Jon stood frozen, his stomach knotted tighter than a sailor’s rope.
Mikey’s wide eyes darted between the two of them. “Two of you. There are two Jons. I knew it. I knew something was up!”
Karyn sat cross-legged on the bed, still wearing Jon’s face, and gave a smug little wave. “Surprise.”
Jon pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is bad. This is so, so bad.”
“Bad?” Mikey sputtered. “It’s insane! What is going on? Who’s the real one? Is one of you a robot? An alien? An evil twin?”
“No,” Jon said quickly. “No aliens, no robots, no—”
Karyn cut him off cheerfully. “Well, actually…” She hopped off the bed, the familiar shimmer rolling over her body like water. In an instant, Jon’s double melted away, replaced with Karyn’s original self—messy red hair, baggy green sweater, crooked grin.
Mikey’s mouth fell open. “What the—”
But she wasn’t finished. “And for my next trick…” Her form flickered again. Her frame shrank, hair lengthened and darkened into Mikey’s shaggy brown mop, hoodie appearing over clean shorts. Right down to the stain on the sleeve and mismatched socks, she was a perfect clone of Jon’s twelve-year-old brother.
“Ta-da!” she chirped in Mikey’s exact voice, smiling his exact smile.
Mikey staggered backward, staring at himself like he’d just seen a ghost. “No way. No freaking way. That’s… that’s me.”
Jon groaned. “Karyn, was that really necessary?”
“Of course!” Fake-Mikey said with a grin. “Otherwise how would he believe us?”
Mikey’s eyes darted between the two of them, then back to his double. His breathing slowed. “So… it’s real. All of it. You’ve got some kind of—some kind of magic stone or something, with that is what you tryed to tell the family right, but its real... i thort even you said it was ballshit, but i guess not?”
Jon winced. “Something like that.”
Mikey’s awe melted into mischief almost instantly. He turned back to Jon, eyes gleaming. “Okay. I want it.”
Jon blinked. “What?”
“I want powers. Give me shapeshifting powers too.”
Jon nearly choked. “Absolutely not.”
Karyn, still wearing Mikey’s face, leaned against the desk with a mischievous smirk. “Oh, come on, Jon-boy. What’s the harm? He’s family.”
Jon’s jaw dropped. “You’re siding with him?!”
Karyn nodded solemnly. “Yep. Totally. One-hundred percent. Give the kid some powers.”
Mikey grinned wider, and the sight of two Mikeys grinning identically made Jon’s skin crawl.
“This is a nightmare,” he muttered.
Mikey folded his arms. “You’ve got two options, Jon. Either you give me powers… or I scream. Real loud. Mom’ll come running, and guess what she’ll see?” He gestured between himself and Karyn. “Two of me. Good luck explaining that.”
Jon’s stomach lurched. “You wouldn’t.”
Mikey inhaled dramatically, opening his mouth.
“Stop! Stop, okay!” Jon clutched his head. “Fine. But you’d better understand—this is dangerous. You don’t just get to mess around with this like it’s a video game.”
Mikey beamed. “Deal.”
Karyn, still cloned as him, mimicked the same smile and same tone. “Deal.”
Jon wanted to slam his head against the wall. “I hate both of you.”
Still, he pulled the box out of his drawer and grasped the stone. With a weary sigh, he muttered, “I wish Mikey had the exact same shapeshifting powers as Karyn, and knows how to use them.”
The stone’s strange eye-prickling sensation hit. Mikey shivered twice, blinking rapidly, then gasped. “Whoa. I… I feel it. Like I know exactly what to do.” He looked down at his hands, flexing them slowly. Then he grinned. “Check this out.”
His form shimmered, and suddenly Karyn was sitting on the floor again—at least, her body. Her red hair, her sweater, her grin.
Mikey, now wearing her body, looked down and laughed in Karyn’s voice. “Look at me! I’m Karyn. And Jon has a crush on meee!” He fluttered his eyelashes dramatically, then grabbed at his borrowed sweater. “God, being a girl is weird. But kind of nice?” He tilted his head, patting his chest with cartoonish fascination.
Jon’s face went scarlet. “Mikey! Stop that right now!”
Karyn, now stuck in Mikey’s twelve-year-old body, laughed so hard she nearly toppled over. “I know, right? Being a guy takes some getting used to. But honestly? Your body’s comfy, Mikey. You’ve got a good setup here.”
“Comfy?” Mikey scoffed from her body. “Please. This hair is a disaster. Do you even own a brush?”
Jon wanted to melt into the carpet. “This is too much. This is way too much.”
Karyn, brushing shaggy brown bangs out of her borrowed eyes, smirked. “Hey, I’ve got an idea. What if we just… stay like this? You know, swap lives for a bit. Two days. We switch back Monday morning. No harm done.”
Mikey’s grin spread wider on Karyn’s borrowed face. “I like it. You get to see what it’s like being me, and I get to see what it’s like being an older girl.” He twirled one of Karyn’s red locks dramatically. “Kind of a win-win, don’t you think?”
Jon’s heart nearly stopped. “You’ve got to be kidding me. No way. Absolutely not. This is insane.”
But Karyn—now Mikey—was already nodding. “C’mon, Jon. Think of it as… cultural exchange. A weekend abroad, except the country is puberty.”
Jon dropped onto his bed, burying his face in his hands. “God, kill me now.”
Mikey laughed in Karyn’s voice. “Guess that means it’s settled.” He straightened his—well, her—sweater and headed for the door. “I’ll be off, then. Home, sweet home. Later, Mikey.” He winked at his own borrowed body. “And later, little dick Jon.”
Jon’s head snapped up. “Excuse me?!”
But Mikey—still in Karyn’s body—was already strutting out, leaving Jon and Karyn (in Mikey’s small frame) staring after him.
Karyn hopped onto Jon’s bed cheerfully, leaning against him with the affectionate enthusiasm of a younger sibling. “Think of the fun we can have now. Me, your loving little bro, and you, my big brother to look up to.” She tried to snuggle into his side.
Jon shoved her off the bed with a groan. “Ow! What the hell?!” she yelped, sitting on the floor in Mikey’s voice.
“I’m not playing big brother to you,” Jon snapped. “This is too much.”
Karyn pouted, brushing dust off her shorts. “Fine. Be a dick. I’ll just… go to my room. Play video games. That’s what twelve-year-olds do, right?”
Jon didn’t even look up. “Knock yourself out.”
She stuck Mikey’s tongue out at him and stomped toward the door. “Later, loser.” sounding way to much like the real Mikey with she was not even meaning to then.
Jon dropped his head back into his hands. “God, this sucks. But… I’d better apologize to Karyn..... Later Not now.” just imagining what Karyn is doing in a tween boys body who has started pubity shivering thinking of that.
The door clicked shut, leaving him alone with the terrible certainty that the weekend had only just begun—and it was going to be the longest of his life.
