Back in Jon's Bedroom...
Karyn perked up, her eyes glittering. "Ooooh, are you sure you want me to be there for this one? You know how it is between Sarah and me, I might advocate for some... worse things than you might do yourself, Jon."
Yeah right, Jon thought, like she would actually be concerned about being a bad influence. Nevertheless, he adopted an overly serious, sober expression: "I will let you stay for this, Karyn, and help me make the wish. She probably deserves whatever's going to happen to her, but just because we can mess her up doesn't give us the right to. Remember, with great power comes great responsibility."
She groaned, but Jon could see the smile in her eyes. "Really, Jon? You're holding the power to have some fun in the world at her expense, and you quote Spiderman at me? What's next, you'll start talking funny and warn me about the Dark Side of the Force?"
"Don't tempt me, Kar, I've been working on my Master Yoda impression." He leaned forward, his eyes fixed on the paper in his hands again. "Seriously, though, we shouldn't mess with her too bad. It would easy to do it, but I don't think it would be right. If we go down to her level, then we're not really any better than her."
Karyn sighed, looking disappointed. "All right then Mr. Morality, we'll keep it tame." She looked at him intensely once more. "But we're still doing something fun with her! Now, any ideas?"
Jon mused as his eyes went to the ceiling. "Well... I mean, I already did a physical change to her, so maybe something else now. Probably should have some sort of consequence for her social life though, that's the real way to get to her I think."
"A mental change?" Karyn offered, just fast enough that it was clear she'd had it on her mind already.
"I guess we could, but it feels like cheating a bit. If we mess with her head, then we're not getting back at Sarah, we're making a new Sarah entirely."
"Well... what if we didn't change her mind, but gave her new thoughts to deal with?" Karyn offered, hopefully. "Something light, that wouldn't actually change her, but that would come up every now and then like an intrusive thought she can then react to as she pleases?"
"Hmm... Yeah, that could work. Got any ideas?" In truth, Jon was planning to mostly go along with whatever Karyn suggested, within reason. He could see she was getting invested in this, and anything to get her mind off her own problems was probably what she needed most right now.
Now it was her turn to look up thoughtfully, her hands propped up on Jon's bed as she leaned back. "It'd have to be something she's not used to dealing with, and that would irritate her if it came up, or there's no point at all. But it shouldn't be something so obvious that she'll immediately realize it's a wish, or she'll be able to tune it out as not her thoughts."
"That sounds difficult." Jon noted, letting the gears in her head churn on their own.
"Yeah, it does. We need something that Sarah wouldn't like thinking, but that shouldn't be obviously un-Sarah-like." She straightened again and looked at Jon, frowning. "What if we made her lose her confidence about something?"
Jon raised an eyebrow. "What, make Sarah insecure? About what?"
She made an exasperated noise. "I don't know, genius, that's why I'm thinking it out loud!" Her eyebrows turned downward into another frown as she kept thinking. "Sarah is so strong because she's completely confident in herself. It doesn't matter to her if literally everyone else thinks she's a monster to people because she's convinced that her worth comes from something else."
"From being a stuck up bitch?" Jon suggested.
"From being a perfect stuck up bitch." Karyn corrected. "Now, if we chip away at that confidence, give her intrusive thoughts that maybe she's not as perfect as she'd like to think she is, she'll cave in on herself. Probably become a better person in the long term, even. Well, probably not, but that's what you've got the 18 other wishes for anyway."
Jon looked at Karyn with his eyebrow raised again, then said, slowly "You know, I didn't expect you to have such a thorough understanding of what makes her tick like that Karyn."
The look on her face was... hard to read. Distant, as if she were remembering something, or reliving it, just like her voice when she spoke again. "Well, you wouldn't..." She snapped back to reality and gave him her usual mischievous smile. "Being an icky boy and all, I don't think you could ever get into a girl's head like that."
There was definitely more going on there than she was letting on, but Jon decided to drop it for now. "Alright then Herr Sigmund, what does your superior insight into her psychology suggest?"
"You said you made her beefier before, right? What exactly did you do?"
Jon related the exact wording of his wish, after dropping the slip of paper on his desk. He wasn't about to make that particular mistake again.
Karyn looked appreciatively at him. "Not bad, Jon, not bad at all. More subtle than I'd have given you credit for. But I think we can drive that one a bit home. Make her look at herself in the mirror and wonder if she really is a bit too buff, like Biff was saying. Make her think she's not just too toned for Biff's macho tastes, but for general beauty standards too. It's one thing if it's the opinion of a couple idiots that she can easily discard, but another entirely if she thinks everyone's in on it. I say we plant that seed in her head and let it grow from there."
Jon looked at his friend with a mixture of awed respect and concerned fear. "Damn, okay Kar, that's... that's really good, but also kinda deeply fucked up."
Karyn rolled her eyes. "Well gee, Jon, it's not like we're toying around with the power to re-write someone's reality or anything. All things considered this is pretty tame, and you better believe she's doing something much worse with her own wishes right now. Are we doing this?"
"Yeah, sure. Let's just work out the wording."
After discussing the specific words to use to make sure the wish worked as intended with Karyn for a while, Jon picked up the slip of paper, looked down at a Post-It where they'd written down what he had to speak out loud, and said:
"I wish Sarah would become concerned that she has in fact put on more muscle than is conventionally pretty for a girl, and that this fact is becoming known throughout the school."
Jon and Karyn stayed silent for a few moments, expecting some sort of sign that the wish had worked, but like all the other wishes made with the papers, nothing happened.
Karyn was the first to break their reverent silence. "Well. That was anticlimactic"
Jon sighed. "I know. I mean, I've made wishes with it so far, so I knew what to expect, but after all the work we put into this one, this just feels... disappointing. But it's worked, probably, and we'll see the results tomorrow."
Karyn started rising. "I guess so, Jon-boy, I guess so." She picked up her things and walked to the door. "Well, thanks for talking with me, Jon. I needed that, more than you can know. Been a tough day, but now I'm definitely feeling better. I should be getting home, anyway, see if I can't figure out a way to deal with the wishes against me, and see if I can't decide on something for the Moose. I'll let you know if I do anything though."
Jon smiled at her. It was nice to see her like she should be, confident and unconcerned. Karyn the Scared and Karyn the Horny just had not been right. "Yeah, sure thing. I guess I'll keep thinking for things for Sarah. Whatever else I may have said when we were brainstorming, she definitely makes it hard to keep a cool head in the moment. Stay safe, and stay in touch."
With a wave, Karyn left his room, and then he was alone again, with nothing to think about but the mountain of problems he was having to deal with.
Karyn's wishes, Zoe's control over me... and Abigail.
He didn't want to think about Abigail too much, it still hurt. He hadn't told Karyn because if he'd explained the whole thing to her, she'd probably have guessed why he was hurt by it... and that was just too embarrassing to even consider. But he knew he'd have to do something about her. Maybe he should confront her? Tell her he knew what her real identity was? Maybe talk to her and figure out what was next?
God, he thought, closing his eyes. Maybe this'd have been easier if I hadn't found out she was Steve.
