Karyn Black shrugged in her baggy green sweatshirt, her long, blonde hair billowing out in the breeze behind her, her perfectly-fitting bra covering breasts that seemed somehow to have grown overnight even though her mother and grandmother had been as well-endowed as she, and she had been maturing steadily for years.
"Wait up, Hitomi," she called to her lab partner, whose all-As report card was notoriously matched with her boundless energy. Hitomi had told her during class that Joseph had finally asked her out and so her manic pixie routine was in overdrive. Karyn, by contrast, felt weird and out of sorts for no reason she could identify -- likely coming down with something.
Hitomi Madison paused and smiled. "C'mon, Kar," she said in that sweet singsong voice of hers. "We need to get the lab over with so we can focus on Bad Anime Theater!" Hitomi was hot, brilliant, funny, popular, and also more than a little goofy. In adult life, she'd have been fighting men off with an Uzi. In high school, when combined with her weird sister Zoe, her dating pool was limited.
They finally got to Karyn's house, settled down, and took turns typing up their lab report. Blah blah match the data blah blah account for any discrepancy; both girls were at the top of the class and both were far more interested in most things than school.
Especially Joseph. Karyn had been crushing on him since elementary and it had only gotten worse in middle school and high school -- and Hitomi, oblivious, had stolen him just as Karyn had finally managed to work up the nerve to tell him how she felt. Karyn was too nice a person to say anything, and so as her Scandinavian ancestors would have done, she ruthlessly shoved those feelings down as far as they'd go.
They were just about to put on the DVR when Karyn noticed a weird rock on Hitomi's papers. "What's that?" she asked, struck by a sudden feeling of deja vu and a weird tingling in her breasts.
"Just some rock I found in my room this morning," Hitomi replied. "I was using it as a paperweight. You can have it if you want." She tossed it to Karyn and started paging through the recorded programs.
Karyn caught it deftly. "Huh. I wish I knew how it got there," she said, and then her face went blank. A full minute of what Hitomi took for companionable silence passed before Karyn spoke again. "I wish Hitomi would not remember this wish or hear any wish I make until I wish she can," she began. Hitomi sat back with the Ranma episode starting, oblivious.
"I wish Hitomi was dating Steve Farber, and that he'd become a perfect gentleman out of his love for her," she began. A weak flash came off the stone. "I wish Steve and Hitomi would not only keep dating, but would be completely in love, and will get married after college and have a wonderful family together." Weak flash. "I wish Joseph felt about me how I feel about him, but had finally worked up the courage to ask me out, and that I'd said yes," she said, and didn't realize that the sudden swell of affection in her chest came because of a feedback loop she'd accidentally created with the stone. "I wish Hitomi would forget about this stone altogether, and will enjoy this afternoon with me with no memory of anything but our lab report and anime." Flash.
"I'm gonna get some popcorn," Karyn said, pocketing the stone. "Want anything?"
"Nah," Hitomi replied, eyes glued to the TV. "I may have to leave early -- Steve just made captain and wants me to watch tonight's game, and I do love my man," she said with a dreamy look in her eye.
"Suit yourself," Karyn said, heading for the kitchen with a smile.
Joseph rolled off of her, kissing her left breast as he did. "You sure about this, babe?" he asked, his serious tone at odds with the grin plastered across his face. It was of course matched by one of her own. He was amazing and she loved him so much.
Karyn ran a hand over his chest. "It's a bit late for that," she said, her smile getting bigger as she leaned over to kiss him. "And yes, I'm sure. Now hold me and maybe we'll make sure it stuck in the morning."
She loved the feeling of being held. She loved being married. She loved Joseph. She loved her life.
No matter what it had cost.
