First lunch ended and second lunch began, and Athena DeVries hunted down a familiar black dress as she held her lunch tray and scanned the tables.
“Hey, can I sit with you guys today?”
Jon looked up. “Um, sure.” Then he turned to Karyn, “have you ever met Athena? She’s Zoe’s friend. Athena, this is Karyn.”
The girls exchanged smiles as Athena sat down. Perfect. Athena would continue her mission from that morning, to make Jon feel like Zoe was his older sister.
Athena began to needle: “I was just telling Jon this morning how much I wish I had an older sister who gave me hand-me-downs.”
Unnoticed by any of the teenagers, a small flash emenated from Jon’s bookbag, which had found itself leaning against Athena’s bare calf.
“I don’t have an older sister,” Jon managed to actually say this time.
“Then whose scarf is that?” Karyn asked, genuinely confused. “And whose dress?”
“They’re mine!”
“Yeah, they’re yours now, but where did you get them from?”
While this exchange was happening, Athena felt a shiver run through her and before Jon could answer she announced “geez, it suddenly got really cold in here. I can’t believe I didn’t bring something warmer to wear.”
“Here,” Karyn said absent-mindedly, “you can borrow my sweater.”
“Are you sure?” Athena asked. “Won’t you be cold, then?”
Karyn tugged the green garment over her head, “I don’t really get cold. Just make sure to give it back to me when we get hoooo–”
All three teenagers suddenly felt a sharp headache that disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.
“Athena,” Karyn asked with two fingers pressed to her temple, “where do you live?”
“I don’t understand the question,” Athena asked, taking the sweater.
“What’s your address?” Karyn clarified.
“You should know that, Karyn, we live in the saaaaame–” another wave of headache came and went.
Karyn gave jon a look. Jon’s eyes widened. Neither wanted to say anything in front of Athena, but they both just heard her say ‘I wish I had an older sister who gave me hand-me-downs,” and now they seemed to have two sets of memories, one where Karyn was Athena’s older sister and one where–
Athena tugged the sweater into place over her black dress. “See, Jon? You don’t have to be embarrassed when you get gifts from your older sister.”
There was a nagging at the back of Jon’s head. There was something he was forgetting. Something about Athena’s sister? It had been a little unexpected when Karyn sat down with them, but it wasn’t so unusual.
Jon stood up to try to clear his thoughts, but his loose jeans immediately fell to his ankles.
“I don’t know why you wore those pants under your dress today,” Athena admonished him. “The dress you got from your big sister is cute enough on its own,” this time the phrase ‘big sister’ was said without any deeper intention. It was just simple fact. “Those jeans just make you look kinda plain.” Athena now stood up. “Sit back down and hold your knees together.”
Jon did as ordered, and with a swift tug, Athena pulled Jon’s jeans over his shoes and off his legs.
“Now give me your backpack.” Again Jon complied, and Athena deposited the garment within a bookbag that, mysteriously, no longer contained a particular red stone. If Jon never had the stone, then there wouldn’t have been a wish for him or Karyn to hear.
And with one set of duplicate memories now erased, it was now Karyn’s turn to stand up. “Well, it was nice spending some time with you two, but I need to get to my next class.” She turned to Athena. “Like I said, just give back my sweater when we get home.” And with that, Karyn DeVries walked out of the lunch room.
Jon started to follow after her, but Athena caught his arm. “Where are you going? That’s the senior wing, you know all of our classes are on the other side of the school.”
Jon shook his head to clear it, then followed Athena to the sophomore wing, where the two of them had American Literature for their next class. The both of them walking through the halls wearing clothes handed down from their big sisters
