A Wish Unwanted – Part 11
by Limbo’s Mistress

We made our way back downstairs to the party, which was still going full-swing.

The group that had been in the office when we entered the house was gone. Likewise, when we got to the door, I noticed through the glass panes beset in the wood that the crowd outside had decreased by about twenty percent.

“What do we do now?” Charlie asked, looking at the rest of us.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, I can search my room for the stone,” he said. “But something tells me it’s not going to be there. I have the feeling the result will be the same with you, Sam.”

“What does it matter?” Tabitha asked in an annoyed, I’m-done-with-you-all tone. “Even if one of you does find it, you won’t be able to keep it. If Davenport’s theory is to be believed. At some point, another pair of people will get it, make a wish, and shit will change.” She shrugged, looking at me. “All we can do is hope it doesn’t affect us directly. Or, if it does, it doesn’t make things worse.”

“That’s a bleak outlook,” Charlie muttered.

“Sorry I’m not all Miss Sunshine and Roses.” Then she pointed at me. “That’s her job.”

I started to argue, but realized that, compared to her and Jen, I probably did have the sunniest disposition.

“So,” Tracy said in a cautious voice. “Should we plan on meeting tomorrow?”

“For what?” her former friend snapped. “To make stupid plans for something that’s completely out of our control?” She huffed and shook her head. “I’ve got better things to do.” Then she opened the door and stepped outside.

I glanced at the other two. “She’s a bitch, but she’s not wrong. There isn’t anything we can do to stop whoever gets the stone from using it.” I shrugged. “Like Tabitha said, the best we can do is hope their wishes don’t make things worse.”

As I started to venture outside, back to Lee and the party, I heard Charlie sigh.

“Now who’s the shallow one?” he muttered.

A bonfire of anger suddenly flared up within me, causing me to turn back around and point at him.

“Are you kidding me?” I fought to keep my voice from screeching. “If I’m acting like the perky, bouncy cheerleader you used to be, just remember that it was your loose lips that made it happen. I didn’t even want to use the stone, remember? It was your inability to take charge of your own life that caused this mess. So sue me if I’m making the best of it.”

His face dropped slightly, sliding into embarrassed horror. Not surprising, since I’d spent the past two days telling him that I didn’t blame him, or was mad at him, for uttering those words that had doomed my manhood to the history pile.

“I ..” he stammered, face growing flush.

Tracy held up her hand. “Let’s just take a step back,” she said, using an extremely calm tone. “You’ve both admitted that it was an accident. So, while I’m sure there are some residual feelings of animosity, you both know that neither one of you would turn on the other.”

I crossed my arms over my chest, turning to look out at the party. I knew I was just overreacting to everything that just been discussed. That, no matter what I might say, I knew in my heart that Cindy was beating herself up for her part in our changes more than I was.

Several of the people around the pool, both in and out of the water, kept turning their gazes in our direction and flashing little smiles.

No, not in our direction. In my direction.

As I stared out at them, it was as if they were waiting for me to return to the festivities. Simply biding their time until the one and only Pee-Jay Davenport had rejoined their company. At school, it was a bit overwhelming. Here at Jacob’s party, with me dressed in a very revealing bikini, it was downright disconcerting.

“I’m too popular,” I muttered, completely forgetting there was already a conversation in progress. “It’s freaky.”

Tracy, who had been talking in a low voice to Charlie, spoke up. “What?”

I sighed and turned away from the dozens of attentive eyes. “I don’t think that the wish just made me a part of the popular crowd. I think it made me … super popular. Or something.”

Charlie, who looked like he might not be ready to cry any longer, stepped forward and looked through the open door at the scene outside. Then he looked back at me, eyebrows crunched and lips pressed tightly together.

Cindy’s usual facial expression when she was doing some intense thinking. I’d seen her make that face more an a hundred times over the years. Mostly when she was trying to decide which spell she wanted her sorcerous character to cast.

Then his eyes widened and he covered his mouth with one hand. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh?” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder.

“You just remembered something, didn’t you?” Tracy said, looking from me to him. “About the wish?”

Charlie nodded, his eyes moving back to me full of apology. He lowered his hand. “Do you remember what it was you said before I said ‘I wish you did’?”

“I said I was sorry I didn’t know what it was like to be pretty and popular,” I answered. However, my brain, which was a bit slower than my mouth, piped up and reminded me that I was incorrect. “Pretty” and “popular” had not been the words I’d used at that moment.

“Oh … shit.” I breathed, now covering my mouth with my hand.

“What?” Tracy asked, sounding annoyed at being out of the loop.

