When the bell finally rang, Jon crammed his writing materials back into his pink purse and reluctantly slung it over his shoulder.
"That was weird, wasn't it?" he said to Karyn after rejoining her in the hall and setting out toward next period's gym class together. He noticed she now had a fashionable tote bag which used to belong to Ashley, who was something of a kind-hearted slacker and fashionista. She also had the girl's chic headband keeping her magically-altered blonde hair in place. Jon supposed Ashley had left that on her desk or in her tote, making it now Karyn's.
"Yeah, I guess it is a bit late in the semester to suddenly start switching seats. Speaking of weird, what was up with you trying to take Tiffany's backpack and books with you? Why would you want her stuff?" asked Karyn, pointedly.
"What? That was my stuff."
"No, Jon. It definitely wasn't. How would you feel if she started rummaging through your purse?"
Jon frowned. Ahead of them, he noticed Tiffany enter the boy's locker room. He couldn't decide if there was something odd about that. Didn't she usually use the girl's lockers? He wasn't sure. He reached for the same locker room door that Tiffany had just passed through when Karyn suddenly gave him a quick and friendly tug away from it.
"Hey! Wrong door, space cadet. Your locker is in the girl's room, as usual, Jon-boy."
"Oh, right." Jon felt kinda stupid. Of course it was.
"Look, if this has to do with that stupid wish you made on Tiff's wishing stone, you'll have to tell me in science class. Good luck with gym, Jon."
Jon froze outside the girl's locker room, wide-eyed, while Karyn walked off toward her next class. There was a couple of things wrong with that statement. First off, usually he didn't have science with Karyn. Did the switching of seats switch their entire school schedules as well?
The girls (and one or two boys who happened to be in Jon's english class) paid Jon no mind as he idly walked into the girl's room, deep in thought, and opened his locker.
Usually he was stuck partnered with Ashley in science. Would he be partnered with Karyn now? Or would Tiffany? As he remembered it, Tiffany was usually in the back of the class, gossiping with Sarah as her partner.
Inside the locker was the usual: his flower-fragrance deodorant, his pink and white running shoes, and his girl's sportswear. Odds and ends like his lost toe ring, a couple bottles of polish, and a note with a boy's number on it additionally littered the floor of the locker, but he paid it no mind. He started to disrobe down to his boxers.
Was Sarah swapped too? She wasn't in english class this morning, likely playing hooky. Was someone assigned her seat? Jon hadn't been paying attention.
He laced his armpits with the fragrant deodorant before slipping into his sports bra. It didn't go very well with his boyish underwear, but it was his.
More importantly than the supposed schedule swapping, Karyn had said Tiff's wishing stone. What did that mean? Part way through shimmying the elastic short shorts over his pelvis, he froze again. Did he put the stone in his backpack this morning? If he did, and that backpack was now Tiffany's...
Jon furrowed his brow, grimacing and silently panicking.
"Jon? You okay?" Trevor in Melissa's gym clothes asked, prompting a few of the other girls to look over, concerned.
"Uh, yeah..." Jon said, sounding somewhat pained. "Yeah, I'm fine." He quickly pulled his cropped athletic tank on over his sports bra and slipped on his gym shoes before heading out to the gym.
