Double Trouble (3 page)

“We'd better go,” Mom said when Genie had finished. “I've got a lot to do at work today.”

Ali quickly tiptoed upstairs and watched from the landing as her mom and Genie left the house. On the way out, Genie glanced back and spotted Ali. She gave her a silly grin as Ali's mom unlocked the car.

“It worked!” Ali said triumphantly. She waited until she saw the car pull away; then she got dressed in a bathing suit just for fun and went
downstairs. She settled down on the sofa.

“Poor Mary,” Ali said, grabbing the remote and turning on the TV. “She's got a science test while I get to watch TV!”

But there wasn't much to watch. Ali flipped through the channels until she found some cartoons. Then she switched to a music station playing a video of BoyFrenzy, her favorite band. Even more favorite since Little Genie had brought them to life from the pictures on Ali's pillow so they could sing her to sleep! Ali was singing along and copying the dance moves in the middle of the family room when suddenly the picture disappeared from the screen—and static took its place.

“Oh no!” Ali leapt up from the sofa. “What happened?” She rushed over to the TV and tried turning it off and on again, but the screen stayed fuzzy.

“Great” she groaned. “What am I going to do now?”

She glanced around the room. The sun was blazing in through the windows, but Ali didn't dare go outside in case their neighbor Mrs. Carter spotted her and wanted to know why she wasn't at school.

At least if I'd gone to school, I could have gone Outside at recess with Mary
, Ali thought glumly. As it was, she would be stuck inside all day.

“I think I'll go up to my bedroom and read,” she decided out loud. She was just
on her way upstairs when a sound at the front door made her freeze. She turned around very slowly.

Someone was standing on the doorstep.

Ali could make out a blurry shape through the door's glass panes. Was it the mailman? If she kept very quiet, perhaps he would just go away.

But then she heard the sound of a key in the lock.

“Noooo!” Ali cried, panicked. Had her mom come back home? Maybe she'd forgotten something. Or maybe she'd found out that the Ali she'd taken to school wasn't the
real
Ali!

Before Ali could turn and run upstairs, the door was pushed open. A woman stepped into the hall, carrying a shopping bag.

Ali gasped. “Gran!”

Gran took off her sunglasses, looking just as surprised to see Ali. As usual, she was flamboyantly dressed. She wore a Hawaiian-print yellow shirt and striped pants. “Ali! What are you doing here?”

Ali opened and closed her mouth. Think! she ordered herself. “Well, Mrs. Jasmine said I could come home to change my clothes,” she babbled. “I spilled paint on myself in class this morning.”

“You came home by yourself?”

“It was a lot of paint,” Ali fibbed, trying to look normal.

“Oh.” Gran stared at Ali's bathing suit. “Are you wearing that to school?”

Ali said the first thing that came into her head. “I couldn't find any clean T-shirts.”

“Can I help you look?” Gran offered.

“No, that's okay,” Ali said quickly. “I think I know where Mom put them.” She took a deep breath. “Anyway, what are
you
doing here, Gran?”

“I popped over to drop this off for your mom.” Gran reached into the bag and pulled out a brightly patterned lamp shade. “I bought it at the thrift shop. I thought it would look really nice in your living room. Give it a bit of color”

Ali couldn't help laughing. She called her gran the Junk Queen because she loved finding bargains at garage sales and flea markets. Sometimes Ali liked the stuff her gran bought, but her mom was less enthusiastic. And the lamp shade was a million miles from anything Ali's mom would choose. It was made of orange and purple satin^with long pink fringe, Ali could just imagine her mom's face when she saw it Genie would probably love it It would match her outfits, Ali realized with a grin.

“Come on, I'll give you a ride back to school,” said Gran, putting the lamp shade on the hail table.

Ali gulped. “Okay,” she agreed. She couldn't very well say no! She sped
upstairs and changed into her clothes. This was all going wrong! What would everyone at school say if
two
Alis turned up? She'd just have to hope no one spotted her before she could sneak back home.

As Gran drove them down the road in her battered little can Ali began to feel more and more worried. When they reached Montgomery Elementary School, she slumped down in her seat, so she couldn't be seen through the window.

“Sit up, Ali,” said her gran, pulling alongside the playground. “You'll give yourself a bad back Here we are.”

“Thanks, Gran.” Ali took a quick look out the car window Thank goodness it
wasn't recess, she thought. Everyone was inside. But there was always a chance that someone might look out and see her.

“Have a nice day!” Gran called as Ali climbed from the car Luckily, she didn't wait for Ali go inside. She just drove off with a toot of her horn.

