Gio X

It was just as he had wished! Well, not exactly as he had wished. He did not wish for it to arrive in a box. He did not wish for it to be delivered to his door. However, he did wish for his life to change, and if that change were to arrive in a box, who was he to complain? He would not have cared if it had arrived by clown—

Actually, he was a little afraid of clowns, so he would probably prefer that it not arrive by clown. A box, though—a box was perfect.

Although there was no name on the label, Gio felt certain that the box was meant for him. For one thing, it did not look like an ordinary box. Since his family’s recent move to town, he had seen every kind of box imaginable, but not one box that looked anything like this one. This box was not brown but black, shiny black, and the only word printed on the label was: UPGRADE—when, just the night before, while lying in bed, Gio had wished for just that: an upgrade. A new and improved Gio. Like a video game, that’s how he imagined it—or a phone. Introducing Gio.2—or even better, Gio X. Gio XR.

He began to open the box but was stopped by his nerves. In all the stories he had read about wishes, there was always more to it than that. It was never as simple as just opening a box. What if he didn’t open it properly or, in his rush, he accidentally broke it? What if “it” wasn’t even an “it”—what if it was something invisible, or something that didn’t appear until you said the magic words?

Or what if he had to choose the exact kind of upgrade he wanted? There were usually choices to be made in stories about wishes. What if thoughts counted as choices, and right as he was about to make his wish, some random thought popped into his head—which happened sometimes, especially when he was nervous. Like what if, out of nowhere, the word centipede or sailboat came into his thoughts, and then that’s how he would have to live out the rest of his life? As a centipede. On a sailboat.

Well, there was no way he could open the box now. He would just have to wait until after school, when he felt calmer. When he could figure out exactly what to do.

Into his room he dragged the box—which was not very heavy at all. It seemed like a boxful of change should be much heavier, but he tried to push the thought away as he pushed the box inside his closet and (just in case his mom opened his closet door) threw his heavy winter coat on top of it.

All the way to Bridger Middle School, Gio imagined himself taller. He imagined himself stronger. He imagined himself more handsome. He imagined himself as a likable person, the kind that other people would be happy to see. And, just as he was about to pass her in the hall, he imagined Katrina Kerplonski finally saying hello to him.

“Hello, Gio,” said Katrina Kerplonski.

Unfortunately he had not yet imagined what he would say to Katrina if she did finally say hello to him, and by the time he thought to say hello back, she was already talking with someone else.

But what a feeling! To finally be noticed by Katrina Kerplonski! If this is what’s inside that box, thought Gio, maybe it’s already working.

Although, why just Katrina Kerplonski? he wondered as he sat through science class. Yes, he had loved Katrina Kerplonski since the day he moved here, but what about everyone else at this school?

When the bell rang at the end of the day, Gio could not figure out where everyone was going. It seemed to him that the day had barely started, for his mind had hardly spent any time at school at all. He had imagined himself at parties, imagined himself at the mall with a group of friends, imagined inviting all his friends to his birthday and a delivery guy showing up with a whole stack of pizzas. Party-sized pizzas.

Was it raining outside? He had no idea. It could have been hailing for all he knew. There could have been a double rainbow in the sky and he wouldn’t have paid it the least attention, because a new thought occurred to Gio as he ran that last block to his house: What if his mom had found the box? What if she had opened it and now all her wishes would come true instead of his? His mom would be off sunning herself in the Bahamas while he remained the same old Gio.1.

Fingers shaking, making it difficult to aim his key into the lock, Gio threw open the door and, his heart beating so loudly it seemed as if there were a drum set in each of his ears, ran down the hall to his room.

It was there! The box was still in his closet! Though he saw, with some disappointment, that it was quite a bit smaller than he remembered. Over the course of the day, the box had grown in his mind to nearly his own height. Now, though, as he looked down on the box, he could see that it barely came to his knees.

Kneeling in front of it, he placed his ear against the cardboard. Why he did this, he was not sure. Perhaps it was because he was desperate to know what the box contained but felt equally terrified to find out. He gave the box a cautious tilt and something slid to the end, making a dull knocking sound against the cardboard. It was not the sound of anything he wanted, and as he gave the box a second tilt, trying to imagine what could possibly make such a disappointing shhhwump sound, he remembered: yesterday. Yesterday he had pleaded with his mom to buy him a maple bar, which she didn’t, which was disappointing because he did really love maple bars, but he had not meant for this to be his wish. He would trade a thousand maple bars, a million maple bars, for one good friend.

