by Amanda Ashby
“Y-you told her that you would rather see me?” Sophie asked in a cautious voice, since, because of a couple of small misunderstandings involving a pair of jeans and, more recently, Melissa’s boyfriend, Ben Griggs, Jonathan’s twin sister wasn’t Sophie’s biggest fan. They had recently reached a kind of understanding, but Sophie didn’t have much faith that it would last for long.
“Three times,” Jonathan assured her as his cell phone started to beep once again. Then he shrugged. “Unfortunately, she’s not very good at not getting her own way.”
Yup, that was something Sophie knew only too well. She also knew that not only would Melissa probably blame Sophie for this, but she would also keep texting and texting, and then Sophie would never find out what Jonathan wanted to ask her before the bus arrived.
Sophie let out a reluctant sigh and reminded herself that as a positive person she should enjoy helping people. Even evil people like Melissa Tait. So she closed her eyes for a second and wished that a whole heap of Roman history books would appear at the library. Then, after she felt the familiar tingle, she opened her eyes and turned back to Jonathan.
“Tell her to go to the back of the nonfiction section. Right by the far window there’s a half-empty shelf. I’m sure she’ll find everything she needs there.”
“What? Are you serious?” Jonathan looked surprised. “I was talking to the librarian yesterday, and she said that every single book on the Roman Empire was checked out. I wonder why she didn’t mention those?”
Er, that would be because I’ve only just magically conjured them up. However, since she couldn’t exactly admit that to Jonathan, she just gave a vague shrug. “I don’t know, but history is my favorite subject, which is how I found them. It’s kind of like a secret stash.”
“Well, thanks. It’s really nice of you to help her like this. I can’t say she deserves it, but I’ll tell her what you said,” Jonathan assured her. He pulled his cell phone out, and his fingers flew across the keyboard, but instead of a rapid response, there was nothing. After a few more moments he shot her an apologetic look.
“No reply?” Sophie asked in a nervous voice, suddenly wondering whether she had messed up the wish. It was entirely possible. Especially since she had never wished for something to appear in a separate location before. Then she let out a long groan as she realized that now Melissa might think that Sophie had told her about the books just to waste her time.
What was it with her and her ability to annoy Jonathan’s twin sister? Why hadn’t she just stayed out of it? After all, it wasn’t her fault that Melissa hadn’t done her assignment, but now Melissa would probably twist it around and blame Sophie.
“I’m sorry about that. I guess the books weren’t there, but she could’ve at least said thanks to you for trying to help her.” Jonathan looked embarrassed but not surprised. “Anyway, at least she’s stopped interrupting us,” he said in a brighter voice as he pocketed his cell phone.
“That’s true,” Sophie agreed, wishing she could share his confidence. However, since there wasn’t much she could do about it now, she looked at him shyly. “S-so you were going to ask me something?”
“What?” He blinked for a moment before dropping his head and fidgeting with his fingers. Harvey was going to have a field day with the body language. “Oh yeah. But if it sounds too dumb, or you, you know, you’d rather stay in and watch TV, then that’s totally cool, because—”
“Rather than do what?” Sophie knitted her eyebrows together in confusion.
He let out a sigh. “Rather than come to my folks’ anniversary party. They’re having a big fancy thing in two weeks. It’s on a Sunday afternoon, and they said I could bring someone. It’s probably going to be lame. I mean, who has anniversary parties anymore? Who even has parents who are married anymore, and—”
“I think it’s cool that your parents are still together,” Sophie cut him off, causing Jonathan to wince.
“Oh, hey, sorry, I didn’t mean to rub it in that your dad isn’t around. You must think that I’m the biggest idiot.”
