Under a Spell (2 page)

At least it wasn't aimed at her face this time, but Sophie wasn't taking any chances. She once again closed her eyes and wished for the ball to slow down before it reached her. However, this time, instead of letting it hover in front of her, she plucked it from the air as if she'd caught it. For a moment Miss Carson almost looked disappointed before she jogged off and began to yell at someone else. Sophie grinned. Perhaps basketball wasn't so bad after all?

“Are you crazy? I thought you weren't going to do any magic where people could see you,” Harvey demanded in a low voice as they shuffled around the court, making sure that they avoided the ball and some of their more zealous classmates. “Because, news flash, lots of people just saw your little display.”

“I didn't plan to,” Sophie protested. “But then Miss Carson tried to throw a ball in my face. What was that about?”

“I think she's gone Dark Side.” Kara pushed a stray strand of long hair back off her face and shuddered. “As in, she's now dating Señor Rena.”

“That explains a lot.” Sophie nodded as she ducked out of the way of another flying ball. Despite being at school for only three weeks, she had already managed to annoy her Spanish teacher in a major way, and now he was obviously going for some payback by bad-mouthing her to everyone else.

“But Harvey's right,” Kara, who never liked to hurt anyone, reluctantly agreed. “I thought the idea was to be more careful with your magic. What if someone had figured it out?”

“Then I'm sure Malik would've taught me some magic to fix that as well,” Sophie said in a positive voice. “Besides, what's the point of having loads of awesome powers if I can't use them to fix things? Or, in this case, to stop myself from getting a broken nose?”

“Okay fine. But just be more careful next time,” Harvey said as the bell finally rang and they were allowed to jog off court to the safety of the bleachers. “Anyway, are we still okay to go to the library and work on this history assignment? Because I swear that this time I really am going to fail. I don't even know the difference between World War I and World War II.”

“About twenty years for a start,” Sophie told him before giving him a reassuring smile. “And yes, the library is definitely still on.” Especially since, despite history being
her favorite subject, she hadn't started her own assignment either. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason, the only thing she couldn't really use her magic on was homework. Well, she kind of could, but only if she had done the research first, which seemed a bit pointless.

“Thanks, Sophie,” Harvey said. But before she could answer him, Kara's cell phone beeped, and her friend quickly pulled it from her pocket and studied the screen. Sophie was immediately distracted as her heart pounded with nerves and excitement.

“Any news?” she asked while trying to resist the urge to cross her fingers. Ever since she had discovered the truth about her dad, she had been trying to get an appointment with the Djinn Council so that the members could open up a special djinn safe-deposit box that he had left her. However, despite Malik going to see them last week, Sophie was still waiting to hear back. It was definitely starting to grate on her.

Even worse, she was the only sixth grader without a cell phone, and all her plans to conjure one up had been nixed by Malik on the grounds that her mom wouldn't like it. She had tried to point out that her mom probably wouldn't like Sophie being a djinn either, but Malik wouldn't listen, and he had totally guilt-tripped her out of doing it. Of course it hadn't stopped him from getting one for himself, and he had promised to send Kara a text message if he had heard anything.

“No. I'm sorry. It's just about a stagehand meeting
tomorrow. It's going to be in the art room instead of the auditorium,” Kara explained. Kara was an art buff and had recently signed up to help make the backgrounds and props for the upcoming musical,
The Wizard of Oz
.

“Oh.” Sophie tried to bite back her disappointment while reminding herself that she was a positive person. However, before she could say anything else, there was a rustling of wings, and a gigantic pink pigeon suddenly appeared in the middle of the basketball court.

Sophie had seen pink pigeons before, when she'd ordered things from Rufus's Bazaar, but Kara and Harvey hadn't, which would explain why they were frozen to the spot. Thankfully, the gym was otherwise empty, and Sophie hurried toward the bird, trying to figure out if she'd ordered anything djinn-related recently. However, on account of spending the last of her pocket money at the Neanderthal Joe concert, she was pretty sure that she hadn't.

