Jon and Karyn were forced to screw their eyes shut as reality wobbled and when they opened them the room was completely different. Gone was the little kids room cluttered with toys and walls covered in cartoon posters. In its place was the room of a teenage boy, with things put away neatly and pictures of ballet dancers hanging on the walls, with a few more mature sci-fi/fantasy and anime posters sprinkled in. In one corner where sports trophies and participation ribbons had been kept were now trophies and certificates for dancing. The bedspread which had been a Spider-Man one was now plain grey and black cheque.
The biggest difference was the room’s other occupant. Instead of the scruffy kid in worn cargo shorts and a Batman tee-shirt was the boy from the preview image, and instead of playing with action figures he was sitting, legs spread doing ballet stretches. He blinked and shook his head, coming to his senses.
“Hey Kar, hey bro,” he grinned, looking up at them “Come up with a solution yet?” Spying the device in Jon’s hands he said “Is that the thing you were going to make with the stone?”
“Huh?” said Jon, wondering how Mikey knew about the stone.
Catching on, Karyn nodded. “We were just about to test it out.”
“Cool, let me just do my stretches first and I’ll come and watch,” he reached out for one foot, bending it back “Care to join me Jon?”
“Err,” replied Jon, confused by that request.
Biting her lip to prevent from laughing, Karyn said “I just need a private word with him first if that’s okay?”
“Sure.”
“Come along Jon,” she grinned, taking his elbow, “Let’s take this to your room and we can come back.” Jon nodded dumbly and followed her.
“What was he on about?” asked Jon when they got to his room.
“Haven’t you noticed what you’re wearing?” giggled Karyn.
Jon frowned, then looked down at himself and jumped in shock. He was wearing an identical outfit to Mikey! Wide-eyed he looked over at his wardrobe and was shocked at how different he looked - bar his face he looked like the new Mikey’s identical twin. And looking closer he realised his face was subtly different with slight Mikey-ness to it. And come to think of it, Mikey’s face had looked slightly Jonish rather than purely older Mikey.
Jon glanced around his room, realising that it too had changed, looking a bit beater and with some of his posters replaced with ballet pictures like the ones in Mikey’s room. Swallowing he closed the door and to his complete lack of surprise saw that the large poster of a model he had a crush on that had hung there was now a poster of a male ballet dancer.
“Who’s the stud?” giggled Karyn.
Slumping against his desk Jon said “Wish I knew...Oh, that’s Yuri Vladinov, my idol.” He froze and looked down to where his hand was resting, brushing up against the stone.
