“Tabitha, Mindy!” A voice called over to her friends sitting in the cafeteria for lunch, “I have a question!” The excited girl said, placing her hands on the definitely weak lunch tables. Tabitha and Mindy were sitting next to each other, they looked at each other, then back at the girl, “yeah Kat?” They replied at the same time,
“Do you wanna come to my sleepover tonight?” Kat asked, “my mom said it’d be okay but five girls maximum, including me,”
“And no boys?” Tabitha chimed in, looking at Mindy as she said it,
“Of course no boys!”
“Good,” Mindy replied, smiling at Tabitha. She looked at Kat, “let me ask my dad but I’m sure I’d be allowed to come,”
“Awesome!”
“Yeah me too,” Tabitha added,
“Cool!!” Kat said, “I’m gonna ask Samantha as well, that cool?”
“Uhm…” Tabitha looked hesitant, “she’s kinda…”
“Fat?” Another voice chimed in. A boy who’d just happened to walk past the conversation. He laughed to himself as he walked off,
“Ugh,” Kat said, “I really hate him when he insults her like that,”
“I agree, just cuz’ she’s his sister doesn’t mean he can just be so mean to her,”
“Not like we can do anything about it,” Tabitha adds, “we insult Sam, totally fine. We insult Tony, their big sister’s gonna beat us up,”
“So unfair…”
“Anyway,” Kat says, changing the subject back, “you cool with Samantha?”
“Yeah,” Tabitha and Mindy said at the same time, they giggled to each other,
“Awesome! Any suggestions for the last girl?” Kat asked,
“No idea,” Mindy said, “you can pi—”
“What about Liz?” Tabitha suggested. Everyone thought for a moment before deciding maybe it’s a good idea,
“I guess,” Kat said, “she’s not really that close but I mean, everyone likes her, right?”
“Yeah I like her,” Mindy added, shrugging her shoulders,
“Cool, Elizabeth it is!”
—
“Hey girls,” Kat’s mother welcomed as Mindy, Tabitha, and Samantha walked through the front door with their backpacks over their shoulders, “you three have really grown since I last saw you!” She said,
“Thanks Mrs. Perkins!” Mindy said, the other two repeating after her,
“Please come inside, Katherine is in the living room where you’ll all be staying tonight.
The three girls walked past Mrs. Perkins and into the living room where Kat had set everything up neatly for the five girls to sleep.
Mrs. Perkins waved to Mindy’s father as he drove off.
As the four girls set everything up, started laughing and joking around, there followed a very quiet knock on the door. No one heard. Another knock followed, Mrs. Perkins opened the door and greeted the unfamiliar girl,
“Hello!” She said cheerfully, “I don’t believe I’ve met you before,”
“Y-yes, I’m Elizabeth, b-but can you just call me Liz,”
“Of course, Liz. The other girls are in the living room getting all set up, let me show you in,”
“Girls!” Mrs. Perkins called out,
“Yeah mom?” Kat replied,
“Liz is here,”
“Oh hey Liz!” Everyone said at the same time, getting up to greet her,
“Thanks so much for coming. Sorry I didn’t invite you sooner,”
“I-it’s alright. Thank you for inviting me,” she said, smiling awkwardly. She twisted the ring on her finger nervously, only Mindy noticed being the observant one.
—
The girls started talking, playing around, gossiping. Liz sat quietly to one side feeling as if she was the odd one out, but after Tabitha encouraged her to talk, she became a part of the conversation. She started laughing with everyone else.
Before long, the girls had began to play games. A few board games, 21 Questions, Truth or Dare.
As the games went on, Mindy continued to count how many times Liz twisted her ring. She was just so interested by it, so while two of the girls were completing a dare, she asked,
“Hey Liz,” she started, “I really like your ring, I noticed you playing with it a little,”
“O-oh… you did?” She replied quite timidly,
“It’s not a problem or anything,”she she chuckled, “just noticed it is all. It’s a really pretty ring,”
“T-thank you,” Liz said, blushing as she held herself back from twisting it again, “it was my grandmothers, she said ‘it will bring we whatever I wish for’ so long as I treat it with respect,”
“Cool!” Mindy said, “so it’s like a spiritual thing?”
“I suppose so,” Liz said, smiling. The two sat in silence, watching as Kat almost fell over trying to do a hand stand,
“So does it work?” Mindy asked, breaking the silence,
“W-what, sorry?” Liz asked,
“Like you said it brings you whatever you wish for? Have you used it to… uhm… I don’t know help you get a boyfriend or something,”
“N-no!” Liz said, eyes wide, “I’d never… but I did use it help me with a test I was struggling with,”
“Oh cool,” Mindy said, “a-and it worked?” She once again asked,
“Yes,” Liz said, “I got an A, and I had hardly studied for it,”
“Wow,” Mindy said, “some ring, huh,” she giggled.
The game continued until the turn landed on Liz. Tabitha asked her, “Truth or Dare?” To which Liz sat awkwardly for a moment, she soon replied,
“Truth,”
“Ooooh!” Kat said, “alright alright, I’ve got a good one,”
“Go for it,” Tabitha said,
“Okay, Liz; what’s the furthest you’ve gone with a boy?”
“That’s a little far, Kat,”
“Oh c’mon, it’s just a game,”
“I-I haven’t… ever really…” Liz stuttered, looking very awkward, “I haven’t had a boyfriend before…”
“Girlfriend?” Tabitha asked,
“N-no…” Liz replied, “I’m not really that into boys… or girls,”
“Huh… right,” Kat said, “so what do I do, just next person?”
“No no,” Mindy chimed in, “it means you have to do a dare because you couldn’t answer the question,”
“I guess so. Liz is that alright?” Kat asked,
“Uhm, I-I suppose so,” she said very awkwardly.
Kat whispered to the other girls, “let’s not go too far, we don’t know Liz too well. Any ideas?”
“I’ve got one,” Mindy said. The other girls turned to face her, knowing she isn’t quite the creative type. She cleared her throat, “make a wish,”
“Make a what?” Kat, Sam, and Tabitha said at the same time,
“Make a wish, with that ring,” she said, looking fairly confident, “she told me she used it to pass a test, so I wanna see if it works,”
“Dude, seriously?” Sam chimed in,
“I-it’s okay… I guess I could do that,”
“That’s so boring,” Kat said, then turned to Liz, “I-I mean not boring for you to do it, just a boring dare,”
“It’s okay,” Liz said, “I haven’t really wished for much before,”
“Alright, what do you wanna wish for?” Kat asked,
“We get to decide!” Mindy chimed in, “we gotta pick something for her to wish for,”
“I guess like… something small, something that’ll be cool?”
“What about something to change us?” Tabitha suggested,
“Like all of us?” Sam asked, “or just one of us?”
“Are you we really believing in this?” Kat asked, sceptically,
“I mean… yeah I guess,”
Liz looked very awkward, sitting with her legs crossed on the ground with everyone chattering around her.
Eventually, the girls decided on what they wanted Liz to wish for.