It was kind of like looking into a bunch of funhouse mirrors. They all appeared to be 17-year-old girls, and were wearing some variation of a cheerleader uniform. But they were all slightly skewed from each other. One appeared half-Asian. One appeared half-black. One had dark brown hair that was obviously dyed. One had purple hair that appeared to be natural. One had her hair in a buzz cut. One was about 50 pounds heavier. One had much larger breasts than the others. One wore a slave collar. One had a uniform that said "3" instead of "G." One had a uniform that left her topless and had silver rings through her nipples. And so on and so forth.
"Jennys 1 through 20, meet Jenny number 21," said Kyle with a smile. "I'll be back later to check up on you." He turned around and went back up the stairs.
Jenny 21 stood there nervously.
Finally, the half-Asian Jenny spoke. "So, welcome," she said. "I'm sure this seems super weird to you."
"Uh, yeah, weird day, right?" admitted Jenny 21.
"I'm Jenny number 4," she said. "But it's not like we ever use those numbers among ourselves, really. So what's the deal with your world?"
"My world? Um, I don't know -- it was just kinda normal."
"Of course, that's what everyone here says," Jenny 4 said with a laugh. "But we've all had a lot of time to talk, so -- just to be obvious, my version of our father married an Asian woman, and number 15's married a negro woman --"
"African-American," hissed Jenny 15.
"Sorry, sorry," Jenny 4 said, shaking her head. "Old habits die hard -- some of our worlds are more or less advanced, or have weird things going on, or have different fashions, like number 19 there."
She nodded toward the topless Jenny, who said, "I can't believe women in all these other worlds put up with the tyranny of society requiring the breasts to be covered! You'll never be fully equal --"
"Okay, okay, we've heard this a few times already," said Jenny 6, holding up her hands. "But what we do have in common -- we're all Jennifer Smith, we're all cheerleaders of some sort, and we all apparently made life hell for Kyle Perkins."
"Yeah, I figured that out," said Jenny 21. "Um, have you -- have we tried apologizing to him?"
"Of course," answered Jenny 4. "Most of us. But he's not having it. He just wants to have power over us -- I guess it's something unique in this world, where everyone has power over themselves."
"Most of you?" Jenny 21 asked.
The Jenny with a "3" on her cheerleading sweater piped up with, "Kyle is terrible! Worst soldier in the regiment. Everyone agrees. It's a wonder he hasn't been killed or captured yet."
Jenny 21 raised an eyebrow, and Jenny 4 explained, "Jenny number 16 serves as a 'comfort woman' for the 3rd Ohio Army. Kyle is an infantryman."
"The Union forever!" Jenny 16 exclaimed. Many of the other Jennys rolled their eyes.
"Okay, then what about escape?" asked Jenny 21.
Jenny 4 shrugged. "There's the door to the outside that you came in, and that's it for exits from here, as far as we know. But the bigger problem is that Kyle is basically all-powerful here. I mean, we'll have plenty of time to talk, if you can come up with any ideas that we might not have thought of yet..."
Jenny 21 sighed. "So I guess we just sit around and twiddle our thumbs until Kyle decides he wants to have sex with one of us, huh?"
Jenny 4 replied...