Kill two birds with one stone

Toby felt a small fire take hold in his heart as he saw Rhett belittling his friend.

"Hey, leave him alone you dirty ape!" Toby shouted, palming a handful of spaghetti before hurling it with all the accuracy he could muster.

Amazingly, it hit the bully square in the face, covering him in sauce as Toby put hands to his mouth before shouting, "FOOD FIGHT!"

The fabled words had an immediate effect as Toby saw several other kids grab their food before throwing them into the crowd, going for more of an AOE than precise method as the cafeteria quickly devolved into chaos. Among the growing shouts, Toby decided that discretion was the better part of valor and ran away, hiding in one of the only places Rhett wouldn't look for him: a girls' restroom.

As he reached the door, he paused for only a moment to mutter under his breath, "I wish this restroom was empty..." before charging in and slipping into one of the middle stalls, pulling his feet up to hide them as he latched the door behind him.

However, this didn't solve the problem that barring Rhett finding him in a random girls' bathroom, the bully would simply return and begin demeaning and possibly even hitting Rob, who wouldn't be able to fight back. So Toby had to quickly form a semblance of a plan as he considered the viability of what he was about to undertake.

"I wish that Zara would offer to take Rob to the nurse's office to have his head checked out in case he has a concussion. I wish that while they're waiting for the nurse, Rob would confess his attraction for Zara to her. I wish she'd let him down easy, telling him she isn't looking for something long-term right now. I wish she'd tell him that she likes guys who are brave, and since Rob was brave in confessing to her, she'd give him a kiss on the cheek. I wish the nurse wouldn't find anything wrong with Rob, but that she'd keep him in her office just in case, and will write him a note exempting him from the rest of the day."

Toby rattled off his wishes, pausing momentarily between each one to listen in case someone entered the bathroom. Which coincidentally, somebody did.

Jessica sighed as she sat down beside her friends and fellow cheerleaders, her mind still wondering what changed had been made besides the obvious. She been calmly sitting in Ms. Littlewood's class, preening at her perfect clothes and immaculate makeup, when she'd heard it, another wish.

The only problem was, she didn't know what the wish meant, only that she'd heard the ever present mental one-way connection that was her way of hearing Toby say, "I wish it was."

Wish it was what? Or what it is? Jessica shook her head, banishing the confused thoughts. Of course that only remind her of the even less informative "I wish." What had Toby wished? Her only real clue had been that Ms. Littlewood had changed subjects in the middle of her lecture on the symbolism of the pearl in the Scarlet Letter or something, honestly Jessica hadn't been paying the best attention at the time, but she was pretty sure it was something along those lines.

Regardless, Ms. Littlewood changed topics to begin talking about some paper that was due on Friday about the duality of two characters relationship chosen from a list of books that included The Scarlet Letter among Moby Dick, Tom Sawyer, and something called The Iliad which seemed to be a popular choice, although Jessica decided on The Scarlet Letter since it was the freshest thing in her mind.

Also shortly after that, a girl was excused from the class to go see if Ms. Littlewood could borrow some books from the library for the Drama Club, which was apparently one of the changes. Deciding to get to the bottom of this, she leaned over to glance at Sam's paper, which was almost complete.

"Hey, since when do we have a Drama Club?" Jess whispered as Sam looked at her in confusion.

"Since forever. Don't you remember going last year to see Julius Caesar, with all the guys running around with no shirts and the skirts that didn't cover anything?" Sam asked, and Jessica tried to put on her best dreamy look judging from Sam's expression.

"Yeah, I mean how could I forget that. I meant since when did Ms. Littlewood do it?" Jess tried.

"Oh, don't you remember?" Sam asked, before answering, "Back around the start of the year when the librarian got caught fucking one of the teacher's husbands in the Teacher's Lounge, well she was the one in charge, the teacher not the librarian, but anyways, when the librarian got caught, the teacher basically handed over her resignation and quit, and they convinced Ms. Littlewood to cover until they could get a replacement."

Both girls heard Ms. Littlewood lightly clear her throat, a warning to get back to work. This was another change Jessica noticed, as usually Ms. Littlewood didn't have any problems with Jess, Sam, or Tiffany talking to each other so long as they were quiet about it. Class finished up without anything else happening as Jessica tried to make up the distance on her paper since the rest of the class had had nearly a full week to finish it, whereas Jess was getting dropped into the deep end with only a day to finish.

"Jess... Jess... Earth to Jess?" A voice that was steadily growing in volume said as Jessica was brought out of her thoughts by Cassie, who had started to poke her fellow blonde.

"Hey, you okay there Jess? I was trying to get your attention for a little while there," Cassie inquired as Jess smiled and waved off her concerns, looking down at her plate of what couldn't even be called food when she heard Toby's voice, both mentally and audibly as he walked by their table carrying his plate.

"I wish we were given decent food for lunch," Toby complained as he walked past, and Jessica saw the slop on his plate magically transform into a plate of spaghetti along with a bowl that looked like it was filled to the brim with a thick white liquid that Jessica realized was ranch dressing a few moments later.

Well, at least he's kept to helping everybody and not just himself, Jessica thought as her food suddenly looked more appetizing than it had previously.

"That party last night was so fun!" Cassie exclaimed, her manic pixie image well placed, "We should have another one!"

Jess lightly laughed at her exuberance, but her heart just wasn't in it as she glanced off into the distance, trying to decide whether to confront Toby over his ambiguous wishes. The choice was taken out of her hands when she both heard and saw the school bully Rhett dump something over another boy's head, soaking his shirt as the much taller boy stood up.

