"I wish Karyn was here." He didn't want to make any wishes without her, since she wouldn't notice what was different.
As the stone glowed, something changed in Jon's bedroom. It wasn't anything overly obvious, but parts of his room were minutely tweaked. And Jon himself was different, although he wouldn't have noticed. A 17-year old Jon didn't really look all that different than a 16-year old Jon.
Karyn appeared in the room. She had a brush in her hand, but was fully clothed.
"Jon! I was in the bathroom!"
"Sorry. I just wanted you here as fast as possible."
"You could have given me some warning." She paused. "Why did you want me here?"
"I was thinking about making another wish. Since people that don't hear it think that nothing's different ..."
"Okay, yeah. I got it." Karyn sighed, and then looked around Jon's bedroom. "You know, I'm gonna miss having you around."
"Huh?"
"Well, there's only about a month left until graduation. And then you'll be off to college."
"Karyn, what are you talking about? I'm not going to college."
"I thought you said you were going to State."
Jon was confused. What was going on here? "Karyn. I don't graduate until next year. I'm a Junior, remember?"
Now it was Karyn who was confused. "No, you're not. You're a Senior. I'm a Junior."
Jon sat down on his bed. What was happening? Jon knew for a fact that he was a Junior. Why did Karyn think that he wasn't? Did he use the stone without realizing it and inadvertently changed reality? Or maybe it was just Karyn ...
Jon's eyes drifted to his school books, which were still not in his schoolbag. One of them was Astrophysics (an alternative science class that only Seniors could take), another was Pre-Calculus (another class that only Seniors took).
"Are you feeling okay, Jon?"
He had to figure out what was happening. And the best way to do it was to use the stone.
