Zoe sat on the edge of her bed staring at the smooth stone she held in her hand. Zoe looked at the rock as she noticed how its color stood out from the black leather of the glove she wore on her right hand. Soon she found herself lost in the details of the stone; the faded speckles and tight curves of whatever markings were previously there became all that she was focused on. Suddenly she diverted her attention to the more pressing topic.
"Whoa zoned out there," Zoe said to herself. She looked down at the rock resting calmly in her hand. Zoe slowly rolled the stone in the palm of her hand and thought, "Well I guess if this rock does what gramps said it does then I'm in for a fun time but first, a test is in order."
Zoe looked over at her algebra textbook with disdain. She professed, "I hate that class, I always get average grades despite how hard I work." Then a smile came across Zoe's black-coated lips. "This should be a good test," Zoe said, "I wish that my notebook was filled with the answers for all of Mr. Jones's tests." Zoe then leaned over and browsed through her notebook finding only crude doodles and illegible notes. "Well that was a bust," she said sadly, "I actually thought it might have worked."
She tossed the stone back and forth between hands as assessed the situation. "Well I guess I am a big stupid idiot for believing in you gramps!" she said with growing contempt. In her left hand she now felt the coolness of the stone. Slowly Zoe ran her thumb over the indentation on the rock as the irrationality of the situation began to settle on her. "I must be crazy," she laughed, "magic isn't real, there's no such things as wishes, in fact I bet that gramps bought this in a gift shop somewhere." Zoe shook her head in disbelief at herself. She looked at the stone laughing and said in a patronizing tone, "To think that I would be an A student in math Ha! As long as I am wishing for things I would never be and would never happen in a million years, I should just wish that " Just then the stone began to grow warmer as Zoe finished her wish.
