Jon hurried to the cafeteria as quickly as he could. What do I do with my hands? he wondered to himself. He hoped that some factor of Tiffany's influence to take care of his nails didn't mean that he had to keep them out in the open at all times. He tentatively brought them to his pockets, and carefully, slowly, was able to push his hands inside. Well, at least that will work for now, he thought. Jon knew that no one else would think anything weird about his nails but that didn't mean he wanted them out and exposed.
He saw Karyn already sitting in their usual spot when he arrived. Jon half walked / half ran to sit down across from her. Karyn looked up expectantly, happy to see him, still floating on the joy and euphoria that was their first kisses, but then she saw the look on Jon's face and her attitude changed immediately. "What is it?" She reached a hand across the table in comfort and concern. "Jon, what's wrong?"
Jon leaned in close to Karyn. "It's really embarrassing and I need your help."
Karyn stared directly back, deadly serious. "What happened? Are you okay?"
"I'm okay but... I had something else copied onto me last period," he muttered. Jon looked around and scrunched his face up in frustration. "I don't know why I'm even looking around, only you're going to notice anything is weird." He slowly pulled his hands out of his pockets and placed them palm-down on the table, the glaring pink acrylics tapping the surface with their distinctive sound.
Karyn stared down, then slowly brought her head back up to Jon. She tried to keep a straight face, but a sheepish smile slowly built on her face. "Okay, I'm sorry, I know you're upset, but from my perspective... Jon, you have to admit, this is at least a little funny."
He groaned. "Karyn, come on, help me out."
Karyn gave him a cute little smirk. "But Jon, they're so pretty, I bet they just make you feel all good inside. And they go so well with your new muscles, too!"
Jon leaned in, his hands shaking a little. "That's exactly the problem. They DO kind of make me feel good. That's part of what got copied over."
Karyn froze. "Wait, what?"
Jon pointed over to the cheerleader's table, when Tiffany, Sarah, a number of other girls and several jock boyfriends were all in their usual loud conversations. "Tiffany is my lab partner, and she told me that I needed to take better care of my nails. Ironically, it's because she weaseled out of me that you and I kissed before class, and her motivation was that I needed better nails because 'girls notice these things'."
Karyn held up her hands, unadorned of any nail polish. "Has she seen my hands? I mean, I keep them neat but I almost never wear polish. I don't think I could even tell you what your hands normally look like."
"That's not what her perspective is. Anyway, when she told me I needed to take better care of my nails, not only did I get her set copied over to me, but because of how she phrased it, I also got her need to take care of them. So I can't even take these acrylics off if I wanted to - because I don't want to."
Karyn's eyes widened again. "So when you say they do make you feel good..."
Jon gestured to his head. "Tiffany pulled something out of her head, like a kind of wispy strand of... I don't know, maybe memory or perspective or whatever. But that got put in my head, and I couldn't even bring myself to take scissors to them, if that would even work. And I can sense a compulsion to make sure they keep staying at Tiffany's level of nail care, too."
Karyn sat back. "And since no one else would think there's an issue..."
"Only you can help me fix this," Jon finished.
She smiled at him kindly. "Ok, so I just need to tell you what you need, right? That seems to be how the wish works. And maybe we can overwrite Tiffany's influence."
Jon shrugged. "I hope so."
Karyn closed her eyes, then looked at Jon's hands. "Jon... you need to not worry about your nails or put so much effort into them." She paused, then immediately intoned, "Here, copy off me!"
Karyn immediately started pulling duplicates of her simple, unpolished nails out of her hands. "Whoa, it's like I'm on autopilot," she stammered, a little awed. Each duplicate was rapidly attached to Jon's hands, and his pink acrylics disappeared. Karyn reached to her head and slowly, steadily, pulled out a glowing wispy strand. "That is both creepy and cool at the same time," she stared at it, watching as her hands simply reached over and tapped Jon on the head.
Jon looked at his hands, closed his eyes tight in thought, then opened them, smiling at Karyn. "I think it worked? I don't know? At least they don't look crazy anymore."
Karyn squeezed his hand. "You might feel a desire to paint them every now and then for a special occasion. And I do file them, so you might find yourself doing the same, but that's pretty normal."
Jon leaned across and kissed Karyn. "Thanks, Karyn, you're a lifesaver," he grinned, truly thankful.
Karyn blushed and smiled. "Go hurry up and get some food before lunch is over."
Jon went through the lunch line, getting a simple burger. He noticed a few girls eyeing him over in ways that he didn't normally receive. Biff's muscles, he thought to himself. I wonder if they would have still given those looks if their glances had continued down to my hands with Tiffany's touch?
He hurried back over to Karyn. "So," she said as he sat down, "you told Tiffany about us kissing, huh?"
Jon rolled his eyes. "You know how she is. The worst lab partner. And because of Biff's muscles, I apparently am more her type now, so I told her just so she'd leave me alone."
"You know I don't care about your muscles. I mean, they're nice, but it's kind of a bonus compared to you as you, Jon."
Jon smiled at her. "I know, and I appreciate that. But anyway... would you... would you want to go grab something to eat together, or maybe?"
