Yuki Meshida sat in her bolt hole. A the girls-toilet on the second floor, the one with the faulty plumbing that caused the water in the bowls to froth and bubble with escaping air when someone flushed on the floor above. The only people who came here were the ones desperate to risk a wet butt, or needed a safe but slightly smelly space away from people - like Yuki.
She had been staring at Kylas number in her contact list for several minutes now, debating whether she should call her friend or not. It wasn’t that she couldn’t handle the situation, she could, but…..
“I messed up.” Were the first word out of Yukis mouth, as she heard the click on the other end of the line. She hated how her voice quavered. She didn’t really feel like crying, but every time she got nervous there was this quaver, as if she was moments away from bringing out the waterworks.
“Um. Ok.” Kylas replay came after a short pause. “Context?”
“Well I kinda drew a name from the hat…” Yuki began.
“You did?” Kyla sounded mildly surprised “Nice. I didn’t think you’d risk it. So? Who’d you get?”
“Biff.” Yuki whispered.
“Oooh. And what did you do?”
“You didn’t hear?” Yuki asked, surprised.
“No. I was kinda distracted.”
“Well, I-I didn’t know what to do at first. But then I remembered how he and steve are always picking on Mike. And he’s a really nice guy. After what Ste-” she couldn’t bring herself to say it, the heartache was still to fresh “ -after that whole debacle, he was the one to look out for me. Or tried to. He kinda stopped when Biff and Steve began making these comments. You said you saw it too. How they always pick on him. Keep him around, but always calling him stupid or slow or clumsy. ”
Yuki took a deep breath.
“Well, I thought maybe I could make Biff see how unfair he was. What a great guy Mike is. ”
“Mike hmmm? You really do have a type.”
“Kyla!” Yuki surprised herself with how sharp the rebuke came out. A moment later she ducked her head out of sheer reflex, as she realised someone outside might have heard. “It’s not like that. And even if- if I had a….. “No, this wasn’t the time to think about that.” You were right, Steve was a scumbag, but Mike really was trying to be nice. So I thought I’d help. I wished that during training today Biff would have to admit that Mike is just as good a player as he is. Only..” she hesitated, before admitting “..only when I watched the end of the training biff was sitting on the bench with a broken leg. “
Her explanation came out in mortified starts and fits now ”So I wished it better, but then Biff started beating up Mike during lunch because he thought it was him that broke his leg. He started hittingg him, and Mike was just taking it. He wasn’t even fighting back, and Biff just kept hitting him. And it was just so unfair. Just ebcause he got all these msucles and these broad shoulders he thinks he can do whatever he wants. And the teacher let him be mean, because being mean and strong on the field is good! And ….rrrragh!” she growled.
She never growled. But the heartache of Steve starting to compliment mousy little her, only to learn -nearly too late- that he’d just wanted to ‘get a taste of that Yellow Fever’ and all the other little injustices she suffered because people were bigger and stronger and intimidating, was getting to her.
“It just felt so unfair! So I wished he’d be small and weak.”
“Hah! Serves him right!” Kyla snorted.
“I’m not done.” Yuki added “I was still thinking how unfair it was that he got all that confidence just for being a big guy. And how I…. Well I didn’t. So I kinda added ‘…like me’ when it wished he was smaller. It was an accident! But now he looks like me! Well not like me like me. But we could probably swap clothes. And he’s Japanese too.”
There was a long pause. And was that suppressed giggling at the other end of the line?
“Look Yuki.” Kyla finally said, her tone friendly(?)/bemused(?) “You didn’t mess up. Biff is a petite girl now. So what? You have been one for sixteen years, and it wasn’t that horrible was it? Now if you’d wished him into a little baby… that would have been a cruel fate. Or wished he didn’t have any arms and legs. But he’ll survive a day as a girl until you can wish him back, just fine.”
“Actually.” Kyla added when Yuki didn’t say anything “You could keep him like that for the rest of the week, and it would still be pretty tame.”
“What? No!” Yuki protested.
“Yeah, I know.” Kyla said with mild disappointment “You are just too much of a goody-two-shoes for that, Miss Cleric.” before adding in a sly tone “Just saying, if Biff stays like that, a certain overgrown lummox will get to be quarterback. ” hanging up before Yuki could protest.
Yuki sighed. Kyla was a good friend, but she had a bit too much fun playing the shoulder-devil sometimes.