“You didn’t say ‘pretty’, Sam,” Charlie said in a shaky voice. “You said ‘beautiful’.” As if to emphasize his point, he gestured at me.

I didn’t need a mirror at that moment to understand his point. Penny wasn’t just pretty, she was beautiful.

If I really thought about it objectively, without a lifetime’s worth of self-esteem baggage coloring my opinion, she was the most attractive girl at Benson High. Without question. What I’d thought of as pretty and shapely, was more than that.

Hell, I bet if I was subjected to whatever measurements the glamour and fashion industry used to determine beauty, Penelope would pass with flying colors.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the part of the wish that suddenly made me feel all wigged out. It was the other comment.

“I’m guessing that you also didn’t use the word ‘popular’, either?” Tracy said, looking at me.

I shook my head. “No. That wasn’t what I’d said.”

I glanced back at the expectant crowd not fifty feet away. From there, I thought about the way people in the hall seemed to brighten when they saw me. How anyone who stopped to talk to me seemed determined to invade my personal space as much as they felt they could get away with. The fact that nearly everyone, save those who had used the stone, openly flirted with me.

“I said ‘wanted’.” I turned back to the two of them. Tracy looked confused, but Charlie was nodding his head solemnly. “I said that I was sorry I didn’t understand what it was like to be a beautiful girl … who’s wanted by everyone.”

I had to go back outside to rejoin the party. What else could I do? Even though I had suddenly realized why everyone seemed to continually focus, I couldn’t very well run away and hide for the rest of my life. Besides the fact that I would likely die of terminal boredom, there was also the logistics involved.

“I can’t handle everyone trying to get into my skirt,” I complained to Tracy and Charlie. “I know it sounds like I’m being dramatic, but …” I gestured to the throng of teenagers outside the house.

Tracy looked past me for a moment, then shook her head. “I don’t think that it’s quite that dire, Sam.”

“Not that dire?” I nearly asked her if Tabitha’s malicious wish had made her obvious to reality.

“You specified ‘wanted’, not ‘desired’,” she said in a voice that revealed her growing lack of patience. “People want Pee-Jay, yes. But not necessarily for sex.”

I shrugged my shoulders, immediately conscious of the effect it had on my generous chest. Quickly glancing through the doorway, I noticed that a couple of people, mostly guys, had zeroed their focus on my upper torso. Crossing my arms protectively over myself, I turned back to Tracy.

“Okay, maybe some do,” she said, having obviously noticed the same thing I had. “But think about it. There are lots of ways to want someone. You can want their attention. Or want them to like you. Maybe want them to be your friends.”

She nodded her head toward the party. When I turned, I saw Jacob and surfer boy chatting up a couple of girls from the swim team. Surfer boy even had his arm around the waist of the cute brunette in the floral print one-piece. Jacob noticed me looking their way and he gave me a huge smile and a thumbs-up gesture before turning back to the girl standing before him.

The girl, Miranda, I think, also looked in my direction. She raised her hand and waved at me.

“Or want you to come to their party,” Tracy finished.

I looked back at her. “So, Pee-Jay is extraordinarily popular, to the point where everyone wants to be friendly with her?”

“At a minimum,” she replied.

Charlie nodded. “Now that I think about it, a lot of the guys have been making off-handed comments about the relationship between us. That they couldn’t believe we were such close friends for so long, and I never thought to break out of the Friend Zone.”

“Penny doesn’t strike me as the kind of person to stick Charlie in the Friend Zone,” I replied. Though I couldn’t honestly say what Before Penelope might or might not have done.

“I think Charlie did it to himself. Plus, there’s that whole past crush on Sarah Strand thing.”

I nodded. “So what do I do?” I asked him. “Surely you had to deal with something like this when you were Cindy. Maybe not with it magically cranked to eleven, but still.”

“I just smiled and tried to pay as much attention as I could to people,” he replied. “Jen and Tabitha did a splendid job of making people fear crossing the squad that I felt the need to counterbalance their attitudes.” He sighed. “It was exhausting.”

I shook my head. “I really don’t need that on top of everything else.”

Tracy laughed. “Yeah, but it should be easier for you. Cindy’s pleasant demeanor had to fight against Jen and Tab’s popularity. Which, one can only assume, was bolstered by the power of the stone. Now, you’re more well-liked than the two of them together.” She smirked at me. “I’ve already seen the ability you have.”

“What ability?” I asked, still not happy about this new development. “The power to make the entire freshman class drool by just shaking my hips?”