Karyn looked at him with a little happy twitch at the side of her mouth. "We grab something to eat all the time. Are you asking me out on a date, Jon?"
"Yes, Karyn. I'm asking you out on a date. Will you go on a date with me?"
"Oh, Jon, you do have such a way with women," Karyn fanned herself in amusement.
"I assume that's a yes?" Jon rolled his eyes good-naturedly.
"Grabbing something to eat together, but this time with more potential kissing. I accept." Karyn held out her hand to shake, a prim and proper look on her face.
"You are an absolute goofball," Jon grinned from ear to ear.
"Yes, but now I am the goofball you are dating, so you had best enjoy it," she smiled again. "Tonight? It's Friday, after all."
"Absolutely," Jon leaned across the table and kissed her again.
As Jon sat back to finish his meal in the last few minutes of the lunch period, he heard the cheerleaders and jocks standing up to all head out. Biff and Steve were playfully pushing each other around, like usual, Sarah and Tiffany and the other cheerleaders gossiping non-stop, like usual. As they came up the aisle past Jon and Karyn, Biff grabbed Steve in a headlock. Steve thrashed around, trying to get free, with both his and Biff's body swinging around. They bumped Jon in the back briefly, which he rolled his eyes at. Karyn's face twisted in annoyance. Then Steve broke free, causing Biff to stumble backwards, knocking into Tiffany and Sarah carrying their trays. Tiffany and Sarah yelled and pushed their trays away to keep everything from spilling on top of them. Which is how a mixture of water, soda, leftover salad, dressing, and yogurt spilled all over Jon's clothes, landing in his lap and down his back.
Tiffany's hand leapt to her mouth. "Oh my God, Jon, I'm so sorry."
Jon tried brushing the food off of him, flapping his hands in disgust.
Karyn stood up. "What the hell, you assholes?"
Sarah rolled her eyes. "Lighten up, Karyn, it was an accident, and it was probably an improvement for Jon, anyway."
Steve shouted back, "Sorry, bro!" as he kept walking out of the cafeteria, him and Biff still pushing each other around.
Jon could feel things oozing down his back. "At least everything missed my head, I guess." He grimaced. "Ugh I can feel it on my back." He stood up. "And now my pants smell like yogurt, too. Great. I hate that smell."
Sarah smirked. "Poor Jon. Looks like you need to change your clothes." As she said that, the bell rang for the end of the period.
Jon and Karyn both simultaneously shot their heads in Sarah's direction.
Sarah gave a sense that all of this was beneath her and a waste of time. "Here... copy off me."
And in a fluid motion, Sarah reached down to her pristine cheerleader uniform, and pulled a duplicate out of her chest. It hung there in the air, a blue, yellow, and white sleeveless shape hanging above a pair of white socks sticking out of a set of perfectly white sneakers. A blue and yellow hair scrunchie floated in the air above it. And then Sarah pushed it in Jon's direction. He felt it slide through and onto his body, and he watched his food-stained t-shirt and jeans disappear. His socks and shoes transformed as well into Sarah's duplicate. He felt the scrunchie fall to sit on the top of his head, no long hair for it to hold back in a ponytail.
"There," Sarah decided proudly. "All better." She turned to Tiffany and immediately returned to her conversation, leaving the spilled trays on the floor behind her.
Jon slowly looked up at Karyn. He could feel the cool air in the room brush his exposed legs, the skirt of the uniform barely coming down to mid-thigh on him. He tried pulling down on the skirt but realized there was no extra material to help out. The scrunchie fell down into his hands.
"Oh, Jon," Karyn looked upset. "That really sucks. I'm so sorry."
Jon twisted his arms back and forth. "Even worse, it's incredibly tight up top. I don't think Biff's muscles go with Sarah's uniform."
Karyn looked at him, and her eyes widened. "Jon, that's not the uniform, I mean, it looks made for a woman but it still looks a little re-sized for your body. I think... I think it's what's underneath."
Jon's head snapped up again, and he felt at his chest. Just underneath, he felt the seams of a bra. He felt down at his crotch and yes, the seams were different there, too. "Goddamnit, I'm wearing Sarah's underwear too?"
"Hey, you two," they heard a teacher yelling at them. "Lunch is over, get to class."
Karyn grabbed his arm. "Jon, there's no time to fix this. And even if you copied what I have on, it wouldn't really solve things."
Jon shook his head. "It'd be better than what I'm wearing now, at least!" He slid the scrunchie around his wrist, then looked at it. "... I can't even get rid of this thing, it's like I'm wearing the rest and I felt the need to make it come with me."
Karyn took his arm and tried leading him out of the cafeteria. "Maybe you can borrow something from the lost-and-found?"
"And say what? What I'm wearing looks perfectly clean and they won't see a reason for me to change!" Jon barked out a noise of frustration. "I'm sorry, Karyn, that wasn't directed at you."
"I know, I know," she said sympathetically. "Look, let's just... I don't know, get through the next period and we'll figure it out then?"
Jon groaned and they hurried off together.