“Of course I don’t,” Sophie quickly reassured him, not least since she was planning on having her dad back very soon. “I think it’s really nice that your parents want to celebrate. And I would love to come. I mean, I have to check with my mom first, but if she says it’s okay, then—”
“Really?” Jonathan’s dark brown eyes widened, and a look of relief spread across his face. “Wow, okay, well, that’s great. Oh and here, you’d better take this so your mom can see that it’s all official.” As he spoke, he pulled a fancy invitation out of his back pocket and handed it to her.
“Thanks.” Sophie felt a goofy smile make its way onto her face.
“No worries. Anyway, I’d better go and stop my sister from failing yet another assignment,” he said as he jogged away, leaving Sophie with the goofy smile still in place. Not only was he funny and gorgeous, but he was nice to his evil sister. He really was perfect. And he wanted her to meet his parents. The idea made her feel weak with happiness. The minute he was gone she hurried over to where the bus was pulling up.
“So?” Kara instantly demanded as they piled onto the bus. “What was that all about? Harvey said that Jonathan was looking really nervous and uncomfortable. He wasn’t telling you that he had rabies or something, was he?”
“Definitely no rabies,” Sophie assured her friends as they grabbed seats near the middle of the bus. “He was actually inviting me to his parents’ anniversary party next month.”
“No way.” Kara grinned before widening her eyes. “Oh, and that means you can wear—”
“I know. Can you believe it?” Sophie immediately squealed as Harvey looked at them both blankly.
“Believe what?” he demanded. “You know I hate it when you two do that mind-reading thing. What’s going on?”
“Sorry, Harvey,” Kara immediately apologized. “It’s just, when we were at the mall the other day, Sophie tried on the most amazing outfit. It was a floral dress—”
“With a totally cute shrug to go with it,” Sophie butted in with a grin as she closed her eyes and wished for a picture of the outfit to appear. A second later it was in her hand, and she passed it over to him. “See, isn’t it adorable?”
“Yes, very adorable,” he said in an obedient voice as he rolled his eyes, but the two girls, who were used to him, just ignored it.
“Trust me, it’s going to be perfect,” Kara assured her. “That must’ve been the party that I heard Melissa and her Tait-bots talking about yesterday.”
At the mention of Jonathan’s sister, Sophie recalled her latest faux pas and felt her mood dip. “Well, hopefully it will be so massive that Melissa won’t notice that I’m there.”
“But I thought you two had sorted things out.” Now it was Kara’s turn to look confused.
“I know,” Sophie agreed as she told her friends about what had happened. When she was finished, Kara let out a long groan while Harvey stared at her in disbelief.
“Okay so are you saying that you magically tried to give her some history books to stop her from texting Jonathan so much? Did you learn nothing from what happened last time you tried to be nice to Melissa Tait?” Harvey demanded, reminding her that a couple of weeks ago, in order to become friends with Melissa, Sophie had decided to use her djinn powers to join the cheerleading squad. Instead, she had accidently given Melissa her djinn ring and, in the process, ended up being bound to her—and forced to respond to Melissa’s every wish. Not exactly an experience that she was keen to repeat in a hurry.
“I know,” Sophie acknowledged as she subconsciously wrapped her fingers around the large rhinestone-encrusted apple-shaped ring to double-check it was still there. Once bound, twice shy, and all of that. Then she realized her friends were both looking at her. She coughed. “Anyway, now she’s going to blame me for making J
onathan late to help her and because I told her to go and find some books that weren’t there. What am I going to do?”
“Cross your fingers and hope that she doesn’t fail her assignment and take another vendetta out against you,” Harvey suggested in an apologetic voice. “There isn’t much else you can do. Are you sure you can’t wipe her mind and make her forget?”
Sophie shook her head. Unfortunately, her powers extended only to conjuring up physical items; she wasn’t able to change the way someone else acted or behaved. Which was a pity really.
“I’m sure it will be fine,” Kara added in an encouraging voice.
