It was nice, thought Karyn, that Sarah had been absent for a day. But what bothered her was that Jon was missing too. THe didn't answer his cell phone, and his mother was in a panic over the fact that he had vanished in the night. Now it was the second day. Hoping against hope that Jon would appear somehow, Karyn roamed the schoolyard, trying to see if just maybe a particular familiar face was in the crowd.
She looked and looked, but Jon was nowhere. But to her dismay, she did see another familiar face--Sarah. She was glad that Jon's disappearance didn't seem to be connected to Sarah's disappearance, but still, the boy could be in serious trouble, if he was even alive. For all she knew, he could have accidentally destroyed himself using the stone.
Sarah approached her and she veered away. "Wait!" said Sarah, but Karyn managed to lose herself in the crowd.
Jon wasn't in class either. At lunch Karyn decided to search for him again, though it was probably useless--surely then he would have come to class?
Someone tapped Karyn on the shoulder. She turned to see the blonde bitch, Sarah, again. Karyn didn't know what Sarah had in mind, but was in no mood to be made fun of again. "I'm not interested" said Karyn.
"Will you get it through your thick skull" said Sarah, "that I'm trying to talk to you about something important? If I wanted to do something to you, it's not like I didn't have lots of chances all day long."
"I'm still not interested" said Karyn. But it dawned on her that Sarah was acting a little strangely.
"You're interested" said Sarah. "It's about the magic stone."
"Y-- you have it? Give it back! And what did you do to Jon!"
"I'm trying to tell you. People here can be so immature sometimes." She stuck her hand into her pocket and said "I wish that me and Karyn were sitting at a table to talk about this without anyone else listening."
Karyn, who had been standing, suddenly found herself at a table. Now knowing for sure that Sarah had the stone, she lunged at Sarah, but couldn't reach far enough across the table.
"Stop being an ass, Karyn," said Sarah. "I could have turned you into a frog if I wanted to. I'm trying to tell you something important, and I want your help. Be a good little fake blonde and calm down, won't you?"
Karyn grumbled, but waited for Sarah to talk.
"I did take the stone from Jon at first. I went home and wished myself a more mature body. Then Jon tried to sneak in to take it back. And soon we were in bed."
"You didn't! You bitch!"
"Listen. I'm not finished. I made a wish, 'I wish that you would cum in me'. Jon disappeared. Almost a month later I realized that I was pregnant. I think I wished Jon into myself. It couldn't just be a normal pregnancy--if it was I shouldn't be far enough along to notice yet."
"I know how the stone works. People think that what happened is reality. So why do I remember Jon?"
"I think the new reality is 'Jon disintegrated for some strange reason that has nothing to do with the rock', even though he's really inside me. If that's it, you'd still remember him."
"So what do you want?"
"I want your help. You know a little bit about the stone. More than I do. We'd be better off trying to figure a way to fix this, together."
"Only if you give it back to me. If Jon can't use it, it should be mine."
"You can stop blustering, Karyn. I'll give it back. But I've got some conditions."
"Of course you do."
"First, you promise you and Jon won't take revenge on me. Second, once you get it back, you help me. And third, if I ever need the stone in the future, you'll help me. You don't have to do anything bad or evil, but I don't want you to say 'oh, it's Sarah, why should I do anything for her?'"
"That's it? Sarah, coming from you, those are awfully generous conditions. But tell me, why should I agree even to that?"
Sarah reached into her pocket again. "I wish," she said, "that Freddy's sick mother would make a miraculous recovery and that Freddy no longer wants to do household chores for me."
"Wait a minute, you were making Freddy do your chores? And you just stopped that right now, out of the goodness of your heart?"
"Karyn, let me ask you, have you ever lived on your own? You should try it. I was 25 for almost a month. A month of not only having to do everything by myself, but not even being able to get what I wanted. No Freddy to do chores or Zach to fix my car. A 9 to 5 job, and an apartment, and bills, and no cheerleading either. And if you try using your charms on the wrong person at work, they think it's a setup for a sexual harassment lawsuit. I realized what a joke I was making out of things. A couple of years down the road it won't matter that Steve researched my history paper, but it'll matter that I dropped out of college because I didn't know how to do research myself."
Karyn thought that over. Sarah reforming. Who would have thought? Oh, she still seemed bitchy, but she didn't seem quite so eager to manipulate people. Maybe she really did want Karyn's help. Maybe... And Karyn realized. Sarah could just wish that Karyn would help her. If she asked Karyn for help instead of forcing her by magic, maybe she did mean it, after all.
Of course, that wouldn't instantly make her a nice person. Nicer, yes. How much nicer? Good question.
"All right, Sarah" said Karyn. "I'll help you. Besides, I need to do it for Jon. And I promise. I won't take revenge, I'll keep Jon from taking revenge, and I'll help you when you need help."
Sarah reached into her pocket and said "I wish I knew if you meant that." She realized Karyn did--at least at that moment, which was all she could hope for.
And Sarah pulled the stone from her pocket and tossed it to Karyn.
Karyn caught it and turned it over in her hands. Same slightly metallic sheen, same reddish hue, same flattened shape. It was definitely the real thing, but what a roundabout way for the stone to come back to her! But now she had to help Sarah. She felt strange helping Sarah, but she did promise, and she had to help Jon anyway. "Okay. Give me your ideas," said Karyn. "I'll tell you what I think of them."
"Well, Karyn, what do you think of...."
