by Amanda Ashby
“That’s because she’s evil,” Kara informed him before turning back to Sophie. “So, do you think it’s still because of the jeans?”
Before she could answer, Harvey pushed away his half-eaten lunch. Both girls were immediately distracted since the number of times that Harvey didn’t finish his lunch was never.
“Are you feeling okay?” Sophie forgot all about Melissa Tait and studied Harvey’s face in concern.
“Yeah, I’m just freaking out about this stupid assignment. I’m going back to the library after school to work on it. Not that I’ll get it finished by tomorrow.”
“Of course you will.” Sophie gave him an encouraging nod. “You just need to tell yourself that you can do this. Repeat after me: I’m a clever, well-rounded guy who’s going to nail his history assignment and—”
“Soph,” Harvey cut her off in a dry voice. “It’s not going to work.”
“Yes, it is,” Sophie insisted as she reached over and grabbed the notebook from his hand. She flicked it open to see what he’d done so far. The page was blank.
“I know,” he groaned before she could say anything. “I tried to do it last night, but my dad took me to the apartment he’s thinking of moving into. The spare bedroom is about the size of a bathroom and so are the cockroaches that are living there. It was kind of hard to concentrate after that.”
Kara’s large brown eyes immediately filled with sympathy. “H, that sucks so much. Why didn’t you IM us about it?”
“Because it would’ve interfered with my denial process,” Harvey explained. “Right now I need to use all of my energy not to think about it.”
“Well, at least we can help with the assignment,” Sophie assured him. “We can all go to the library after school. I can wish up all the textbooks you need so that you can do your research. Then tonight you can type it up and make it look all nice and shiny to hand in tomorrow morning.”
Harvey shook his head so that his long bangs fell across his eyes. “You don’t have to. It’s not your fault I suck at history.”
“Of course we’re going to come with you,” Kara said as the bell rang. Her friends got to their feet, and Sophie was just about to follow them when she caught sight of Miss Carson and Señor Rena standing by the front cafeteria door, glaring at her. Sophie gulped. Perhaps when she got better at transcendental conjuring, she could move them out of the way. Or, even better, she could turn herself invisible like Malik did. But for now it was probably better just to avoid them. She turned to her friends.
“You guys go ahead to English. I’m going to go the long way around.”
“We’ll go with you,” Kara said as she followed Sophie’s gaze over to where the teachers were still standing. But Harvey, who didn’t like walking any farther than he had to unless food was involved, didn’t look impressed.
Sophie quickly shook her head. “It’s fine. I’ll see you in a few minutes. Save me a seat.”
Once her friends headed for the front entrance, Sophie began to thread her way through the tables toward the small door at the back of the cafeteria.
“So, about this library business after school. That doesn’t include me, right?” Malik asked as he floated just above her head. “Because it sounds kind of dull. Besides, I have a much better idea. When I was with Kara in her art class, I saw a flyer for the school production. Did you know that the auditions are Thursday? Anyway, I thought I could go and get in some practice after school.”
“What?” Sophie blinked at him.
“The Wizard of Oz. It’s a musical,” Malik explained in a patient voice. “Of course, I’ve got no idea why the wicked witch is green when everyone knows witches are purple. And the magic that they use in it is illogical, but really those are minor points.”
“I know what The Wizard of Oz is, but I’m not sure why you want to practice when you can’t audition. Anyway, I promised Harvey that we would help him, and since I can’t trust you to stay out of trouble, you’re coming with us.”
“Fine,” the djinn ghost grumbled. “But if I die of boredom, don’t blame me.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Sophie replied as Malik sulkily floated ahead of her muttering something about “being bound all over again.”
“Hey, come back here. Malik—”
“Who’s Malik?” a voice replied, and Sophie looked up to see that Melissa Tait had fallen into step next to her. Her glossy blonde hair was hanging in perfect cascades down around her shoulders, and her outfit was straight out of the pages of Teen Vogue, with that kind of fashion-forward styling that Sophie would never have. Also, as usual, she looked like she’d just eaten a whole bag of sour gummi worms.
