For a brief moment, it seemed like nothing had happened and Jon almost let himself give a sigh of relief.
But then he noticed Zoe. She was taller, if only by an inch, but she also had a more mature appearance about her. Teenage baby fat had given way to a fully-developed figure.
"What?" Zoe began patting her body down as she noticed the difference. Athena gasped at her friend.
The changed girl rushed down the hallway and into the bathroom, stopping to look at herself in the mirror.
"I look like I'm..." Zoe fumbled her words, "I look like I'm in college or something!"
It was true, it looked precisely as though she had aged four years from her previous sixteen, right up to twenty. She would look right at home on a college campus. Or at least, she might if the college in question was operated by the Addams Family.
Athena followed in, marveling at the woman before her. Zoe now had an elegance about her, an air of professionalism and perfection that she hadn't had as a teenager. Her makeup was more refined. Her corset was better fitted. Her posture was just-so. Athena didn't know what was happening, but she couldn't keep the grin off of her face.
Jon was only a second or two behind Athena, but his expression was not nearly as appreciative. "Are you feeling alright, Zoe?" he tested his sister.
"I feel amazing!" she replied, to Jon's slight concern. "I look beautiful! And I can remember--" she gasped, "I can remember graduating high school. I can remember going to college. I'm home for spring break, but I don't live in Lake Point anymore. I'm studying at Housatonic University over on the East Coast. And I'm the oldest sibling. I'm the big sister."
Zoe turned to look at Jon's reflection in the mirror. With every sentence she said, a new memory clicked into place for Jon. Everything she said felt suddenly true. Jon face fell even paler than before as he felt his own life being re-written. Did he... look up to Zoe now?
"Yes," the newly-minted woman continued, still looking at Jon through the mirror, "I'm the big sister, and you're," she squinted a moment as though she wasn't sure who she was looking at, "you're the little sister."
Jon froze. He felt like his stomach and his intestines were switching places. She was right. Zoe was right. Jon was the little sister. But how-- he turned to face his own reflection in the mirror.
Curls. His hair was in Shirley Temple curls. And he'd been taller than Athena, hadn't he? They were the same height now. And his modest bust (why did he have a modest bust?) was covered by a 3/4 sleeve white shirt under a denim overall dress.
Jon turned to his now-older sister, their eyes meeting as Athena took a step backwards to take both of them in. The wording of Jon's wish replayed in his head, and he knew what was about to happen, but he was resisting.
"Why are you wearing that?" Zoe asked her little sister.
Jon looked back down at herself, the line of inquiry taking her off-guard. "I don't know." Her voice was another surprise. "I'm supposed to be a boy, I don't know why I'm wearing a dress."
"No," Zoe corrected, "you're definitely supposed to be my little sister, a girl," the pronouncement sent a wave through Jon's body, making it ever-more true for her. "But the little sister that I remember loves wearing gothic clothes," another wave, "just like me."
Something clicked in Jon's brain just then. Her stomach and intestines righted themselves in an instant. She saw Zoe with new eyes: her dress was gorgeous, her nail polish impeccable, the black leather of her boots shone brilliantly, and her hair was perfection. It was everything that Jon wanted to be.
"Are you feeling alright, Jon?" Zoe could see the change in her sister's demeanor but wasn't sure what it meant.
The younger sister shook her head, letting her curls swing back and forth. "My name is Raven," she said with a grunt. "Call me Raven."
"Okay, Raven," the name clicked in Zoe's head, and she couldn't think of another name her little sister may have ever had. "Are you feeling alright?"
Raven took a breath. Looked down at her flowing black dress, and then back up at her sister. "Yes," she finally said. "But..." why was this question making her feel so nervous? "Can you do my makeup so it's just like yours?"
Zoe's black-panted lips split into a smile. "Of course," she said. "What are big sisters for?"
Then the twenty year-old exited the bathroom leading her 18 year-old sister and their 16 year-old friend to her bedroom, each of them swishing down the hallway in their black Victorian dresses, propped up with thick petticoats.
