Be a Genie in Six Easy Steps Page 7

  Mark Worthington opened his eyes and looked around, puzzled. “Food?” he wondered. “Cleaning?”

  Ann’s face fell a mile. “What’s that bread doing on the floor?”

  “Um…wait till you see the rest of the house!” said Jess quickly, leading them through to the hall. But to her horror, it was the same story here. The shoes lay in a mess, the dust lay thick about, the carpet was muddy. Everything was back just as it had been.

  “If this is your idea of a joke, kids, it’s not funny.” Ann took a deep breath. “I actually thought you might really have been thoughtful for once and…”

  She trailed off. Jason bit his lip to see tears well up in his mum’s eyes. Their plan had gone horribly wrong!

  “I don’t understand!” said Michael, staring about in dismay.

  “Neither do I,” said Ann, storming back into the messed-up kitchen and out through the back door. “Looks like I’d better get the real dinner on, doesn’t it? Frozen pizza!”

  She slammed the door behind her.

  Mark looked at them. “I think perhaps you all had better clear off for a bit,” he said. Then he went outside after Ann.

  Michael sighed. He found everyone was looking at him. “What? What did I do?”

  “So much for your dumb idea!” said Jess crossly.

  “It wasn’t just mine; it’s…” He trailed off. “It’s that worm. He messed everything up for us.” Michael bunched his fists and charged off upstairs. “This time, I’m really gonna squash him!”

  “No, Michael!” Milly hissed, running after him. “Don’t you dare!”

  “Come on,” said Jason, grabbing hold of Jess’s arm. “We’d better get after them.”

  They found Michael in Jess and Milly’s bedroom, flicking crossly through the pages. “Come out, Worm! Come out and face me like a man!”

  “He’s not a man; he’s a worm!” Milly protested, trying to push Michael away. “Stop it; you’ll scare him!”

  “I’ll splat him!” Michael promised. “Aha!”

  “Eek!” squawked Skribble, spluttering out a mouthful of parchment as Michael lunged for him. He ducked down just in time—and Jason and Jess pulled Michael away.

  Skribble puffed and pouted crossly. “What is the meaning of this undignified behavior?”

  “You mucked up our plan to get in Dad and Ann’s good book,” said Michael.

  “You didn’t,” said Milly loyally. “Did you, Skribble?”

  “I most certainly did not,” said Skribble. “Your silly plans came to nothing without my assistance.” He looked at them each in turn. “You are trainee genies. And as such, at sunset, any magical act you perform will undo itself.”

  Jess frowned. “Why?”

  “Because otherwise, a trainee may decide that a little magical power is enough for them, and so not to strive to complete the lessons of the great book.”

  “We have to become real genies for our magic to last,” Jason realized.

  “Of course you do!” Skribble snapped. “Feeble students that you are, your magic is not strong enough to last beyond the sunset.”

  Michael shook himself free of Jess’s and Jason’s grip. “You could’ve told us!”

  “I think I’ve told you quite enough already,” said Skribble. “And you saw fit to pursue your own goals instead of mine—” He had a small but noisy coughing fit. “I mean, instead of the book’s goals.”

  “Well, whatever—because of you, we’re in trouble now.” Michael slumped down on Milly’s bed. “Thanks for nothing, Worm.”

  “We shouldn’t have tried to use the book to help ourselves,” said Milly quietly. “It sort of serves us right.”

  Jason sighed. “We should have really tidied up. Really cooked Mum and Mark a nice meal. Made an effort.”

  Suddenly, the book’s pages started flicking over and over, this way and that. Skribble squeaked and ducked down.

  “What’s happening?” said Milly—just as the book stopped on a particular page. “‘The Third Step,’” she read out. “‘Granting Wishes and Spreading Happiness.’” Her eyes widened. “Hey, it’s Step Three! I can read it!”

  “That must mean we’ve passed Step Two!” Jess exclaimed. “Even though we messed up with Mum and Mark.”

  “The book does not care about your piffling parents,” said Skribble. “It is concerned with you!”

  “Let’s see what the judgment is,” said Milly excitedly, and the others crowded around her.

