"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 15-year old Jon didn't really look all that different than a 16-year old Jon, although he had grown slightly.
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. "Can we make this quick, Jon-boy?
"Huh?"
"Well, I was supposed to meet my boyfriend, but now I'm here instead of home."
"Karyn, what are you talking about? You don't have a boyfriend."
"Are you jealous or something?" She asked, grabbing the stone out of his hands. "Look, Jon, you're a good friend, but I've known Tim longer. And you're a year younger that us."
Jon was confused. What was going on here? "Karyn. I'm the same age as you and Tim, remember?"
Now it was Karyn who was confused. "No, you're not. You're a Sophomore. 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. Sophomore Math instead of Junior Math. He recognized the books from last year.
"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. "It must be the stone. Somehow, it took away a year of my life," he said.
"Wouldn't I remember?" Karyn said.
"You appeared after I made the wish for you to appear. So you didn't hear the wish," he said.
"Well, I wish you remembered the same reality I remembered, as well as the current one, and knew what was going on."
Karyn vanished suddenly as things changed again in the room, this time more drastically. "What the..." Jon said, dropping the stone like a hot potato.
