Make a Wish! (5 page)

When Ali woke up the next morning, the first thing she noticed was that the BoyFrenzy pictures were back on her pillow again. She sat up, pushing her hair out of her eyes, and looked around her room. All the chocolate bars had vanished too.

“Genie?” she called in a low voice.

Genie's head popped out of the sock drawer “The tiger's gone,” she said sadly.

Ali glanced down at the magazine on the floor It was still open to the chocolate advertisement, and the tiger's picture was back on the page.

“Your wishes have finished,” Genie added. “Look.” She held out her wrist.

All the grains of pink sand had run through to the bottom half of the hourglass. “Oh,” Ali said, feeling a bit sad. The tiger had been so cute, and she'd kind of gotten used to having him around. And she'd only just found out what he liked to eat!

“The only thing that's left is the foil from the chocolate bars,” Genie went on. She climbed out of the drawer, went over to the bed, and lifted up the sheet. “I put it under here.”

Ali swung herself over the edge of the bed and peered underneath. There was a
huge
stack of foil piled up on the floor

“What are you going to do with it?” asked Genie, climbing up Ali's duvet and perching on her pillow.

“I don't know,” Ali replied, pulling out a handful of wrappers. “But I'd better get rid of it before Mom sees it.”

At that very moment the door opened and Mrs. Miller came in.

“Too late!” Genie whispered, whisking herself out of sight behind Ali's pillow.

“Ali, time to get up! First day of school,” Mrs. Miller began. Then she stopped and stared at the handful of foil Ali was holding. “What on earth is that?”

“Foil?” Ali managed to squeak out.

“I can see that,” said her mom, frowning. “But what's it from?” Before Ali could stop her, she glanced under the bed. “Goodness me!” She gasped. “There's more of it under here!”

“I could make it disappear,” Little Genie whispered in Ali's ear.

“No!” Ali whispered back. She didn't want Genie doing any magic while Mom was in the room!

“Ali, what's going on?” demanded her mom. “Where did all this foil come from?” She sniffed. “And it smells like chocolate.”

Ali thought fast. “It's for school,” she explained. “We're going to be collecting foil to raise money for charity. I— I wanted to get a head start.”

“Oh.” Mom softened. “That's a very good idea, but we can't store all this foil here. It's an ant's paradise! I'll call the school and ask where we can drop it off.”

“No, don't do that,” Ali said quickly. “I want it to be a surprise for my teacher I'll take it to school myself this morning.”

“Are you sure?” Her mom looked at her doubtfully. “There's so much of it.”

“It'll fit in my new backpack,” Ali said, hoping she was right.

While her mom went downstairs to make breakfast, Ali got dressed. Then she and Little Genie stuffed the foil into Ali's backpack. Soon the backpack was bulging. They couldn't fit it all in, so they had to use Ali's new wheeled suitcase too.

“I've hardly got room for any of my new books and pens!” Ali complained.

“I'll help you carry it,” Little Genie offered.

Ali stared at her “You can't come to school with me,” she said firmly. “Especially not today.” There was always lots going on the first day of school, and Ali knew she wouldn't be able to keep an eye on Little Genie and stop her from getting into trouble.

Genie's ponytail drooped. “Oh. Okay.” She glanced out the window, and her face brightened. “I can see Marmalade next door! I'll go and play with him, and make sure none of those mean old cats come back. After all, Mrs. Carter thinks he's really brave now!”

“Good idea,” Ali replied, fastening her backpack. “Just stay out of trouble, will you?”

Little Genie made a silly face. “Of course I will!”

“I'll see you tonight,” Ali said, groaning as she picked up the heavy backpack. A thought suddenly struck her “When am I going to get my next three wishes?” she asked. “I could wish for someone strong to carry all this foil to school for me!”

Little Genie clapped a hand to her mouth. “The wishes!” she gasped. “I almost forgot! Ali, come back!”

“What's the matter?” Ali spun around in the doorway.

“We have to prepare for your next
set of wishes,” Little Genie said solemnly.

“How?”

“I must turn the hourglass upside down,” Little Genie explained. “And when the sand starts to run through, then your next set of wishes will start.”

Ali watched excitedly as Little Genie slowly turned the hourglass on her wrist. Now the top half of the hourglass was full of pink sand. But to Ali's disappointment, the sand did not begin to trickle through the hourglass. It stayed right where it was.

“Does that mean I'm not going to get any more wishes?” Ali asked glumly.

Little Genie shook her head. “No, I remember this from Genie School,” she said. “Sometimes there's a gap between
each set of wishes.” She grinned at Ali. “Don't worry. One day the sand will start to run through the hourglass, and you'll have three wishes all over again!”

Ali felt a shiver of excitement at Genie's words. Okay so maybe all her wishes hadn't worked out
quite
so well this time. But next time she'd think really carefully about what she wanted and try to avoid all the trouble Genie had caused!

“Three more wishes,” Ali whispered to herself as she raced downstairs. She could hardly wait!

Miranda Jones lives in a regular house in
London. She's sure a genie bottle would
be much more exciting.

Read more about the adventures
of Ali and Little Genie in
Little Genie #2,
Double Trouble
!

Ali doesn't feel like going to school today.
And with Little Genie around, she doesn't
have to.
She'll let Genie take her place!
Is it a good idea to let a little genie pretend
to be a human girl?
The sparkling pink sand in Little Genie's
watch is starting to move—time for Ali to
make a wish and find out!

Published by
Yearling
an imprint of
Random House Children's Books
a division of Random House, Inc.
New York

Text copyright © 2004 by Working Partners Ltd.
Illustrations copyright © 2004 by David Calver

A Working Partners Book

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in
any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the
written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For
information address Delacorte Press.

eISBN: 978-0-307-53778-2

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