“I hope so,” Sophie agreed as the bus went over a bump and they all bounced up in the air. “It’s just so annoying that Jonathan’s twin sister has to be the most evil girl in the whole entire world.” Then she brightened as she looked at the invitation again. One Tait might not like her, but another did. Now that she had the outfit, all she needed was the perfect present. What was the perfect present for someone’s parents? However, before she could give it any more thought, the school bus trundled to a halt, and Sophie hopped off the bus, waved good-bye to her friends, and hurried up to her two-story weatherboard house.
It was looking a bit worse for wear, with its peeling paint and overgrown lawn, but for once Sophie didn’t mind because very soon her dad would be back home and the house would finally be restored to its former glory.
She grinned as she hurried into the kitchen, where her mom was surrounded by pieces of paper and Meg was staring into the fridge, as if willing something to appear.
“How was your day?” Her mom looked up from her papers.
Sophie automatically smiled. “You’re not going to believe this, but Jonathan invited me to go to his parents’ anniversary party. It’s in two weeks, on a Sunday afternoon at their house. Please say I can go. Please, please, please.”
“A party? I want to go, too,” Meg immediately announced as she shut the fridge door and hurried over.
“Well you can’t,” Sophie retorted. While Meg looked like an angel with blonde curls and big blue eyes, she was actually obsessed with sharks and would no doubt spend the whole party grossing everyone out with stories of how a human leg had once been found in the belly of a great white.
“Yes, but I want to go. Jonathan told me that his dad went scuba diving with a shark, but when I asked him if anyone got eaten, Jonathan didn’t know. So I need to talk to his dad about it.” Meg pouted. See.
“And maybe you can ask him that one day,” their mom said in a mild voice as she pushed a strand of blonde hair, so similar to Sophie’s own, away from her face. “But it won’t be at the party.”
“Why not?” Meg demanded as her lower lip started to poke out. “Why should everyone else get to go out and do cool stuff? I want to do something, too.”
“Meg,” their mom warned, and Sophie’s sister finally shut her mouth.
“Thanks.” Sophie mentally wiped her brow before her fingers curled around the Eddie Henry guitar pick, which was hanging around her neck. It wasn’t magical, but she still loved holding it. “So may I go? Please, Mom? Jonathan said that you can call his mom and check with her, plus I even have my own invitation. See?” She pulled it out of her pocket and handed it over.
“Actually,” her mom admitted as she smoothed down the invitation and grinned. “I’ve already talked to Monica Tait about it. She ordered some of my pottery for her art gallery and I just delivered it today.”
“What?” Sophie was immediately distracted as she wrinkled her nose. “Mrs. Tait bought some of your pottery for her art gallery? Why didn’t I know about this?”
“You did, but I think I made the mistake of telling you when Jonathan had just sent you an e-mail using three smiley faces on it.”
Sophie paused for a moment and grinned. That had been a particularly adorable message. If her mom had been talking then, there was a good chance Sophie hadn’t been listening.
“That’s right, you were drooling,” Meg informed her in a helpful voice, but Sophie ignored her as she turned to her mom.
“So what about the party? Does this mean I can go?” she asked as she continued to clutch at the guitar pick around her neck.
“Yes, it means you can go,” her mom said, a smile hovering across her lips.
“That’s so unfair,” Meg grumbled, but Sophie hardly heard as she hurried upstairs, since she now had an outfit to plan, a carpet to learn to fly, and her homework to do. She was pretty sure that life didn’t get any better.
OKAY,” MALIK ANNOUNCED HALF AN HOUR LATER as he floated around Sophie’s bedroom. “When it comes to flying a carpet, there are three very important things to remember. Can you tell me what they are?”
“Malik, do we really need to do this?” Sophie let out a soft groan and studied the sheet of paper that Malik had given her when they’d first started. And to think that she had been looking forward to this.
“Well I don’t need to because I’m awesome and I already know how to fly a carpet, but since you’re a noob who has never even hovered off the ground before, you most certainly do. Now, please try to concentrate. What are the three most important things that you need to know?” he asked before coming to a halt and folding his arms across his chest, much like her Spanish teacher, Señor Rena.
