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]

"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.

[edgeofyourseat]

"...Your coins are invisible," he reports. "And it's kinda hot when you do magic, too."

[self_composed]

Bella laughs again. "Why's that?"

She doesn't have to go right now.

[edgeofyourseat]

"I dunno. I think it's the taking-over-the-world thing again. Like, you can do magic, how is that not hot?"

[self_composed]

"Dunno. I have never seemed hot to myself, and I've never seen anyone else do magic, and I do not have a crush on Elias Frobisher."

[edgeofyourseat]

"...I don't either," he says. "Okay, different emphasis: you can do magic, and that is definitely hot."

[self_composed]

"I guess at this point we're rehashing known territory," Bella says, packing up her backpack.

[edgeofyourseat]

"Yeah, I guess," he says. "See you tomorrow?"

[self_composed]

"Bright and early," says Bella. And off she goes with a little wave.