As she got closer, she could see that the bird was holding a letter in its beak (and glaring at her, all at the same time). She tentatively held out her hand to get the letter, but before she could, the bird took a step away and made a snorting noise. She turned to Harvey.

“Do you have any snacks in your bag? It won't complete the delivery unless it's given a tip, but unfortunately, it refuses to eat conjured-up food. Malik says it's just being contrary, but I don't want to risk offending it.”

“Oh.” Harvey didn't look happy as he reluctantly undid his backpack. “Well, I guess I have a Mars bar, but I was saving it up for the library. Are you sure you need it? I mean, for all we know the bird is just delivering some junk mail?”

“Harvey,” Kara interjected before Sophie could say anything. “Just give her the candy.”

“Fine,” Harvey grumbled as he passed it over and narrowed his eyes at the pink pigeon. The bird ignored him as Sophie gingerly held out the candy bar and crossed her fingers that it wouldn't bite her. (It would be bad enough to be bitten by a regular overweight pigeon. Being bitten by a pink one would be just a bit too much.)

Thankfully, the bird seemed happy with the exchange. A second after swiping the candy bar from her hand, it disappeared from sight, leaving them alone with the letter.

“Wow.” Kara let out a small gasp. “That was crazy. So was Harvey right? Is it just some djinn junk mail?”

Sophie hardly heard as her fumbling fingers finally smoothed down the piece of paper and studied the name that ran along the top in a lavish cursive that Sophie could barely read. She took a deep breath and turned back to her friends.

“It's from the Djinn Council.”

Kara and Harvey were immediately at Sophie's side as they peered over her shoulder so that they could read it:

Dear Initiate,

Your request to meet with the Djinn Council has been approved. However, since you failed to file a
P78U
before you made the application, you will have to undergo a Phoenician test to prove that you are magically adept in order for the interview to take place. You will present yourself to us on the third moon of the Agate quarter. You are also required to bring sensible shoes and a raincoat, and upon entering the council chambers, you will sign a
9GJH7
to state that you accept full responsibility for anything that might happen to you during the course of your interview.

Yours,

Leshanka the Odious

Djinn Council General Undersecretary and Translator

For a moment Sophie just stared at the letter as her heart started to pound. They were going to see the Djinn Council, which meant that
she was going to find her dad
. She was going to find her dad! She read the letter again as Kara coughed in her ear.

“What's a Phoenician test?” Her friend wrinkled her nose.

“And when's the third moon of the Agate quarter when we're at home?” Harvey added.

“I've got no idea,” Sophie admitted, visions of her dad still consuming her mind. “But I know someone who will. Malik.”

She clapped her hands as a tremor of excitement mixed
with panic went racing through her. Thanks to being such a positive thinker, she had always known that her dad must have had a very good reason for leaving them (of course, at the time she had thought it was most likely because he had amnesia or temporary insanity rather than because he was a djinn). But that was beside the point. All that mattered now was that soon she would find out what had happened.
And find out where he was.

No wonder she felt funny, since this could end up being the most memorable day of her life. However, after five more minutes of clapping and rereading the letter from the Djinn Council, there was still no sign of Malik. She looked up at her friends.

“Are you guys okay if I bail on the library? I'm going to go crazy if I can't find out what this letter means. If Malik's not at home, I can e-mail Rufus and ask him.”

“Of course. You should go already,” Kara instantly assured her. Harvey looked a bit worried since he really hadn't been joking about his needing help at history, but he nodded his head anyway.

“Thanks.” Sophie shot them each a grateful look and quickly zapped Harvey a replacement Mars bar (plus one for Kara). Then, without another word, she raced to the locker room to get changed. The sooner she got home, the sooner she could find her dad.

