"I never expected to say this to you," confessed Zelda. "But thanks."
A kind word had made Athena's day. A break from her routine of abuse and neglect. She had to pause to find the right words. "You're ... welcome."
Zelda waved goodbye to her. Who knew I'd ever connect with Athena? Maybe we'd be friends if things had been different ... and I can make them different. With the stone.
She walked straight to the Madisons' house, not pausing to take a detour to her own house to drop off her backpack. Her sense of mission enabled her to ignore the weight of her textbooks.
She checked the garage. Empty. Mrs. Madison and the kids were going to be gone for hours. More than enough time to get in and out.
She found the spare key hidden in the usual place. She knew she wasn't supposed to use it ... yet she felt that she had to. This was an emergency, after all. One requiring the rewriting of reality.
The last time she used the stone, it had made her blonde and buxom like Karyn. Trivial compared to what she was about to do.
She inserted the key into the front door without a twinge of guilt. She wanted Jon so badly. Enough to justify breaking and entering.
But Zelda wasn't breaking anything, right? Other than reality. And that wasn't a crime. It wasn't in any law code. Certainly none known to Mrs. Madison. Who soon would have some other last name. Maybe her old one.
Zelda entered Jon's bedroom and found the stone where he had said it was. Under his pillow. If he had misplaced or moved it, she would have had to take apart his room. And messing with his stuff bothered her more than sneaking into his house. She could use the stone to undo the mess she would have made, but she'd still know that she violated his privacy. Fortunately, that scenario wouldn't come to pass.
Zelda had to figure out what kind of scenario would make Jon hers. Without forcing him to be her eternal lover. That would be too easy. And just wrong. She wanted Jon to willingly choose her. She knew he loved her. His mother was in that way. That lady had to go. Zelda gripped the stone. "I wish ..."
Meanwhile, Sarah and all three of her children were at the mall.
Jon wanted to be somewhere -- anywhere -- else. If not for this Zelda mess, he might have entertained myself by looking at the altered girls around him. Of course he wouldn't be able to recognize many of them because they had once been women and girls he hadn't known. He hadn't seen any familiar faces when he was at the mall with Melissa Black yesterday.
But today he did spot a teenager who resembled the teacher Mikey had a crush on. Miss something. Warren? Whatever her last name was now, she was still a Miss in this twenty-four hour reality. And Mikey didn't notice her at all. She wasn't his type anymore.
His brother Jon might have been attracted by Lydia Lastname if he were in a better mood.
"Jon, your attitude is horrible," said Sarah. "If you keep that up, I'm not buying you a movie ticket."
"Whatever."
"What?!"
"Look, to be honest, I don't think there's a movie that all four of us could equally enjoy. So yeah, if I don't see whatever you're going to see, fine."
"Jon, as a family, we have to make compromises ..."
Jon tuned out his mother of the moment when he saw a group of teenage girls whose changes stunned him. They had once been ...
