Dr Wish

Chapter One, A Mysterious App

It was April, that much I can remember. I was a sophomore in high school with my three best friends since birth. Joshua, Stanley, and Felicia, the only girl in the universe who would talk to us; and who was unfortunately lesbian (not against gays). Anyways my name's Mark and I guess you can say I'm the leader of the group seeing as how I get picked on the most. I also hate my teeth. Braced because I have what science calls "hillbilly teeth". I call it a curse, a burden to have to walk around every day with these stupid, crooked, misshapen, teeth that are mashing together by some metal wire.
But enough about me, let me get into why I'm writing this down. It all started like how all my school days ended. Me tasting concrete.

"Sorry didn't see ya there Metal Mouth!" Todd joked as he and a couple of his buddies shoved me into the ground.

My palms burned as they'd been slightly scuffed and my mouth tasted metallic as red liquid dripped down my shirt; which with my yellow teeth and already ripped clothes from this morning beat down, I looked like a zombie.

As usual, my friends came to my side and helped me up. Joshua was a round boy, and shuffled around almost constantly from his weight. Stanley looked worse than I did; he wore glasses and his eyes never quite looked right and a nose that was hooked and crooked. Felicia was the only one who looked slightly normal; but being the only African American in a white dominant school, had its disadvantages.

"You okay Marcus?" Joshua asked, barely able to muster the strength to pull me up from the ground.

"Yeah that was quite the spill you just took," Stanley commented as his bony hand and arm picked up one side of my body.

Once I was finally up and on my feet, Felicia took one look up and down of me and said monotonously, "You should get cleaned up, if your folks see you like that they'll have a heart attack," then she added, "You look like shit".

"Thanks Felicia, I feel like shit," I said, looking down at my favorite shirt that was now stained with blood.

"Outta the way you fucking dyke," an elbow came out of no where and shoved Felicia out of her way. Georgina, a blonde junior who redefined basic white chick. She was joined with her three other heads who collectively jeered at Felicia with homophobic slurs. They all hopped into Georgina's red Corvette and sped off, leaving thick black tire marks in the pavement.

And following her exit came a honk from a green mini van. My mom and little sister. We all crammed into the car and drove off, my mother and sister tunelessly singing to a cheesy pop song.

When we got home I immediately headed up stairs to my room, ignoring my sports fanatic father and older brother on the couch cheering on a football game that I couldn't care less for.

Since starting high school, I had the same thought rolling around my head. I wished I had normal teeth. But that day I was really wishing it as I stared at my reflection, touching my imperfect teeth. That's when I got a notification.

An email from DrWishOffice@gmail.com. At first I thought nothing of it, probably just spam I reasoned. But curiosity got the best of me and I clicked on it.

Dear patient, make a wish, it said and below was a link. Once again, curiosity overtook my better judgement and I was about to click on the link when my phone flashed up with a FaceTime with Felicia, Joshua, and Stanley.

"Hey guys what's up?" I said as I exited the bathroom and went to my room.

"Hey Mark," Felicia said, "Did you get an email from a Dr Wish?"

"Uh yeah why?" I asked.

"So did we," Joshua said

"I went ahead and went to the website and ran it through every single virus searching program I could think of," Stanley, our personal tech guru, said, "This thing is legit and is clean as a whistle".

I went to the website myself. Stan was right, no weird ads, no enter you're credit card info here, no anything just three black words above a text box. Make a wish.

"You guys think we should do it?" Felicia asked.

"I dunno," Joshua said, "something about this seems off".

"Yeah, but this just seems like a harmless prank. So what's the harm?" Stan said.

"Whatcha gonna wish for?" I asked.

"What do you think?" He answered pointing at his face, "huh, that's weird".

"What?" I asked

"It says 'would you like to pay for premium for all time use of wish?'"

"Say no," I said.

"Yeah, I'm not an idiot".

"Well if Stan is doing it so am I," Josh said.

"Same, I could use the wish," Felicia agreed.

In the back of my mind I knew it was a bad idea, but at the same time I couldn't help the irresistible pull and urge to wish away my problems.

So I tapped the box and typed in perfect teeth. The same message that Stan got popped up and I clicked no. The screen went black and it read the following in white text. Wish received, your wish shall come true within 24 hours. After that, it exited out of the website and shut off FaceTime.

If only I knew the type of demonic deal I had just conjured.

That night at dinner I didn't eat much. There was a pain in my teeth that prevented me from even grinding my teeth. I finished as much as I could, excused myself from the table, and went to bed.