  At the end of Step Two there was a picture of Jess in her mismatched genie outfit. “That’s embarrassing.” Jess cringed.

  Jason read out the caption: “‘From small seeds grow tall flowers.’”

  He looked at the next picture. It showed the four of them tidying the house with magic.

  “‘Appearances can deceive, but a fool is ever a fool. Those who are lazy and seek to profit through magic will ever stumble and fall.’”

  “Goody-goody book,” muttered Michael.

  Jason continued reading, “‘HOWEVER! For natural ability, inspired application, and the presence of some good intentions, you have passed this step.’”

  “Yes!” cheered Milly. “We won! Even though we all mucked up a bit…”

  “Perhaps we don’t pass each step by doing everything perfectly,” said Jason slowly. “Perhaps we get bonus points when we realize we’ve learned something.”

  “Of course!” said Jess. “The book doesn’t just want us to find a lamp and change the appearance of things; it wants us to learn lessons about being genies.” She looked at Milly and Michael. “Jase is right. Yesterday the book showed us the next chapter after we’d said that we would be more careful in the future and not rush into stuff. And now we’ve just agreed we shouldn’t wish stuff for ourselves—and so the book has passed us.”

  Milly turned to Skribble. “Is that true?”

  Skribble inclined his head. “It is as they say.” He shot them all a look. “And now I am really quite exhausted by you. Come back tomorrow and we shall begin Step Three.”

  “School starts tomorrow,” Jason pointed out. “We won’t be able to do any magic until we get home.”

  “More delays!” Skribble sighed crossly.

  “Sorry,” Jess said. “But we really can’t miss school, however much we’d like to.” Everyone in her new class already had friends to hang around with and she had no one. She wasn’t looking forward to going back at all.

  “We’ll come and find you as soon as we get home,” Milly promised.

  “Very well,” Skribble said shortly. “Tomorrow, then. Good evening.”

  “Bye, Skribble!” Milly called. But he had already dived back into the book. She closed it up and slid it beneath her pillow. “I hope he’s not too cross with us.”

  “Never mind the worm, never mind Dad and Ann—we passed!” Michael grinned. “We rock! Our magic was good—it’s not our fault sunset came along when it did.”

  “But I’m really hungry now,” said Jason. “It’s like we haven’t had any lunch at all.”

  “I guess we haven’t,” said Jess.

  “Let’s see what’s really for tea,” said Milly. “It may not be as lovely as the stuff we came up with, but I don’t care. I just want Dad and Ann to like us again.”

  They went downstairs. There was a lot of banging and slamming going on in the kitchen. With nervous looks, they all filed inside. Mark and Ann were unpacking the shopping bags in frosty silence.

  Michael cleared his throat. “Sorry about that,” he said. “We, uh…we dreamed we’d done all the tidying up—”

  “Oh, don’t bother,” said Ann wearily.

  “We’ve decided that we should all tidy up the house,” said Mark. “Tonight. And then you can get your things ready for school.”

  Michael groaned, but Jess elbowed him. “It’s not like we can get on with anything else, is it?” she murmured.

  “But first, we’ll have tea,” said Ann, holding up a thin, beige box.

  “Frozen p
izza,” said Milly.

  Jess put on a weak smile. “I like frozen pizza!”

  Well, I don’t like it here, thought Michael. Living in Moreways Meet was getting them all down. Once we’re genies, we’ll go straight back to London. Dad with a proper job, me with a regular allowance, no Jess to boss me about…

  He sighed as the ancient oven buzzed and rattled into life. And no more frozen pizza—ever!

  At eight o’clock the next morning, the kitchen was a whirl of activity.

  “Jason! Milly! Here are your lunch boxes,” said Ann, handing them out. She went to the stairs and shouted, “Michael! You’re going to be late!”

  Jason tugged on his sneakers. “Where are my gym shorts, Mum?”

  “Here.” Ann grabbed them from the sideboard. “And here are yours, Milly. Get your coats on and I’ll walk you to school.”

  “Where’s my backpack?” wailed Milly, looking through the kitchen cupboards and drawers.

