--The Next Day--
Jon had eventually gone to bed rather than making any more impulsive wishes to see what his pet rock had done to the world. He'd already sorta played damage control, after all. That didn't exactly mean he slept well, though, and spent longer than he should tossing and turning and wondering what sort of wacky scenarios his dumb wishing had caused. He paid the price for that in the morning.
"Jon! It's almost 7:30. You're going to be late for school, young man!" came through his door.
He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, groggily. "I'm getting up, mom..." She sounded different, but he couldn't place how, nor did he care to in the early morning fog.
"Okay, but please hurry. Athena's already showered for the morning and everything!"
"... What?" But it sounded like his mom was already busy elsewhere.
Jon was sobering up fast, and by the time he was on his feet he was blitzing through the morning routine. "Well, that's different," he said to his beloved pet rock at one point. "Zoe didn't have Athena over for a sleepover or anything last night, did she?" Athena DeVries was his sister Zoe's best friend. She was an odd one, in Jon's opinion, but they shared similar interests in the dark and macabre, and Zoe had kinda looked up to her, so. Maybe she had come over for girl talk or whatever it was they did together?
That turned out to be wrong. When Jon laid eyes on Athena, she was barely dressed, and eating a bowl of quinoa for that morning's breakfast. They hadn't even owned quinoa before yesterday!
"Hey, bro..." she greeted nonchalantly before going back to her bowl. It was a bit weird to see her without her makeup or usual fashion on, but she didn't seem to think anything of it. She just finished her food, washed out her bowl, and went back to her room, presumably to get dressed. Jon hadn't said a word through the whole exchange.
A thought occurred to him. ... Where's Zoe?
"Jon, have you eaten anything!?" He turned to see what he first assumed would be his mom nagging him. What he actually saw was Karyn's mom (Bethany... Black?) nagging him just as if she were his own mom. His little brother Mikey was... not following her, actually, it was some other kid Jon didn't immediately recognize that was trailing along like a little duckling. An 8-year-old girl, as a matter of fact.
Well... I guess that's interesting?
Bethany sighed. "I'll make a bagel for you as well as Molly, honey, but you're going to have to eat in the car. I'd rather not be called at work about any tardies today, okay?" She hurried past him and popped a few in the toaster with all the haste of a rushed single mother, then tossed Jon an apple. She looked frazzled. Bethany Black hadn't been a single mother, but apparently Bethany Gibson was just as single as Linda Gibson had been.
"... I'm sorry," Jon said after a moment.
"It's okay, honey. But please, be ready in the future. Don't forget your poor old mom has to go to work too, okay?"
"Okay." That wasn't what I was really sorry about, but okay.
A moment later, Athena emerged, now looking much more like Jon remembered. Face plastered with makeup, dark old-fashioned dress, and those funny lucky charms she wore, like that crystalline pendant around her neck. She looked worried about something too, much more than she had moments ago, but Jon wasn't about to ask her about her own problems. Within minutes they were all huddled in the car.
So, I guess this is my family now? Is that what the Stone was going to do, shuffle everyone's lives around like we're so many playing cards in so many places? But I wished it wouldn't be that interesting... He thought on the way to school. I guess I could've ended up with that meathead Biff for a Mom and Mrs. Black for a little sister or something, but that would've been too interesting. Too zesty. So... uninteresting life swaps only? He thought a little more. Is it uninteresting? Seems plenty interesting to me!