The smirk vanished. “No, Sam. The ability to use that super-charged popularity to change the entire dynamic at Benson High. You picked a bunch of losers to be on your team. Made them feel like they weren’t just a bunch of nobodies you got stuck with.”

I shrugged, fighting against the encouragement her words were stirring.

“When your side lost, you didn’t blame them or anything like that. You built them up. That’s what you should do with your newfound fame. Break the barriers between the cliques.”

“That’s a tall order,” I protested. “Not sure even the power of a demented celestial could do that.”

“You’ve already started,” she replied. Then she pointed at the two of us. “I know you both remember what it was like before your wish. The outcasts were afraid of the jocks. The nerds were segregated to the worst parts of the cafeteria. It was like every cliché you could find in a teen drama.”

“No doubt about that,” I said, glancing over at Cindy.

“From what I can tell,” Tracy continued. “It was like that in this new reality. Until Monday. Since the moment the ‘new’ Pee-Jay and ‘new’ Charlie arrived, the landscape has been shifting. As someone with experience examining multiple realities, I’ve noticed these changes.”

“So, I should go out there and be the defender of the oppressed? Tell all my admirers that being bullies and snobs is unacceptable?”

She shrugged. “Maybe not so directly. But you have been leading by example. Keep it up.”

I sighed. “You know Jen will have a fit if she comes back in three days to find the Elite are no longer the worshipped pinnacle of Benson High.”

Tracy laughed. “I think she’s going to have a fit anyways. When she comes back to find out that the former Sam Davenport is more popular than she ever was.”

Charlie nodded, then looked at me. I looked from him to Tracy. Tracy continued to hold my gaze for another few seconds, then turned to Charlie.

“We should probably go.”

I held up my hand. “Hold on. What about all that new world order stuff? You’re at an in-crowd party. Surely you’d want to stick around a bit longer.”

Tracy glanced down at her feet and a bit of a blush appeared on Charlie’s face. I looked between the two several times, trying to figure out what the hell was wrong with them. Then it hit me, and I felt like an utter moron for not having seen it sooner.

So much for inheriting any of that fracking “woman’s intuition”.

“Oh,” I said, trying to not sound as amused as I felt. “Never mind. I’ll just go back out there and mingle so more. Maybe with Lee. I’m sure he’s probably beginning to wonder where I’ve gotten off to. He might worry that I’ve left without him.”

All they would have had to do was look across the pool to see the football player in question was watching the three of us.

Neither of them responded. Although, now Tracy was blushing as much as Charlie.

“See you at school tomorrow,” I said, turning around and exiting the house before I actually squealed loudly.

Tracy and Charlie liking each other. Who would have guessed it? What was it like?

I mean, Tracy had known Cindy. They’d gamed together dozens of times. Was Tracy actually a bisexual? Would that make it easier for her to find herself drawn to a guy that had really been a girl a few days ago? Or perhaps it didn’t matter.

From Charlie’s side, I could definitely understand. As far as I was aware, Cindy had harbored zero sexual interest in other females. Much like Sam, she had been one hundred percent straight. That hadn’t changed with her plumbing any more than it had with mine. Which more than explained why Lee’s presence made me all weak-kneed and gooey in my lady parts. I suppose Tracy did the same for Charlie.

The thought of Cindy experiencing her first boner because of the other girl made me giggle. That would have been a classic to watch.

As I made my way around the pool to where Lee and the rest of the football players were, I took specific notice of the people I could see. Nearly everyone noticed me as I moved into their field of vision. Mouths curled into smiles. Eyes tracked my steps, some of them simply noticing me as a whole person. Other focused on the bounce of my bust or the sway of my hips.

Holy crap, Tracy had been right. I wasn’t just favored, I was wanted. Desired. There was a longing in each of those gazes. Though thankfully not totally lustful in nature.

Except for Lee. The closer I got to him, the more his observance of me made him seem mesmerized. Lost in the vision before him.

No. Dammit. I didn’t want Lee to want me because of the stupid fine print of the spell. I wanted him to enjoy my company and affection completely au natural. Just a hormonal boy attracted to a hormonal girl. With whatever came along with that.

No some crude set-up due to errant magic.

“Hey,” he said as I got within a few feet of him. The single word strummed down my spine like a freshly-plucked guitar string.

“Hey yourself,” I replied, stopping as close as I could get without actually touching him. “Miss me?”

His eyes drifted down to my lips, then his head followed suit.

The contact was more than electric. It was a lightning bolt. I felt his arms move around my naked waist as his tongue forced its way past my lips and strove to taste every corner of my mouth. I lost myself in the passion of his greeting, curving my spine to press myself against him as I slipped my own arms around his broad torso.