“Er, it’s the lyrics from a song…Neanderthal Joe’s new one,” Sophie improvised as she realized that once again she had been caught talking to an invisible ghost (who for the record had now disappeared out of the cafeteria).
“No wonder I haven’t heard it.” Melissa gave a dismissive shrug before coming to a halt and folding her arms in front of her chest. “Don’t think I don’t see what you’re doing.”
“W-what am I doing?” Sophie resisted the urge to lick her lips, since Harvey had once told her that was a sure giveaway of nerves. And it wasn’t that she felt nervous around Melissa (because, really, terrified would be a much better word to sum up the situation). It was just that she didn’t want to annoy Jonathan’s twin sister more than she’d already managed to. “If this is about the jeans incident, then I’ve already told you how sorry I am. It was a complete accident. Plus, I replaced them for you. I’m not sure what else I can do.”
“This isn’t about the jeans,” Melissa said in a frosty tone that, if applied correctly, could probably help keep the polar ice caps from melting for about the next gazillion years. “Though don’t think I’ve forgotten about that, you freak.”
“Oh, right.” Sophie let out a sigh of relief before realizing that, if it wasn’t about the jeans, it must be about something else. She took a deep breath and tried to think positive, happy thoughts as she cautiously said. “So what’s the problem then?”
“I’ll tell you what the problem is,” Melissa said in a low voice. “It’s you. Everywhere I look, there you are. First you’re hanging all over my brother like some kind of barnacle. Going to concerts with him and doing stupid little wavy things at him from your locker. And now you’re trying to get your stinky, unfiled nails into my boyfriend.”
“What?” Sophie almost rubbed her ears to make sure she was hearing correctly. “You think I’m trying to steal your boyfriend?”
“Trying being the operative word there.” Melissa gave an inelegant snort. “I mean, I know you’re no threat, but for some stupid reason he thinks that revolting piece of plastic that you insist on wearing around your neck is a lucky charm.”
“Yes, but that’s not my fault,” Sophie yelped. “And besides—”
“Do I look like I care what you have to say?” Melissa cut her off before narrowing her eyes (honestly, she must practice in the mirror or something). “I’m just warning you that you’d better stay away from Ben. Oh, and while you’re at it, you can stay away from my brother, too. Do I make myself clear?” Then, without waiting for an answer, she sauntered off to where her look-alike best friends (Harvey liked to call them “the Tait-bots”) were waiting for her.
Sophie gulped. Out of all the things she had thought Melissa might be annoyed about, she certainly hadn’t guessed that. The only problem was, despite what Jonathan said, she knew that no good could come from Melissa Tait’s trying to wage a vendetta against her. Which meant that if Sophie was going to have a perfect life, she would need to figure out a way to make peace with Jonathan’s (evil) sister. Luckily, she had magic on her side.
6
AS WELL AS BEING A VERY POSITIVE PERSON, SOPHIE was also a planner. Her dad had often told her that everything was easier when you had a good plan. However, despite spending her last two classes trying to come up with ways to stop Melissa Tait from hating
her, she still had nothing. She let out a frustrated sigh, put her blank list into her backpack, and pushed her way to her locker. As she did so she caught sight of Jonathan Tait.
He was on the other side of the hallway with a sea of kids separating them, but the minute he saw her, he looked up and smiled. Sophie immediately put her hand up to her own so-straight-you-could-rule-lines-with-it hair and made a quick wish so that it suddenly had a bit more bounce and body. Then, once she felt it fluff up under her fingers, she returned his wave.
He held up a basketball as if to explain that he couldn’t talk to her right now. Sophie gave him a goofy smile and then watched as he disappeared back into the crowd.
“Aww, that’s so cute.” Malik suddenly appeared next to her. “But seriously, can I please go now? Because if I have to stay in this cursed place for one moment longer, then I’m pretty sure my brains will leak out all over the floor into a messy, slippery puddle, and innocent children might get hurt in the process. We must think of their safety.”
