Pat settled back on his heels, looking at his three little friends. Ben, the chubby one, was attacking yet another "giant" chip with gusto. He was oblivious to the fact that, two minutes ago, he could have picked up the bag with one hand and poured out a bunch of chips into the other. Now, one chip was the size of a dinner plate that he needed two hands to hold as he bit off chunks and chewed noisily.
Ian had a piece of chip in one hand and the world's tiniest smartphone in the other, laying back against a pillow on the floor. He was Chinese-American, wore glasses, and was originally the shortest of the four boys. There weren't many Asians in this nowhere town in flyover country, so Ian got singled out and stereotyped as a nerd.
Caden was the only one not chill about the whole situation.
"Pat! Come on, this is crazy. Change us back!" His curly red hair looked extra frazzled as he looked around at the enormous room. He had backed up against a chair leg for safety, intimidated by the vastness of the room and the crouching Pat towering high above him.
"Take it easy, dude," Ben said in between bites. "Pat, can't you do anything to calm him down?"
"Sure." Pat hefted his wishing rock and, although Caden's protests got even louder and more panicked, declared for all to hear, "I wish Caden would relax and just go with the flow."
Caden's shouts ceased, and he took a deep breath. "You're right, guys. Sorry, I guess I just overreacted to getting so small all of a sudden. Pass a chip?"
Ben pulled out another chip and tossed it over. "I still don't get what you're talking about, Caden. It's not like you just magically shrank to a foot tall. We're all used to it, so there's no point in pretending." Caden tried to explain again but, with a look from Pat, just rolled his eyes and sighed, then walked over to see what Ian was playing on his phone, leaving giant chip crumbs on the ground behind him.
With a momentary lull while the smaller boys all looked at Ian's phone, Pat had some time to consider his next move, passing the rock back and forth between his hands. These were his friends, and he wouldn't do anything serious to them. Sure, they teased each other, but bullies had pretty much forced them to stick together to survive middle school and high school. Their shared misery strengthened their friendships, and they kept few, if any, secrets from one another.
Their camaraderie had never been more than platonic, but now Pat couldn't help but wonder. Being the outcasts of school social life, none of them ever had a girlfriend or boyfriend or even a date of any kind, at least not that any had admitted to. Pat decided it was time to change that. Under his breath, he whispered to himself while clutching the wishing rock, "I wish Ian, Ben, and Caden were into me."
As soon as the wish was spoken, Pat felt three sets of eyes on him: Ian glancing shyly up from his phone and quickly away, Caden awkwardly turning to look over his shoulder, and Ben openly staring, a big goofy grin on his face, bits of chip still stuck to his cheeks.
Pat instantly questioned his decision, and considered reversing the wish with another one, but blushed a little when he realized how good it felt to be admired. He relished the feeling that, for the first time ever, someone had a crush on him. Three someones!