...she was stunned to see her ideal dinner staring her in the face! "Ooh, dinner! Wait, wasn't I asleep on the couch? How'd I get to the table?"
"Magic," Noah truthfully said, but in a way that made the statement sound like a joke.
"Funny," Ashley replied as she grabbed a plate and a slice of pizza. "Seriously, though, was I that out of it that I don't remember how I got over here?"
"You did have a nasty day today, by any standards. Maybe." Noah exhaled, thinking 'well, that's one way out of that problem'.
Ashley sighed as well, but grinned after a moment. "Yeah, it was. But at the same time it brought us together. That's a good thing." She raised the slice up to her mouth, and realized how big it seemed. "Where is this pizza from? This is the widest, longest slice I've ever seen!"
Noah headed to the table, observing the diminutive girl sitting there before taking a seat for himself. "Just one of the local joints. I guess they're trying out a super large pizza to drum up business." How strong was the magic in this ring, anyway? She was finding an oddity every second, and yet no alarm bells were going off in her mind... yet.
"Well, I'm game for that!" she gleefully commented before taking a full bite out of the slice. Or as full as a 4-foot girl would make, anyway.
'Amazing,' Noah silently remarked. With Ashley diving headfirst into the meal, he figured he might as well do the same. It sure looked tasty.
***
"Ohh, that was unbelievably delicious. I am absolutely stuffed!" Ashley exclaimed at the end of dinner. "I haven't felt this full in a long time... but I don't think I ate much more than I'm used to. Strange."
"Must have been the breadsticks," Noah shrugged.
"Mmm... yeah, bread is filling." Ashley got up from the chair, with her feet dropping a bit harder to the ground than she was used to. The jolt dislodged what remained of her clothing a bit, and it was now in very real danger of falling off altogether. "That's a high chair there," she remarked. Suddenly, she felt a cool breeze from her waist down, at which point she realized why there was a breeze at all. "What the hell? Where's my skirt? And... damn! My panties! What did I do in my sleep, imagine I was taking a shower?" She shrugged, which shifted her blouse to one side. "And why is my top so loose? This was tight earlier! Same with my shoe!" The look of pleasure from the meal gave way to a look of confusion. "Noah, none of this makes sense. Did something happen? I mean, this is some strange shit."
At this point, Noah realized how potent the magic was. If this didn't set off absolute panic in Ashley's mind, nothing would. And he was too nice to keep Ashley in the dark. Silently, he wished for Ashley to be aware of how small she had become. "Ashley..."
Noah was immediately interrupted by a now-petrified Ashley. "Oh my god! The big pizza, my clothes..." She walked over gingerly to the couch, where the remainder of her clothes laid in a circular pool. Picking up the skirt, she marveled at how big it seemed to her now. This wasn't right. "Noah! Do you have a ruler? Something is really, really wrong here."
He sighed and stood up, approaching his tiny classmate. "I'll do you one better." Ashley's look of confusion and fear deepened as he came near, looking absolutely gigantic. "I'm 5'9.5"."
"No, that can't be right, I'm 5'1" and you're... huge!" A wave of terror came over Ashley, and her face went pale. "Unless... I'm not 5'1" anymore. Oh shit."
Noah was filled with guilt at this point, both for inadvertently altering Ashley's mind and intentionally changing her size with the ring. "Ashley, I have to be honest here. Before we encountered each other at school earlier, I found this ring. And I know this is going to sound like total sci-fi, but it's magical."
"Okay... I'm not sure I believe that, but I guess it's no weirder than the rest of today."
"Well, when I went off at you, I said a couple things that I think the ring took as wishes. You weren't able to talk for a bit, and before that I said something about shutting up. And then I said that I wished you were the person I believed you once were, someone who could love me, and I think that led to everything tonight."
Ashley's face went blank. "You did say those things." She collected her thoughts, only to utter "Whoa."
"I'm sorry about everything. I re-shaped your mind, how you think, and that's not right. Let me undo this mess."
"No, no, no!" Ashley protested. "No, this is right! How I'm feeling is right! I do love you, and I always secretly did! The years of bullying were a mask!"
"Really?"
"Yes! Honestly, I feel free now that I'm being real with myself. I used you, made your life hell to promote my own popularity and standing, and that's not right. At. All. I want to redeem myself."
"OK, well... OK. I have to admit one other thing, though, and this might be a deal breaker. After I thought that the ring had power, I tested it in a way that would make it clear one way or another."
"And what way was that?"
"Wishing for something that is utterly impossible scientifically. For you to shrink."
"Wait, what?!" Ashley exclaimed with a bit of annoyance. "Noah! I'm tiny as it is!" She gulped, realizing that this was the reason for the oversized clothes. "Or I guess was. Shit, I must be ridiculously short now."
"I know, and I'm sorry again. I swear this was just a test of the ring. But I can reverse this too."
Ashley sighed. "I know. Noah..." She paused again for a moment, processing everything she had heard. Finally, she commented, "All right. I can let this slide. It's not right, but I know you. I know you didn't do it for twisted reasons. And, look, I've been a bitch for years. I deserved something like this. But ask first in the future, please?"
"Absolutely."
She looked at her clothes while adding, "At least the test worked. Look at me, I'm a total shrimp now. Everyone I've picked on would love to know I ended up like this. Karma's a bitch."
"Sounds like we both learned something from the test," Noah replied, to which Ashley nodded in agreement. "All right, time to start fresh, a new beginning for us as friends. And to start on that road, let's fix your height. As promised, where it ends up is totally your call."