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]

"Assuming we find it, yeah. Your map is really good, but it covers a wide area and the point of the X probably handles a good few hundred square feet. Maybe it'll be obvious when we get there," she shrugs. "Or a square can make it glow or something."

[edgeofyourseat]

He finds himself, just for a second, looking forward to the possibility that they might need another pentagon to get into the stash.

Then he decides that that's not what he really wants.

"Or you'll fall down another hole," he says instead. "Hopefully not one that's like a hundred feet deep."

[self_composed]

"Oh, that's possible too," Bella agrees. "Elias did definitely go to a lot of trouble to make all this only go to a descendant."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...I feel like there's a joke in there about descendants falling down holes..."

[self_composed]

"I'm not seeing it," says Bella.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Descending," says Alice, and makes an appropriate hand motion.

[self_composed]

"A-ha. Cute." She chuckles. "I wonder which side of the family I'm descended from him through? Both my parents are from here, but all the grandparents have died or retired elsewhere, now..."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Not a clue. Can you find out?"

[self_composed]

"I guess. People who do genealogy as a hobby probably have something to do besides quiz their elderly relatives. But I kind of suspect that if this house - and therefore its secret passage - was here long enough ago that Elias was still writing the way he did, then he was living an unconventional and magic-assisted lifestyle. He may not appear in resources like that. I suppose I could just see if I can find any Frobishers."

[edgeofyourseat]

"It's not exactly a dime-a-dozen name," he agrees.

[self_composed]

"Speaking of names," she says. "Why 'Alice'? Is it after the character in your favorite book?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Pretty Alice, Alice Cooper, Alice in Wonderland..."

[self_composed]

"Interesting. My parents just picked my name out of a baby name book, and I like Bella better than Isabella 'cause it's shorter. My dad calls me Bells, and I'd go by that in general if it didn't sound too affectionate for random people to use."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I mean, I'm not really that attached to Alice," he says. "I just like it. I could be Marilyn or Lesley or Francis or Brian or Cindy or, you know, whatever."

[self_composed]

Bella nods. "Do those have relevant associations too?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Marilyn Manson. Marilyn Monroe. Cinderella. Cindy Lou Who. The rest of 'em I just thought up on the spot."

[self_composed]

"I think I'll stick with Alice and Pinball Wizard and, where applicable, 'belligerent idiot'," says Bella.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Works for me," he says cheerfully.

[self_composed]

Bella picks up Elias's book and flips to the profiles section she hadn't previously read much into. "You can call me Bells if you feel like it."

[edgeofyourseat]

"I might," he says. "Can I call you other things?"

[self_composed]

Bella is not at all sure what other things those might be. "Such as?"

[edgeofyourseat]

"Dunno yet! I'll tell you when I think of something."

[self_composed]

"Well, I will approve or disapprove things case by case."

[edgeofyourseat]

"Okay."

[self_composed]

Bella peers out the window.

It is dark.

"I should probably get going," Bella says. But first, she scoops up all her coins, clutches the pentagon, and wishes.

To Alice's eyes, the coins all disappear at the same time.