Pat trailed off. He had intended to return Ian to his previous height, but the genie's words had just been confirmed. Ian and Evan hadn't noticed Ian's dramatic change in size. So if he wished for Ian to revert, it would confuse them. But if he just whispered the wish to Caden again, it wouldn't fulfill Ian's request for a wish.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" demanded Evan.
"Chill, dude," Caden managed in between laughs. "Give him a bit to think!"
"Actually..." Pat rubbed sheepishly at his head. "I just conducted a little experiment... and I was thinking of returning Ian to his normal height before doing anything else."
"H-hey!" Ian protested, blushing. "Don't make fun of my height! This is 'normal' for me!"
"Er... sorry." Pat also blushed, realising his mistake. "I didn't mean... look, remember when the genie said that only those who heard the wish would know what was changed?"
"Yeah?" Ian looked at him, confused; then his eyes widened. "Are you... you wished... I haven't always been ten feet tall!?"
"That can't be," Evan objected. "I remember you going through this huge growth spurt a few years back!"
"Err... wow." Silence fell over the basement as Pat pondered the implications. Just how powerful was this stone? He hadn't realised what not being "aware" of a wish could mean in terms of changing people's memories. It made him feel a little uneasy, knowing he held the power to rewrite reality in his hands. "But... well, yeah; a few minutes ago, Ian actually was less than six feet tall."
Ian shook his head. "I mean, I always wanted to be a foot or two shorter -- being this big is pretty inconvenient, never mind everyone picking on me -- but it's hard to believe I actually was. I just... I remember... or... wait..." He put a hand to his head, suddenly feeling dizzy, as his brain tried to adjust the idea of his massive height to his memories of everyday life.
"Okay, calm down..." Pat took a moment to think about how to word this wish. "Aha! I wish for Ian to return to his previous height!"
As he finished the sentence, Ian began shrinking, until half a minute later he had returned to his original 5'8" height. Rising from his kneeling position, he looked over himself, bemused and still a little dizzy. Shaking his head in disbelief, he rubbed his arms, and looked around at the basement, now much bigger relative to him.
"Weird..." he muttered. "I remember now -- and I remember not liking being this short. But I still remember being a 10 foot six giant too." He shook his head.
"Trippy," interjected Evan in a subdued voice. Since Pat had made explicit that this was Ian's previous height in his wish, Evan now also remembered it as such. He looked at Pat, kind of worried. "Maybe... you should be careful with that thing."
Pat nodded. "Yeah. But my next for real wish won't be anything too major. I just wish... I was taller myself. And a bit more muscular."
He had been the shortest and scrawniest of the group. But now he felt himself expanding, power and energy surging through him as his bones grew longer and thicker, sinews tightening around them and muscles bulking up. His clothes felt momentarily tight before they adjusted to his new size -- a six-foot-tall young man with a bit of stubble on his chin, and a toned body with a hint of definition on his arms, abdomen and thighs.
His fingers clenched around the stone, which was warm and glowing softly. He felt shrink a bit into his palm, his fingers reaching farther around it, the increased pressure they exerted against its smooth surface.
Evan whistled. "Lookin' good, man!"
"Thanks," he replied, blushing. He shivered a bit at the new sense of power in his body. He kind of wanted to feel himself up, never having had much muscle tone -- and not just his muscles; he also felt like the package between his thighs might have gotten bigger too. But he wasn't about to do that in front of the guys.
"So, what now?" asked Caden, having sobered up from his hysterics over Ian's oblivious change in size. Now he had a thoughtful, almost calculating look in his eyes. "Maybe let us have a turn? I mean -- I know only you can use it, but you wouldn't mind granting our wishes as well, right?"
"Oh no, I don't mind," Pat responded, not needing to think. He trusted all his friends -- as the school's unofficial misfits club, they had quite developed quite a bond.
"Just, no more 'secret' wishes,'" requested Ian, and the others laughed while Pat blushed again. Clearing his throat, he asked,
"Okay... Who wants to go first?"