Sandra woke at 5:00. What a terrible time to wake up, she thought. There's at least another 2 hours of good sleep in there. Only, she wasn't quite sure where that thought came from. She'd been waking up at 5:00 for at least the past 5 years. With Zoe's busy school schedule it was the only time she could really get to herself to plan out the day, and besides, she didn't really sleep as late as she used to. Zoe, the thoughts of her daughter returned to her, and Sandra smiled sadly and looked to the girl beside her in bed. She brushed the girls bangs from her face. The poor girl had a rough day yesterday, what with dealing with her new life... new life... Uhhh... wasn't there something about new lives she was forgetting.
"SHIT!" Jon stammered, then quickly covered her mouth and looked back to Zoe to see if she'd woken her. Zoe grumbled and rolled over, but didn't rise. Jon sighed in relief. What the flip was that? It was like she'd completely forgotten ever being Jon. She held her head, and chuckled as she whispered. "There is no Jon, only SANDRA." Joking in the face of such a startling loss of identity made her feel a bit better, but for the life of her she couldn't remember if she'd seen that scene of Ghostbusters as Jon, but she clearly remembered watching it with Linda when her older sis had come back from college on her freshman spring break. She rubbed her temples and told her it was just the morning fog, she was still Jon, afterall none of their wishes involved erasing who he was before, right? It was just adding something new on top.
Sandra realized she'd been sitting on her bed, completely still for almost 5 minutes and shook the thoughts from her mind. It was time to get her day started, she didn't have time to be spacing out!
Bustling to the kitchen Jon made sure to prepare a pot of coffee, and started making Zoe's lunch. She heated the soup, poured it in the thermos, and made a ham sandwich. Somehow, she knew Zoe liked Boarshead deli cut turkey better, but that cost so much more. Those extra dollars added up. Thick cut store brand ham means extra spending money at the mall. She checked the calendar, and was grateful to find that she had the morning shift at the mall today, that meant she could make it to the second half of Zoe's cheer practice, which meant she could return Courtney's cooler from last weeks game.
Jon blinked. Oh yeah. Courtney. Sarah's mom. She hadn't recognized the name in her phone yesterday, but it was obvious today. She got the impression that Courtney was aloof, and a bit arrogant, but was always a big donor at the cheer fund raisers, but didn't really delve into Sandra's memories beyond that. Speaking of phones...
Jon pulled out her phone and checked her emails and text. Her emails were filled with Work announcements. Bills. A deluge of fashion emails. So boring stuff. There were a few more texts than yesterday, so she started with Courtney's unanswered text.
"Let's see" Jon bumbled as she read the text.
"Hey Sandra. Can you give Sarah a ride home from practice tomorrow? She wanted to stay over, but I didn't want to impose. Hubby and I are out of town tomorrow."
Reflexively Jon fired a text back. "Oh my gosh, I missed your text. She can stay over no worries!"
A few moments later Courtney replied, clearly an early riser herself. "Are you sure? I know you're busy this week."
"Girl, I'm always busy. That won't stop me from having Zoe's bf over. Sarah's always such a sweetheart."
"You're too kind. I know she can be a handful." Courtney replied. Jon felt miffed at the implied slight Courtney made against her own daughter. She thought the text said more about Courtney than Sarah, but kept that little nugget to herself.
It wasn't until the text exchange was over, and Jon had made plans for Sarah to spend the night that Jon realized... "Oh sugar... Zoe's going to mad."
"Zoe's" best friend was in fact Zoe's worst rival, and the locust of her current identity crisis. This would be difficult to navigate, but Jon decided to use the opportunity to exercise some mom power and lecture the two about Athena... She felt her Sandra side already strategizing how best to make sure justice was served, and a lesson was taught.
Her eyes turned to the next unanswered text.
"Hey, I can't believe I forgot, I already have your number thanks to you having Karyn over in the past."
Jon's heart leapt in her chest. It was from Liam.
"I was wondering if you'd like to come over Wednesday. Karyn and I are going to rent some movies on Amazon, and we'd love to have you and Zoe over. I'm a great cook." The text was concluded with a smiley face. Not enough confidence to put a winky face, but too dorky to just leave the line hanging. Jon could imagine Liam's goofy rugged grin in the place of that little emoji.
"You and Zoe" with an emphasis on 'you'. Jon thought. She laughed. Absolutely not. Zoe could go over, there's no way she's going to let Karyn's dad make a pass at her during this most awkward week of all time... But then again... It would be nice to hang out with Karyn. Maybe Karyn even remembers more than she first let on, and could help them with their wish predicament? She'd just need a bit of alone time... ahem. Alone time with Karyn, not Liam of course.
"Sounds fun! Have to check with Zoe." Jon texted Liam. She bashfully set her phone down, and went to wake up a very grumpy Zoe. Jon didn't see the text that followed.
"If Zoe can't make it, I'd love to still have you over." Winkey face.
