The new holder of the Stone smiled, watching Lily and Jenni come just this close to sharing True Love's Kiss, complete with doves and triumphant music and credit rolls, right there in the cafeteria. Another great success! It had been intimidating at first, using the Stone; from a panic wish to make Jon forget about an artifact like that, to experimental changes to his gender, to finally impulsively wishing Benji away, the successes just kept on coming and the Wisher just couldn't help but grow bolder and more confident with each.
Satisfied with the Triplet situation for now, the magic gaze started to drift over the rest of the lunchroom, looking for some suitable target for a bigger change. Over heads and between bodies, it lingered for a moment on the Goth table; there, Athena and Zoe were whispering quickly and conspiratorially while the rest of the table engaged in a loud and intriguing discussion, that sounded to the untrained ear like an angry, shouting, heated argument. The Wisher thought better of them, though; that was just how the Goth table communicated during lunch. Maybe later. The gaze drifted away.
When the real opportunity presented itself, it was in a much quieter corner of the cafeteria; one where the bespectacled of eye, the braced of teeth, and the obese of body all congregated in a desperate attempt to escape the chaos of the lunchroom. The Nerds... Slowly, the satisfied smile transformed into a sly grin, watching them, and a hand slipped under the table to furtively grasp the Stone where it was hidden...
There was an odd thing that could happen in nerdy cliques sometimes, where someone could be completely surrounded by people they considered to be their friends, and yet also feel hauntingly and insufferably alone. Kyla Leeson felt that way now. To one side, near the end of the table, her austere crush Jay Duncan had finished his usual Sandwich+Apple+Water+Breathmint lunch 3.2% faster than his average 6-minute-30-second eating time, and was as always dedicating the remainder of the allotted lunch period to a book, with his favorite noise-cancelling headphones on to give him a little peace and silently tell the rest of the world to go away. On the other side of her, Leonard Drullers and Gladys Brewer, the two extra-heavy guests of the table, were too busy waging a very one-sided war against the contents of their trays to pay attention to anything else. Walter, across the table, might have been down to maybe chat or something, but at the moment he was on his phone, just scrolling through memes or whatever, and Kyla couldn't bring herself to interrupt him.
Kyla herself was too awkward to try breaking the ice. She just knew she'd make a fool of herself if she did; Nobody ever called old four-eyes braces-wearing ponytailed Kyla Leeson charismatic. She'd had an idea that maybe Jay would notice her if she commented on his book, but of course it had to be some dense tome on fluid mechanics. Fluid Mechanics of all things! Only a mind like Jay Duncan's could possibly find interest in the notoriously impenetrable mathematics of something so mundane. So Kyla sighed, and let the only thing to hear on that side of the lunchroom be the occasional bellows of laughter or whatever it was from the popular clique's table. Some people were just born lucky, she thought bitterly, looking over at the McMillan triplets. By rights the sort of people with the smarts, the work ethic, and the prudence to do things like study fluid mechanics in their spare time ought to be the ones the rest of us kiss the feet of, not some vapid pretty faces whose daddy happens to have money.
But then a funny thing happened.
Someone was making eye contact with her. Kyla was uncomfortable enough with eye contact normally, but this was from across nearly the entire lunchroom, and looked at her with an intensity as if expecting her to burst into flames at any moment. Kyla could hardly see them mouthing something, when suddenly somehow she had to look away.
FLASH
It was over so quickly that later, Kyla would seriously consider whether she'd imagined it. When she looked back up, she couldn't find the face that had been looking at her like that, and moreover she quickly stopped looking, on account of what else had changed.
"Hey babe, are you okay?" Jamie Duncan had her around wrapped around Kyla. Kyla was too stunned to say anything, but Jamie, sensitive and empathetic as she was, could read her girlfriend like an open book. "Did something happen?"
"What happened was a beach trip over the break!" Lena Drullers interrupted jovially, apparently trying to continue a conversation Kyla didn't remember being started. She was different... She was still one of the more buoyant members of the girl's swim team, but in all the right places.
Gladys downed a protein shake in nearly a single gulp. Like Lena, she was now best described as very, very, THICC. "You know it. Practice is nice and all, but it was so good to get out into the water and just, like, have fun with the sport, you know? And I felt like, I could totally fly through the water, being all toned up for the swim meet next week!"
"We... We have a swim meet just next week?" Kyla muttered. Her head was spinning... On the one hand, that seemed about right. She was the captain of the Swim Team, after all, and yet even she didn't look this good if race day wasn't so near. Right now, she boasted a figure that gave swimsuit models their reputation: full, firm breasts, flat defined abs, a tight bubble butt that widened out into thunderous thighs... On the other hand, NO. None of this was right! Right?
"Yeah, next week. Time flies, right?" Wendy, sitting across from her, had her phone on the table and was scrolling through photos of the beach trip the swim team had taken over Spring Break, apparently trying to get some opinions on which were best for the team's social media page. Kyla posed in a frankly scandalous bikini in front of her fellow former nerds in one, Gladys and Lena showed off a sandcastle in another. Plenty had them swimming through waves, and in a few of them...
"There's no way..." Kyla muttered. She and vice captain Jamie were on a little towel under an umbrella together, cuddling on the sand.
"Yeah, way too spicy for our page, got it," Wendy said coolly. Jamie did not make the same mistake.
"Baby, what's wrong? You're normally so cheerful and outgoing... Have you seen a ghost?"
"No, I..." Kyla couldn't explain. This was all so very wrong and so weird. Vaguely she could recall, she was supposed to be the mousy little nerd, the hopelessly anxious little thing that would've died of embarrassment if she ever asked Jay out, but, wasn't she also a lesbian, going out with Jamie? She found herself scanning the lunchroom, trying to see the face she saw for just a second; was it connected, somehow?
"If you want to sit with the McMillan Triplets, go ahead," Jamie interjected suddenly. Kyla realized most of what she'd been scanning was the big crowd those girls tended to attract. With her being the big prize-winning swimmer aficionado, she could probably find a place there, if she tried. "It's not like you're abandoning us or anything."
Kyla bit her lip. She would never have dared to even try such a thing as the nerd. But now...
"I don't want to," Kyla said, shaking her head. "I just had a weird feeling, but don't you worry, sweetheart! I think I'd much rather stay here with you." She gave Jamie a quick kiss on the cheek, thankful for her concern, and resolved to find her Silent Benefactor later.
