Biff looked around the schoolyard. He still didn't see Sarah. Normally, they would sit behind the utility and make out a little before school. Nothing serious, just fun. But it seemed that she was running a bit late today.
He pulled out his phone, to see if there was a message from her. There wasn't. But something strange was going on. A popup on the center of the screen read "Wishmaster 7.3 installing..."
A joke app of some kind seemed to be installing itself on his phone. It was probably a virus or a firewall or something. Biff tried to find some way to stop the installation but couldn't find anything. Nothing he tried worked, at least, and when the icon appeared next to his NHL Scores app, he tried to uninstall. But a long press did nothing, as if the app wasn't even there. He started thinking of the students who might know how to fix whatever just happened. Jon wasn't really the right kind of nerd, Leonard probably could do it, but he was a weird one to try and intimidate. Who was in the computer club again?
Biff likely would have found an acquaintance that could have done something, but before that, his phone went ding. A new alert proudly declared that there was a new wish to grant.
"As my old man likes to say, in for a penny, in for a pound." Biff muttered to himself as he pressed on the alert. The app opened. It looked like a lot of messaging apps that he'd seen before. On the left, the category of "New Wishes" had an entry. With a shrug, he pressed on it.
He was very surprised when a thumbnail of a video of Sarah appeared, with the sentence "I wish I had time to eat before school," and a text box that said, "Suggest an interpretation."
He tapped on the video, which was shot from a strange angle, it shouldn't have been possible for a camera to be where it seemed to be shooting from. The camera seemed like it was outside the car looking in through the windshield. But it was Sarah, and it was her car. The backseat was definitely familiar. The video clip was brief. Sarah looking at her phone, cursing, and then making the wish as she drives past the Burger King.
Beneath the transcription of the wish, new text suddenly appeared.
A granter is drafting an interpretation...
it jiggled in that strange way messaging apps do, indicating that someone was actively typing. After a few second, a message appeared in a blue gray box.
"Grant the wish by making all clocks she sees until she gets to school appear to be one hour earlier than they should be."
There was nothing to list who suggested it. It seemed completely anonymous. It also said "0/3 votes" On the right there is a thumbs up and a thumbs down, in a neutral color showing that nothing had been picked yet.
A green thumb appeared underneath it. Then a second. The number increased to 2/3 votes.
This no longer felt like a joke. Nothing would probably happen if he hit the thumbs up. But what if it did? What if this was real?
He pressed the thumbs down. The blue gray box took on a red tinge, and the vote count changed to "2 votes for, 1 vote against. Interpretation not currently granted"
The box below continued to say, "Suggest an interpretation." He tapped into it and stared at his keyboard, trying to think of what to write.
