Grace was in the car with Mike, Carl, and Veronica. All four of them were good friends of Jon in college and helped him learn how to be a normal person. They all were going to the store to find him a good birthday present.
They all decided to get him some sciencey stuff when Grace got a phone call.
”Hello?”
”Uh yes is this the guardian of Jon Davis?”
”No this is his girlfriend, why what happened to him?”
”That's weird, he put you as his guardian contact for some reason. Do you have his guardian’s phone numbers by any chance?”
”What happened to my boyfriend?”
”Its hard to explain ma’am, but if you can we’d like it if you came here with people he can really trust.”
Grace immediately hung up the phone and started running out of the store. The rest of the group noticed and followed her. She hopped in the driver’s seat and the rest of them hopped in, right before she started speeding out the parking lot.
”Grace slow down you'll get a ticket,” Mike warned her.
”I don't give a flying fuck! If it involved my boyfriend then I'll kill the president if I have to!”
”What's wrong with Jon?” Mike asked.
Grace didn't answer, she was too afraid to even think what could be wrong with him. She knew it wasn't the cure for cancer since they asked for his guardians. She just hoped her boyfriend was still alive.
She reached the half-empty parking lot and stopped by the side of the lab and stepped out the car. ”Mike you're coming with me!” she demanded. He hopped out the car and followed her. They entered the building and entered the section her boyfriend worked in.
In the room, there were many things that would give a science nerd an orgasm just on sight. So many machines and chemical stuff. At one table, there stood a crowd trying to talk to a cabinet. Grace remembered it being Jon’s table and shoved the virgins aside. She was up front where some old man was currently the one speaking to whatever was in the cabinet.
”Come on kid, let us help you get back to normal. I promise we won't hurt you.” he kindly asked. Most of the people became silent waiting for a response, and they could hear a faint ”No” followed by soft crying.
The old man looked up and noticed Grace and Mike standing there confused. ”I'm glad you got here quickly. How close are you with Jon?”
”I'm his girlfriend and he’s his first friend.” She told him.
”How are you with kids?”
”What kind of question is that? What happened to my boyfriend?”
The old man kept looking back and forth at the cabinet with a worried look on his face. ”He’s in there and we can't get him out. He’s refusing to open the door.”
Grace and Mike knelt down next to the door, and the crying they heard earlier stopped and all they heard was what sounded like a child with a runny nose.
”Jon, its Grace, your girlfriend. I'm worried about you. Can you open the door for me so I can be ok?”
The room became quiet waiting for another response. ”No! I don't want cooties!” was heard. Grace remembers her boyfriend with a deeper voice, and with a brain smart enough to not believe in cooties.
”Dude I'm also here. We’re friends right?” Mike asked.
A faint ”yes” was heard throughout the room.
”And friends can trust other friends right?”
”yes,” the voice was slightly louder than the times before.
”So then do you trust me if I open this door?”
The room was silent, waiting for some sort of response. Suddenly, the door slowly opened, revealing a small child no older than 3, who resembled Jon in every little way. The little boy climbed out and grabbed onto Mike’s hand
“Now come on, we need to figure out how to fix this.”
Mike walked the young boy out of the lab while Grace stayed behind.
“I’m sorry for what you have to deal with ma’am, but I can assure you we can try to reverse this.” One of the scientists said.
“Once you do, immediately call me. I don’t care what time of day it is I want my boyfriend back.”
She walked out and got back into the car. Mike was holding Jon in his lap while he played with his hair. Veronica and Carl were awing at the sight of the toddler who was once their friend.
“So what now?” Veronica asked, “We can’t really just take him to his parents, they’ll kill him once they find out he failed again.”
“I know, maybe we can take care of him while his co-workers figure out what to do.” Grace suggested
“Does it look like any of us know how to take care of a child?” Carl said
The car was silent, no one admitted to having the knowledge on childcare.
“Maybe we’ll figure it out later. Right now we need to put Jon in something else other than an oversized lab coat.”