The McMillan residence, morning of day two
Sarah McMillan awoke in her room. Her room had not changed significantly from the previous day. The makeup table, the wardrobe, the high-quality furniture, the cheerleading trophies, were all the same as they were before. However, Sarah knew that things were not the same. Not just in the world at large, but in her own personal corner of the world.
The previous day had changed her, despite the fact that she had managed to avoid being zapped by any of the Transformation Guns. After everything she had been through, at school and later with Jon and Karyn, she knew she would not be looking at everyone the same way again. It was strange to even think it, but encountering a bunch of crazy ray guns that transformed people, and then a magical wishing stone, had actually given Sarah a cold hard dose of brutal reality.
What did popularity really mean, after all? Sarah remembered how a few of the Geeks and Goths she had detracted occasionally tried to tell her that high school popularity wouldn't last: Eventually she'd have to start over from square one at college after she graduated. And what sort of popularity needed one to constantly be a bully to people who weren't as good looking as you or who didn't share your interests?
The intrusion of the Transformation Guns threw everything into chaos. When someone could get zapped into a Goth or a Jock instantly, did the clique divisions even matter anymore? And then so many people Sarah knew were transformed: Boy-crazy Tiffany Sanders got zapped with the Prude Gun, Danny Foster got zapped with the Clown Gun and caused a food fight in the cafeteria, Moose Matthews kept getting zapped with three different Transformation Guns (the Goth, Punk, and Hillbilly Gun before finally settling on Goth), and several people had been transformed into attractive young women by the Babe Gun.
And then there was the Random Gun, which randomly changed anyone into any other person. Sarah had fought with Mrs. Williams, who had been transformed into a crazy person by the Random Gun and was zapping everyone in sight with it. Sarah had avoided being zapped herself, but two other people she knew weren't so lucky: Biff Meadows and Reggie Deckman. Sarah didn't consider herself the hero type, but she had stood up to a crazed Random Gun user, defeated them, and destroyed the Random Gun.
(At least, she had destroyed THAT Random Gun. She knew there were plenty of others out there. One of them had transformed her father, as she would find out later).
Then she and Karyn had put aside their differences to rescue Jon from the mess caused by his wishing stone, and they'd made a wish to understand just what everyone at Lake Point High School was feeling about the current situation. As a result, Sarah briefly saw things from so many peoples' point of view: Friends, classmates, teachers ... and people she used to be mean to. She realized all of them were people with their own hopes and dreams, and that she'd been nasty to a number of people who didn't deserve it.
And now Sarah was part of a secret club devoted to keeping the existence of the wishing stone a secret. The wishing stone had set the whole series of events related to the Transformation Guns in motion (due to Jon's accidental wish that 'something interesting would happen'), but the world could never know that. Sarah's friend Nicole Tiller already knew about the stone, but they could not tell anyone else about it. The secret had to be kept within the club, whose members were Jon, Karyn, Sarah, Nicole, Jon's Goth sister Zoe and that witch girl Athena.
And none of them even knew what had happened at McMillan Tech Industries, especially what had happened to Sarah's father. After leaving MTI headquarters last night, Sarah had gone straight to bed because it had been a long day. Aside from her mother (who was still convinced that the whole thing was a plot by Denise Brewster to steal her husband's company), she hadn't talked to anyone about what she had seen or heard at MTI.
Sarah looked at herself in the mirror, brushing her hair and applying some makeup. This normal routine of hers helped a little, but she knew nothing was going to be the same going forward.
What was going to happen to everyone? To Biff? To her father? To the company, and likewise the family fortune?
She tried to take her mind off of these things and concentrate on her hairstyle, but the intrusive thoughts kept coming. She couldn't stop thinking about what her father had been changed into.
She was interrupted in her thoughts by her mother calling her for breakfast. She quickly finished her usual morning preparations, and got dressed and ready.
At the breakfast table, Susan McMillan appeared tense and irritable. "I just called the hospital. They're not allowing visitors today. And they wouldn't even say why! Just that your father - or what used to be your father - is under careful observation."
Sarah winced, as memories of the cheerleader her father had become - Ricki - came to her. She wasn't sure she wanted to confront Ricki right now. But she knew she would likely have to, sooner or later.
"If those so-called geniuses were as smart as they claim, they'd have turned your father back to normal already!" Susan ranted.
"Mom, you heard them. It's not that simple." Sarah said as calmly as she could.
"I know. They said they're afraid of him turning into some sort of lunatic. Excuses, excuses. They're in on it with Brewster!"
"Mom, they said they don't know how the Transformation Guns became real, and I don't think they're lying!" Sarah said, growling.
There was a brief pause before Susan spoke again. "Do you know what I think? I think Brewster's a witch! She saw that silly game those tech people were playing, and cast a spell to make those things real. All to force your father out and take over the company herself!"
Sarah was so surprised at this that she found herself laughing. "Ms. Brewster? A witch? Do you KNOW how ridiculous you sound?"
"It's no more ridiculous than silly ray guns out of some fantasy becoming real and turning your father into a cheerleader!" Susan replied. "Brewster will do ANYTHING to get ahead. And she had the opportunity to know what those tech geeks were doing. She was the head of their department before her promotion, you know."
"Whatever. I don't think she had anything to do with this." Sarah said.
"She's certainly taking advantage of the situation, however it happened." Susan paused, and then looked her daughter intensely in the eye.
"Do you understand what's at stake here? If your father loses the company, we may lose our fortune! Our house, our cars, our clothes! EVERYTHING! Are you going to let that happen?" Susan paused again, and then added "ARE YOU?!?"
Sarah then lost it. "Well maybe Ms. Brewster was right! If you'd actually tried doing more than modeling to make money for yourself, if you weren't relying so much on dad's money, maybe we wouldn't BE in this mess right now!" She pounded the table as she said that last sentence.
"You take that back!" Susan shouted.
"No I won't!" Sarah replied defiantly, returning her mother's intense stare with one of her own. "You've been content to be some sort of trophy wife all this time, not even thinking about what might happen if the money runs out, or dad leaves you for someone younger and hotter, or whatever!"
Sarah went on. "A few times at school, some of the Goths confronted me telling me that it won't be long before I'm a high school has-been! Well YOU'RE the biggest high school has-been I've ever met! You're reliving your cheerleading days through me, because those are the only times you actually felt good about yourself! I like cheerleading, and I'm going to keep doing it, but not for you, I'm doing it for ME!"
Sarah was about to rant even further, but she was interrupted by the sound of her cell phone ringing. She saw the caller was Nicole. She marched out of the kitchen and into the living room to take the call, leaving her mother standing alone in the kitchen in stunned silence.
"Sarah, is everything okay with you?" Nicole asked.
"Mom and I just had a fight." Sarah said. "I don't really want to talk about it right now."
"You know school's canceled for today, right?" Nicole said. "Melissa and I are taking Chris shopping. She's real excited about it, too. Anyway, we'd like to know if you want to come with us."
Sarah paused for a moment before making her decision.
