“Ah, the cheerleader graces us with her presence!”
A part of Zoe was oddly heartened by Athena’s familiar tone. But she wasn’t sure why it felt so familiar. Athena was Jon’s– well, now Dawn’s friend, but Zoe didn’t know her that well, did she? No, Athena was too young for Zoe, but…
“Hey,” Zoe greeted the girl who had been her best friend in a slightly different reality. “Do you know where your sister is?”
“Karyn?” Athena shrugged. “Probably at the library.”
Zoe thanked Athena and waved goodbye to the two goths… was Dawn a goth or was she just dressed like one because she was wearing Zoe’s clothes? A question for another time. Zoe waved goodbye, breaking the tentative reunion, and headed for the library.
In the very instant that Zoe laid eyes on Karyn, seated at a table with her nose in a book, her whole dream came back to her. New sets of memories came back to her.
Karyn wasn’t supposed to be Athena’s sister. Athena was supposed to be Zoe’s best friend. Karyn was supposed to be Jon’s best friend.
How had things changed so much?
Zoe sat down across from her target.
“Hey,” Karyn said, “aren’t you Dawn’s older sister?”
Before Zoe could answer, she Karyn’s eyes light up, her head slightly vibrating. It looked precisely how Zoe had felt just a few moments before.
“Wait.” Karyn put out a hand as if to stop some invisible oncoming train. “You’re Jon’s younger sister!”
“You remember?” Zoe felt relief wash over her.
“Yeah, I don’t know why I remember all of a sudden, but I remember everything.”
“What do you mean by ‘everything?’”
“Dawn used to be Jon. Jon used to be older. You used to be younger. I used to have red hair.”
Zoe took this all in, and added: “There’s a stone.”
“There’s a stone!” Karyn slapped the table, garnering a glare from the librarian. “How did I forget the stone!”
“So you knew about it?”
The two spent the rest of the morning exchanging information. Between the two of them, they managed to piece together a full timeline of who had made what wishes and when by the time the warning bell rang.
“Let’s talk again later,” Zoe said as they parted.
“After school?”
“No,” Zoe gestured to her uniform, “I have to cheer at the game. Whenever there’s time, we’ll figure it out!”
Clarity. A light at the end of the tunnel. The morning’s gloom lifted from Zoe’s eyes as she turned towards the Biology classroom, and memories of sitting next to Sarah formed in her head.
There was so much that Zoe needed to tell her.
