Sarah fell into an easy and familiar level of banter with Alexis. It was slightly freaky to Sarah how easy it was to discuss the goings on of their middle school peers, fears and hopes for high school, or young teen interests that were far too recent for her to have noticed in her old life. Her wish had guaranteed she'd have the memories to keep up with changes, but she never stopped to consider how much those memories would impact her behavior.
Maybe part of it was Alexis, in both sets of memories now they were supposed to act like this at this age, so maybe it was easier to act this way around her. With Sarah's mind wandering, Alexis turned her attention back to the front.
"Hey how long until we get there?"
"It'll be another half hour or so," answered Sarah's mom.
"Ugh this drive is sooo long. I just wish we were there already. Don't you Sarah?"
Still caught up in her thoughts, Sarah absentmindedly responded, "Uh huh I wish that too."
By the time she processed her own words, Sarah found herself in the braces she had worn until she was 14. Her heart started racing as she processed her now definitely middle schooler style and body. How could she be so careless?
She was temporarily distracted by her parents asking for her to help unload the car and set up the campsite, but she soon had time to focus on her situation once more.
All in all being 13 wasn't terribly different than being 14 so it wasn't the end of the world. However, considering she was 18 when the day began the wishing stone was clearly getting the better of her. She even began wondering if it somehow made people more likely to want to make wishes but figured that was probably just her imagination.
The question was what should she do with it now? She definitely had no desire to be 12 or worse, so part of her wanted to chuck the thing into the woods and be done with it. On the other hand, it was still super powerful and maybe one day she might need it. She could always leave it locked in a jewelry box or something when she gets hom, but is there anything she could do to stop from making wishes until then?