His jeans rubbed against me with a pleasurable pain, sending additional waves of endorphins flowing through me. The music blasting from the speakers muted, dimming against the onslaught of sensations brought about by the passionate embrace. I was only aware of myself and the boy to whom I was attached. Nothing else mattered.

When Lee finally retracted his tongue back into his own mouth, leaving me swoony and breathless, the world around me began to return.

A sudden outbreak of applause erupted from all around us, followed by a rapid series of wolf-whistles and laughing. Panicked, due to years of peer abuse, I whipped my head around to look over my shoulder.

Nearly every one of the people in the pool area stared at the two of us. All of them looking entertained and amused. Several of them wore thinly-veiled masks of envy. None of the faces, however, contained a hint of malice toward me.

“I suppose we aren’t going to go for that swim,” Lee said, still keeping his arms around me.

“We can, if you want,” I answered. Then a delightfully naughty thought passed into my brain and I lowered my voice to a husky whisper. “After all,” I purred at the handsome boy holding me. “You’ve already made me wet.”

His mouth dropped open in surprise at the same moment his arms slackened. Taking advantage of the moment, I giggled and popped up onto my toes, kissed him quickly on the cheek, then turned and took five quick steps to the edge of the pool. With a momentarily backwards look over my shoulder at the stunned boy, I tossed him a wink before diving into the water.

When I surfaced and swept the soaked chestnut strands out of my face, I saw that Lee had managed to get his shirt off and was working on his jeans. The taut, well-defined muscles of his arms, chest, and abs were on full display, provoking another round of wolf whistles. This time from the gaggle of cheerleaders floating behind me.

Lee finally managed to get them down to his ankles, revealing a blue and white Hawaiian print swimsuit underneath. Shucking the pants the rest of the way free, he turned around and gave Chad a high-five, then sprinted the short distance to the pool and leapt into the air.

The roar of the party instantly silenced as the athlete arced up gracefully, then landed about two feet beside me. The splash threw water into my face, sending my hair falling back down into my eyes. A chorus of screams burst from the rest of the Raiderettes, who had received the majority of the Lee-based tsunami.

When he came back up, his hair was plastered to his skull, and his eyes glimmered with happiness. He reached out and curled his fingers around my wrist and pulled me next to him, increasing his treading so I didn’t have to.

I slipped an arm over his shoulders and smiled at him.

“Thanks for asking me to go to the party with you,” I murmured.

“Thanks for accepting,” he replied. “Thanks for agreeing to go out with me last Saturday.”

“Thanks for asking,” I countered.

For a couple who’d just tongue-wrestled to the amusement of the rest of our peers, our pool flirting was extremely polite and chaste. The hand he had around my waste remained firmly between the bottom of the bikini’s top and the top of my hips. The lights beneath the waves were only partially lit, but I doubted anyone could tell if he moved lower.

Biting down on my lower lip, I drew in a breath and released it with a contented sigh.

“Pee-Jay?” Lee asked in a soft voice. “Did you take care of whatever it was you needed to do with Tabby and Uh … Charlie?”

A tiny wave of annoyance rolled through me at the realization that Lee was about to use that fracking nickname in front of me. Surely Penny would have already set him straight about making fun of her oldest friend.

However, I tried to remind myself that it was possible that I was rewriting the social dynamic. Penny might have not cared what people said about Charlie. No one had any way of truly knowing.

A few of the other members of the football team stripped down as well, joining us in the warm water. As soon as Chad climbed in, Sarah swam over to him and practically straddled his back.

“About time,” she said, leaning down to nibble on his left ear. “Here I was, lost at sea. No boyfriend, no best friend. Nada” She glanced over at me and winked.

“Sorry, babe,” Chad said. “You know how I get when I play pong. I lose track of time.”

I gave her a small, apologetic smile. “Sorry I ditched you for a bit, girl. Had to clear up some stuff with Tabitha.”

“And Charlie and Tracy Malloy? What could the four of you possibly need to discuss so urgently?”

The fact that there is a magical wishing stone out there that could potentially alter reality without any of you knowing it?

“Tracy and Tabitha used to be friends,” I said. “A long time ago.”

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

I nodded. “I think they are possibly … maybe … trying to rekindle their friendship.”

“Tabitha? Rekindle a friendship with someone you know she wouldn’t be caught dead loaning a pencil to?” Sarah arched an eyebrow disbelievingly.

I nodded, keeping a serious look on my face. “Well, maybe not friends so much as decreasing their animosity.”

