Jon tried not to panic too much, hoping that this was the interesting thing...and it would quickly end.
In the morning, he sat down at breakfast. His mother seemed in a hurry this morning. He had this odd feeling something was missing, but he needed to get to school to check on Karyn, so he didn't particularly notice how quiet the house was.
He headed to school. He and Karyn didn't have any classes together, but maybe he could catch her in the hallway. He spotted her from a distance, and was briefly surprised to see her not wearing her scruffy slacks and green jumper. The slacks looked new, the jumper had a different cut, and he could see her shirt under it...not just her shirt, but her figure...the one she'd wished up the day before. It looked like a more...trendy...version of her outfit.
He rushed toward her, about to call her name, when suddenly a locker door hit him in the face. It wasn't hard, but it stung. "Are you all right? I didn't see you there," an unfamiliar voice said, closing the locker. Jon barely noticed who it was, because Karyn was gone.
He touched his face. Nothing seemed bruised, thankfully. It was more...jarring. He frowned. Last night he had gotten lost on the way to Karyn's house, a place he'd been many times before. This morning, he'd tried to get her attention and got hit in the face. Was something deliberately trying to keep him away from her? And what was with the wardrobe change?
"I'd better get to class," Jon said.
"Sorry about that," the other student said. Jon had no idea who they were, but...it wasn't like he knew everyone in school. There were some kids who just seemed to fade into the background that he hadn't gotten a chance to know. Even in some of his classes. "Do you need the nurse or something?"
"No...it just stings," he said, heading toward his class, the only thing really bruised being his spirits.