Ali breathed a sigh of relief. “Okay,” she mumbled. “Time to walk back home again.” At least she didn't live too far away. Before she set off, though, she couldn't resist peeking in her classroom window. There was Little Genie, sitting in Ali's place by the window, next to Mary. Even though she knew Genie had taken her place, Ali still got a shock at seeing someone who looked
exactly
like her
sitting in her seat! It felt very strange.

Little Genie had hef head down and was scribbling away like mad. Ali guessed that the class was in the middle of the science test She wondered how Genie would do. She was sure Genie knew even less about science than she did! Maybe Genie would use magic, Ali thought as she hurried off down the street She'd told Genie not to use magic at school, but it might be worth it if it meant Ali got a good grade on the test And maybe Mrs. Jasmine would get a nice surprise when she marked Alis paper!

Ali arrived back home feeling hot and tired. She couldn't wait to get inside and have a cool drink. But when she reached
the front gate, she had to dodge behind a tree to hide from Mrs. Garten who was coming out of her house with a shopping bag over one arm. Ali held her breath and stood very still until she heard Mrs. Carter walk off in the opposite direction.

“This is too much,” Ali said gloomily as she finally let herself into the cool, air-conditioned house. Her wish to have Little Genie take her place at school had
seemed
like a good idea at the time, but as usual with genie magic, things weren't as simple as they seemed! And Ali wasn't looking forward to a stuffy afternoon stuck indoors with no TV. She decided to make some lunch to cheer herself up.

Ali went into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of lemonade. Suddenly,
there was a flash of pink smoke and a loud bang! Ali nearly jumped out of her skin. The smoke cleared quickly, and there was Genie, beaming, and still looking exactly like Ali.

“Genie!” Ali gasped. “Please don't do that!”

“Do what? Oh, that. It's the best way to travel, you know. And I've been having a great time!” Genie exclaimed. “Have you enjoyed yourself too?” Then she looked closer at Ali. “Hey, you changed out of your pajamas and you're sweating. You haven't been outside, have you?”

Ali explained how Gran had turned up unexpectedly. “The TV's not working, I can't go outside, and I'm really bored,” she finished grumpily. “Anyway, what are
you doing here? You're supposed to stay at school for lunch.”

“I know,” Genie said. “But I wanted to come home and tell you all the great things I've been doing.”

“Like what?” Ali asked, feeling a bit jealous. It sounded like Genie had been having.a much better time than she had!

“Well, we had that science test,” Genie began. “And it was easy peasy!”

Ali frowned. “What do you mean?”

“Mrs. Jasmine said it was a multiple-choice test,” Genie explained. “You had lots of different answers to choose from, and you had to check the right box.”

“And you thought that was easy?” Ali asked doubtfully. She always thought that having more than one answer to a
question just made it harder to know which one was right!

Genie nodded her head vigorously “Oh yes,” she said. “I checked
all
the boxes, so I
know
I got the right answer every time, Mrs. Jasmine corrected the papers just before lunch, and she's so pleased, she wants to see you every night after school next week!”

Ali groaned. Genie had really got her into trouble this time. Mrs. Jasmine must have thought she wasn't taking the test seriously, and now she'd got a week of detention! “How do you like Mary?” she asked, feeling even more jealous.

“She's hep,” Genie said breezily. “But she keeps looking at me in this really funny way. Like this.” She glanced
sideways at Ali with such a big frown that she was almost cross-eyed.

“You haven't done anything to make her suspicious, have you?” Ali demanded.

“Of course not,” Genie said. “Everyone believed that I was you. Even this girl with long blond hair that I don't think likes you very much. She looked at me like I was a bad smell or something!” Genie sounded very indignant.

Ali nodded. “That's Tiffany Andrews.” Tiffany was the class snob. Her family was rich. She was always bragging about all the things they bought her. And she seemed to think that Ali and Mary weren't good enough to be her friends—not that Ali and Mary wanted to be her friends in the first place.

“Well, I'd better be going.” Little Genie beamed at Ali “I'm really looking forward to drama. See you later!” She held up her hand, ready to snap her fingers and make herself disappear.

“Wait, don't go yet” Ali said quickly. She stared at the hourglass watch on Genie's wrist Genie had turned it around so that the hourglass part was hidden on the inside of her wrist Hardly any sand had trickled through. “I've still got two wishes, left There must be something I can wish for to make my afternoon a bit more fun.”

Genie thought for a minute. Then her face lit up. “Hey, why don't you use your second wish to make yourself tiny?” she suggested. “I could take you to school with me in my backpack!”