  “Try the laundry room,” said Ann, running a hand through her hair. She caught sight of Jess gloomily eating a piece of toast at the kitchen table. “You okay, Jess?”

  “Yeah,” Jess muttered. But she wasn’t. She was dreading the thought of school. It had been bad enough when she had started just before Easter, but at least then she’d known she only had to suffer through two weeks before the holidays. Now the whole term was stretching out in front of her. A term with no friends, no one to sit with in lessons, no one to hang around with at break time. I wish we were still in London, she thought unhappily, for about the millionth time.

  Her mum hurried to the stairs again. “Michael! Come on!”

  Milly started throwing shoes out of the cupboard in the laundry room. “I can’t find my backpack!” she exclaimed. “It’s gone! It’s really gone!”

  “No, it isn’t; it’s here.” Jess picked it up off the table and thrust it at Milly. “I’m going,” she announced, grabbing her coat and crossing to the door.

  “Aren’t you going to wait for Michael?” Ann asked.

  “No,” Jess said firmly. There was no way she was going to walk to school with her younger stepbrother and all his new mates. How sad would that look?

  “Milly, please can you put all those shoes back. Jason, you need your other coat….” Ann looked wearily at Jess. “And I hope you all have a good day!”

  “Yeah, right,” Jess muttered under her breath as she let the door slam behind her. “Like that’s ever going to happen.”

  It was as bad as Jess had feared. She’d had a faint hope that there might be some other new people starting that term, but no, it was still just her—the new girl on her own. At lunchtime, she sat by herself eating her packed lunch. She took a book to read so she could pretend she wanted to sit on her own, but she knew deep down it wouldn’t fool anyone.

  Jess’s heart sank as a gang of girls from her class came to sit at the table next to her. She tried not to watch them but her eyes kept straying over the top of her book. Colette Jones, the most popular girl in Jess’s class, sat at one end of the table and all the other girls arranged themselves around her. Colette and the Colette Clones, Jess thought sourly, noticing how three of the other girls in the group had their hair tied back in exactly the same type of ponytail as their leader. They were even wearing the same shade of lip gloss. Colette began to talk about a trip to London during the holidays.

  Jess tried not to listen but Colette’s clear voice kept carrying across to her.

  “There was this amazing green top that I bought…and at Harrods I bought some blush and this eyeliner…then we went to this coffee bar…oh, and I saw Gwyneth Paltrow there! It was so cool….” Colette waved her hands around expressively as her friends ooed and ahed.

  Oh, puh-lease, Jess thought to herself, trying to pretend she wasn’t interested. There were other things in life apart from clothes, makeup, and celebrities. “I’ve got a magic genie handbook at home,” she muttered, trying to console herself. “If you knew that then you’d really have something to talk about….”

  “I can’t believe you saw Gwyneth Paltrow!” said one of Colette’s friends. “That’s so, like…wow!”

  Jess rolled her eyes but unfortunately, just at that moment, Colette glanced across at her. Jess hastily tried to change her eye roll into a thoughtful frown, as if there was something very interesting in her book. She put her lunch away and got hastily to her feet. She might not want to be friends with Colette and her clones, but she certainly didn’t want to be their enemy either.

  As she stood up, Colette cast another look in her direction. She was frowning. Jess looked away, and Colette said something that she didn’t catch. Someone else replied in a low voice and everyone laughed. Jess blushed. She was sure they were talking about her. She hurried out of the lunch hall, her cheeks burning. I hate this school, she thought bitterly. I hate living in Moreways Meet! She thought again of The Genie Handbook, and of what they would have to do next to get out of here….

  When Jess got home after school, Michael was leaning on the gateway, surrounded by a group of boys, talking and laughing.

  Jess sighed and went into the house, shutting the door with a bang. It wasn’t fair. Her stupid stepbrother had made friends so easily. She walked into the kitchen and dumped her bag on the floor.

  Jason was sitting at the table, eating a packet of crisps. “Hi, Jess. You okay?”

  “Ecstatic,” Jess sighed. “Where’s everyone else?”

  “Mum and Mark are at the shop and Milly’s upstairs in your bedroom.”

