The moment that Jon turned the next corner in the hallway and was out of Sarah's sight, he started panicking. What was that? Why had he said those things? Was this part of some wish? It was like he wasn't in control of himself. And what was he going to do about Sarah's challenge? If he showed up and made a fool of himself, he'd make a fool of himself. But if he didn't show and chickened out, after making that big show in the hallway for some reason, that would be even worse!
Jon was half-blind with madness trying to sort out the sequence of events that had just taken place, and what he could possibly do about them, when he felt someone place their hand on his shoulder and pull him through the glass double-doors that lead to the area behind the science labs.
"Are you okay?" Karyn's voice shook Jon out of his delusional state. "Why did you start that fight with Sarah? Things are bad enough as it is."
"I don't know," Jon felt like his mouth was moving outside of his control again, but this time it was just his own nerves. "I just, I don't know what happened. What am I going to do?"
Karyn's eyes took on a brief glow, but Jon was too absorbed in his own crisis to notice. "We could use the stone," Karyn offered.
"The stone?"
"Yeah," Karyn began grinning with enthusiasm. "You brought it with you, right? Make a wish, fix your problem!"
Jon reached into his backpack and produced the small, reddish object. "I don't know, I don't want to make things even worse. And something weird was going on in the hallway. I want to give it some more time, I have until-- Hey!"
Before Jon could finish his sentence, Karyn had already grabbed the stone out of his hand. She didn't need the stone, it was just a conduit for Kyla to use. Karyn had her own magic, but she, or rather Kyla through her, wanted Jon to think that the stone was the only source of magic. "I wish that Jon would meet or exceed any challenge that Sarah gives him today."
"Karyn!" Jon shouted as the stone gave its characteristic glow.
"Don't worry," the girl said, slipping the stone back into Jon's backpack. "Everything will work out. I set a time limit for today."
Jon trusted his friend, in general, but now he was beginning to question his judgement.
