"You know, dear," Jon said, unable to stop himself, putting a hand on Zoe's bare shoulder. "You should probably get ready for work."
"Good idea," Zoe said, putting down the newspaper again. She then stood up, her C-cup breasts bouncing freely, then headed out of the kitchen and upstairs.
"Mom?" Linda asked, cringing on the inside. Jon was her son, not her mom. She was the mom!
"Yeah, honey?" Jon asked, turning in her direction.
"Can I have chocolate milk?"
"Sure, sweetie," Jon said, then proceeded to get some from the refrigerator. Bringing out the carton of chocolate milk, he looked over at his dad and Mikey. "You know, you two should get ready too. You don't want to be late for the bus. I haven't started on breakfast yet. When your ready for school, you can come down and eat, okay?"
"Okay, Mom," Mikey said, then headed out of the kitchen and upstairs.
"Actually, I was thinking of walking to school today. I was gonna meet up with Daniel on the way," Roger said. Wait, who was Daniel?
"That's fine, dear," Jon said, though he had to wonder who Daniel was. If his dad was supposed to be Zoe, then shouldn't he be meeting up with one of Zoe's friends, like that witchy Goth girl Athena or that cybergoth girl Zelda? Was Daniel a new boyfriend or something?
Roger left the table, then headed back upstairs as well, leaving Jon in the kitchen with his mother Linda, who was still being forced to act like Mikey.
"Here you go, honey," Jon said sweetly, then handed Linda that glass of chocolate milk.
Linda took it and drank it, but what she really wanted right now was a cup of coffee. She looked up and watched as her oldest son (he looked so weird wearing her clothing) began to make breakfast.
Upstairs, Zoe just stood in the middle of the master bedroom, trying to wrap her mind around what had happened downstairs. The moment Mikey and her parents showed up, it was like she had to act exactly as her father would. She found that if she concentrated hard enough, though, she was able to change her actions, but only slightly. Like not drinking as much coffee as her dad would have, or choosing which articles of the newspaper to read. But she was still acting like her father nonetheless. More than anything, she just wanted to get out of there. So when Jon suggested that she go get ready for work (work?!), she was relieved. But now, not so much. Was she really supposed to go to her dad's office job? She didn't know anything about advertising, and she didn't care to either. She always thought her dad's job was so lame. If only she could figure out a way to stop this. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. Only something like magic could cause something like this, right. And she just so happened to know someone who knew a little about that subject. (No, not Jon. She didn't know about the wishing stone.) It was her friend Athena.
She looked around and spotted her dad's cellphone on the nightstand. She could just call Athena and ask her about all this. Maybe she had a clue as to what was causing it all. But the moment she reached down for the phone, her hand was pulled back and she found herself walking to the bathroom. No! What was she doing?!
"Gotta get ready for work," she mumbled to herself. No! She needed to call her friend.
She entered the bathroom, closed the door behind her, then got the water going in the shower.
Try as she might, Athena was unable to stop herself from acting like her mother Gillian. The moment all this bizarreness started happening, she knew that magic must have been responsible, but she couldn't consult her books. She couldn't even enter her own bedroom. Something was preventing her from doing anything way out of character for her mother. Her mom wouldn't read any of her occult books, so why would Athena? It frustrated her to no end. She couldn't even ask her father, who had now taken her place, to give her the books. That would have been out of character for her mother as well. And to make things even more frustrating, she couldn't stop herself from dressing herself up like her mother, wearing one of her cheery flower-print summer dresses (which, she noticed fit her body like it was made for her). But that was her mom - terminally up-beat. Don't get her wrong. She loved her mom, and her dad. But sometimes they could just be so annoying.
"Breakfast is ready!" Jon yelled up the stairs.
Moments later, Mikey came downstairs, dressed in one of Jon's outfits - a T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, but was sized to fit Mikey's smaller body. Then a few minutes after that, Jon's dad Roger came stomping down the stairs, wearing Zoe's clothes, though all tailored to fit his adult male body - a black T-shirt over a fishnet shirt, a black leather miniskirt, ripped fishnet stockings, and knee-high black buckled boots with 4-inch stacks. He felt ridiculous in the outfit, and even more so with the fresh Goth make-up he applied to his face, but he couldn't seem to control himself. It was like the moment he got back to Zoe's room, he was on autopilot. The same thing happened to Mikey, but he didn't seem to mind as much.
Mikey glided into the room and grabbed a piece of bacon, then headed to the door.
