--disclaimer: This started out as a continuation of one of Ms. Corks branches, before I realized branching from here would work better. Parts of this chapter are copied wholesale from the chapter that originally inspired this.
Jon woke up as usual the next morning. He took his usual shower, ate his usual breakfast, said goodbye to his parents and his younger brother, and bickered with Zoe as usual on the way to school. And all the while he tried to ignore his guilty conscience. He hadn't had the courage to tell anyone but Karyn that he had lost his grandfathers heirloom – and even though it had just been a rock a voice at the back of his head kept insisting that it had been more than a memento. Rationally he knew it was probably just the aftermath from the dream he'd had, where the stone could fulfill wishes but he still could not shake the feeling that the rock had been important somehow.
That nagging feeling got worse when he met up with Karyn in their usual place, and Jon kept glancing at her perfectly-maintained blonde hair without being able to figure out why it seemed different today.
His friend offered to come with Jon to the Lost&Found, but Jon waved her off. He wouldn't be able to do more than ask the janitor about it anyway, because there wasn't time to go through the boxes of assorted junk before class started. He'd have to wait until lunch to go dumpster diving.
Jon kept having weird moments where the world felt slightly out of sync as classes dragged on. He was on his way to meet up with Karyn for lunch, when life decided to heap another shovel full of brown stuff on Jons already pretty cruddy day.
"Gibson!" The voice was sharp as it was distinct. But it wasn't quite angry, just commanding. Authoritative. It was, indeed, almost nice. At least, by Sarah standards.
Jon turned and sighed. The declaration had been loud enough to get the attention of everyone in the hallway, which had suddenly gone quiet under the auspices of the school's queen bee. Jon was weighing just how annoyed or sarcastic he could make his retort without inviting even more drama, but Sarah evidently didn't expect any answer at all because she was already barking out the next order.
"Come with me."
The assembled students remained silent, and only stared soullessly in Jon's general direction, as though waiting for him to follow Sarah's order. Expecting him to follow Sarah's order.
"Fine," Jon rolled his eyes and made his way towards Sarah's position, all attention still silently on him.
But as he reached Sarah, and as she turned to lead him down a side hallway, it was as though the spell was broken and the assembled students began chatting amongst themselves and organizing their lockers once again.
Sarah wordlessly made Jon follow her for quite some distance. She turned down one hallway, and then the next, out one door and in another. Jon was a senior and had attended this high school for nearly four full years by this point. He thought that he knew the hallway layout like the back of his hand. But the further Sarah took Jon, the less sure he knew where he was. At one point, he realized he didn't have any idea where he was at all.
And shouldn't the first bell have rung by now? A part of Jon wanted to put voice to this thought, but a much bigger part found itself focused on the girl before him. Focused on the blonde hair in its high ponytail, so similar to Karyn's, bobbing against the back of a starched-white blouse that was tucked into a pair of pink high-waisted skinny jeans that seemed to be just plastered onto the cheerleader's behind, all atop a matching pink pair of ballet flats.
For a period of time that Jon couldn't seem to measure, that form before him was his entire world. The hallways around them seemed to fade away completely.
After a minute, or an hour, or possibly an entire year, Sarah stopped and turned around, and the world around Jon became clear again.
They were still in school. Or more specifically the girls lockerroom. More importantly, Jon suddenly remembered all about Karyn being a redhead and why loosing the stone had been such a big deal. And apparently so did Sarah.
"I know that you let Karyn play a little game of copy-the-cheerleader." Sarah put her hand against Jon's shoulder and pinned his back to the wall.
The girl wasn't overpowering him. She wasn't even applying very much pressure. It just seemed that when her hand touched his shoulder, his body received the message to back itself into the wall. And so he did.
"And I'm not even mad," Sarah continued, " I mean I am a little mad. But I'm not some monster who would go scorched earth over some girl copying my hairstyle or outfit by accident. " Sarah removed her hand, but Jon still did not move. Did not think to move as sarah continued with a predatory smile " As long as she knows her place, at least. And for all her bluster I don't think Karyn was trying to challenge me. Because here is the thing: I like being queen bitch of Lakeview High, but honestly I am not all that attached to the bitch part of that title. Biff thinks being king is all about having the biggest stick. But to truly rule, knowing when not to use the stick is actually more important. That way if some looser – say an uppity ginger - stumbles into power, her first thought won't be about revenge but wanting to be more like you. “ Sarah smirked “ Of course now that I have the stone I no longer need to worry you or Karyn could some day be in a position where my fortune is in your hands. “ her smirk turned predatory ” So the rules have changed a bit. How about I give you a small demonstration instead of just monologing. "
Jons instincts screamed at him to take the opportunity to run as Sarah turned and disappeared through the door to the showers, but instead he stood there compliantly until she returned leading some else by the hand to stand in front of Jon.
