Alan Mark had enjoyed his summer fully. There was plenty of time with friends, video games, pool parties, and the occasional exploring of "the wilds" which consisted of a local pond, a local bridge over a creek, and some foresty areas that had no danger aside from maybe a fall and a scrape if he wasn't paying attention.
Alan was an 8th grader. Well, technically he graduated 8th grade, and hasn't started high school yet. So what does that make him? If someone is accepted at a job and doesn't go, were they ever an employee? A better example is probably being accepted at a college but not going... are you a student? Of course not. Alan thought of his identity a lot, especially since he was going to start high school tomorrow, and he held on to his childhood while he could.
He ended the summer watching Disney movies. He prepared himself, and this was his ritual of mentally letting go of his child. He didn't like that he had to pretend he didn't like cartoons, but high school was more childish than middle school. In middle school you liked what you liked, and if it didn't hurt anyone, nobody cares. High School, as depicted by sitcoms, judged everything you said, wore, and did... harshly. Alan was ready to be an adult... or moreso a college kid... where he could be himself and like what he likes because he likes it, without ridicule.
As Alan went to bed he saw a weird twinkle in the sky out his bedroom window. He smirked, "Star light, star bright, first star I see this night. I wish I may, I wish I might, have this wish, I wish tonight..." Alan always paused. As absurd as it was he always liked to think about what he sent out to the universe... Maybe he thought God was watching, or some concern about karma, he didn't know.
He rolled over and began worrying about high school tomorrow, he caught himself and remembered the Disney movies and smiled. The most recent one he watched, Aladdin, came to mind and he imagined the fun escapades he could have with a genie. He remembered his childish plea for a wish and was a little superstitious when making prayers... you gotta finish what you start. "I wish I had a magic lamp with a genie inside that would grant me wishes like in Aladdin."
With that Alan nodded off, Unaware that the planet was, at those six seconds, the nexus of no less than 27 dimensions, in the right place on the planet's surface, and the correct state of consciousness, to pull his semi-dream thought into reality. Others in the county were too awake, asleep, or not focusing on a wish at that precise time. So all that happened during this mystical convergence. that could rewrite the whole of existence in this dimension, was a plain looking oil lamp appeared on the nightstand silently.