“Fine.” Sophie gritted her teeth and read the answers off the sheet. “According to this, you can’t eat and fly at the same time because bugs will get in your teeth.”
“That’s right.” Malik proudly nodded in agreement. “Very important. Especially if you’re ever visiting Australia. They have bugs the size of dinner plates, and if one of those gets stuck in your teeth, you’re going to need a crowbar to get it out. And point two?”
“Don’t talk on your cell phone while you’re flying—well, we don’t have a problem with that,” Sophie said in a dark voice, since she was the only person in the world without a cell phone of her own. “And point three is, Never brake for pigeons because they are stupid and dumb and therefore don’t matter. What?” Sophie stared at the piece of paper for a moment before screwing it up and throwing it at him. “Malik, you just made these up, didn’t you?”
“That doesn’t make them any less relevant,” he insisted as he floated over to her desk and pulled a bag of M&M’s out of the drawer. Sophie had no idea where they had come from, but she was gradually learning that sometimes it was better not to ask.
“Okay, fine. So now that we’ve done the theory, can I please start flying?” she begged as she walked over to the gorgeous new carpet, which was rolled up in the corner of the room. She had tried to unroll it when she’d first walked into her room, but Malik had stopped her and insisted on giving her rule after rule that she needed to know.
“Whoa there, missy. Not so fast.” He suddenly appeared in front of her, chocolate flying out of his lips. “Sophie, I don’t think you understand how important carpet safety is. There are too many young, stupid djinns flying around these days, thinking that they’re indestructible, and I have no intention of letting you become one of them.”
“But if they’re immortal, that sort of means that they are indestructible,” Sophie reminded him as she reluctantly went over to her bed and sat down again.
“Do you think that this is a joke? That flying is funny?” He arched an eyebrow, and Sophie looked at him in surprise before shaking her head. He nodded in approval. “That’s better. And now I think we can start looking at what your training will consist of. The first thing we need to do is get you to practice levitating. Once you have fully mastered that, then you can learn how to move the carpet through the sky. The final thing you’ll need to master is the ability to teleport your carpet from one location to another. This will allow you to travel from your bedroom to Sheterum’s mansion in a matter of seconds, without having your brain turned to mush. So...let’s start wit
h levitating. I want you to lift yourself off the ground. Can you do that?”
“Of course,” she said as she swung her legs onto the bed and crossed them. Then she closed her eyes and visualized herself rising up off the comforter. A second later a familiar tingle went racing through her, and when she opened her eyes, she was floating a foot above her bed. She grinned at him as she held out her arms. “See? Easy. Remember, we had to do transcendental conjuring before I went to see the djinn council.”
“Parlor tricks.” Malik gave a wave of his hand. “This is different because you need to keep your concentration no matter what.” As he spoke he started to throw M&M’s at her.
“Hey,” Sophie lifted her hands to shield her face and immediately felt herself begin to wobble before she dropped down back onto the bed in a messy heap. She rubbed her legs and glared at Malik. “Why did you do that?”
“To show you how important it is to maintain your concentration. What would happen if I started throwing candy at you while you were flying?”
“I would think that you were having a fit since you never normally waste candy,” Sophie quipped. She realized that he still wasn’t laughing. Who knew that Malik would finally take something seriously? She let out a sigh. “Okay, I see your point. So I need to maintain my concentration at all times or else the carpet will fall.”
“That is correct. And now that you can see my point, you will need to practice, practice, practice,” he said in a solemn voice as he shoved a handful of M&M’s into his mouth and made himself comfortable on the swivel chair next to her desk. “So let’s try it again, and this time I want you to stay up. Are you ready?”
“Ready.” Sophie nodded as she once again visualized herself lifting up off the ground. A second later Malik started to throw the candy, but this time she was prepared, and after five minutes of hovering in midair, Malik nodded his head in approval.