“What about Charlie?” Lee chimed in. “How does he figure into the whole Tabby and uh, Tracy thing?”

I turned to look into his eyes. “Charlie and I were friends. I mean, are friends. Besides, I think he might be interested in Tracy.”

“Like interested interested?” Sarah asked.

“Maybe. But let’s keep that on the side, okay?”

Chad snorted, drawing a slap on the back of the head from Sarah.

“Behave,” she said. “Or else, no good night kiss later.”

“I want more than just a kiss,” Chad declared.

“None of the other stuff either.”

The four of us splashed and swam around for about forty-five minutes. By that time, a few of the Raiderettes had come over to let me know that they were leaving to get home before their parents got annoyed.

The funny thing was, they all sounded as if they were actually asking permission to leave early. Rather than just being polite and letting me know.

Lee climbed out of the pool and sat on the edge, his powerful legs still beneath the surface. I climbed out to join him, only to get back into the warm liquid the second the cool October air struck my wet, nearly naked body.

Not only had the chilly breeze caused my exposed flesh to instantly pimple, it had immediately caused my high-beams to switch on. Painfully. It was all I could do to not whimper as the front of my bikini top became tented with hardened erasers. It took several seconds of remaining beneath the water for the sharp pain to subside.

I settled for sliding in between Lee’s legs, curling my arms beneath them to hold myself up with only the tops of my shoulders and head exposed. The coldness of the evening still sent a shiver through me, but at least the sensitive bits of my nubile body remained deliciously warm.

Jordan, along with the girl who might be called Miranda, drifted over to me.

“Thanks for showing up, Pee-Jay. Once again, you have brought life to another of my little gatherings.”

I felt my face flush. My embarrassment didn’t stem from any sense of false modesty or anything else quite so noble. I was ashamed because it was the magic that had made me the showcase to any event. Walking to class? Better say hi to Pee-Jay. Having a get-together? Invite Pee-Jay and it’ll be a big hit.

Dear god, what was going to happen at the football game Friday night? Would the crowd be more interested in watching me flip and jump and cheer than in watching Lee and the guys dominate Southwest? If I told them to stand up and scream, would they all do it?

The thought sent a non-temperature related shudder running through me. That level of popularity was scary. It was a form of power. Power that could corrupt, if I wasn’t careful about how I used it.

“Jacob,” I said, looking at him from my spot between Lee’s legs. “This party would have been awesome even if I hadn’t come. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had a blast. However, you shouldn’t pin the success or failure of what you do on whether or not the ‘right’ people like it. Okay?”

Maybe Miranda nodded, then put her arm around Jacob’s shoulder. “See? Even Pee-Jay thinks you throw an awesome party yourself. Her and the Elite are just like … bonus points.”

I didn’t care for the girl’s analogy, but realized this wasn’t the time to argue semantics.

“Well, thanks again for coming Pee-Jay.” He raised his gaze. “And Lee.”

“Our pleasure,” Lee said, drawing a rewarding double thigh-squeeze from me.

Jacob and his date hung around for a while longer before moving off. They climbed out of the pool and toweled off, then headed into the house. Part of me felt their plan was to make a general sweep of the mini-mansion, looking for anything broken or anyone who might be passed out in one of the many rooms inside.

The other part of me, the part enjoying having my hands on Lee’s legs, suggested that they were probably looking for a spot where they could be a little more intimate. Not that I blamed them. Jacob was nearly as fit and attractive as any football player, and Miranda could have easily been a Raiderette.

I felt Lee shift behind me, and when I turned to look up at him, he was already leaning down toward me.

“Do you want to stay a little longer?” he asked softly. “Or are you ready to go?”

“What time is it?” I asked, not taking my eyes off of his.

“A little before ten,” he said. “What time do you need to be home?”

“Before eleven-thirty at the latest.”

He nodded. “So you want to stay?”

I bit down on my lower lip for a moment, then shook my head. “I think I’m about pooled out.”

Sarah and Chad were over to one side of the pool. Away from everyone else in a section that was most assuredly not lighted. From a distance, it might seem that the two of them were simply hanging out by themselves quietly.

However, as I climbed the ladder out of the water, my viewing angle changed and I realized that Sarah wasn’t looking up at Chad, she was looking up at the sky. Well, she would have been, you know, if her eyes had been open. They might have been closed tight, but her mouth wasn’t. I could hear the faintest traces of repeated gasps coming from between her parted lips.

I tried not to giggle as I realized what the two of them were doing over there. Glancing around, I noticed that the crowd from earlier had dwindled to only about twenty or thirty people. None of whom seemed to have noticed what was taking place less than ten yards away.