“Do you think there’s any chance at all that you might be exaggerating?” Sophie said as she dumped her books off and shut her locker.
“No.” Malik gave an adamant shake of his head. “I can assure you that I’m underselling the situation, because seriously I had no idea that school could be so boring. So here’s the deal, if you let me leave now, I could probably still catch an early show of The Wizard of Oz to listen to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Then when I’ve got my va-va-voom back, we can do some more work on your transcendental conjuring.”
“Is he still trying to leave so that he and Eric can watch a touring production of The Wizard of Oz?” Kara asked as she and Harvey joined Sophie at her locker and the three of them headed toward the library. Sophie nodded her head.
“Yes, but it’s not going to work since the last time he met up with Eric the Giant, he didn’t come back for three days,” Sophie said as they reached the library and made their way over to the beanbags in the corner. As soon as they got there, she wished for some easy-to-understand history books, and a moment later a neat stack of books appeared. Harvey reluctantly picked up one, but Malik just looked at them in disgust and floated to the top of one of the stacks.
“So how’s it going with your Melissa Tait plan? Do you have any ideas?” Kara asked as they settled themselves down. Sophie shook her head and didn’t bother to open the history book she was holding.
“What’s this?” Malik immediately floated back down from the stacks, his sulky expression leaving his face, since the only thing he seemed to like more than Cheetos was gossip.
“I had a little run-in with Melissa Tait after you left the cafeteria, and it turns out that the reason she hates me is because she thinks that I’m trying to steal her boyfriend.”
‘“Ben Griggs?” Malik raised an eyebrow. “I would’ve thought he was way out of your league. I mean, I guess you’re cute in the short-blonde-girl-next-door sort of way, but you’re not really on Melissa’s and Ben’s level.”
“Not to mention the fact he’s a pyro, and according to Harvey, he likes to beat up sixth graders. Not exactly my type. Unfortunately, Melissa doesn’t believe me. Oh, and she heard me talking to you before—well, I thought I was talking to you, but you weren’t there—so now she thinks I’m crazy, too.”
“Ouch.” Malik winced. “If there was one person in this whole entire nightmare of a school whom I wouldn’t want as my enemy, Melissa Tait would be that girl. You should really try to fix that.”
“That’s what I’m trying to do,” Sophie assured him. “But considering we don’t have anything in common apart from Jonathan, it’s not easy.”
“I’ll say,” Kara agreed. “I mean, she’s a cheerleader and you’re not. She’s in seventh grade and you’re not. She’s a normal nondjinn and you’re not…. Oh. I’ve got it!”
“You do?” Sophie asked eagerly since she didn’t like where Kara’s speech had been going. “What is it?”
“Burnt sienna.” Kara grinned before seeming to realize that Sophie was staring blankly at her. “It’s a really gorgeous warm brown color. Anyway, you have a really cute T-shirt in that color, and the other day Melissa had the exact same color on the scarf she had tied around her purse. Anyway, you could talk about that. It might break the ice.”
“Oh.” Sophie blinked, not quite able to share her friend’s enthusiasm. Then she brightened. “Or I could use my magic to conjure her up something in that color. That might work.”
“Would that be ethical?” Kara pondered.
“I’ll tell you what’s not ethical,” Harvey suddenly interrupted as he waved one of the books Sophie had conjured up for him. “It’s making innocent kids have to read this stuff, because seriously, none of it makes sense. I mean, why did World War I start in France and Germany if it was the Archduke of Austria who was killed?”
“Archduke of Austria? Let me see that.” As he spoke, Malik floated closer so that he was leaning over Harvey’s shoulder. Then he made a clicking noise. “Well, of all the cover-ups in all the world. How can they say that it was because of simmering tensions? Please, the real reason that war started was because of Moroccan almonds. Seriously, Wilhelm II loved Moroccan almonds, and the French controlled the trade in Morocco and refused to let him buy any. We all tried to warn Poincaré that no good could come from standing in between Wilhelm and his almonds, but would he listen?”
