The lights were cutting through the dark, illuminating the football field when Karyn arrived. She could hear a roar from people in the stands. Someone had done something of some note, apparently. Good for them, or whatever. A quick glance at the scoreboard suggested the game was in the second half. But Karyn couldn't care less about the game and the outcome against the big rival, whoever that was. She was there for Jon. Her heart was pounding from the run, and she still felt the adrenaline from her discovery reading the notebook. Calm down. Deep breaths. Relax. Jon needs me.
She didn't want to be seen by Sarah if she could possibly avoid it. Peering out at the cheerleaders from under the bleachers would probably be her best option. But as she slid past the steps to go underneath, she stopped. At least three different couples had apparently had similar thoughts about ducking underneath for their own relatively-private make-out sessions. No vacancy, Karyn thought, sighed, and trudged up the steps to the stands.
Plenty of students and local townspeople had filled in most of the rows in front of where the cheerleaders were leading routines from the sidelines. Members of the marching band routinely broke into short performances, adding to the overall noise. Karyn slid into a seat on the aisle, about ten rows back of the cheerleaders. Ok, now... where is Jon? Karyn peered over the large group of girls rah-rahing and high-kicking and shaking pom-poms and... where was he? Her jaw clenched. Sarah made him join the team. That's one of the lines in the notebook. But where is he? And as she scanned the faces of the girls, some she knew well, some she knew tangentially, and some she wasn't familiar with, she started to realize... Sarah changed Jon so much that I can't even recognize him anymore.
And then she saw the magic layered over one of the girls through her invisible glasses. THERE HE IS! It was an attractive girl, smiling, looking nothing like Jon in any possible way (oh my God, look at the size of those breasts! Who has breasts that big in this school?), and Karyn could see the magic was just layered over and over a Jon that seemed to be crumpled in the fetal position at the girl's core. It looked like Jon had been dipped in batter so many times that the magic copied to him was volumes larger than anything he had previously been.
The sadness that washed over her cut short her panic. Oh, Jon. I'm so sorry this happened to you.
Mid-cheer, Sarah spotted Karyn sitting in the crowd. She could see Karyn's shoulders slumped, and was that a tear rolling down her face? Sarah couldn't hold back a smirk. How Karyn had figured out where Diamond was, was a mystery that Sarah probably needed to figure out long-term, but right now, she could take a little joy in knowing that she'd successfully gotten Karyn back for all the endless comments and micro-aggressions over the years, and had played defense so well that she didn't need to worry about Karyn teaming up with Diamond on the wishing stone anymore. Sarah put a little extra energy into her shout and arm thrusts, savoring the win, as she watched Karyn reach into a bag strapped across her chest and pull out a notebook.
Karyn wiped the tear away from her face and put the notebook and marker in her lap. Ok, get it together. Karyn closed her eyes, letting the sound from the fans and the band and the cheers and the game settle into white noise. Relax. Slow your breathing. Her heart rate finally, finally returned to normal. Easy. We can do this. Nice and calm and level-headed. And despite the urgency, Karyn established a neutral mental state. Good work.
She opened her eyes and focused in on the notebook. Be logical about this. The biggest issue was if she was without her glasses, Karyn wouldn't know which cheerleader was Jon anymore - she wouldn't be able to pull him aside if she didn't know who he was. No, wait, the biggest issue was that he didn't think of Karyn as his friend compared to Sarah. No, wait, that STILL wasn't right. The biggest issue was that he had multiple layers of compulsion to do whatever Sarah said. That had to be first.
Karyn scanned the list. The three times he had to follow Sarah's instructions. Then I fix it so he'll trust me and not Sarah. Then we work our way back as much as we can so Jon starts to look like Jon again, and I don't have to really focus in so I'm sure who is who? No, wait, oh God, he's thinking like Amber now? We've got to fix that and THEN start fixing his looks. She took one more settling breath. Let's try this again.
Karyn carefully took the marker and brought it down. This time it touched the paper itself, and she was able to make a solid line, as she slowly, carefully, crossed out the copying from someone named Mollie.
Sarah's focus had now been torn from the game, as she watched Karyn start drawing in a notebook. What the hell is she doing?
Karyn felt herself relax even further. One down. A ridiculous number to go. She looked up. As far as she could tell, all the cheerleaders were still doing their routines, and the former Jon was just doing them right along with the rest. No major fixes yet. She brought the marker back to the paper, careful, don't rip the paper, we don't know what would happen if we do, and slowly struck a line through the second compulsion order, then followed by striking out the third from Kayla.
She's doing something, right? What the hell is she doing? Sarah's eyes flicked over to Diamond. If she hadn't been present for all the small physical adjustments, Sarah herself wouldn't know who she was. But either way, she could see Jon at Diamond's core with her glasses and-
And she caught a glimpse of a layer of magic just evaporate away from Diamond.
Karyn glanced around and found Jon again. He's still doing all the movements. Keep calm, keep going. She found the line where Sarah had changed Jon's opinion of Karyn, brought the marker down, and crossed it out.
Sarah was carefully watching this time, and as Karyn wrote something in the notebook, she saw another layer of magic disappear from around Diamond. Wait - is she erasing all the changes? She can do that? How is she doing that?
Karyn found the line that made him think like Amber. Get this one right, Karyn. Nice and easy. She crossed it out, and watched as a layer of pink fluff evaporated away from Jon.
From deep within, Jon felt the pink pressure fade away. He opened his eyes and started to wake up inside his own body. Oh, hey, the game is going on. I wonder who's winning. His eyes came into focus and he could see out through Diamond's face. Wait - look, Karyn's up in the stands! He paused. Oh man, I'm missing our date, aren't I? And he slowly felt himself gain a bit more control of his body, and then - wait a minute, why do I feel so free?
Sarah saw Diamond start to falter at the end of their latest cheer, glancing around a bit more. And she could see Jon waking up, and coming back into control in his body. Oh, fuck no, ABSOLUTELY NOT.
She threw down her pom poms. "Everyone, keep cheering, I need to take care of something. Kaitlyn, you're in charge."
And Sarah began making her way off the field and heading towards the stands.
