Re: Incarnation

Megan Everit was far from average and ordinary, and she knew it. Boy did she know it, and boy did she show it. Born to a family that was far from poor but not exactly what some would call rich, Magen lived comfortablely. Her parents never argued about bills or keeping food on the table as a moderately successful business made sure everything went smoothly for her.

Not only did her family have more than enough money to support her, even with some pricey habits, but she was also blessed with good looks and charisma. In every school she went to she was the most popular girl by a clear margin. The queen bee of the young social ring. As such it's easy to see why she often acted entitled, like she was better than the people around her.

At first, even she felt she was. However, her feelings towards how blessed she was began to sour in junior high school. Being at the top ment everyone was out to get you, either because they wanted your spot or simply wanted to see you fail. None of her so-called friends could be trusted with a devastating secret. Everyone was an opponent, an enemy, and no matter how much she gained she never seemed to feel satisfied. Nothing was ever enough.

She started projecting her anger and dissatisfaction on those “beneath” her. Her entitled attitude and unhappiness only grew. The worst part is she could never get an honest opinion out of anyone. Everyone was always aiming to please her and only telling her what they thought she wanted to hear. They all just licked her boot and blew smoke up her ass, all while waiting for an opportunity to dethrone her.

In highschool however, her life would change. There was a boy in a number of her classes, her opposite in almost every way. He was quiet and reserved, spending most of his time silently working in the back corner of the class. He was extremely unpopular, perhaps the most bullied kid in the entire school as even some kids outside of the top tier picked on him. He only had three to five friends whom he always sat with. And he was dirt poor.

This kid was so poor he got both free lunch and breakfast at school though a state program. Most of what he ate came from food pantries, most of his clothes were hand-me-downs or thrift store purchases. He would often wash himself using a hose that was attached to a neighbor's house because his family could barely afford to keep the water running. No matter how hard his family tried to climb up enough to be comfortable and not struggling, something would happen to keep them down.

And yet, despite all this and the fact she rarely saw the boy smile during class, this boy had something she didn't. Genuine happiness. She could see it on his face during lunchtime when he would hang out with the few friends he had. A true and genuine smile. This made Magen extremely angry, and she started taking out all her pent up frustration on him specifically. She double, triple, quadrupled down on her cruelty and aimed it mostly at him.

Anytime she saw him with something that brought a smile to his face, she would aim to take it from him. She would aim to take what little he had. How dare he be happy with nothing while she be miserable with everything. Her hate, her loathing, her utter disdain for this man knew no bounds. This dynamic remained unchanged for the first half of her freshman year at highschool and remained unchallenged until one fateful day in homeroom class.

That day she had a hard time deciding what to wear, and so asked the opinion of her so-called BFF. “You can make anything look good. You look beautiful in everything.” The same empty platitudes she always received. In the end, she picked a somewhat modest yellow sundress. When she arrived in homeroom, which she had right before lunch, she was the second to arrive in the room beside the teacher. The only student that had gotten there before her, was him.

He looked up from his spot in the back corner, he had seemingly been doing homework from one of his classes in homeroom. Then, unprompted, spoke. “I wouldn't wear that shade of yellow if I were you. It makes your skin look jaundiced.” Megan gave him an angry look. “Excuse me?!” He then repeated, plain and calmly. “That dress makes your skin look jaundiced. It's a yellowing of the skin, often a symptom of liver disease.”

Megan looked over to a full body mirror that was in the room and closed in on it. She couldn't help but feel he was right. For some reason the dress made her skin look sickly. Secondly, based on his tone, he wasn't saying it out of spite. Despite her cruel actions towards him, there was no anger or resentment in his voice. He was stating, simply and coldly, a fact. His unfiltered opinions. After all, why should he hold back mean words? He had no reason to suck up to her, nothing he'd do or say would change how she acted to him.

