Vanessa watched as Jonchelle entered her room and collapsed on the bed.
“Are you okay?” Jonchelle nodded, sniffing a little.
“Yeah... I guess that I just needed to talk about everything, you know? With Karyn.” Vanessa nodded, sitting on the bed next to her. “I just didn’t think that I’d get this emotional about it.”
“Well, you are a girl now,” Vanessa replied reassuringly. “It’s probably to be expected.” Jonchelle nodded. “Anyway,” Vanessa continued, changing the subject. “What was it that you wanted to show me?”
Jonchelle sat up, smiling. “Oh, yeah. I forgot about that. Give me a second.” She got up off the bed and went over to a set of drawers, grateful that she had managed to recover the stone before Zachary had completely taken over her old room.
She took out the small wooden box which held the stone and the letter from her grandfather. Although the box was fairly unimpressive, Jonchelle had treated the box with care, and, as such, the box had little to no damage except for a few signs of wear and tear.
Vanessa watched as Jonchelle sat on the bed and took out the stone and the letter. She looked at Vanessa, handing her the letter.
“So last year, my grandfather died,” she explained. “He was an archaeologist, and on his last expedition, he found this.” Jonchelle finished, indicating towards the stone.
Jonchelle sat quietly as Vanessa read the letter, her eyes widening as she did so. When she finished, she looked at Jonchelle.
“Is this for real?”
Jonchelle nodded.
“Well, it would certainly explain why everybody in town suddenly wants to act like the opposite sex.”
Jonchelle blinked. She hadn’t been expecting this kind of reaction.
“You believe me?” Vanessa nodded.
“Uh-huh, like I said, it explains all the weird stuff that’s been going on these last few days and also that tree branch on Iron Street.”
Jonchelle blinked again as it took her a few moments to remember the branch that she had demonstrated the stone on to Karyn.
“Oh yeah! I had forgotten about that. I had shown Karyn the stone using that tree.”
“You told Karyn about this?”
“Uh-huh… She was my best friend at the time. I had to show her.”
“Makes sense.”
“You know… She wasn’t always blonde and big boobed.”
“Really? I find that hard to believe.”
Jonchelle nodded. “It’s true... Right after I made the wish about the blue branch, she made an accidental wish regarding Sarah McMillan and ended up with the big boobs and blonde hair. We never did manage to find a way to reverse that wish,” Jonchelle added glumly.
“What do you mean?” Vanessa asked.
“Read the letter again,” Jonchelle told her. “It talks about how wishes cannot be reversed, only readjusted.”
“How is that supposed to work?”
“Here,” Jonchelle said, reaching for the stone. “Let me show you.” In one hand, she held the stone and with the other, she held up her hand so that Vanessa could see the purple nail polish.
“I wish that my nails were painted pink.” Jonchelle was used to the sensation by now but watched as Vanessa blinked rapidly, like something was in her eye. She gasped as the feeling subsided and saw that Jonchelle’s hands were now painted pink.
Jonchelle smiled, nodding as she grasped the stone again. “I wish that my nails were painted blue.”
Vanessa frowned as nothing happened. “So that wish didn’t work because of your original wish for them to be pink?” Jonchelle nodded, happy that her friend was beginning to understand.
“I can only adjust the original wish. Like wishing for a deeper shade of pink or, as we eventually discovered, adding a time limit to the wish.”
“I wish that my nails were only painted pink for a few minutes.” The two girls watched as the stone granted Jonchelle’s wish and the nails slowly reformed to their original purple color.
“Wow!” Vanessa exclaimed. “This is so cool!” She looked at Jonchelle, an idea suddenly forming in her head. “Can I try something?” she asked, holding her hand out. Jonchelle looked a little hesitant but Vanessa reassured her that she had it all worked out.
“I wish that as long as boys are living as girls and vice versa, when a girl gets pregnant, the feelings of being pregnant get transferred to the new girls while the new boys feel as if they aren’t pregnant.”
Jonchelle looked at Vanessa, surprised. Vanessa shrugged her shoulders. “What? When Adrianna asked about getting pregnant, it got me thinking. I do not want to get pregnant. At least not at this stage,” she explained, gestured to herself.
Jonchelle nodded. “I suppose that does make sense… I hadn’t actually given it much thought as to how that would work.”
“Look at it this way,” Vanessa began. “This way, boys will still get pregnant and girls can go through the experience of being pregnant even if they decide that they no longer want to be a girl.”
Jonchelle smiled, knowing that the stone would be in good hands with Vanessa. It made her think of how fast things had come, yet how much better Vanessa was as a friend.
“I love you, Vanessa,” she softly said to herself.
