Tom grinned to himself as he left the baseball field, duffel bag of equipment under his arm and ball-cap pulled tight around his head, blocking out the low afternoon sun. He couldn't believe how great his day had been, the run-in with Ingerman this morning notwithstanding. His life was totally different now that Willow was his girlfriend and Gloria hadn't mucked up everything! Instead of just basketball he was now still on the football and baseball teams! His teammates were laughing and talking to him, Mr. Lonnigan wasn't glaring at him (well, more than usual, at least), and he didn't feel so...exhausted like he did before he'd made that fateful wish this morning outside of Bill's...Willow's house.
Tom tried not to think about the fact that he'd just erased his best friend and replaced him with a beautiful woman that was head over heels in love with him. On the one hand everything was better now, his life was back on track the way it was before Gloria had gotten her claws into him.
And speaking of Gloria...
Gloria herself had been reduced in status, now that Willow was around the raven haired girl was no longer the queen of Shermer High. Instead she was just another girl, the 'bitch' of Shermer High's cheerleaders with far less influence than she ever had before. In this new reality Gloria's attitude had left her without a boyfriend, though the now mean-spirited rumors were that Gloria was either a lesbian, or was seeing a boy from another school...Or was too much of a 'mommy's girl' to be allowed to have a boyfriend.
Tom shuddered as he remembered the few times he'd had to interact with Gloria's mom. He had thought Gloria had been a controlling bitch, Ariadne was a meg-bitch. Or maybe even THE mega-bitch. She had been the most intimidating, hateful woman Tom had ever met, and Gloria was almost a entirely different person around her. Polite, quiet, hooking up with Tom had been her one act of defiance...And he had been tolerated by the Vanapolous matriarch in that previous reality only because he had been Shermer High's all-star athlete. And even then the few times he'd eaten dinner over there she'd glared at him like a hawk watching a mouse.
Meanwhile Willow was captain of the cheerleading squad (and so good at what she did that Shermer High now apparently had a sports league cheer team, all thanks to her). She was super popular and loved by most of the student body, and even though most of what had actually made Bill, well, Bill seemed to have been replaced by a love of makeup, cheerleading, romance and other almost stereotypical girly things, his/her life seemed much better as well. Her parents were still the Greg and Martha Strasserman that Tom had known all his life, though they seemed much more proud of Willow's accomplishments than they ever had been of Bill's more academically focused ones. Tom felt a little bad that the new memories in his mind knew that there was now a trophy case standing in the main entryway of the Strasserman's house, filled with trophies from Willow's various gymnastics events when she was younger and now her numerous accolades as a cheerleader. That seemed to be Willow's only real shortcoming, she struggled in subjects that Bill had once excelled in like math, science and history...And while Bill had owned a entire bookcase filled with science fiction and fantasy novels, Willow only owned a handful of young adult novels, like Twilight or Hunger Games, or the first few Harry Potter books before she'd grown out of them.
"They just got so sad and boring! And who wants to read when you can just watch the movies?" Willow had told Tom one night when they were curled up on Tom's couch watching one of the funnier Marvel films, the one with the talking raccoon and...Groot? Tom never really payed attention before, and especially not with his dream girl cuddled against him.
Even her relationship with her little sister was better! Before, when Bill had still been Bill, his relationship with Kimberley Strasserman had been..strained at best. The girl was a bit of a obnoxious brat that loved nothing more than to make Bill's life miserable whenever she could. But now Kimberly looked up to big sister and was already planning on being a cheerleader herself once she got into high school. And she acted more mature as well, mimicking Willow's grace and poise and breezingly pleasant personality. All in all, becoming Willow had seemed to be the best thing to have ever happened to BOTH Bill and Tom.There was no more looking over her shoulder for Ingerman, or at least hadn't been before Tom had run his mouth to Big Jon this morning.
But as rich as the bully had been, now the self-styled 'crime lord' of Shermer High was nowhere to be seen, the bully having been carted off to the hospital after reportedly breaking his nose and knocking out several teeth with his own fists. Tom knew there was no way that what had happened would ever get back to him, after all who would believe that the all-star all American athlete superstar of Shermer High had used a magic stone to force Big Jon to punch himself in the face?
