Jen knew there was a house key in the purse she'd had for less than an hour; she used it to let herself, Karyn, and Joseph in.
"Okay, so I guess Jon gave you a key to his house, too?" Joseph asked as the three of them stepped inside. "Just how elaborate is this prank?"
"It's not a prank," insisted Jen.
"Are Jon's parents in on it?" Joseph demanded. "I want to ask them some questions."
"It's 1:30 in the afternoon," Jen pointed out. "My parents aren't home from work yet."
"Can we wait for Jon's parents?"
"Yeah, sure," said Jen, noticing Karyn rolling her eyes.
"You got anything to drink?" Joseph asked. "I wish I had a Coke."
Jen started to tell him to check the fridge, but he suddenly exclaimed, "Oh, my God!" He raised his right hand in disbelief and looked at the object that had suddenly appeared in it, a full bottle of Coca-Cola.
Karyn drew a sharp intake of breath as Joseph stuttered, "W-where did this come from? I-I didn't have it a second ago! I was just thinking I was thirsty, and -- and --"
"No, don't you remember?" asked Jen, slowly opening her purse to get the stone out while Joseph was distracted. "We stopped at the 7-Eleven to get drinks."
"What?!" Joseph exclaimed. "We did not! We walked straight from school to here!"
Jen clutched the stone and quickly muttered, "I wish Karyn and I also had full bottles of soda pop in our hands, and that if Joseph heard me saying any of this, he'll forget it."
Her other hand suddenly clutched a soda bottle. She looked to see that it was Coke Zero.
"Uh, yeah, we all got pops," Karyn said, looking a bit confused but holding up a Sprite for Joseph to see.
"I don't know what's going on," Joseph complained. "I feel like I'm cracking up."
"Maybe you need a nap or something," Jen suggested.
"Yeah, maybe there's just been too much birthday excitement for you," said Karyn.
"Birthday excitement?" Joseph scoffed. "Me going crazy isn't the kind of excitement I want. I want some real excitement. I wi--"
Jen lunged to try to clap her hand over Joseph's mouth before he could complete what was clearly about to be a wish.