However, if my bestie turned out to be a screamer, they’d find out what Chad was doing to her in a nanosecond.

Lee handed me a thick towel from the pile stacked neatly on a nearby table and I cocooned my freezing body in its fuzzy warmth. He wrapped another around his waist, then curled his arms around me, rubbing lightly over the surface of my towel in an attempt to warm me up.

Funny enough, just the contact of his skin on mine was creating its own warmth.

I nodded my head toward the little cottage. “My clothes are in there.”

A wry smile formed on his face as his eyebrows slowly rose. “I see. Well, do you need any help putting them on? I’m really quite adept at it. I dress myself every day.”

I rolled my eyes and giggled. “That’s comforting to know.” Then I turned out of his embrace, feeling the sassy Penny rising to the top. “The true question is, how adept are you at undressing?”

Once again, I think I managed to shock him with my forwardness. Hell, I even shocked myself.

Sam had never, ever, been smooth with the lines. Anytime he attempted to talk to a girl he thought was pretty, Cindy not included, he’d become tongue-tied. Word salad, usually laced with super obscure anime references, would come tumbling out and only serve as an extra repellent.

As Pee-Jay, however, I found it far too easy to speak. Granted, I didn’t talk flirtatiously to everyone, but I was still able to talk to them. The other Raiderettes, the guys on the team, people I passed in the hall. Anytime I opened Penny’s mouth, I found I was never really at a loss for words.

Was it the “mask effect”?

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …

Well, actually last year at ComicCon, Sam spent the day walking around by himself. Dressed up as Deadpool. Over the course of those ten hours, I’d joked around with total strangers and even made a few humorous comments to not-unattractive girls who’d laughed right along with me. It was one of the most comfortable times I think Sam had ever had outside of his normal circle of friends.

When I thought about that day on the ride home, I chalked it up to the fact that I’d been wearing the Merc with a Mouth’s mask. My face had been completely covered. None of the people I’d interacted with had any clue about my race, age, or appearance. Subconsciously, I’d allowed that imagined protection to break me through the awkward part of being a comic book nerd to a more extroverted demeanor.

I wondered if that was what was happening now? Sam wearing Penelope’s face, using it as a buffer between the dork he had been and the popular hottie she was now.

Lee shook his head, recovering from my double-entendre. “I guess you’ll have to find out for yourself sometime.” He ran his hand through his mostly-dry hair. “Go get changed. I’ll wait right here.”

“Right there?” I said, pointing at the spot before his feet as I backed toward the pool house. “That spot there?”

He pointed down at his feet and nodded. “Right here.”

“Right there?” I asked again, smirking.

“Nothing short of the Patriots’ offensive line could move me until you return.”

I stopped, tilted my head, then laughed as I blew a kiss at him. “Good.”

Back in the pool house, I found my clothes and bag right where I’d left them. Pulling out my dry things, I went into the little bathroom just off from the main room of the tiny house.

I stripped out of the soaked bikini, placing the pieces of the garment on the edge of the sink. When I looked in the mirror, I noticed my lips had turned a dark shade of blue and my nipples had shriveled to hard nubs at the cold.

Quickly, I patted myself until I was completely dry, then got dressed as fast as possible. God, why didn’t I bring a pair of sweatpants and a sweatshirt? Or a parka? Or one of those suits the Navy uses for scuba divers working in the Arctic?

While Sam hadn’t really been fat, he’d not been in great shape, either. What he had possessed, though, was enough body fat to stave off the cold until the temperature got below forty. Penny, however, was lean and toned. My current body fat index had to be like fifteen percent.

No wonder I felt like my boobs were going to freeze solid.

I wrung my wet bathing suit out until it was as dry as it was going to get, then put it into my bag. Running a brush through my damp hair managed to put a fresh layer of sheen to the strands, though I knew I was going to have to shower before bed and condition the crap out of it to remove all the chlorine.

When I stepped back outside, I saw that Lee was in the same spot he’d promised to remain in. Good boy. Chad was standing next to him, one hand on his shoulder and a jovial expression on his face. Lee laughed at something Chad said and shook his head.

Maybe I’d misjudged Chad. Sure, he’d been a Plus-Ultra jerk to Sam. But he seemed to be one of Lee’s best friends. Surely someone that nice wouldn’t be so close to an asshole. Even if they were on the same team.

Sarah lounged in one of the chairs behind the boys, wrapped snugly in a towel. She lifted her head slightly as I neared, and gave me a half-wave while wearing a slightly disoriented smile on her face.