No, that wasn't it. He wasn't being bluntly honest because he knew it would hurt her feelings and self image. He was being that way because that was the way he was. Megan felt a bit upset at the fact that this man seemingly had no hate for her despite everything. Although she didn't stop giving him crap, she did ease up slightly. After that, any time she wanted an honest opinion, she would ask him for his.

One day, when lining up a milestone date with her boyfriend Duncan, she brought color swatches and dress pictures to homeroom class. Duncan was the star quarterback despite also being a freshman and was basically her arranged boyfriend. After all, it was expected of her as the most popular girl and queen bee to date the most popular boy and king jock.

Megan came in early and practically made a beeline to the man, slapping the papers on his desk. “I've got a big date with Duncan on Friday at the most expensive Italian place in town. I need to look my absolute best and I don't need someone to just give me empty platitudes and fluff my feathers. You get me, Jon?”

The man looked up at her blankly for a moment and blinked, then looked down at the papers. One color after another he held them up to Megan's face. Then, after going through them slid one of the pictures of a dress closer to her. “I happen to know a guy that's a cook there part time, goes to our school. He has a shift after school on Friday. When you order your fancy lobster pasta, tell the waiter to have the chief make it a “Blue Ocean special”. He's paid me in leftovers for help with homework, so I've actually had food from there.”

Megan raised an eyebrow and looked at the dress Jon picked. It was a midnight blue sparkling one. Jon then continued. “Pair the dress with blue eyeshadow and black eyeliner.” Megan put her hand to her chin and nodded. “Got it. What shade of blue?” Jon titled his head. “Midnight blue, obviously.” Megan then says “You know, with how cruel I have been to you, I'm shocked you'd help me.” Jon gives her this stern look. “I'm not helping you, I'm simply being honest.”

That Friday night, Megan followed Jon's advice and had the best meal of her life up to that point. Despite ordering the same meal she once had for a birthday, for some reason it was simply better. Megan wasn't sure what the Blue Ocean Special was exactly, but whatever it was she'd definitely try it again. Maybe there were also alternate versions of other dishes she could get with that order.

Megan's life, and her interactions with Jon, mostly stayed the same. She did ease up on him a bit more and came to regularly ask for his opinion on things whenever she needed an honest and unfiltered opinion. She figured this slightly strange relationship would remain that way for the remainder of her four years at the highschool. She was wrong.

The next year she once again got several classes with Jon. Homeroom, science, and home economics. One day early in the year the students did some baking and Megan decided to bully Jon a little that day. Jon had made brownies and before the teacher could grade the projects Megan grabbed the dish. “What do we have here? Looks like someone fancies himself a baker.” She took a brownie and passed the dish. “Toss the rest, quickly before the teacher sees. Jon isn't getting a grade today.”

One of her minions grabbed the dish as Megan took a bite of the brownie in her hand. The moment she did she knew her life couldn't be the same. She's had professional chefs and bakers, some even celebrities. But this brownie, it dwarfed anything she'd ever had. It was fudgey, chocolatey, and had a clear taste of cherries. It was like eating a juicy cordial cherry bar. “Wait, I changed my mind. Bring back those brownies.”

Once Megan had the brownies in her hand again she handed Jon a twenty from her purse. “I'm buying these. Be grateful.” The teacher eventually made her way over and graded Jon's work while Megan shared her spoils with her minions. Once the teacher was gone Megan looked to Jon. “Here's the deal, I'm now taking a tax from anything you make from now on.”

Jon looked at her, and once again with no anger or resentment said “You going to ease up on me more now that you've found something else of value in my existence?” Megan would think it was a joke if it was anyone else. “Y-yeah. In fact, I'm now ordering Jon be left alone. Mostly. This is heaven on a plate and I won't be denied because one of you tossed him in a garbage can or shoved him in a locker.”

Since Megan was the queen bee, what she said was law. Even if it contradicted an order she gave before since people were allowed to change their minds. She'd still call him names and bully him lightly, but she found herself further valuing Jon. First for his opinion, and now for his skills in a kitchen. This near frenemies relationship continued as is and was left unchanged until the midpoint of the year.