It was all he could think about, and thinking about it only made it worse. No matter how hard he tried to imagine his upgrade—Geo X, Geo X, Geo X—from out of nowhere, a maple bar would show up to push his X away. It was best, he decided, to wait just one more day before opening the box.

That night was not a good night. Unsettling dream after unsettling dream of looking inside the box to find a clown shoe, to find a three-headed hamster, to find smaller and smaller and smaller boxes until he was left with a tiny empty box the size of a peanut, which then turned into a peanut. Morning could not come fast enough, and when it did finally come, it brought with it a new decision. He would just open the box—that’s what he would do. He would just open the box and get it over with.

But then, right as he was about to run his scissors along the tape, he worried that an attitude like that might ruin his chances of things going well. In stories where wishes go wrong, it’s usually because the hero of the story is ungrateful, or too greedy. He couldn’t possibly open the box now. He would just have to wait, and in the meantime, he would say a thousand thank-yous to whatever god or goddess or wizard—or genie—had sent the box to him. Thank you, he said, patting the top of the box. Thank you, he said as he gently covered it again with his winter coat. Thank you, he said as he closed his closet door.

On his way to school, Gio thought again about Katrina Kerplonski, and how nice it would be if today other kids were nice to him too. Seeing Jordan standing by the front doors, he thought, wouldn’t it be crazy if he just walked up there, like right now, like if he just walked up there all no-big-deal and said, “Hey, Jordan,” and then Jordan, like they were totally friends, said “H—”

“Hey Gio,” said Jordan.

Or what if, thought Gio, I just walked up to Marcus Brock and all his friends and they just kept talking, like it was totally normal that I was standing there.

“Well, I guess we should get to class,” Marcus said when the bell rang, and they all—Gio and the others—went their separate ways.

Feeling a bit flushed from the excitement of it all, Gio made a quick stop in the bathroom to splash a little water on his face. The box’s magic seemed to be working even better than yesterday! In fact, looking at himself in the mirror, he really didn’t look so bad. He had always thought of himself as short, but he saw in the mirror that he was quite a bit taller than the other boy standing at the sinks. And realizing this, he found himself walking just a little bit taller as he left the bathroom and headed for class.

“Hi Gio,” some girl said as he rounded the corner into the science hall. “Hi,” Gio said—though it sounded more like “hi?” because he did not know this girl at all, and so how was it possible that she knew him? This was entirely opposite to his understanding of the world, which was that he was the one who knew people, while other people hadn’t a clue who he was.

There were several more strange occurrences over the days that followed. At lunch on Wednesday, for example, when he just sat down with Katrina and all her friends, and nobody told him to get lost. Not that anybody had ever told him to get lost in the past—mainly because he had never attempted to sit at their table before. Before the box. And like on Thursday in gym class, when he asked Trey if he wanted to be partners for mirror drill and Trey said sure—just like that. “Sure.”

By Friday, Gio had decided that this would be the day, the day when he finally opened the box. Before last period, he grabbed everything out of his locker, and by the time Mr. Pauly called out the homework, he had already tucked his notebook inside his backpack and was ready for his run home.

He had never considered himself a runner—had never thought he had it in him to be athletic in any way—but as he raced home, leaping the occasional puddle, dodging a barking doodle, he imagined himself in his school’s blue uniform, breaking the finish-line ribbon. Maybe, he thought, he would try out for the team. He had seen the poster hanging outside the main office.

Nearly out of breath by the time he got to the door, Gio slid his key into the lock and flew down the hall to his room, to his closet, to the box. Feeling rather superhuman by this point, he did not bother finding his scissors but instead dug his fingernails under the mailing tape, ripping one side off and then the other, until all that remained to do was lift up the two flaps. He could practically see the golden light shining out from within, and taking in a deep chestful of breath, he pulled the flaps apart, where he saw, there waiting for him inside the box, one vacuum cleaner attachment upgrade with complimentary gallon jug of carpet shampoo.