The truth shall set you free... right?

You swallow audibly and clench Allison's hand, steeling yourself for whatever reaction your sister might have to hearing the truth. With Allison's help you should be able to convince her, and that should make things a lot less awkward. You hope. "Well, you see, Gwen, we have met before. A lot. I just look different right now, and... well the truth is, that actually, I am... I'm..."

And then you chicken out. "...that I'm just a kid who went to the same elementary school as you," you blurt out, almost too fast to be coherent. Out of the corner of your eye you can see Allison's face fall somewhat, while you can feel your own face flushing. You continue babbling, words rushing out of you like air from a deflating balloon: "we were both in Mr. Cooper's class, and remember how he was so boring, so everyone was just doing their own thing, and you drew such great pictures, but that stupid kid Jake kept trying to make dumb jokes, and he would pull your hair while you were drawing, and I hated him so much 'cause you would tell me about it after, and the other kids at recess who made fun of you and called you a tomboy, I hated them too, but I didn't say anything because I was embarrassed, and..."

Even as the words are pouring out of you, you can see the realization dawning on Gwen's face. She had certainly seen you do this many times before; whenever you got really uncomfortable, you tended to just go on and on, as if you were trying to say everything but the one thing you really needed to say. She slowly mouths the words "Oh. My. God." before eventually, mercifully, interrupting you. "John?... Is that really you? How? What did...? When did...? HOW!?!"

You take a deep breath. Honestly, you're more relieved than anything that she figured it out on her own. "I've only been like this for about a day," you start, not looking directly at Gwen. This is hard enough as it is. "The whole thing started when I woke up yesterday morning, and my phone was ringing..."

You end up telling Gwen the whole story of what happened yesterday, though of course you gloss over the dirty parts a bit. It gets a lot easier once you really get into it. Allison interjects a few times early on to back you up, but it quickly becomes clear that this isn't necessary. In fact, Gwen really seems to be really taking this whole thing in stride. Go figure.Once you've gotten Gwen up to speed on yesterday's events, you tell both Gwen and Allison everything you can remember about this morning's phone call. Gwen looks deeply thoughtful after this newest bit of information. Allison, on the other hand, is apparently quite impressed with the way you stood up for her (you may have exaggerated that aspect a little in your retelling). Your chair almost topples backwards when she hops into your lap, rewarding you with a deep, lingering kiss. A kiss that, unfortunately, is interrupted by Gwen clearing her throat.

"Alright, so," she starts once she has your attention, "obviously that last part was total bullshit. I mean the part where voice-on-the-phone said he was won over by your selflessness," she quickly amends after a glare from you and, you suspect, from Allison as well, "sheesh. I mean, if he cared about your feelings or anything, he wouldn't have done this in the first place. So he's probably still planning something else, either to punish you or just for his amusement."

You notice that Gwen has decided the voice is male, even though you had never specified a gender - you still aren't sure yourself. You're considering pointing this out when Allison speaks up first. "What can we do about it, though? We don't even know who he is, and as far as we know, there's nothing we can do about it anyway."

"Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that," Gwen replies, "If he was really all-powerful, then it seems to me that he wouldn't bother calling you up to chat before he'd even done anything - he'd just go ahead and do it. Putting this curse on you or whatever must have been hard for him. In fact, I bet he can't really even see you all the time. Think about it, the only event from yesterday he specifically referred to happened in our house. Other than that, it's like he wasn't quite up to speed with what was happening between you two. I figure he put some sort of surveillance on our house, and other than that he's had to spy on you some other way. So here's what we do: you go around doing whatever you had planned for today, except that I'm going with you. That way, I can keep watch to see if anyone's spying on you, and if I catch someone, that leads us right back to our mystery caller!" Gwen pounds her fist into the table for emphasis. She's clearly quite proud of herself for coming up with all of that.

You, on the other hand, are slightly less thrilled. You share a quick glance with Allison, which confirms she's thinking the same thing as you are: if you agree to this plan, you're stuck with a third wheel for the rest of the day.