The Next Morning

(Originally posted by Catfish)

A few hours later, with the sun up, Kevin, Jennifer, and Kimmi were tired but not sleepy.

Showers revived them -- they shared the giant shower, although they kept their hands off each other -- and then got dressed. Jennifer found that she and Kimmi now shared the giant closet, and she helped the Asian teen pick out an outfit, finally settling on a Chinese-inspired silk minidress with a cutout for her cleavage. Mirrors revealed that their makeup had remained the same; it seemed obvious now that it was magically permanent.

There was a knock at the bedroom door, and there stood Annie and Candi, cleaned up and in new skimpy outfits of their own.

"We heard your shower going, so we took one, too," Annie said.

"Is it time for pancakes yet?" Candi asked.

Kevin smiled. "What have you girls been doing all night?"

"A bunch of channels are showing all Jason's videos, so we were just watching, and dancing, and stuff," Annie replied.

"Daddy, pancakes!" Candi reminded him.

Kevin looked at his younger daughter, in her halter top, microskirt, and platform heels, with her made-up face and the body that had been beautified by Jason

Henderson -- God. "You look nice this morning," he said.

"Daddy!" Candi practically wailed.

Kevin chuckled. "Okay, let's go get pancakes," he said.

They took the SUV, of course, to the nearby diner. Annie spent most of the ride listing the videos they'd seen, for Kimmi's benefit. Kevin noticed there was now a light on the dashboard labeled "ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM GOD" -- presumably, the light would illuminate and the audio would come through the car's speakers, pre-empting whatever else was playing.

When the Joneses walked into the diner, everyone turned to look, making them a bit uncomfortable. Everyone else just looked "regular," albeit with the women all having name collars on; the diner waitresses had both the collars and the regular name tags that pinned to their shirts.

The stares turned to mere furtive glances as the five were seated in a booth. Across from them, a nerdy-looking overweight guy sat at a table for two with a petite blonde teenager named Shari who had a concubine star on her collar.

On the TVs that hung from the ceiling throughout the diner, Jason Henderson videos were playing soundlessly. The girls appeared mesmerized, and as a waitress approached, Kevin and Jennifer practically had to shake them to get them to give drink orders.