"Hold on, mister, where are you going?" Jon asked Mikey.
The 10-year old boy being forced to act like a 17-year old one turned and said "I forgot that I made plans to meet Edward at his house this morning."
"Well, be careful on your way over. And have a good day at school," Jon said, waving.
"Thanks, Mom. I will." And then he was gone, leaving Jon to wonder who Edward was. The only Edward he knew was Karyn's father. His eyes went wide. Hold on. Did that mean that this, whatever this was, was happening to Karyn's family too? That meant that Karyn was someone else in her family, either her father or her mother. He wanted to get over there and see what happened to his friend, but that would have been out of character with his mother. But maybe ...
He returned to the kitchen and grabbed the landline phone. It wouldn't have been the first time his mother would have called the Black residence landline number. While not close friends, Linda and Karyn's parents knew each other. Maybe he could at least talk to Karyn.
The phone was ringing on the other end, then was answered!
"Hello?" Jon asked, right away.
"Oh, Jon," came a voice. It was Karyn's. He did it!
But it wasn't what he wanted.
"Are you calling about Edward?" Karyn asked.
"Actually, I'm calling about Mikey," Jon said. No! What was he doing? This was Karyn, his best friend. He finally got to talk to her. He should be talking about what the stone did. But then it occurred to him. Right now, it wasn't a phone call between friends. It was a phone call between two parents who knew each other through their kids! Karyn was being forced to talk the way one of her parents would talk if Linda had called them. "He's on his way over right now. I hope you can make sure both of them get to school on time."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, honey," Karyn said. The way she talked, Jon presumed that she had taken her mother Bethany's place.
"Good. Thank you. Well, I gotta make sure my kids over here are fed, so I've gotta run. Good-bye," he said, then hung up.
Karyn put down the phone. That settled it. Whatever was happening, it wasn't just happening to her family, but also Jon's. And from what she could figure, Jon was in the place of his mother Linda. It would be difficult to come up with a reason to get alone with him. But even if she was able to, she had a feeling it wouldn't go any differently than that phone call. They just couldn't seem to act out of character.
Zoe stood in front of the mirror and groaned. She was all ready to go, wearing one of her dad's office outfits - a suit and tie. Just like all the other clothing in the closet that used to belong to her dad, the outfit was tailored to fit her body. She didn't like that she wasn't able to wear a bra, but was pleasantly surprised that the fabric of the shirt moving across her nipples occasionally wasn't quite as bad as she thought it would be. In fact, there was barely a sensation at all. Was the magic making that happen? It was also weird not having any make-up on, and having her hair combed instead of brushed. She missed her old life.
Jon sat down at the table, crossing his legs femininely, then began to eat. Across the table, Roger was eating quickly and Linda was taking her time, but eating quite a lot. Usually, Linda ate a light breakfast (as Jon was doing right now), wanting to watch her figure, but currently, she couldn't help herself from pigging out. It was how Mikey usually ate, so now it was how she ate.
"Well, I'm ready to go," came the voice of Zoe.
Jon looked up and smiled. He stood up, walked over to her, then kissed her on the lips.
"Eww," Linda uttered. Internally, she felt the same way. That was her two children who were kissing!
"Have a good day, honey," Jon said, smiling, then Zoe was out the door, briefcase in hand, heading to a job that she knew nothing about.
"Bye, Mom," Roger said, passing him by, Zoe's black pull-string bag over his shoulder. And before Jon could even say anything, he was out the door as well.
Jon sighed, then headed back to his breakfast.
"I'm done," Linda said, happily. "Can I go watch cartoons now?"
"Honey, you still have to get ready for school."
"Aww," Linda whined.
"Please, honey. I have to finish getting ready myself."
"O-kay," Linda said, dejectedly. She then left the kitchen and headed upstairs.
Jon had to pause and take stock. "How long is this going to go on? I don't think I can handle staying in my head this long," he said aloud, now being alone. He even looked forward to seeing his sister Zoe again, despite not usually getting along with her. But right now, she was the only person he could talk to and remain himself as he did it.
Sighing, he then headed back upstairs to finish getting ready, which meant things like brushing his teeth, fixing his hair, and (he gulped) doing his make-up and putting on jewelry.
And then, sometime later, Jon found himself heading out of the house, his mother's purse over his shoulder, Linda in tow, and walking towards his mom's car. Typically, Linda dropped off Mikey at school on her way to work. And now Jon was doing the same with Linda.