Rhett disgusted Jessica, a sentiment shared with her fellow cheerleaders, with his slimy nature and seeming lack of shame as he'd flirt with a tree if it seemed to have a pair of boobs attached. She actually felt sorry for the taller boy as he tried to leave rather than retaliate against the bully, which only increased the problems as she saw him suddenly fall to the ground, although whether it was accidental or inflicted was up for debate.

She saw several students start to turn and look at the conflict as it began to reach a head, Jessica even saw a couple of the football players standing up, probably to get Rhett away before he got himself suspended or something.

It turned out to be for naught as she caught Toby's eyes across the room, right next to where the conflict had started, and Jess realized that the taller boy was probably one of Toby's friends which meant he would probably fight back with his newfound powers. She tried to will him not to, and it seemed to work as he took a step back from Rhett, only for him to suddenly hurl something at the shorter boy, and yell as loud as he could, "FOOD FIGHT!"

Chaos descended like a swarm of locusts on the cafeteria as Jessica did what any sane person would when faced with a food fight; she dove under the table, along with the other cheerleaders, while watching warily, waiting for a clear path to present itself as she tried to see which exit Toby went out.

No better chance could present itself than now to figure exactly what he'd wished for while she'd been in class.

It was only a few scent seconds later that she heard the mental command, "I wish this restroom was empty." and Jessica assumed that Toby was hiding out in a restroom.

Leaving the flying food and shoving bodies like a group of men returning from war, the football players sans Rhett charged to the cheerleaders table, spaghetti dripping from them like battle wounds, and Jessica had to stifle a giggle as she saw Brad's face was dripping with ranch, looking like someone had left him with the mother of all facials.

"Come on, we need to get you girls out of here before someone gets ambitious," Sam's boyfriend Chris declared, as Jessica watched a bowl of thankfully dry salad collide with the back of Brad's head. The Quarterback gave a personal demonstration of his throwing arm as he swept up one of the free plates on the table and lobbed a bomb into the crowd. With the momentary distraction of Brad lobbing more plates of food into the crowd, Chris and the other football players shielded the girls with their bodies while edging around the outside of the cafeteria.

Deciding that fortune favored the brave, Jessica left cover and began sprinting out one of the doors as she heard Sam call out to her from behind, "Where are you going?"

"Someone has to get the teachers before people start throwing fists and feet instead of food!" was all Jessica had time to say before she reached the door, which was technically true, but she was planning on locating Toby before he made matters worse than he already had.

However, she was too late as she heard the mental voice trickle through the connection, "I wish that Zara would offer to take Rob to the nurse's office to have his head checked out in case he has a concussion. I wish that while they're waiting for the nurse, Rob would confess his attraction for Zara to her. I wish she'd let him down easy, telling him she isn't looking for something long-term right now. I wish she'd tell him that she likes guys who are brave, and since Rob was brave in confessing to her, she'd give him a kiss on the cheek. I wish the nurse wouldn't find anything wrong with Rob, but that she'd keep him in her office just in case, and will write him a note exempting him from the rest of the day."

Jessica raced through the school, not even looking back as she saw Zara likewise break from cover, only to charge into the crowd of frenzied students. Thankfully, because they were close to same door Toby had left out of, it wasn't far from the downed boy whom Jessica didn't know the name of, so hopefully Zara would be alright. Jessica managed to find the restroom just as Toby finished the last wish, not even pausing for a moment as she charged in and snarled, "Toby!"

Silence met her accusing tone. Finally she heard, "Yeah."

"What the hell were you thinking? You started a riot in the cafeteria, and I'll be surprised if no one got hurt!" Jessica said, quickly locating the only stall in the restroom that wouldn't open.

"Someone was hurt! Rhett tripped Rob, and he hit his head, he was bleeding on the floor and that monkey was laughing about it!" Toby practically snarled back, and Jessica realized that despite his calm demeanor and usually levelheadedness, Toby was still a teenage boy that was prone to anger when pressed.

"Still, starting a food fight wasn't right. If you really wanted to help your friend, you should've taken him to the nurse, or wished for a teacher to intervene, not start a food fight! And that's another thing, what happened to you not forcing a girl to do something against her will, that it still feels like **** to you? Or does that not apply anymore!?" Jessica was fired up although this time Toby wasn't backing down.

"I still think that it's borderline **** if the girl didn't want to, even if she's offering, but I feel like a kiss on the cheek is a bit **** to follow that. Besides, I figured you'd be fine with it, at least now I won't have to hear him talk about his undying love for Zara." Toby defended, keeping his voice even.

"Why on Earth would I be okay with one of my friends being **** to kiss one of your disgusting friends!?" Jess yelled, mentally regretting the disgusting remark since she didn't even know the boy.

The door in front of her slammed open and she was met with Toby's withering glare as he advanced and Jessica could honestly hear a low growling come from the boy.

"My 'disgusting friend', as you called him, was assaulted by one of your friends and bleeding on the floor, and no one seems to care that he was the victim! If you had to make the choice for Zara between giving some 'disgusting' boy a kiss on the cheek or being ogled constantly by the same, which would you have chosen, oh wise one?" Toby snarled back as Jessica back into the wall as Toby practically pinned her in place with his eyes.

"I-I I would've wished away his feelings for Zara, so she wouldn't have had to deal with either choice." Jessica said, feeling certain in her answer.

As if sensing the growing heat between the pair, the bell rang, and both heard the principal announcing that lunch was cut short due to a riot in the cafeteria, to please go to their next class, and that the instigators would be spoken to later.

"So, you're grand choice is to remove an innocent boy's feelings and **** him to feel ambivalent towards Zara; now who's forcing people to do things against their will?" Toby's voice was cold, a sharp contrast to Jess's fiery tone, but somehow she felt like his was a million times worse as if he were bottling up all the rage he'd felt only a moment earlier, already plotting and planning to punish her later.

She was left with the question and her thoughts as Toby pulled the door shut behind him.