"This is not fair," Amy whined. Her friends, Mark Jacobs and Lilly Huang, nodded. Whining was not Amy's normal tone of voice. She was a soft-spoken girl, but she did speak, and it was often in a politely confident tone. It was the sense of obvious modesty yet equally obvious intelligence, combined with her being mostly nonthreatening to any potential rivals, that got her elected class president. It also made her the chief member of the AV club, a vocal if not the most talented singer in the choir, and head of the yearbook for the second year in a row. She might look like a quiet, shy girl, but she was dedicated and willing to work hard, so her whole attitude of late made her best friends uncomfortable.
Not that they didn't understand.
"It's not so bad, Amy," Mark said as the three sat on a bench in the park. "I mean, you spent pretty much all your time doing extracurricular stuff anyways, right? What more do your parents want? If you just showed them what you do anyways and not leave anything out they'd probably thing you picked up the pace, right?"
"You don't know her parents," Lilly laughed.
"It's not them, it's my sister. Anne's crazy, and now that she's running off with some guy to get married or something, dropping out of college, they're freaking out."
"That's nuts, to ground you for her," Mark agreed. He sidled up closer to Amy. She, however, stood up and began gesticulating in front of them. Again, being so agitated was far from normal for her.
"It's not that I'm 'grounded,' Mark. They're taking away all my social time! They made me write out a list of my weekly schedule and are finding ways to fill in the blanks. They think if I spend any time not doing something I can put on my college application then I must be about to elope with some random guy."
"But you probably won't," Lilly said, nodding to Mark with some mock seriousness.
"The only way I was able to get some time to myself and to hang out was to say I needed more time to study at night. But the thing is I do need that time to study!"
"But you're smart," Mark said, "You don't have to study as much as most people, right?"
"Wrong. I'm in all AP classes, Mark. I write a report for every one of them at least every other week." Amy threw up her hands. "I can't do this! I'll go crazy! I need me time and us time!"
"What do you want us to do?" Lilly asked. She was sympathetic, but wasn't sure what a solution might be. Mark looked deep in thought.
"If there was a way to, I don't know, make it so I can get some of this stuff done in less time, or maybe if I was that much smarter that I wouldn't have to study so much. But that's not possible. You know, this is how kids get hooked on drugs, I bet! Overambitious parents putting too much pressure on their daughters!"
"My parents don't put any pressure on me," Lilly said, "But I think they kind of assume I'll be a model or actress or something."
While he normally would have taken this moment to awkwardly suggest that Amy too could be a model or actress, Mark had spent the last few minutes thinking to himself. Lilly was basically blowing off Amy's concern, and to tell the truth Mark didn't think her parents could be as monstrous to schedule every second of her day as she was claiming. Still, Amy was upset. She loved her friends, and she loved school, but she wasn't going to lose her social life to get even more school activities in. That, at least, Mark completely understood. Amy's last comment got him thinking. There may be consequences, though. Watching Amy so upset over the thought of losing what little social life she had, though, made Mark decide that it might be worth the risk. Finally, Mark spoke.
"Amy, I didn't want to bring this up, but I may know a way you can get some free time without disappointing your parents."
Amy was all ears.
"Anything. I'll try anything at all."
Option 1: Mark knows a mysterious man who bargains in unusual things, such as traits and knowledge. For a price, he can make Amy smart enough to understand things with almost no studying at all. For a price.
Option 2: A book of spells, where every wish leads to some small physical change. The thing is, wishing for something like "having to study less" turns out to be a whole lot of little wishes that add up fast.
Option 3: This one's a cheat. Not a wish, but an experimental drug with unfortunately fattening side effects. It's kind of like a wish gone wrong, right? Eh, I say it fits the theme.
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