Jess does something rather unexpected...

She slid the ring onto her finger, feeling a tingle of power she'd never felt before.

I feel like, somehow, I'm breaking the rules here.

The words gave her a little rush. She'd always been one for breaking the rules, whether it was something as small as wearing a skirt that was a little too short according to her school's (rather conservative) dress code, or something as large as... the party raging a floor beneath her while she pondered hypotheticals.

Her mother had made her feel like the ring was a curse, something that only had the potential to destroy her life. But now, now she'd seen through the bullshit that her mother had fed her. The ring was infinite power, for her and her only.

At least, she hoped. The rational side of her was shutting this down. What kind of bullshit is this? Some magical ring? You just got pranked, kid. Drop the ring and leave.

Well, this quandary could only be solved with a healthy dose of experimental evidence.

"I wish... I wish... hmmm... I wish I had something to drink."

Kevin was stunned. He'd seen his treasure, he had had everything he wanted presented to him, right in front of his eyes, and then it was suddenly taken away from him, as quickly as it came, vanished into the abyss of lost dreams, of hopes that never came to fruition. He could see the smile on Jessica's face from where he hid, through the slim crack in the dresser. A smile of victory, of power. A smile that was the last straw for Kevin. He got up, not caring anymore about staying hidden, about his reputation, about anything, pushing open the door, stepping out, seeing Jess facing the other way, smiling in anticipation of what he'd do to her. This is my chance to get the ring off her. If I time this perfectly, I can slide it off before she can get the words she needs to save herself out of her mouth. The ring is mine.

And then he heard Jess speak. "I wish... I wish... hmmm..." He froze, standing completely still, a power-drunk Jess still unaware of his presence.

"I wish I had something to drink."

One second the water wasn't there, the next second it was, filling the room up to the very top. Jess and Kevin suddenly inhaled water instead of air, causing both to sputter. The intense pressure of the water the door off of its hinges, taking a decent chunk of the wall with it. But no matter how much water escaped the room, it was still filled to the ceiling.

After a couple of seconds, the floor gave way too, plummeting down onto the oblivious partygoers, showering the lucky ones with water. The unlucky ones? They were injured or dead, crushed under the falling floor or blown bodily into furniture and walls by the water jetting out.

Jess had found a loophole, and the universe had as well.

She didn't have much air left, but managed to swim to the side of the giant, vertical, infinitely replenishing column of water. She stuck her head out of the side, an odd experience for her, and yelled out, "I wish the water were gone!"

Suddenly the water disappeared, dropping her four or five feet onto the ground. She heard... the crunch of bone breaking? Four or five feet didn't seem like enough to break her bones. Then she realized that the ring, which had previously fit flush on her finger, was loose, almost off. Her fingers were not fingers anymore, just shriveled bags of flesh, propped up by bone.

The human body is 70 percent water, her brain helpfully provided a couple of seconds late. As the water slowly left her body, gone to who knows where, she croaked out, "I wish... everything I did with this ring... was undo..." Her voice didn't make it to the end of the sentence as her vocal cords shriveled. Yet suddenly, she was back in her room, right before she had said those fateful words, those words that had almost killed her. She whirled around, saw Kevin Scott there. Wait, what?

"Why the FUCK are you in my room right now, you fucking pervert?"

Kevin stuttered out something inaudible in the couple of seconds before Jess walked up to him and slapped him in the face. With the ring on her finger, the slap stung more than usual.

"How much did you hear? Tell me. How much?" Her temper was even shorter than it usually was, considering she had just been on the verge of .

"All-"

"FUCK!"

She saw Kevin looking at the ring, no doubt plotting, planning some way to get at it. He didn't know this, but she definitely wasn't willing to try wishing anything else, not after what had happened earlier.

She heard someone coming up the stairs; no doubt they had heard her voice and were coming to check if she was okay. Her time was limited here. She could try making a wish, but who knows what the universe would do with it. She could just wait for whoever it was to get here and take care of Kevin for her, get him in pretty big trouble. But that didn't solve the question of the ring.

Or she could, once again, break the rules. "I wish I wasn't a genie anymore."

An extremely loud sound played inside her head, giving her an immediate pounding headache. It sounded... it sounded like the Windows error sound almost. And nothing had happened. She hadn't changed. Then a massive wall of red text displayed, right in front of her eyes, flashing in a way that seemed carefully designed to make her head hurt more.

Not permitted

Shit.

Time was ticking down. Kevin had been freed from his momentary frozen state and was cautiously inching his way towards her. Someone, Tiffany, was knocking on the door. She heard the words "Jess? You good?" and knew her time was up.

Then, her brain, which she normally hadn't really paid attention to, ignoring it in favor of cheerleading, booze, sex, social media, friends, came through for the third time that day by some stroke of luck, or the intervention of some higher power, she didn't know.

"I wish I wasn't bound to this ring anymore."

The ring vanished off of her finger, Kevin looking up at her face in shock as Tiffany opened the door. Jess smirked. She knew she'd won, in a way. A Pyrrhic victory, sure, with the loss of the infinite power she had, but her ordinary life was pretty good anyways.

"What the hell is Kevin doing in your room, Jess?"

She whirled around, seeing Tiffany standing there shocked. Her brain worked overtime, concocting a believable lie, saving her for the fourth time that day. She spoke, surprised in her confidence in the lie.

"Um... I came up here to put the box away, but was surprised to see Kevin in my closet, perving on me, I guess trying to catch me changing or something? I yelled at him for a bit then threatened him with some... harsh... retribution if he said anything about this. I'd just finished when you came into my room."

Kevin opened his mouth to respond but couldn't get a word out before Tiffany walked up to him and slapped him in the face.

"Go," she said in a quiet voice. "Don't ever come here again, don't ever talk to us again, don't bother us again. Stay away from us, and we may choose not to ruin your life." She practically spit the last couple of words out.

Kevin stood there, frozen in shock for a couple of seconds, then ran out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the party, as fast as his legs would carry him.

Jess was seriously shaken at this point, but put on a fake smile for the benefit of Tiffany and walked down to rejoin the party.