This choice: Tom decides to explore this reality. • Go Back... Tom Ackerton, handsome but depressed basketball hero, was severely conflicted as he walked to school with Willow Strasserman, his gorgeous and charming cheerleader girlfriend, formerly known as Bill. A back and forth tennis match was occurring in Tom's mind, his conscience weighing whether or not he should use the wishing rock he now possessed to change Willow back into his male confidant.
Tom dwelled on this heavily during the trip. He imagined that he was in one of those old cartoons, with an angel on your right shoulder representing your personal ethics, and a devil on your right shoulder representing your selfish desires:
Angel: “Bill's your best friend! You have to change him back!”
Devil: “But Willow is your best friend too, and she's so hot.”
Angel: “You're stealing Bill's identity away from him!”
Devil: “Reality has been rewritten. Willow doesn't remember being Bill, and nobody but you remembers Bill. Who is really suffering here? Did I mention that Willow is really hot?”
This indecisiveness, this impulsive nature of Tom's, was what had spurred him into making that stupid wish in the first place. Tom had always been impulsive, jumping at every opportunity the first chance he could. Bill had compared his temperament once to the Large Hadron Collidor. Bill had tried to explain to him what CERN's purpose was. Tom had tuned him out, joking condescendingly to Bill that he wasn't a nerd and didn't need to know about that stuff, but he had gotten the gist of it. It was particles that move around at super high velocity speeds crashing into each other. Yep, that sure was Tom all right, and now he was paying for it.
New memories had immediately created themselves in the aftermath of Tom's fateful wish. He now realized that he was in another reality altogether from the one he woke up in. One, indeed, where Bill Strasserman never existed. One where Tom had never gone out with Gloria Vanapoulos. One where Gloria never made him crack up with her insecurity and need for drama. One where Gloria's G-squad never soiled his reputation. One where the diva like girl had never even gave Tom much thought apparently. The Vanapoulos offspring didn't dare, as the entire school knew that Tom and Willow were an item. Tom and Willow in this reality were Ken and Barbie, the school's pretty boy and the school's preordained Homecoming Queen, the one her fellow seniors voted “Most Likely To Succeed” out of high school.
Tom almost couldn't believe this. He had a magic wishing rock! The fact that he held in his hand some ancient artifact that could bend reality to his whim...not only was it almost too much power to handle, but it went against everything Tom Ackerton grew up believing in. Tom had prided himself on his skepticism. He was never a brain like Bill was, but his parents had instilled in him a burning desire to constantly challenge himself, to improve himself, to never settle for “good enough”, to be a paragon of both body and mind. Part of this ambition included a desire to dispel himself of any delusions or superstitions. Tom knew that ghost sightings were just figments of the very fallible human imagination and our primitive pattern detection skills. He knew that UFO abduction stories were likely a combination of sleep paralysis and watching too many movies. He knew that 99.9% of all psychics and mediums were scammers, using cold reading and mentalism to fool gullible marks, and that the remaining .01% were likely just delusional. He was disinclined to believe in the paranormal right from the very start, and yet here he was. He had irrefutable proof in the existence of magic. In his hand held a stone which bent light around it, carried an unnatural coldness, and could do just about anything. It was an astounding feeling to know he held something so godly right in the palm of his had.
Prior to this morning, Tom had never been one for fantasy, for whimsy, for flights of fancy. He never had that much interest in speculative fiction. That was more Bill's thing. When Bill tried to get Tom to watch Rick & Morty with him one day, Tom became bored within minutes, and asked to change the channel so he could watch rugby instead. Now his brain was lighting up with possibilities, dreaming of parallel universes and time travel like Bill's favorite show Doctor Who. The Stone was exciting...but also a burden. A heavy responsibility.
Tom looked down. His Stone free hand was wrapped around Willow's smaller, more delicate hand. He looked up at Willow's pretty face, who was staring at him like a lovesick puppy. She started talking. Then she started giggling. She made Tom giggle along with her, and then she kissed him deeply, their lips locked in perfect synchronicity. Life was good for now.
Then the lovely couple reached school.
**
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