A New Challenger Appears

When Jessica had seen Tiffany picking up the ring, she felt equal parts fear and relief. So long as she got to Tiffany quickly, she wouldn't have time to make any wishes and reveal Jessica's genie heritage, and Tiffany wouldn't worry about giving the ring back to Jessica, since it was her to begin with.

But as she turned to leave, she remembered the second person in the room, Kevin, who apparently decided that taking the stairs would take too long as he clambered out the window to make a diving tackle towards Tiffany to grab the ring. Unlimited power was within his grasp, and he wasn't about to let something like a ten foot drop stand in his way.

Jessica only had time to yell, "Tiffany!" before the falling nerd landed on the raven haired beauty, sending the pair to a tangled mess of the grass, highlighted by a shrill cry from Tiffany and an outraged one from Jessica, who took off down the stairs.

She actually had time to get downstairs and out the backdoor by the time Tiffany's cries had alerted the seemingly drunken football team as they charged to her rescue led by Brad 'Thundercock' Myers.

Jessica watched as they pulled Kevin off of her friend with ease, Tiffany's teary face as she held her arm sending a shiver of concern down Jessica back... that was immediately destroyed as her eyes caught the golden ring clutched tightly in Kevin's hand.

"No!" She said yelled, but no one paused as she saw Kevin's eyes light up.

"I wish-" Whatever he was about to say was immediately stopped in its' tracks like a charging running back by, ironically, Brad's fist colliding with Kevin's face as he yelped in pain. He, however, had the forethought to get his arms up to block the followup, which hammered through his measly arms and smashed into his face a second time.

But Jessica was more concerned as she saw the ring slip from Kevin's grasp and be sent flying by Brad's zealous haymaker as it flew through the air and straight over the fence into her neighbor's yard.

As she looked down at the crying Tiffany, still nursing her arm, and saw Brad and the football team literally throwing Kevin out of the party, now sporting a black eye and, judging from the blood mouth, possibly a knocked out tooth, and the reality of the night set in for her, she only had one thing to say to properly sum it up.

"Fuck."

If one were to ask Tobias about his heritage, the first thing he would tell you is to call him Toby, since Tobias sounded like a brooding villain.

The second thing he would tell you is that he was Greek, with none of the traditional Greek features. Honey blonde hair that was usually kept swept to the side, much like someone who preferred to toss their head to the side to get their bangs out of their eyes rather than physically move it with their hands. Hazel eyes, that seemed to take in the world around him with a carefree look, and that would get irritated if someone called them brown. Even his skin lacked the telltale olive complexion of Mediterranean heritage, instead having pale skin that stopped just before going into pasty.

If you asked someone to sculpt Toby in the style of Greek sculptures, it would look like something a high-school Art student had made, passably human, and maybe even attractive, but a far cry from the Greek sculptures touting rippling muscles and barely concealed genitals.

Even his personality clashed with the traditional Greek one, whatever that was supposed to mean, since all anyone ever had to say on the subject was 'You don't act Greek.' He preferred quiet and solitude that allowed him to read books, or play video games in the privacy of his parents' basement, which he was usually allowed to do so long as he kept his grades decent and didn't get into any disciplinary troubles at school.

He had originally planned on reading a book in the privacy and quiet of his room, but those plans had been squashed when his dear neighbor had thrown 'the birthday party to end all parties', he believed she'd said, so now he was putting in some time on Skyrim.

Even now he didn't know how his dad did it, sleeping through all the racket a measly 50 to 100 feet away. That wasn't technically true, he knew how his dad did it, by busting his butt and breaking his back all day working a job at a factory a few towns away, while spending what little free time he had past that taking online classes at the community college so he would look better to the board for promotions when it came time, all so he could keep the promise he'd made to his wife when they'd moved here.

Meanwhile Toby's mom was having to work the graveyard shift at a convenience store/ gas station because Toby, while a gift from God, hadn't been an answered prayer from God, so to speak. That was to say, he was an accident.

Toby was brought out of his slightly mopey introspection by a loud, shrill scream as he dropped his controller and bolted for the 'emergency exit' a small door set into the side of Toby's house, so called since all the likely places a fire would start would also block him from leaving the house, so he had a small door for quick escapes.

As he contemplated heading next door to see what all the screaming was about, his eyes caught sight of a small golden ring with an emerald set into it. He knew in a moment it wasn't his mother's simply because his mother had the same few pieces of jewelry as she'd had for several years.

Even so, he picked the ring up, flipping it over to catch the light of the moon overhead just right before slipping it on to his finger. Imagining for just a moment what his life would be like if his mother could afford a ring like this.

So lost in his thoughts, Toby soon forgot all about the neighbor's screaming, and headed back inside, twiddling the ring on his finger.

"I wish I could keep it," he mumbled under his breath before deciding to return it tomorrow morning when there were a lot less people. While he could handle large crowds of people, parties always made him feel awkward.