I
'
M GOING TO FIND HIM. I'M GOING TO FIND HIM,”
Sophie chanted to herself as she hurried off the bus and raced toward her house. “I mean, how can I not find him when I'm such a positive person?
A strong, lucky, positive person who is going to find out what happened to her dad, and—”

“Did you say something?” A seventh grader with sandy blond hair and shoulders the size of a mountain suddenly turned around and looked at her with interest. Sophie groaned as she realized it was Ben Griggs, who was not only a friend of Jonathan Tait's but, if rumors were to be believed, was also Melissa Tait's boyfriend. At this point she should probably mention that, due to a minor misunderstanding involving a pair of designer jeans, Jonathan's (evil) twin sister, Melissa, hated Sophie with a passion. Which, in other words, meant that Ben Griggs was the perfect person to catch her talking to herself. Not.

She felt her face heat up in embarrassment.

“Oh, er, I was just practicing for an English assignment,”
she quickly explained while she made a mental note to stop chanting positive affirmations when she was out in public. It would probably help if she could stop blushing so much as well.

“Rrrrright.” Ben started to roll his green eyes as if she was the biggest moron he had ever seen. Suddenly he caught sight of the guitar pick that was hanging around her neck. “Oh, hey, I know you—you're the girl who got JT and his brother backstage at the Neanderthal Joe gig on Saturday.”

“That's right,” Sophie agreed, since she was hardly going to mention that the thing that actually let Jonathan and his older brother go backstage with them was the djinn magic she used to put the mojo on their tickets. Because really, details, schmetails. The important thing was that Jonathan had obviously told his friends about her. She immediately brightened.

“Sweet.” Ben nodded. “So, is it true that Eddie Henry really gave you that guitar pick?”

Sophie nodded and held the necklace up so he could see it more clearly, just like she'd been doing all day to the procession of kids who had wanted to catch a glimpse of it. Harvey had even joked that she should start charging for the privilege.

“Nice.” Ben leaned forward and tentatively touched it before he let out a long whistle. However, before he could say anything else, his cell phone beeped. She watched as he pulled it out of his back pocket and studied the screen.
“I gotta blaze, but thanks for letting me touch it. Maybe it will bring me good luck when my mom finds out I flunked my geography test.”

Then without another word he jogged off down the street. Sophie blinked. Okay, as far as embarrassing incidents went, that hadn't ended up too badly. And while she wasn't quite sure what boys talked about when they were together, hopefully Ben would tell Jonathan that he had seen her and that she was perfect girlfriend material. The idea made Sophie grin as she hurried the rest of the way to her house.

Once she got there, she paused for a moment at the end of the path, pleased that it
was
still her house. Her mom, while suffering from a major freak-out, had almost sold it so that they could all move to Montana (exactly). Thankfully, she had changed her mind at the last minute. Now, every time Sophie saw the house she let out a little prayer of gratitude that they still lived there.

It had once been a nice two-story white weatherboard house, but ever since her dad left it had been showing signs of neglect: peeling paint, overgrown garden beds, and…
a recently deceased djinn called Malik standing on the front porch peering in through the window?

Okay, so the last part definitely wasn't a regular fixture.

“Malik,” Sophie called out in a low voice. “Malik,” she tried again, but when there was still no answer, she clapped her hands together. He immediately disappeared
from his spot by the window and reappeared next to her on the path. Sophie couldn't help but wish that he always came that quickly when she summoned him.

“Oh, hey, Sophie, there you are,” he said in a cheery voice, as if it was completely normal for him to be standing on her porch, staring in through her front window (which, for the record, it was not). What was normal was that he still looked like Zac Efron's döppelganger.

“What are you doing?” she demanded in a low voice. “I've been clapping you over and over again. Why didn't you come?”

“Oh, yes, sorry about that.” He shot her an apologetic look as he nodded up to the house. “It's just…it's your mom. I'm a bit worried about her.”

“My mom? What's wrong with her?” Sophie's mouth immediately went dry, and all thoughts of the Djinn Council letter faded from her mind and were replaced by one of panic. “D-did something happen when I was at school? Did you say something weird to her on Facebook?”