Jon stared in shock at the girl in the mirror. He didn't see a feminine version of himself looking back at him, as he had expected, but rather the reflection of Janelle Carter, one of his and Karyn's oldest friends. Janelle had met Karyn through Girl Scouts when they'd been in elementary school, and through her she had met Jon himself. When they'd entered high school, Janelle had joined the cheerleading squad, and that had put some natural distance between her and Karyn and Jon, thanks to Sarah McMillan's insistence that the cheerleaders not associate with "losers" like Jon and his friends. Janelle had remained a loyal friend to Jon and Karyn, though, despite Sarah's pressure, and for that, Janelle had Jon's eternal respect.
Jon had wished to be a girl so he could fit in better... as Janelle, he would certainly have that opportunity. Janelle was one of those instantly likeable people, one of those social chameleons who could mesh equally well with any group. She got along well with Jon and Karyn and their friends, hung out with them from time to time... and as a cheerleader, Janelle was accepted and well-liked by... well, pretty much everyone else. As the only African-American member of the cheerleading squad, and one of the only... no, the only member of the team who wasn't a total snob, Janelle should have been a bit of an outsider... but Janelle got along with people so easily that she never seemed like much of an outsider anywhere. Yes, she clashed with Sarah and her most die-hard hangers-on... but then, who didn't? Still, this was a surprising way for his wish to be granted. Though when you're dealing with a magic wishing stone, he reflected, the whole concept of "surprising" kind of flies out the window, doesn't it?
Jon ran a hand along the smooth, dartk, chocolate-colored skin of his arms, over his long black hair, over his broad hips, and finally over his breasts, which were sensitive and quite respectful. Janelle had a nice body; indeed, Jon had had a little bit of a crush on Janelle for some time. Looking up into Janelle's dark brown eyes, at her soft, pleasant features, Jon was struck by how strange it was to have been turned into a girl he was attracted to. Jon had fantasized about being intimate with Janelle ever since she had begun to... develop, which she had done fairly early and quite satisfactorily. He had never pictured it going like this, though...
Jon was dressed fairly simply, like any other teenage girl; he was wearing a black tank top and tight-fitting jeans, along with a pair of black flip-flops. He was glad he wasn't wearing Janelle's cheerleading uniform. Yes, he had wished to be a girl... on thinking it over, he had decided that being a girl would make his life a lot easier. He got along with girls better than guys, and girls seemed to get a lot of preferential treatment these days, and he tended to get teased by guys who were more popular, more athletic, more stylish, or better-looking than he was. Jon knew that girls had to put up with a lot of garbage, too, but in the balance, being one of the girls seemed like the easier route to go. Still. He was still very much a guy on the inside, and so he wasn't sure how far he was prepared to take this whole "girl" thing, at least at this stage. Being a cheerleader? That was like jumping right into the deep end.
Looking around, Jon realized that he hadn't simply switched bodies with Janelle... if something like that could ever be considered "simple." Jon was in Janelle's body, he was wearing her clothes, but he was still in his own room, still holding his wishing stone. He wondered what that meant. Was Janelle in her room looking in her mirror trying to figure out why she had turned into a boy? Or was there another "Jon" out there, with his body and a duplicate of his mind? Had his wish made it so that he, as Janelle, was visiting "Jon", and "Jon" just happened to be out of the room at the moment? Was he still himself, still Jon, just a Jon who looked like Janelle? Were there two Janelles now? Or had Jon and Janelle switched homes, or even families? Of course, Janelle was black and his family was white, so if he and Janelle had switched families somehow, that raised all sorts of other questions. Still... if he had just switched bodies with Janelle, if it had been that simple, then it seemed like he should have been in Janelle's house... or wherever Janelle happened to have been at the time of the switch. So what had happened?
Suddenly Jon's bedroom door opened. Turning, Jon saw...