“Hey, Peej,” she said in a voice that was totally drained of energy. “Want to come over here and cuddle with me?”

Wow. Either all that swimming had taken the pep out of her. Or else Chad had seriously mad finger skills.

I walked over to sit down next to her on the chair before leaning against her, using the dry cloth between us to keep from getting my clothes wet.

Upon touching her, I noticed she was shivering rapidly. Her own lips were an even darker shade of purple than my bikini.

“You’re cold,” I said to her, feeling slightly concerned.

She grinned at me. “And you’re hot.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m not. I’m freezing out here. And I’m wearing clothes.”

She rolled hers in return. “I wasn’t talking about your temperature, cutie.”

Okay, not what I expected. I turned to look at Chad. “Yo, Barrow?”

Both he and Lee turned to look at us.

“I should get a picture of that,” Chad said.

“What you should do convince Killer Frost here to get up and put on some clothes. Otherwise, you’ll be taking a Sarah-cicle home later.”

Chad arched an eyebrow. “Killer Who?”

Crap. Comic book references weren’t likely to be in Penny’s usual vocabulary. I’d need to be more careful about that. “Just do it, okay?” I said. “I think she’s getting hyperthermia.”

Lee cut his eyes over at Chad, who shrugged.

“She didn’t drink that much, dude,” Sarah’s boyfriend explained. Still, he did as I asked and ambled over to us. “Come on, babe. Why don’t you get out of those wet clothes and into something warmer?”

Sarah grinned evilly and winked at him. “I love it when you talk dirty, Chad.”

Oh brother.

I moved to my feet. “Come on, my frozen bestie. Let’s go.”

Pouting, Sarah climbed to her feet and began to walk toward the pool house. I followed her, with Chad and Lee in tow. I opened the door to let Sarah inside, since she still had the towel wrapped around her arms and torso. Chad smirked and started to follow, but I put my hand on his chest and shook my head.

“Girls only, cowboy,” I said. “You and Lee can keep each other company while you wait.” Then I smiled up my former tormentor and closed the door in his face.

Sarah plopped down on the sofa, the towel falling off her as she sighed. I walked over to the thermostat and cranked the heat up to ninety. It would take a while for it to get anywhere near that hot, but at least it would send plenty of warm air into the room in the meantime.

“Sarah?” I asked, squatting down in front of her. “Are you okay?”

She smiled down at me. Then, unfurling her arms, she reached out and beeped me on the tip of my nose. What was it with people doing that? Was Penny’s nose just that adorable?

“I’m fine,” she insisted, looking a bit put out. “Why?”

I shrugged. “How much did you drink earlier?”

“When you went off with Tabs and Charlie?”

Internally, I winced at the sharpness in her tone. She hadn’t sounded angry earlier in the pool. I didn’t know if she’d been merely holding it in since we weren’t alone or if her annoyance that I’d ditched her had just built over the intervening time.

“Sarah …” I tried to think of something to say to make her feel better. Problem was, everything but the truth was going to sound lame. And the truth would sound lame and insane.

“I get that you and Charlie are friends. Or were friends. I don’t know. But running off to do secrete stuff with Tabitha?” She shook her head. “If not for the fact that you’re both Raiderettes, I would have expected one of you to kill the other by now.”

“That’s a little harsh,” I said, taken aback. “I might not see eye to eye with her, but …”

“Peej, you told her at the beginning of the year that if she didn’t stop acting like, and I quote, ‘Assistant Queen Bitch of Cheer Mountain’, you were going to make sorry she ever put on the uniform.”

I didn’t know what to say about that. Mainly because it seemed like such a Sam thing to say. Not a Penny thing.

“I’m trying to be a better person,” I said softly. “Even if that means not being especially mean to Tabitha.”

“Or Jen?” Sarah asked, arching a brow.

“Or Jen.” I replied.

She shook her head. “She’s already on edge, you know.”

I opened my mouth to ask why the girl in charge of Benson High’s Elite would be on edge, but Sarah continued on before I could utter so much as a syllable.

“I know you’ve told her, multiple times, that you don’t want her position, Peej. And I know that you meant it every time. But Jennifer knows what the rest of the school knows. What you’re too damned nice to be willing to even consider it.”

“Consider what?” I asked, feeling I already knew the answer.

“Being the head cheerleader. Being the Queen Bee of Benson High.” She shook her head. “All you would have to do is snap your fingers and you could be the number one girl in the school. Officially. Because, let’s face it, unofficially you already are.”

