Sarah counted herself very fortunate that she was practiced in disguising her rage as Jon re-joined the party. You see, it was one thing to suddenly be a really good singer, in a vocal range that isn't your own, out of nowhere. And it was another thing for your hair to just grow out halfway down your back, in front of everyone, and have nobody think it was strange. But to disappear for ten minutes and show up again with a pair of boobs that gave Sarah a run for her money, atop a body that would rival any supermodel's?
This wasn't an exaggeration, Sarah personally knew a lot of supermodels through her mom. And if you'd dropped Jon in the middle of a gaggle of them, as he looked now, he wouldn't stand out. Hell, he might even stand out because he looked better than most of the real models.
And not a single goddamn classmate noticed a thing. Everyone was treating him as though this was how he always looked. Practically as though he'd arrived at the party wearing one of Sarah's mom's signature bikinis, and not in a plain T-shirt and cargo shorts like he had. As Jon made his way back to the patio and passed the poster of Susan, Sarah's rage almost boiled over. It wasn't just any supermodel's body that Jon had. It was her mom's. Jon was wearing her mom's bikini, in a body identical to her mom's, and he was even posing exactly like her mom's image in the poster, right in front of it, to the cheers and applause of every popular girl in Lake Point High School.
Well, Sarah was going to have none of this. She wasn't going to lose the spotlight to some stupid boy at her own party, in her own house. She steeled her nerves, took a breath, and composed herself briefly before walking past Maeve, head of the house staff who was still instructing girls on where in the house they could change, and towards the accumulation that was gathering around Jon and the poster of Sarah's mom.
Student Council President, Hillary Harris, intercepted her along the way, however, and Sarah's instincts stopped her. Hillary, dressed in a canary yellow bandeau bikini from a photo shoot in Bermuda, wasn't normally a part of Sarah's orbit, so giving her some face here time meant increasing Sarah's influence.
"I know I thanked you already, but I just wanted to thank you again, Sarah." The normally-composed Hillary was unabashedly fangirling. "It's so amazing that you're giving all us girls this opportunity. I think it's just great that you have the kind of relationship with your mom where she'll just give you an entire collection of bikinis to hand out to your classmates."
Jon's attention turned starkly towards Sarah and Hillary in that moment, which did not go unnoticed by Sarah. The cheerleader's eyes narrowed as she returned her laser focus to the real subject at hand, even as she politely replied to, and then dismissed, Hillary. Something was about to happen, and Sarah was going to be there to see it.
"Jon!" The sound of her mother's voice caused Sarah's head to whiplash in the opposite direction. "I didn't know you'd be here at Sarah's little thing!"
Sarah looked back at the boy-turned-bombshell: he was like a deer in the headlights.
"If you'd wanted one of my bikinis, you just had to ask me." Susan wrapped Jon in a hug, then kissed him on either cheek. "I'd be more than happy to lend anything in my wardrobe to my favorite protege."
Nobody else in the room flinched at this pronouncement, but Jon and Sarah's looks of shock practically mirrored one another. Jon was Susan's protege? Since when?
As if to answer, Susan continued. "I can't believe it's been six whole years since I discovered you. Do you remember that first shoot for, what was it, a Target catalog? And now you're on top of the modeling world, doing shoots with me every other week!"
Sarah's world spun on its head. Jon was a model? Jon was a model!?!? And even as these thoughts intruded upon the reality that Sarah thought she knew, she could see the framed poster, the one of her mom in Jon's bikini -- in the bikini that Jon was wearing, dammit -- Sarah saw the poster change. It shifted from portrait to landscape, to accommodate a second body that appeared on the beach in the picture, wearing a blue rhinestoned bikini to match the pink one. But it was her mom. It was Susan McMillan in the blue bikini. Sarah's eyes returned to the original body on the poster: the person in the pink bikini wore Jon's face.
"It was sweet of you to come to Sarah's party in your bikini from our shoot last summer. It almost makes me want to go upstairs and find my blue one!"
This was too much for Sarah. All of her contained anger exploded out in one sentence: "What, so Jon gets to be a model and I don't?"
Susan sighed as she turned to her daughter. "Sarah, I thought we were done with these conversations. This isn't about you, Jon just has a special talent when it comes to modeling. I will always love you no matter what, but as a professional it's my job to nurture new talent."
Suddenly it clicked for Sarah. Amber had made a comment about Sarah's hair, and Jon's hair grew. And Sarah had heard Amber tell Jon that she looked great in a bikini, and now Jon looked even better than her in one. And Hillary had commented on how close a relationship Sarah had with her mom, and she saw it in Jon's eyes, he knew something was going to happen. And now he was her mom's special protege. He was a talent that she had to nurture. He had an even better relationship with Sarah's mom than Sarah did.
Whenever someone said something about Sarah, it became true for Jon. At least, that's what was happening from Sarah's perspective. She took a calming breath: if there were rules, all she needed to do was learn how to play by them.
Sarah looked at Jon's face, a vicious sense of victory building within her. That was the only part of Jon that hadn't changed yet. This was going to give her a definite visual confirmation of what she now believed to be true.
"My face," she announced out of the blue, "is just so very, very, pretty."
Silence. Dozens of guests turned to look at their hostess, even as Sarah kept her eyes firmly on Jon's face. It wasn't changing. Nothing was happening. Had Sarah been wrong? Awkward seconds continued to pass, before Amber, reliable and supportive as always, broke the silence.
"Your face is very pretty, Sarah," Amber gently placed a hand on her arm, "but maybe we need to sit down for a moment and take a few deep breaths?"
Jon's face twitched. Sarah could see a fear behind his eyes, and then his eyes looked entirely different. His eyebrows thinned and rose slightly, bringing his cheekbones with them. His face softened and rounded. His nose and lips shrank. And after a few moments, he was entirely unrecognizable as the Jon Gibson he'd been that morning.
So that's how it worked. Sarah couldn't say the thing, it had to be someone else. A new rule. New information. This was good. Sarah was going to leverage this new knowledge to her advantage.
But for the moment, she allowed Amber to lead her away from the crowd and off to a secluded room. She had to consider her plans carefully.
