Jon woke up with a sudden start, finding himself sitting around a large-ish table in the school's cafeteria. He wasn't alone; almost a dozen people were sitting around the table, including himself and a very confused-looking Karyn, but otherwise the cafeteria was totally empty.
The most obvious change the wish had made was the inexplicable appearance of an icon over each of their heads, displaying their full name for Jon to see. Not that it really needed to be there; Jon had at least a passing familiarity with everyone around the table. Here was Sarah McMillan and her boyfriend Biff Meadows; there was his sister Zoe and her friend Athena DeVries; over there was a couple of the school nerds, Jay Duncan and Kyla Leeson; and finally, the deeply religious Nadine Ferguson, and that emo kid Derek Lettman.
That was everyone, besides himself and Karyn, and besides himself and Karyn nobody seemed at all surprised to be there or showed any uncertainty about what they were doing. To a man, they each leaned over the table to give a read over a paper document in front of them. There was one in front of Jon, too, but before Jon could give it a read he was distracted by the hand he had used to pick it up; on that hand's wrist had appeared a bracelet with a few clickable buttons on it, most prominently a big red X with the caption "Exit Game". On reflection, Jon figured that was the means of undoing the wish without using the stone his earlier wish provided. Everyone had a bracelet like that, and also a curious whistle hung around their neck. Given that they were all outlined as though they were important to a video game's UI (like the papers, the names, and the bracelet's buttons were), Jon figured they must have been important or magical somehow, but he hadn't any clue how.
All of this took just a moment to take in. That same moment was apparently long enough for most of them to read through the paper and start to get up and leave, a few of them stuffing the paper in their pockets as they did. "Hey, I'm heading to the office, anyone coming with me?" Jay asked, getting nods from Biff and Nadine before heading off with them. In what was only a handful of seconds, the already mostly-empty Cafeteria was deserted, except for Jon, Karyn, and Zoe, who was fiddling with something at the purchase counter.
"Okay," Karyn said after walking closer to Jon, "what the hell did you wish for!?"
"I, uh... I wished my life would become more like the life of a protagonist from a video game I would enjoy," Jon replied sheepishly. "Verbatim," he added.
Karyn stared at him in disbelief. "Jon, that could have done anything! We could all have turned into Goombas or something, man!"
"I made a bunch of protective wishes beforehand!" Jon replied defensively. "I'm pretty sure the 'Exit Game' thing is here because of a wish, right? And I see the wish that you'd still remember the world before the wishes is working!"
"Well," Karyn began, then hesitated. "Thanks for that, I guess. But you have no idea what game this is otherwise?"
Jon shook his head. "I guess that paper we got is supposed to tell us what to do?"
"Kinda. All mine has is a bunch of menial little objectives on it, like 'check Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None out of the library'," Karyn explained.
"You guys have stuff in the Library?" Zoe interrupted suddenly. "Can I go with you there? I don't wanna go alone..."
Jon and Karyn exchanged looks, both very obviously taken off guard. "Sure, I guess," Jon said at last.
"Cool, cool, follow me." Zoe lead the way.
Jon and Karyn started up talking again on the way to the library. "Please tell me you at least have the stone?" Karyn asked.
Jon bit his lip, and checked his pockets. Slowly, he shook his head. "I don't think so..."
Karyn sighed. "Okay. Well, I guess it's not so bad if we can just back out of the game at any time. Maybe we can-... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?" Karyn screamed as Zoe opened the door to the library. Jon turned, and nearly joined Karyn in her scream. Lying on the floor of the library, in a pool of his own blood and grey matter, was the body of Derek Lettman. Half of his head had been crushed in.
Zoe was fastest to react. Just as soon as she had seen the sight in its entirety, she pulled the whistle up to her lips and gave a long, loud blow. It was so loud, Jon couldn't hear anything else for a moment. In fact, he couldn't see anything either. Everything whited out; and when he could see again, somehow, he was once again sitting at the cafeteria table, with everyone but Derek present.
"Where was it?" Athena asked immediately.
"Library," Zoe replied. "Was headed there with Jon and Karyn when I saw it."
"Jay, did you see anyone suspicious? You were on cams," Nadine asked.
Jay just shook his head. "It must've happened before I could log onto it," he said.
Jon was watching the others argue a while, talking over anyone Derek was last seen with, when something clicked. "Oh my god, I've got it!" He exclaimed suddenly.
"Oh? Who's the killer?" Kyla asked.
"No, no, not that! Karyn, the game! I know what it is! We're playing Among Us!"
