Loki whistled as he stepped through the gate in the picket fence, then walked up the sidewalk to the front door. This was going to be fun.
He knocked, waited for the door to open, and introduced himself to the boy's father.
"Charles, dinner!" Charles Clay heard his mother's voice from downstairs. He put down his pencil, closed his math workbook, and walked down to the dining room.
A surprise awaited him, sitting in his little brother Kyle's usual seat. Charles's father Steven explained, "Charles, this is Mr. Loki. He's going to be eating dinner with us."
"I gave him your brother's seat," explained Mary Ellen Clay, "since he's having dinner after practice with his team."
Charles shook Loki's hand. "Nice to meet you," he said. He was confused by the presence of an apparently college-aged man, but his parents seemed to be friendly enough to this Mr. Loki. The four of them ate Mary Ellen's tuna noodle casserole, and made small talk, mostly about Charles.
Once dinner had been cleared and apple pie and coffee had been served, Loki put his plan into motion. "You've got a very nice, intelligent boy here, Mr. and Mrs. Clay," he said.
"Thank you," responded Mary Ellen, smiling at her son.
"And I'm sure you're already thinking about college, the three of you, right?"
"You bet!" exclaimed Charles.
"He's already getting tons of mail from colleges," said his mother.
"I'm sure," said Loki. "Well, I hate to be a downer, but I'm sure you've been hearing about how much more selective colleges are than they used to be, especially the top schools. And the cost just keeps rising and rising -- you do have some money saved up, right?"
"Of course," said Steven. "But maybe not as much as we'd like, especially with the markets the way they've been the past couple of years..."
Loki nodded. "What if I told you I could ensure your child's future -- get admission to whatever school Charles would like to attend, and easily work out the finances?”
"Are you from a school, Mr. Loki?" asked Mary Ellen, a bit confused.
"No." Loki grinned. "Just a bored trickster deity with reality-altering powers."
"I see," said Steven. Charles wasn't sure he'd heard correctly, but his parents didn't seem fazed what Mr. Loki had said, so he shrugged inwardly and took another bite of pie. Of course, little did he know that Loki had placed an "acceptance" spell on his parents.
"All I have to do is make some changes to Charles," Loki said, looking right at the 15-year-old. His plan was...