The front door opened, and in walked Jon's mother, Linda Gibson, and his younger brother Mikey. Given the events of the day, Jon was surprised but relieved to see that neither of them appeared to have been changed by any Transformation Guns.
They did, however, stare at Jon and Karyn with a bit of surprise. "Karyn, who is this?" Linda asked.
"It's me." said the girl with short red hair. "I'm Jon."
"You're a girl!" Mikey exclaimed.
"I guess so." Jon said, with a smile and a shrug. "I went over this with Zoe."
"You were changed by one of those strange guns?" Linda asked. "Are you all right?"
"I'm okay, Mom." Jon said.
"Are you sure?" Jon's mother asked.
"I think so. Karyn and Sarah helped me." Jon said.
"Sarah?" Mikey asked. "Isn't that the mean girl from your school?"
"It's a long story." Karyn said. "Sit down and we'll try to tell you."
Jon and Karyn had had plenty of time to talk about how they were going to explain things. They had agreed to omit any mention of the wishing stone and its role in the day's events.
So they began by talking about what happened in Mrs. Williams' English class when Mrs. Williams discovered the Random Gun on her desk. They told of how Mrs. Williams accidentally turned herself into a crazy person who kept zapping everyone in the class with the Random Gun, causing random transformations in people. She had changed several people's races, ages, and/or sex several times. Jon had been transformed into the redhaired girl she now was. After Jon and Karyn fled the classroom, Sarah had grabbed the Random Gun from Mrs. Williams and destroyed it.
"What happened to Mrs. Williams?" Linda asked.
"She ended up in the hospital after the fight, but we think she's going to be okay." Karyn said.
"Anyway, I kind of freaked out, but Karyn and Sarah got together and helped me get through it. I'm fine now. I feel a bit strange, but I'm okay." Jon said.
"I thought you and Sarah didn't get along." Linda said.
"It's a crazy day." Karyn said. "We've come to an understanding."
"I think a lot of people might be putting aside old grudges and divisions." Jon said. "We'll have to wait and see."
"I heard about these weird guns on the news." Linda said. "My co-workers turned it on at the office. We couldn't believe it. All the world's guns turning into strange ray guns that change people in weird ways? If I hadn't seen it myself, I still wouldn't believe it."
"You saw it?" Jon asked.
"First I saw it on the news." Linda said. "The Lake Point bank robbery. The news cameras caught that bank robber getting zapped with a ... Hippie Gun? But that's not all. I also saw it on the way home. While driving home, I saw a traffic cop suddenly turn into a mime."
"The Mime Gun." Jon and Karyn said, almost in unison.
"I guess that's what they're calling it." Jon's mother replied. "I heard there were a lot of these 'transformation guns' at your school. I couldn't tell Mikey how worried I was. But he'd heard about them too. His teachers turned on the news."
"Why does all the cool stuff happen at your school?" Mikey said.
Jon laughed a bit, before turning serious. "It wasn't really all that fun. As I said, I was scared out of my wits till Karyn and Sarah brought me back to my senses. But I heard some other people at my school did some cool stuff. Zoe's friend Athena and a few others spent most of the day finding Transformation Guns and turning them over to the principal."
"Where is Zoe, by the way?" Linda asked.
"She's staying with Athena and their friends." Jon said. "They might be spending the night over there watching old movies."
"I'll call her in a few minutes." Linda said. "But are you sure you're all right, Jon? You were turned into a girl. That's got to be confusing for you."
"A bit." Jon said. "But it's fine. The Random Gun also gave me all the instincts to go with it, so it feels natural. As if I've been a girl all my life. So no, you don't have to spend the whole night teaching me how to be a girl."
Linda paused. Clearly she wasn't sure how to react to this latest information. "Well, okay. But if you need anything, let me know. I'll be right there."
"Thanks, Mom." Jon said.
"I've called my Mom and told her I'm staying here for the night." Karyn said. "Jon's had a rough day and could use the help of someone who was there. If it's all right with you?"
Linda paused. "I suppose it makes sense. Where are you going to sleep?"
"On the couch, if that's okay." Karyn said.
"That'll be fine with me." Linda said. "If you like, we could order some food later."
"It's okay." Karyn said. "My mom said she'd be bringing some over in a bit."
"I suppose we ought to turn on the news again at some point." Jon said. "See President Loughty's address to the nation and all that."
"It'll be interesting." Karyn said. "Her speechwriters must be working overtime, unless she's doing it entirely unscripted. I mean, who could have seen today coming?"
Jon just nodded in agreement. Even with a magic wishing stone, they doubted they could have expected the crazy events of this day.
Jon had wished for something interesting to happen. And what had happened today had gone beyond merely 'interesting'.
At the DeVries residence, Athena and her friends Zoe Gibson, Zelda Whitefield, Sabrina Johnson and Trevor Blake sat on the furniture in the living room. A classic horror movie about a scientist losing control of his experiment was playing on the television.
"Do you think we should take a break from this and see what the news is saying?" Zelda asked.
"They'll be saying the same things in the morning." Zoe replied. "Going on and on about it. Freaking out over magic being real, among other things."
"You're right." Athena said. "The world now knows that magic is real, it's out there, and it affects the world. It's not just some underground thing any more, practiced by people the world believes are phonies. We'd better be ready."
Sabrina nodded. "And it'll probably be morning before the news starts saying anything it hasn't been saying for the past hour. So let's just skip it for now and watch some movies."
Athena nodded. She knew, of course, that others didn't have that luxury. Others were right now dealing with the consequences of Transformation Guns at that moment. Such as Jay Duncan's mother Samantha and her colleagues over at McMillan Tech Industries, who would likely not be getting much sleep tonight.
But at the moment, Athena and her friends could take it easy and watch some movies. It wouldn't stop them from occasionally wondering what was going on elsewhere, though.