But regardless of how things had turned out, how absolutely perfect things had been all day, Tom couldn't shake the feeling that maybe he should have just walked away without making a wish on the odd green gemstone which was now secure in his backpack and wrapped up in a pair of smelly ball socks for extra potential thief deterrent. The teenager tried to distract himself from the creeping, familiar anxiety with about how wonderful it would be to see Willow again, her perfect smile, her taste as they kissed, the warmth of her body against his. Her laugh. Tom knew he was probably grinning like a fool the entire walk from the ball field to McFly's, but he didn't care.
He was, finally, happy.
Or at least he was until he rounded the corner and saw the hulking redheaded form of Rob Bolstrum leaning against the brick wall of the restaurant, a cigarette in his club like hand as his hateful eyes locked onto Tom the moment he'd stepped into view. Panic gripped Tom's chest as he remembered Big Jon's words from earlier in the day.
"Maybe I'll cut your little slut's face, give her a little Glasgow smile for you two lovebirds to remember me by.”
Something hot fell into the pit of Tom's stomach as the thought of Willow being hurt, being pinned down and having her face mutilated by Big Jon's goon squad blasted it's way to the front of his mind, and he curled his hands into fists as Rob threw his cigarette to the ground and slowly, steadily, stomped his way towards Tom.
"Hey, Ackerton!" Rob called out, "you and I, we need to talk about someting"
"Oh yeah? What about?" Tom hissed back as the giant bully came to a stop in front of him. Tom was no slouch, he couldn't be, not when he was the star of all three sports at the school, but Rob was, like Big Jon, in another weight class. Tom reckoned he could give the big man a good fight but much like the guy that Tom Hardy had played in that one Batman movie, Tom would simply be broken before him. And Rob was a LOT faster than the big palooka looked, maybe in a different life the big man would have been another fellow athlete, probably on his way to being an unstoppable football player.
Tom knew his only real chance in a fight would be to use the Stone and wish Rob away, or into something else. Maybe change him into a little kid or something. He just needed to get the damn thing out of it's hiding place in his sports bag. And if Big Jon was actually following through on his threat to hurt Willow...Tom could do nothing for her if Rob wiped the asphalt with him.
"Yeah. Turns out you did something today. Did something to Big Jon. I heard what you said. You wished he'd punch himself in the face for ten minutes and that's EXACTLY what he did"
Tom tensed up in alarm. It was happening! Rob had somehow figured it out!
"Just tell me where Willow is and I won't break your fucking jaw" The teenage growled, dropping his sports bag to the ground. He'd go for the legs first, maybe trip Rob up, get in a few kicks and then-
Tom's mental preparation was interrupted as Rob began laughing, a harsh barking sound as the ginger titan's face lit up in amusement.
"Woah there tiger! Like you, heh, like you could ever, he, do anything to me. You stupid little, cunt!" Rob said as he was consumed by laughter, his muscled form bent over as he guffawed into the asphalt. This gave Tom just enough to open his duffel bag while, dig through his clothes and retrieve the gemstone from it's smelly containment. The magical artifact burst to life in his fingers, the strange light shimmering from within before Tom closed his fist around it and hid the glow from the world and Rob's sight.
As Rob rose back up, wiping a stray tear from his eye, the bully held out a huge hand.
"Jesus Christ moron, the bitch is fine! I sent, heh, I sent my buddy Jules to go lock the locker room doors. She's gonna be a few minutes, which gives us a chance to talk. I know you made Ingercunt punch himself in the face this morning. It was nice to see that insufferable asshole taken down a peg! So I want to buy in. Whatever you're doing, however you're doing it, I want to see that fucking asshole bleed! I want payback for when he kicked my ass and stole my guys!"
Tom blinked in surprise. Was this a trick?
"So what do you say, Ackerton? You wanna let me in on how you did it? Or teach me? Help me get rid of Ingerman and I promise I won't bother you or that walking tit-factory girlfriend of yours ever again!"