Be Careful What You Wish For...

Be Careful What You Wish For… was the twelfth book in the Goosebumps book series. It was written by R.L. Stine. It was preceded by The Haunted Mask and followed by Piano Lessons Can Be Murder.

Plot
Samantha Byrd is an unnaturally tall and constantly clumsy twelve-year-old girl. She repeatedly makes a fool of herself on the basketball team at school and is always making mistakes and getting into accidents. Thus, she is constantly being harassed by the popular girls in her school, Judith Bellwood and Anna Frost. Samantha stays after school to practice for the basketball team.

One rainy afternoon after practice, Samantha happens to come upon an old woman named Clarissa who can't find her way home. Samantha helps the old woman and is rewarded with three wishes. Samantha is skeptical, but decides to humor Clarissa by wishing that she were the strongest basketball player on her school team. The next day, during a basketball game, Samantha remains clumsy and untalented. But somehow all the other girls, including Judith and Anna, lose their strength and fall mysteriously ill. Samantha realizes this is her wish come true, though not as she had wanted. She would've rather become a stronger, faster player. All that has happened is that the other players are weaker. Samantha visits Judith, who is delirious with the sickness and accuses Samantha of witchcraft. Samantha gets angry and inadvertently makes her second wish: that Judith would just disappear.

When Samantha wakes up the next morning, she finds that she's the only person left in supposedly the entire world. There's no one at home or school or on the street. After some aimless wandering, Samantha meets up with Clarissa. Clarissa apologizes for the wish, stating that she isn't skilled in magic and couldn't make Judith disappear without making everyone else disappear. Clarissa offers to cancel the second wish and give Samantha a third wish... if Samantha can make a clear wish. Samantha wishes that everything is back to the way it was, except that Judith becomes Samantha's friend.

This wish is then granted, and Judith does indeed become Samantha's friend, but Samantha soon finds that Judith has become pathologically obsessed with Samantha - dressing like her, wearing her hair like her, begging to wait on her and constantly praising her. Samantha tries to get away from Judith and ends up crashing her bike in front of Clarissa. Clarissa, feeling sorry that Samantha isn't happy with her final wish, grants Samantha a fourth wish. Samantha wishes that she never met Clarissa and that Judith was the one who met Clarissa instead. The wish is granted, and Judith becomes Clarissa's friend. As Samantha walks away, she overhears Judith yelling, "Fly away, Byrd!" and Samantha, now a black crow, does just that.

Television Adaptation

 * This episode was adapted into Goosebumps Presents Book #8.
 * Instead of wishing for everyone to disappear, Samantha wishes for everyone to buzz off and everyone else except for herself turns into a fly.
 * The ending is different. In the book, Judith tells Samantha to fly away, which then turns her into a bird. In the episode, Judith wishes that everywhere she is, she is noticed as the most beautiful things and everyone would admire her. Which turns her into a statue and everyone begins to admire her... As well as the birds.