if i got three wishes, first i'd find out all about how wishes work

[self_composed]

Bella brings two blank notebooks to school the next day. Her old one is safely computerized and boxed up with its predecessors.

At lunch, she sits with Angela; Jessica and Eric and Lauren sit at the same table but mostly talk to each other, and Mike is nowhere to be seen.

Bella is just about on time to gym, thanks to an overnight icing that means she has to pick her way with extreme care across the slippery grass or the slick sidewalks. The second time she falls down, she gives up on attempting any dignity at all, and, cradling her thwacked elbow, scoots the rest of the way to the gym on her rear. This leaves her with damp jeans but no further injuries, and they were a little damp anyway from the falls.

She doesn't have time to do more than smile and wave at Alice on her way to get her mat and get out of the way of careening balls. She spends the class doing the subset of her safe activities that won't stress her elbow.

Comments

[self_composed]

Bella continues supplying him with squares as necessary, biting her hand as much out of anticipation as out of a desire to generate wishes.

She's probably going to develop all manner of self-destructive habits.

[edgeofyourseat]

Near the end, he does start muttering to himself.

"Then why the fuck is the map so big? Probably because he's an asshole." Another, much cleaner sketch, narrowing down to an area that encompasses Forks, the house, and some wilderness. And then, before his latest dose of cryptography juice runs dry, he grabs another square and draws a map. Perfectly precise, showing just enough of the surrounding area to matter.

The map has an X on it.

Alice drops his pen.

"Fuck me," he says, rubbing his head, "I feel like my brain just got hit by a bus."

[self_composed]

"In a good way?" Bella asks, peering at the map. The X is within driving distance, but it might be a day trip. "Tomorrow's Saturday and your dad will still be out of town. We can go then."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Sure," he says. "And I dunno, it's not hot or anything, it's just weird."

After a brief pause, he clarifies, "I mean it doesn't hurt or anything."

[self_composed]

"Tomorrow it is," Bella says, taking back Elias's book and comparing Alice's analysis to the original. "That took fewer squares than I expected. Nicely done."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Thanks, I guess," he says. "I used up an extra one so I could draw the map that well. I figured we didn't want to end up in the wrong place because I scribble."

[self_composed]

"Right," Bella laughs. "Tomorrow morning? I'll pick you up at nine-thirty, ten?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Sure!" says Alice. "Whenever you feel like, just call me before you get here. Do you even have my number? You don't, do you."

[self_composed]

"I don't," she agrees, and she turns the page in her notebook. "What is it?"

[edgeofyourseat]

Alice grabs the pen and writes it down for her.

[self_composed]

"Cool." She tears off a page corner and writes her number on it for him.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Oh, thanks," he says, and puts it on his desk under a previously lonely paperweight.

[self_composed]

Bella counts her coins. She has the pentagon, and one square left from hand-biting, and ten triangles. She's still got one shoe off and one shoe on; she stands up and kicks the wall smartly a few times, then massages the toe, yielding in all four more squares and another triangle. Then she hands him two squares and four triangles. "If you need them. Keep them inside your socks or something where they won't be visible but you can still use them."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Okay," says Alice, pocketing them for now. "Thanks."

[self_composed]

"In case the treasure's already gone," she mutters, "or it doesn't have any hexes in it. In which case these denominations are what we have to work with until I make one heck of a hack into my brain."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Until what?"

[self_composed]

"Until I work up to handing you a hammer, or holding still while you brandish some form of acid, or whatever," Bella says, gritting her teeth.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Or—whatever," he agrees. "I'll keep working on better ideas for that."

[self_composed]

"It's going to hurt like fuck to get the right coins, whatever we do," Bella says, shuddering.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Man, you really don't like that idea," he observes.

[self_composed]

"Well, yes. In this respect, I am a normal person."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I wish I'd been the one who fell down the chimney."

[self_composed]

"That would have been more convenient," Bella says. "In several ways."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah. Like, right now you'd be making a list of all the superpowers you want."

[self_composed]

"I did already make a list like that," Bella says with a small smile.