[Please ignore my earlier statement that the room mostly looks the same. It logically shouldn't.]
Jon woke up to the sound of the alarm with a start. Morning already? He had been dreaming, about visiting his grandparents but completely forgetting everything that happened the moment he turned away.... He felt two weights on his chest. Breasts, covered in a bra. That was right, he had gone to sleep as two people. He was Julie and Jon was getting up on his own in the other bunk bed. "Good morning, Jon," she said, leaping to the floor with a thump.
Jon muttered something and then said, with some grogginess in his voice but clearly enough, "Good morning, Julie. How was your night?"
"I don't know," she replied. "I had dreams of being with our grandparents but I couldn't remember any of it. I wonder what it all means... oh, never mind."
"What is it, Julie?"
"I don't wonder what it means. I only said that because I had to guess what Julie might say! It's good practice to act like there's a Julie but we can't do it all the time. We especially can't do it all the time when we just started out and there are things we don't know yet that we'll know later on. Like, am I really supposed to sleep in this?" She indicated the bra and panties. "Do I need a nightgown or something? If I'm living in the same room as my brother we obviously have to have really strict rules to keep you from getting a peek."
"I think it's hot just like you are," said Jon. "If you know what I mean."
Julie grinned. "All right, we know that that's not something you'd say to Julie."
"Because I haven't really grown up with Julie as a sister. There's nothing in the back of my head which says 'this is your sister' and turns off the 'she's hot' part of the brain."
"I ought to be offended," replied Julie, "but I don't know if I can figure out exactly why."
"Julie would be offended," said Jon. "Let's end this." He stood up from the bed and walked directly into Julie, the two teens fading together until only Jon was left standing there.
There was a moment of disorientation, if only because Jon had just been facing in two different directions at once and had two different sets of immediate thoughts, but the transition was easier now that he had gotten used to it. It was now time for the normal before school routine. Take a shower, get dressed, go eat breakfast. But now... he couldn't think "I'm going to go there, and I'm going to go there, and then I'm going to do that." He had to think about his plans for the next few minutes twice. I'm going to go there and wait for me to finish using the bathroom so I can go in."
Okay, I become brother and sister again. And if I'm Jon, I go into the bathroom, and if I'm Julie, I wait. It was odd to plan to do something and plan to not do it at the same time. Jon exercised his power, and brother and sister were standing together in their room again.
He unconsciously began to walk to the bathroom, before checking himself to see what side he was. For Jon, he just hesitated and then continued onwards. For Julie, she only took a step before realizing she was the Julie half. Julie and Jon looked at each other and then Julie piped up, "Go ahead, Jon. I said you can take a shower first today." Jon muttered his assent and went ahead.
They walked over a block to meet Karyn at the school bus stop, chatting, or trying to.
"Hi guys," said Karyn in greeting.
"Hi," said Jon.
"Hi," said Julie. "I'm glad I'm back."
"But you're not... Oh, right, the pretense. You want me to act like you're real unless we're specifically talking about something private."
"Yup," replied both Julie and Jon. "Especially when we're not in my room. Or yours."
"Jon," explained Julie, "told me about what I missed. I copied his notes so I should be fine. You know, the way history class is going, I wonder if we'll ever get to World War II before the end of the year."
"I heard they got to the moon landing last year," said Karyn. "Anyway, I heard a rumor the other day, about one of the cheerleaders. Nothing big, she was grounded by her parents for something and we're still trying to figure out if it's something we should care about..."
"It's probably not," said someone from behind them. They turned to see Zoe approaching them from the direction of Jon's home. "I'm sure there are better rumors around. But anyway, what was your trip like, Julie? I'm eager to hear all about it, and they're my grandparents too...."