Science class, the teacher announced they were going to be doing a group project with teams of two. Then followed that up by saying they were picking who would be partners based on the scores of the last test. The person that scored the best would be paired up with the person that scored the worst. They then lifted a paper to read off the pairings. Megan stopped paying attention after the first pair. “Jon, you'll be paired with Megan.”

Megan sank in her chair. She knew she didn't exactly do well but didn't expect to have the lowest score. More surprising was the fact Jon had the highest. This project would apparently require homework and research outside of school hours. Meaning she'd now have to spend time with Jon outside of school. This could potentially be the opportunity others were waiting for, the opening to throw her off the throne. Being forced to spend time with one of the least popular kids would likely lead to teasing.

However, the two week long project went surprisingly smoothly. Jon wasn't just smart, but good at explaining things in a way that clicked with her better then how teachers explained things. Not only that, despite how she treated him, he continued to be relatively nice to her. She asked him to tutor her for a few classes so she could improve her grade and he agreed. This led to them spending time studying at her house. He even tutored her boyfriend Duncan to help him stay on the football team. This also kept Duncan from getting overly possessive of Megan.

Even when the project had the pair meeting at Jon's house, Duncan didn't start anything. Having Jon at her own place was fine and had plenty of room, since it was usually just herself, some servants, and sometimes Duncan. Her parents were rarely home due to work. Jon's house was like stepping into a different world. His family lived in a connected duplex, with his parents renting the upstairs and his sister renting the downstairs.

There was a good ten year gap between Jon and his sister, who had a family and kids of her own. His house was crowded with a total of eight people living in it. Jon's parents, his brother, his sister, and her three kids. All packed into a duplex where each half of the semi-divided house had two “bedrooms”. Bedroom being a loose word for the room Jon and his brother Burt shared since it looked to be a walk-in closet with the rods removed with just enough room for a bunk bed and a dresser.

Since the family used the downstairs living room mainly this gave Jon and Burt their own living room to themselves. When Megan walked in with Jon she was surprised at how clean the crowded home was. His parents teased him for bringing a girl home and he just shoved it off saying it was for schoolwork and he'd leave his room door open. Not that that mattered since the only other person who would be upstairs during the day was his brother who was out with friends most of the time. Since the upstairs had an entrance that avoided the main area of the downstairs, one could easily sneak someone into the upper area if they wanted to though.

Megan felt a bit of envy for the second time. Jon had privacy, if he had a girlfriend he could easily have alone time with her. Meanwhile she couldn't do much as step into the yard of her dad's manor or spin in her bed without someone knowing about it.

Jon's room was extremely empty except the two bits of furniture, even with just that there was hardly enough room for the two of them so they simply used the upper living room. Megan did get to see the bedroom though and noticed there were two things hanging on the wall. A fancy looking autographed sword in a shadow box, and a framed paper noting the sword's authenticity.

Once they were sat down, Megan couldn't help but ask. “What's with you owning a sword? Everything here is so minimalistic but then you just have this ornate sword on your wall.” Jon explained: “I won that in a sort of contest. It's a replica of a sword from the game Creatures and Catacombs. The sword is often called Excalibur Equinox or Excalibur Twilight. All I had to do was be the first to solve a mystery put into the game by the original creator.”

Megan tilted her head. “Creatures and Catacombs? You mean that TTRPG that originally came out in the eighties? Must have been some mystery to take over twenty years to solve. Is it worth anything?” Jon nodded “That thing's easily worth four times what this building is. There are people out there who'd be willing to pay millions to get their hands on it. But to me, it's priceless.”

Megan sat there in shock thinking about the fact this guy was two steps away from homelessness at all times, and he was sitting on something worth enough to retire off of that he got for basically free. “I have so many more questions but let's focus on school work.” Megan was surprised at how easy Jon was to get along with considering how antisocial he seemed at school. In fact, she found herself enjoying her time with him.

