The young girl sat naked in the bathtub, steam rising off the water around her. Her skin felt pleasantly warm, the bracing snap of heat gone now from when she'd plunged her body into the water.
Jon turned things over in his mind. On one hand, he suspected that the stone was going to prevent him from just reversing this. Without some careful planning, he could end up as a girl forever even if he escaped from Sarah's family. Or he could end up as a guy again, but younger brother to Sarah McMillan. Neither choice sounded appealing, and for a few minutes he tried to figure out which would be worse.
On the other hand, now that Sarah had left the bathroom with the stone, she could have hidden it anywhere. She could have already made a dozen wishes. Part of Jon wanted to berate himself for sitting and doing nothing all this time. He could have run from the room after Sarah, tackled her to the floor and wrestled the stone from her grip.
But he came up with the first dilemma then. Hasty wishing could leave him with a permanent boob job and indoor plumbing.
She laughed at that, the voice young and clear. If she fostered it, she could probably be a good singer.
And then she realized what she, no, he was thinking. This was going to get confusing. Hell, it was already confusing. She looked down at her naked body in the still water, a ripple or two spreading out from her huddled shoulders along the surface. She took in the clear evidence that she was in fact female, and some part of Jon's mind surrendered. Instead of just giving up though, he imagined his male mind going to sleep and promised himself that he would wake up when this nightmare was over.
Paige took a few uncertain mental steps then, shaky at first and unsure quite what to think. I am Paige. Tabitha. McMillan. A thought at her middle name, Tabitha being weird, but then she thought, but so is Paige.
Next she voiced that thought. "I am Paige." She marveled at the sound of her voice. Now that she had accepted it, temporarily, it was something new. Profound. It was the curious sensation of losing her grandfather all over again, except without the sadness. It was a wonder.
"Tabitha." There was something satisfying about that th sound. "ta-bi-THA" she enunciated again, stressing the last syllable. It was even more satisfying when she realized that it was hers.
"Mick," she said, hitting the ck sound hard, cruelly. "Millan," she finished without enthusiasm. 'Tabitha' might be hers, but McMillan was definitely Sarah's. Her stab into new territory began to wither and her eyes welled up.
She thought of Zoe, her strange, gothy little sister. They never quite got along anymore, at least for the last couple of school years since Zoe started hanging out with that Athena girl. But she was still Zoe's big. Brother. Gone.
Paige let out a sob and the surface of the water rippled with sadness. After a minute or two, she sucked in a deep breath to forestall further sobs, and then exhaled gently. The water in the bathtub around her calmed to a glass surface again.
Next she thought of Mikey, her awesome little brother. Mikey was only five years old, but Paige thought he was the smartest little man in the world. Cruel fate that he would still have a little five year old brother in this farce of a reality. Zoe could probably take care of herself already. Mikey lost his big brother though. Paige thought about their relationship, and a wracking sob accompanied the truth that Jon had always taken pride in how Mikey tried to emulate him.
She spent the next few minutes disturbing the bathwater. When she regained control of herself, another emptiness spread through her. She had already lost her Grandfather, but now she felt guilt that she had lost his gift to her.
And her parents. Jon's parents. She remembered a few instances of backtalking her mother, and always feeling like an ass for it. She remembered thinking so often that she would make it up to her, but never actually doing anything she thought worthy of the "making up for it" title. And now she couldn't. And dad...
The sobs were less intense this time, much like the temperature of the water. She was starting to shiver. She supposed she should get out of the bathtub soon. She lifted her alien fingers up out of the water and looked at them. They were pruning up just like they always did, but they looked so small now. And her fingernails were wrong. So thin. So long. She never let them grow this long, always clipping them when any white started to show.
Her mind started to swirl a bit from exhaustion but she refused to stop cataloging the reasons to get through this. She feared that if she stopped now, she might not have the strength or motivation to do it again. It might be a slow slide into acceptance of this new life, but she certainly did not want to let that happen. Besides, even if they didn't know it, other people were depending on her to make things right again.
Like Karyn. What happened to Karyn in all of this? And what would Sarah do to her now that she had the stone? Sarah had already made a couple of comments that gave Paige reason to fear.
"Oh no." The girly voice escaped her lips unnoticed this time. She pulled the plug and felt the water start to lower, exposing more of her skin to the cool air and making her shiver more.
She would have to play along. Unless she could find the stone she would have to live this horrible life, not knowing when she would have her first period, learning fashion so the other girls don't make fun of her...
Most importantly so that Sarah wouldn't have a reason to do anything else to the people she loved, even if they weren't technically her family anymore.
As the last of the water swirled down the drain, Paige resolved to confront Sarah and settle this somehow. They were sisters now. That had to count for something, right?