Sophie, Kara, and Harvey all blinked simultaneously.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” Malik demanded. “It’s true, and if you’ve ever tasted Moroccan almonds, you would understand.”
“Right. Of course it is.” Sophie nodded while trying not to smile. However, next to her Harvey wasn’t looking quite as happy.
“Well, nuts or not, none of it is good. I’m about to become a product of a broken marriage. I can’t afford to be a middle school dropout, too.”
“You’re not going to be a dropout,” Kara reassured him.
“Kara’s right,” Sophie added. “From now on there will be no mention of anything that isn’t history related. Deal?”
“Really?” Harvey looked relieved as Sophie flipped open her history book and started to jot down some notes for him, pointing out the best place for him to start.
An hour later the look of panic had left Harvey’s face, and he started to gather up his notes. It wasn’t the best assignment in the world, but since he hadn’t downloaded it off the Internet and it didn’t contain anything from Wikipedia, he was probably still ahead of half the class. Even Sophie had managed to do enough research so that tonight she could zap up her own assignment and still have time to practice her transcendental conjuring.
They got to their feet and tried to ignore the pained expression Malik was wearing as they headed down the hallway. It was well after four o’clock, but despite the time there was a group of people huddled up outside the gym door.
“What’s going on?” Sophie wrinkled her nose.
“I’ve got no idea.” Kara shook her head so that her long hair went tumbling over her shoulders.
“It’s probably the cheerleading sign-up sheet to find a replacement for Donna Anderson. She broke her leg on Monday, and they need someone else before the big game on Thursday,” Harvey said.
“Um, excuse me?” Kara demanded, since Harvey wasn’t known for his love of sport.
“I got stuck sitting next to Benny Masters yesterday,” Harvey admitted. “And he was telling me all about it—despite all the nonverbal cues I gave him to let him know I wasn’t interested. Anyway, unless Sophie wants to have another Melissa run-in, we should probably go out the side door, because if there is one thing that girl loves more than herself, it’s cheerleading.”
“Good idea,” Kara said. But instead of moving, Sophie stood where she was and widened her eyes.
“Harvey Trenton, you’re a genius,” she exclaimed as she clapped her hands together in excitement.
“I’ve often thought so,” he agreed befo
re looking confused. “Though I’m not sure what I just said to make you think that.”
“You said that the one thing Melissa loves more than herself is cheerleading, so that’s the perfect way for me to become friends with her.”
Kara and Harvey looked at each other for a moment, as if hoping that the other one might understand what was going on before Harvey finally cleared his throat.
“Er, Soph,” he said in a polite voice, “you do know that you’re not a cheerleader, right?”
“I know, which is why it’s so hard to make Melissa like me when we don’t have anything in common. But imagine how much easier it would be if I was on the squad with her,” Sophie explained, completely unable to contain her excitement at having the most perfect idea. Ever.
“Yes, but like Harvey just said, you’re not a cheerleader,” Kara repeated, still looking confused.
“Not yet,” Sophie was forced to admit. “But thanks to some transcendental conjuring, I soon will be. Don’t you see? It’s the perfect way to practice my magic and win Melissa over all in one pom-pom-encrusted swoop.”
“Can you even do that?” Harvey knitted his brows together. “I mean, the other day on the basketball court, it was pretty obvious that you were using magic. Are you sure you should be risking that all over again?”
“Yes, but that was before I started learning how to do all this new fancy stuff. I have much better powers of concentration now. Besides, it isn’t going to be anything too big. Just a few twirls and high kicks,” Sophie assured him before she turned to Malik. “So, is that something I can manage?”
“I guess so.” Malik reluctantly nodded. “But remember that concentration is everything. If you lose focus and your wish goes awry, then you could find yourself in the middle of a crowded bazaar wearing only a piece of fabric that you had to steal from a blind beggar while all of your supposed friends laugh at a certain part of your anatomy in a very unkind way.”
For a moment all three of them just stared at him before Sophie coughed. “Er, Malik, have you ever heard of the phrase ‘too much information’?”