Standing there in her boyfriend... ex-boyfriend's bedroom, holding in her hands a wishing stone of practically unfathomable power, a sense of clarity took hold of Zelda. She was angry, she was really angry... but she wasn't angry enough. She might have felt betrayed by Jon, and she might not have liked his mom, like, at all... but this? This was an angry fantasy. The sort of angry fantasy that anyone could think up after a fight. She'd kill him, she'd shred his clothes, she'd make up stories to the police... but who actually did any of that? As she stood there, staring at the stone, staring at the stone with the cold bitter reality of all that she could do with it, that part of her... that part of her that she didn't even want to exist when she really was angry reasserted itself, that sense of cold reason, the empathy, the sense of proportion... the humanity, maybe? ...that was kind of melodramatic.
Still, she sighed, and the words that had been choked in her throat for the better part of a minute finally died. She... she couldn't take away Jon's mother, even if he wouldn't actually know she'd been replaced. And as much as she might be loathe to admit it... she didn't... really... want to take away Sarah's son. Although that one was a close call.
She was just upset at how he just... couldn't stand up to her. She was just so demanding and just didn't understand him at all.
“Ugh!”, she groaned as she threw herself bodily onto Jon's bed, limbs spread and face buried into the surface. After a moment's pause, she flailed her arms and legs against it, a futile waste of energy but it felt good.
She supposed the same was probably true in reverse. Maybe if Jon understood his mother better he'd be willing to stand up to her... of course, maybe she just didn't understand her like he did?
...Wait.
She lifted her head up off of the bed, at least enough to assume a thoughtful expression. She twisted her head over and brought her hand close, holding the Wishing Stone between three fingers.
That... that might work, and you know what, it could even qualify as a good deed! Sure it might take a little bit of time, but this might even be better than just wishing Jon's bitch of a mother around. Maybe she'd tell him after she was sure it'd happened? That might get her a ton of girlfriend points...
A perfect, smug little grin spread across her face as she convinced herself of her new plan. It was hard to see any flaws, but... she should still be careful with her words. She wasn't dumb, she knew about Genies, the last thing she wanted was to accidentally mess something up and turn Jon into her own mother or something.
Twisting around, she assumed a seated position on her boyfriend's... ex-boyfriend's bed. Maybe she should make up with him tomorrow? ...or maybe she should wait a day? Wait, wait, she was getting ahead of herself. Stop, think... how to wish this wish...
“I wish that... I wish that, without directly changing Jon Madison or his mother, Sarah Madison, whatever would need to happen to allow the two of them to bond as mother and son would happen.”, Zelda said, pausing for a moment as she thought carefully about the wish that she'd just made. That... should work.
Slowly she inhaled, and then just as slowly she exhaled, and the silence was deafening around her.
“Alright.”, she said. Picking herself from the bed, she carefully replaced the Stone where it had been, and then just as carefully left Jon's house. She wasn't sure exactly how this would work... but there was no way that she was going to get lucky sticking around. She'd just have to wait and see how this wish turned out.
Unfortunately for Zelda, and for Jon, the consequences of her wish would be far more complex and far less immediately desirable than she might have realized. Completely unaware as she was of Jon's first wish, Zelda was likewise completely unaware that Sarah was in fact, not actually supposed to be Jon's mother, or Jon's incredible awareness and understandable discomfort with this fact.
And thus, a series of ephemeral dominoes began to tumble. For this wish to be granted, Jon Madison and Sarah Madison would have to bond as mother and son... and neither of them could be directly changed.
This wish could not be granted in a single day. This wish could not even be granted within the remainder of the week. And so, very quietly, the stone began to insert into the following days and weeks, and more, a series of conveniences. Petty little things that would indirectly shift the course of the future in such a way as to allow the desired result to one day come to pass. First and foremost, across the next week to guarantee Sarah Madison's complete lack of presence at Jon's school at the exact moment of 3:47PM.
Jon Madison and Sarah Madison would bond together as mother and son, no matter how long it took... and they wouldn't be anything else to each other until they did.
