Chapter 4 The Wishes Must Be Repaid

Over the next two days, more and more people spun the Wheel of Wishes.

One person received a confession from their crush. Another went from near the bottom of the grade rankings to the top 100. One person's parents got back together. Another won a championship.

Every wish came true, exactly as promised.

The whole class went wild.

They became convinced that Naomi had made peace with them. They also became convinced that I was the only one who had done anything wrong.

They moved my desk next to the trash can and smeared glue on my chair. They cut up my cafeteria card. They blacked out my homework.

Every day, new words appeared on my desk. "Why don't you go and keep her company?"

I fought back.

I tore down the photos they had put up on the walls. I poured the water they had dumped on my desk right back at them. I also saved every secretly recorded video they had posted in the class group chat.

But there were 46 of them. I could deal with one person. I could not fight all of them.

…

In the end, they dragged me into the bathroom stall where Naomi had once been locked in. Someone pinned my hands down while someone else snatched my phone.

Beatrice held up the Wheel of Wishes in front of me. "You're the only one in the class who hasn't spun it. Just spin it. Prove you had nothing to do with Naomi's death."

I leaned against the stall door and looked at her coldly. "What would that prove?"

"Naomi grants wishes to good people." She smiled as if it were obvious. "You've been afraid to spin it this whole time because you know she won't forgive you, right?"

Sophia stood beside her. "Clara, stop pretending. If there's nothing to hide, why have you kept trying to stop me? Did you think that if my mom passed away, no one would be able to expose you?"

I looked at her, and the last bit of warmth in my chest went cold. "Sophia, you know how I helped Naomi back then."

"All I know is that you were the last person she saw before she died." She looked away. "The whole class only made a few jokes, but she jumped off the building right after seeing you. Can you honestly say you had nothing to do with it?"

Everyone crowded around me again.

Someone held me by the shoulders.

Someone else grabbed my hand, trying to press it onto the wheel.

"Get revenge for Naomi!"

"Make her spin!"

"If Naomi won't grant her wish, that proves she's the killer!"

I struggled to break free, my hand slamming against the wall.

Beatrice grabbed my index finger and forced it toward the screen. "Stop pretending. Everyone else spun it and turned out fine. What could possibly go wrong?"

That was what I had never been able to understand.

Why did the wheel only bring good things? Why had Naomi invited the entire class instead of just certain people?

If it really only granted wishes, why did everyone have to participate? What did this wheel actually want from them?

For a moment, I saw Naomi curled up in this same stall. That day, she had been surrounded just like this.

Everyone had laughed. Everyone had said it was only a joke.

Every time she tried to explain herself, ten more voices drowned her out.

Back then, she'd cried as she told me, "Clara, they've already decided I'm a bad person. No matter what I say, it only makes them more excited."

And now they were surrounding me again, using the excuse of getting justice for her to repeat everything they had once done to her.

How ridiculous.

They had never thought Naomi was innocent. They only needed a reason to prove they had always been right.

I closed my eyes and silently asked, 'Naomi, was it like this for you, too? You hadn't done anything wrong, yet they'd driven you to the point where you didn't even have a place to stand and speak.'

"Hurry up!"

Beatrice held my hand in a death grip, my fingertip just short of the wheel.

Just as I was about to touch the screen, everyone's phones rang at once.

A text slowly appeared on the wheel. "All 46 wishes have been claimed. Now, please choose how you will repay them."