then the smile fell away from his face.
She was a Goth girl, dressed very similarly to how Sarah now dressed, wearing a black T-shirt, a plaid miniskirt, and black buckled boots. Her hair was still blond, but strands of it were dyed black.
"No. That's not what I wanted," Jon said.
"What are you talking about?" she asked. "Listen, I'm going over to Sarah's house. We're gonna hang out with Amber."
Jon heard her talk, but wasn't understanding any of it. She was a Goth? And she was friends with Sarah now? That fear that he would make things worse had come true. It was bad enough that his own life was ruined, but now Karyn's life was ruined too? And by his own hand?
"Jon? Are you okay? You look a little paler than normal."
"Sure. Yeah." That was all he could manage.
"Okay, see you later." Then she left.
What had Jon done?