I shook my head as I stood up and walked over to the black and pink Gucci bag I knew was hers. Inside I found a bra and a pair of panties, along with some really cute pink fuzzy socks. I tossed the garments at her.

“I don’t want to be the Queen Bee, Sarah. I just want to be me.” Whoever that really was.

She sighed again. “I know that. God knows you’ve said as much more than once.” She threw the towel off and stood up, reaching behind her to untie her top. “The thing is, Jen isn’t going to just accept your word on that. You’re far too well-liked for her to simply let it go.”

I turned around, looking out the window at the darkness.

Jen probably didn’t know, at least not right now, that Penny was more popular than her in this new reality. She hadn’t been around to see the way everyone gravitated toward the newly-created cheerleader. Tabitha might have mentioned it to her, but something told me that the absent squad leader might think she was simply exaggerating in order to get back at me for knocking her down a few pegs on the pole.

However, the moment she got back to school, she’d see it for herself. Then I didn’t know how she’d react. I mean, it was one thing to lose your status to another girl. One who’d put in the time and work to supplant you. It was something completely different to have an errant wish steal what was yours.

Unless it wasn’t. I was pretty much convinced that whoever Jennifer Winters had been before her own use of the stone, she hadn’t been the school’s alpha female. Not when you considered the power behind the magic and the ways it had been used recently.

That thought sent me travelling down another dark path. If Jen had wished herself to her current position, who had been the unlucky girl who got screwed? Was it someone currently on the squad? Jordan would make a good captain.

So would Sarah, come to think of it.

I glanced over my shoulder at the girl, currently naked, who was getting dressed. She definitely had the body of a head cheerleader. Plus the moves to match. Did Jen’s wish demote Sarah from her place as the leader of the Raiderettes?

My imagination, always running at triple speed, turned left and dropped down a sickening hole.

What if Jen didn’t just demote one of the girls to a lesser position? What if she’d removed them from the squad altogether? Was there a girl attending classes and going about her life obvious to the fact that she used to be one of the Elite? If that were the case, would Jen have simply wished that person wasn’t a cheerleader? Or had she done what Tabitha did to Tracy? Turn her poor, unsuspecting peer into an unattractive nobody?

A shudder ran through me. As well as Tracy seemed to be handling her lot now, I knew it had taken her at least six months to get to that point. If Jen had royally screwed someone over like that, I hoped they didn’t remember it.

“Are you going to stare out the window all night?” Sarah asked in annoyed tone. “Or are we going to get out of here?”

I turned around to see she’d finished getting dressed and was now looking at me expectantly.

“I don’t know,” I said, picking up her bag and handing it to her. “The view out the window is really nice.”

She rolled her eyes and then walked over to stand in front of me. She lifted her arms and placed both of them over my shoulders, moving in a little closer.

“Peej,” she said, staring at me. “I’m sorry for trying to push you. It’s just … you are a so much better person than Jennifer. Or anyone else, really. I just wanted you to have everything you deserve.”

I smiled. “I know. Right now, though, can I just be plain old Pee-Jay? Co-captain and your best friend?”

She nodded. “You know I love you, right? You’re the sister I never had.”

Boy, you could say that again.

A hard pounding came on the cottage door, drawing both of our attentions over to it.

“Are you guys done?” Chad called through the thick wood. “Or are you finally giving in to your lesbian tendencies? Because, you know, if it’s the latter, I want to watch.”

I giggled and turned back to Sarah. “We should probably leave. Before he breaks down the door.”

She smiled. “If he did, we could always give him a show.”

My heart froze. She was completely serious. Just by the look in her eyes and the tiny smirk on her face, I knew that if I said yes, she would kiss me. No hesitation at all.

Had she always been bi? Or did the spell making everyone “want” Penelope do it to her?

“Sarah,” I said softly, trying to sound calm. “I’m not sure …”

She moved one of her arms off my shoulder and placed a single finger against my lips, shushing me.

“It’s okay,” she said, sounding the tiniest bit sad. “You don’t have to say anything. We agreed it would just be the one time. An experiment.”

Do what? So all the touching and flirting and playful claims that I was hers wasn’t just some sort of girlfriends being girlfriends kind of thing? Crap, I really needed to talk to Charlie and find out if he’d ever experienced this when he was Cindy.

Before I could say anything, good or bad, Sarah flashed me another smile and dropped her arms to her sides.

“Sorry,” she said. “I think I might have had a little too much beer this evening.” Gathering up her bag, she walked toward the door, stopping when she reached it to look back at me. “Coming?”

I nodded and followed behind her.