Tom. His wish, of course, was "I wish I was a boy again".
And a moment later, Tom was, because it was certainly possible to be normal and a boy at the same time.
Perhaps, thought Jon, Tom could be convinced that the stone was too dangerous to use. "Tom," he said, "please give me the stone. You saw what Sarah did with it. You could do even worse, all by accident."
"Uh-uh" replied Tom. "I bet you just want it for yourself. What are you going to do with it, anyway?"
I already have one, thought Jon, but it might be better to keep that secret.
And other people in the room were already pushing Tom, trying to grab the stone. "Listen up!" said Tom. "I wish all of you would listen to what I have to say now and not try to take the stone! Lots of us were hurt by Sarah. But this stone isn't hers. Not any more! We all deserve to have it, so I think I'm going to give you all a gift."
Jon imagined all sorts of things the 'gift' could be. But Tom was no Sarah. Who knows, he could even have meant a real gift.
"I wish" said Tom, that every teenager in this room right now except Sarah has the power to make a wish whenever they wanted without touching the stone, but that they couldn't use that power on anyone else with that power against their will, and that the power only worked when they meant it to and never by accident."
Jon suddenly felt energized, full of power. He knew he could make wishes now. The whole class erupted in nervous conversations, until Christy said "I wish I had blonde hair like Sarah had." Her hair instantly lengthened and lightened, flowing over her shoulders. The class, seeing this, was full of murmurs again."
"Hold it!" yelled Jon. "There's a trick to those wishes! If you don't believe me, Christy... try wishing your hair red!"
It seemed harmless enough to Christy. "I wish my hair were red."
No change.
"You can't reverse them!" said Jon. He whispered something to Karyn, and then Karyn whispered a wish so nobody else heard: "I wish everyone knew the limitations of those wishes."
At that point the bell rang and the class ended. "What a mess" said Karyn. "Now everyone in the class has their own private wishing ability. At least Tom tried to make it safe."
"Safer" said Jon. "That's not very safe. Look...."
Jon pointed to where right next to him, Jason had picked up the Sarah-mouse and the Sarah-clothes. "I wish" he said, "that Sarah be human as she was before, but that she can't move until I say so." Jon looked away, and then back--and Sarah was herself, standing stiff as a board, a look of horror frozen on her face. "I wish that Sarah lose all her hair." She went bald.
"That's not such a big punishment considering what Sarah did" said Karyn.
"Yeah" said Jon, "but Jason doesn't have much of a reason to take revenge. Sarah never got to him."
But there were other people nearby, too. Jason nodded to Tiffany-Beverly, who had a much bigger reason for revenge. "I wish," she said, "that Sarah have the lower body of a chicken, but that she can still somehow walk." As Sarah's lower half shrivelled into a rounded bottom with feathers and chicken feet, Tiff-Bev nodded to the next people--Christy, Felicia, Sean, and others, several of them already planning wishes for Sarah....
