Now it was Karyn's turn to be confused. "Gina. Gina Malucci. My best friend? I mean aside from you. How could you forget Gina?"
The gears began turning in Jon's head, but it only took a few seconds for something to click. "Gina Malucci is the name of the girl who was giving Mikey a hard time in his class! Karyn, are you dating a 6th grader?"
Karyn furrowed her brow. "What's wrong with you today? You know she's 18, even if she's still in 6th grade. It's not a big deal, it's just how things are."
Every synapse in Jon's brain started reading an error. This must be something the stone did, right? It had to be. But Jon hadn't made any wishes. Unless this was a side-effect from the wish Karyn had made? But then the both of them would still remember the same reality and-- 404 FILE NOT FOUND.
Jon stood up, ran to the nearest garbage can, and heaved the half of his lunch that he'd already eaten.
How could this be possible? Had someone gotten the stone without him knowing? But if they had, how would he know anything was wrong, he'd be just like Karyn who was now dating...an eighteen year old sixth grader. And she didn't see anything weird about that.
Jon's reaction disrupted the ley line that was established between Jon and Gina by Mikey's wish. It had been trying to fulfill the original wish, but there were some problems. Jon had been Karyn's best friend...Karyn now thought of Gina in that role first...as while some people might say they had more than one best friend, the word best demanded a singular answer. Then Gina had unknowingly initiated a change to that relationship, but the wish was that Gina was more like Jon...it wasn't meant to be bidirectional or the three would end up in some sort of romantic triangle.
The disruption came from Jon and Gina both trying to push at the inconsistencies in reality, which caused the magic to try to compensate for the issue. Magic was not exactly sentient, and needed the brains of those involved to help formulate the results.
Karyn came over. "Are you all right, Jon boy?"
"Karyn...I...I don't feel that good all of the sudden."
Karyn looked at him with sympathy. "Well, maybe you'd better go see the nurse," she suggested.
"Maybe...you're right," he said. She held his arm and helped him to the nurse's office.
Meanwhile, the magic was determined to fix the problem. At the same time that Jon began losing his lunch, Gina was sitting in class when the teacher approached her. "Gina, you've been such a help today," she expressed. "If only you could be here every day."
Gina frowned. What did Mrs. Cohen mean...every day, wasn't she here every day? Another headache hit her and she gently rubbed her forehead. That was right...she was here to help. But, as much as she liked helping out students like Mikey, she needed to get back to her own classes at the high school.
"Are you all right, dear?"
"Just a headache," Gina said, reaching into her bag for the bottle of Midol again.
"Oh...well, feel better. And I hope you'll be able to do this again."
"I hope so too..." Gina said, smiling at her. She liked helping Mikey and was grateful that her school had let her do it. She grabbed her keys out of her bag and headed toward the parking lot. There was still time to meet up with Karyn after school in their usual place.