Unlike most people who treated her as an object or a means to an end, Jon treated her like a human. Something about him, most likely his blunt honesty, got Megan to drop some of her walls. With everyone else it felt like she was participating in a masquerade, wearing a facade and doing what was expected of her over what she wanted. With Jon she could let that go, and just be herself. He didn't care what others thought of him, and he didn't judge people.

After that day Megan secretly requested for the teacher to assign her to Jon whenever there were group projects. The teacher simply assumed she was doing it for no reason other than to improve her grade and that gave her an opening to actively pick him herself whenever the teacher allowed students to pick a partner. “I need to pass this class.” Would be all she needed to say if anyone questioned her picking Jon.

“Why don't you hate me?” Megan asked Jon one day. “I've done nothing but treat you like trash for years and yet you… don't even seem upset.” Jon sighed. “I just can't bring myself to be mad about it. You don't do it out of spite or anything, it's just how society expects us to interact. Same reason you are dating Duncan. You don't actually like that meathead do you?”

Megan couldn't help but agree with him, and so their strange almost friendship continued in secret all while she kept up the facade at school. She knew Jon only treated her the way he did because that's just who he was, and yet he was the only person that treated her that way. She wasn't interested in him sexually or even romantically. She simply enjoyed the way being with him made her feel. The freedom of being herself and letting her walls down.

The next year, sophomore year, she once again had homeroom and a few other classes with Jon. One of these classes, oddly enough, was gym. She was surprised when during the weight lifting unit intro when the teacher stated that members of the football team had priority on machines (because he was also the coach) he announced Jon would get priority on a specific machine.

He wasn't on any sports team, so it seemed strange for Mr. Ferrigno to give any sort of favoritism to a scrawny kid who looked like a scarecrow and probably couldn't lift to save his life. Then on the day Jon's group had leg day Jon went straight to the machine. It was a leg press that you sat on and loaded up with the same kind of disks that the barbell used. Each leg pettle had its own bar that could hold up to four disks.

Jon loaded up both sides with four forty five pound disks. “He can't be serious, can he? There's no way scarecrow Jon of all people can move that.” One of the other students who had apparently had gym with Jon before went “He's the reason that machine is bolted to the floor.” Then Jon white-knuckle gripped the handle and started going at it like it was nothing. The machine made strange sounds the entire time. Mr. Farringo chuckled as he also watched Jon. “Guy never skips leg day.”

Megan couldn't believe it. Jon was so plain looking. And poor. Yet he had many talents and his demeanor had her regularly reconsider the way she saw him. Then Duncan finally started getting possessive over the amount of time she was spending with Jon despite the easy excuse and the fact he often also benefited from the arrangement. “It's me or him Megan.” She responded by putting her hands on her hips. “If the choice is making sure I graduate or have a boyfriend, I'll choose graduation. It's over Duncan.”

Things went smoothly from then on until the senior year when it was time to prepare for the first of the two big dances. Homecoming. With Duncan practically a shoe-in for King and her the established queen that meant she'd be forced to share the first dance with him. No doubt he'd try to win her back.

Naturally she complained to her “bestie” about Duncan and she told Megan that her boyfriend said something about Duncan getting knocked down a peg during homecoming. Naturally she asked Jon if he was going, assuming he wouldn't because he didn't participate in school events like that. He would cook for the bake sale but that was about it. To her surprise, he indicated he did in fact plan to go. Megan's heart nearly skipped a beat on learning this.

It was uncharacteristic of Jon, but she didn't pry any farther. She would simply have to wait to see why he was choosing to do something so outside his normal way of acting. Surely he had a reason. Did he… have a date? Was he meeting a friend there? Why did she even care? “Am I… developing a crush on Scarecrow Jon of all people? No… I know he has no romantic intentions with his actions and the way he makes me feel could be achieved through a platonic relationship.” The anticipation only grew.