"Okay, just tell me what's going on," Nick said to Clark. "I won't get mad."
Clark took a deep breath. "Okay." He paused for a minute, thinking back to the beginning, or at least to when he made his "musical closets" wish. "Before I made the wish, our family was made up of myself, my older brother Jon, my sister Zoe, and my mother Linda. Then I made the wish and my brother Jon replaced my sister Zoe and became Joni. Then Zoe replaced a girl named Tiffany Sanders ..."
"Tiffany? That's our mom's name," Nick said.
"That's right. After Zoe replaced Tiffany, Tiffany replaced our mom," Clark said. "Then our mom replaced a girl named Athena DeVries. Athena was a Goth and a close friend of Zoe's. Then Athena replaced a boy named Jay Duncan and became Nathan. And then Jay replaced a girl named Zelda Whitefield, another friend of Zoe's, and became Jayne. And then ..."
"Wait, how do you know all this stuff? It's all pretty accurate," Nick said.
"After I realized that things were really different about a day after I made the wish, I decided to wish to know what was happening." He paused. "Anyway, Zelda replaced a girl named Lucy Corinth, then Lucy replaced a Goth woman named Agatha Pierce, then Agatha replaced a woman named Gillian DeVries, Athena's mom, then Gillian replaced a boy named Benny Gates and became Julian, then Benny replaced a woman named Stacy Whitefield, Zelda's mom, and became Bunny, and then ... then it gets a little complicated."
"How so?" Alice asked.
"Well," Clark continued. "Stacy replaced two people. One's name was Biff Meadows and the other's name was Chris Freeman. I don't know how it happened, but Stacy became part of both the Meadows family and the Freeman family. And now she's known as Steve Meadows."
"Steve Meadows?" Alice asked. "You mean that football guy who's a major jerk?"
"Yeah, that's him," Nick said. "I think he's dating Burnice McMillan, right? Or is he dating Gladys O'Brien again?"
Clark coughed. "Can I continue?"
Nick and Alice turned towards him, then nodded.
"Anyway, since one person replaced two people, another separate chain had been created. Biff and Chris replaced Clair and Vanessa Pierce, twin Goth girls who were Agatha Pierce's out of town cousins. And now Biff and Chris are known as Beth and Christine Pierce. Vanessa replaced a girl named Gladys Brewer, then Gladys replaced a girl named Lauren O'Brien, then Lauren replaced an old woman named Ester Wilson, and Nicole replaced Jon."
"Wait, I think you missed something," Nick said.
Clark looked confused.
"Who's Nicole?"
"That's who you used to be," Clark said.
"Okay, but who did Nicole get replaced by? I think you skipped over something."
Clark thought about it, but for some reason, it was all a blur. "Um ... I ... I don't know."
"I thought you made a wish so you'd know what was going on," Nick said.
"I did. But I can't seem to remember ..."
"Nick, I don't know what you're up to up there, but you need to get to school now," came the voice of his mother, who he now knew wasn't supposed to be his mother.
"Okay, I'm leaving soon," Nick called back down.
"I'm sorry, Nick. I'm sorry I made all this happen," Clark said.
"It's okay. You're not the first one to make a dumb wish," Nick said, glancing towards Alice.
Alice's eyes narrowed. "Are you going to remind me all the time now?"
"I think your body is a reminder enough. Or at least it would be if you wore a less frumpy shirt."
"I'm wearing it because of what I did to myself."
"Nick!" his mother yelled from downstairs.
"I'm coming!" he yelled back. Then he turned and looked at Alice, then Clark. "Just don't tell anyone about the stone or the wish you made. Okay?"
"Okay," Clark said.
"We'll talk about this later."
And with that, Nick and Alice left for school, leaving Clark to head back into his room to get ready.
Joni backed away from the door after everything went silent.