  “Oh, great. Making more mess, I imagine,” Jess muttered.

  Jason looked at his sister in surprise. “What’s up with you?”

  Jess shrugged. “Just school. It’s rubbish still.” She took a crisp from him and crunched it gloomily. “How are you getting on?”

  “Okay,” Jason replied. “We got to go on the computers loads today, and me, Matthew, and Ryan finished the worksheet ages before anyone else….”

  “Yay you,” muttered Jess.

  Just then the kitchen door opened and Milly came in with The Genie Handbook. “Jess, you’re back! Fab. When can we start Step Three?”

  “Just as soon as your brother gets his butt in here,” Jess replied grumpily.

  “I’ll go and get him,” Milly offered. Pulling on her sneakers, she ran out of the house. Jess and Jason watched as she barged into the group and spoke to Michael. Michael looked irritated for a moment but then shrugged, said good-bye, and let Milly drag him inside.

  “So you’ve finally decided to stop talking to your friends, have you?” Jess remarked bitterly.

  “Least I’ve got friends. Not like you, Miss Billie no-mates!” Jess glared, but Michael didn’t even notice as he headed for the den. “Come on, then. It’s magic time!”

  They hurried down the stairs. Michael threw himself on the sofa and Milly and Jason crouched on the floor with the book. Jess stood tensely by the door, her arms folded. I really hate Michael, she thought. I want to go back to London. To her horror she felt tears prickle at the backs of her eyes. She blinked them away furiously before joining the others.

  “Let’s see what we have to do next,” said Jason. “Shall I read it out?” They all nodded. Jason cleared his throat and leaned forward….

  * * *

  The Genie Handbook

  The Third Step: Granting Wishes and Spreading Happiness

  YOU WHO ARE WITNESS TO THESE WORDS!

  By now, you are on your way to granting wishes with polish and precision. But you must gain a full understanding of the old maxim: “Beware of what you wish for—it may come true.” A wise genie will always perceive perils as well as welcoming rewards. UNDERSTAND THIS WELL! To have a wish come true is akin to finding a shortcut as you wander along the winding path of fate. But the direction in which it leads you may be false.

  NOW! You may hear many wishes, and truly you should grant them as you continue along the path of genie training. But REMEMBER—magic can be a maze, and the w
ay is seldom clear—so think hard, perceive danger, and keep tight hold on that which is precious to you.

  * * *

  Chapter Twelve

  “What does all that mean?” Milly said, confused.

  “I’m not sure.” Jason read the words again. “You may hear many wishes…’”

  Milly smiled. “Maybe it means we’re allowed to hear each other’s wishes and make them come true!”

  “Hey, Worm!” Michael called. “What do you think?”

  Scribble’s head popped up from the book. “I think that you are a rude and impertinent boy! Now, hurry up and grant each other’s wishes, you deplorable dunces!”

  Jess felt a thrill of excitement. “You really think that’s what it wants?”

  “Of course I do!” said Skribble. “Who’s going first? You have the perfect opportunity to impress the book with your developing powers!”

  “I’ll be the genie first!” said Milly. “Genie me!”

  She whizzed into the lamp.

  “You!” Skribble was peering at Jason. “You, younger boy! Make a wish!”

  Jason picked up the lamp and rubbed it, remembering his list. Milly the genie shot out in a drift of silver smoke. “What is your wish?”

  “I…I wish there was world peace!”

  Michael looked disgusted. “That is so lame!”

  “And utterly impossible,” Skribble snapped. “Peace only comes to a human when he has attained his heart’s desire, and even then not for long….” He shook his head. “Foolish boy, not even the greatest genie can satisfy a hundred billion wishes at once!”

  “Phew,” said Milly.

  “That is why a genie only appears to one person at a time,” Skribble went on. “To whomever rubs the lamp.”

  “Anyway, whatever we wish for, it’s only till sunset,” Michael pointed out. “What good is one afternoon of world peace, you muppet?”

  Jason blushed. “Um…in that case…I wish I had a never-ending supply of chocolate!”

  “Your wish is my command!” Milly boomed.