Wishful Thinking (11 page)

“Really?” Sophie squeaked as she quickly checked her arms to make sure they were the right color. Check. She glanced down to check that her clothes hadn't disappeared. Check. Then she suddenly wondered if something else bad had happened. Did using magic leave some sort of mark on her? Or worse, turn her orange again? Where was Malik when she needed him? “I'm fine. Completely and utterly fine. Never been better.”

“Well, just ignore me then, I'm probably just being overprotective.” Her mom gave her a sad smile and turned her attention back to the wonky vase and her own private world of pain.

That was way too close. Sophie wiped her brow, ignored Mr. Jaws, who was still hissing at her as she raced back across the yard, and finally reached the safety of her bedroom, where Harvey was already on the Internet and Kara had the printouts spread out across the bed.

“Have you found anything?” she asked in a hopeful voice, but the pair of them shook their heads.

“Not yet. But are you okay? You've gone all pale,” he said in concern, dragging his attention away from the screen.

“My mom was just looking at me strangely, like she could tell something was wrong, which then made me worry that perhaps the magic put some weird mark on my face. Do you see anything?”

“No.” Kara shook her head. “You are completely weird mark free. In fact—”

The rest of her words were cut off as Malik's newly acquired Zac Efron face suddenly appeared through the middle of her bedroom wall, much like a mounted moose head in a hunting lodge. For a moment he paused and gave them a toothy grin before he stepped all the way through the wall and spread out his arms as if expecting applause.

“Finally. Where have you been?” Sophie instantly demanded, her panic giving away to annoyance. Then she blinked as she realized that while Malik was still wearing his purple harem pants, his top half was now covered in what looked like Meg's favorite My Little Pony T-shirt.
The My Little Pony T-shirt that was designed to fit a six-year-old kid.
“Why are you wearing my sister's clothing?”

“This is your sister's?” Malik blinked. “Huh. Well, I didn't know that. I just found it in the laundry basket this morning and thought it looked cute. It does, right?”

“No, it most definitely does not,” Sophie assured him. “And why didn't you come when I first clapped at school?”

“Ah, well, you see, I bumped into Eric the Giant. He died a hundred years ago when a Zebula curse went wrong. Anyway, he's a great guy. Real funny—oh, but never play cards with him. Not if you want to keep your camel. Actually, that's another rule. Never gamble with other djinns. Cheaters every single one of them. You should write that down.”

Sophie glared at him, while next to her Harvey jumped to his feet, his face deathly white. Next to him Kara's eyes were bulging.

“Okay, so whoa!” Harvey pointed. “I mean, it's not that I didn't believe you about all of this, but whoa. A real-life djinn? Well. . . actually a real-life
dead
djinn.”

“A dead djinn who looks like Zac Efron,” Kara added in awe. Sophie had explained to her friends about Malik's transformation, but it was obvious by Kara's face that she hadn't expected it to be quite so Zac-like.

“How come they can both see you?” Sophie double-checked, since it suddenly occurred to her that if her friends could see him, then perhaps her mom could as well, and no good could come from that.

“It's because I'm allowing them to,” Malik said as he snapped his fingers and suddenly disappeared from sight. “See what I did there,” he yelled out in a disembodied voice before reappearing a second later with a large grin on his face. “Nifty, huh? Oh, and what about this?”

This time when he snapped his fingers, Zac Efron was gone and in his place was Selena Gomez, still wearing the same outfit. Kara didn't look quite so happy, but Harvey's jaw fell to the floor as his eyes widened. Sophie was pretty sure there was even some drool.

“It's not real.” She nudged him, which seemed to shake Harvey from his stunned trance.

“Well, at least it's nice to see that some people appreciate my talents.” Malik nodded to Harvey as he smoothed down the My Little Pony T-shirt. Then he narrowed his eyes. “Anyway, did you want me for something? Don't tell me you grew a tail?”

“What?” Sophie stared at him in alarm. “What do you. . . 
oh, never mind.
I called you here because suddenly I seem to be able to do magic, despite the fact that you told me I definitely wouldn't be able to do anything until my djinn ring was cleansed.”

“That is correct.” He nodded, and Sophie made a growling noise.

“No.” She shook her head. “It's not correct. That's what I'm saying. All I need to do is say the words
‘I wish'
and—”

“Oooooh.” Malik made a tut-tutting noise and shook his head. “You should never say the words
‘I wish.'
Well, obviously I can say them, because I'm dead as a dodo (though not nearly as stupid). But for you, that's a big no-no. Actually, you should write that down. Rule number one about being a new djinn. Never say the words ‘I wish' until you know how to control your powers properly.”

“And you didn't think to mention this yesterday?” Sophie raised an eyebrow and used her hands to fan her face. “Since I've just spent a whole afternoon wishing stuff up.”

“You've been conjuring stuff up?” Malik looked surprised. “Are you sure about that?”

“Yes, I'm sure. Why would I tell you if I didn't really do it?”

“How should I know?” He shrugged. “Though I've noticed that you have the habit of getting quite dramatic. Perhaps you merely think you've been doing it?”

“Oh, I've been doing it all right.” Then, before Malik could open his mouth again, she closed her eyes and concentrated on his ill-fitting T-shirt. When she opened them again, it was bye-bye My Little Pony and hello plain navy Gap shirt.

“Okay, so I didn't see that one coming.” Malik let out a long whistling noise as studied the polo shirt for a moment before shooting Sophie an impressed glance. “To be honest, I didn't think you'd be able to manage anything like this so quickly, which is why I didn't go into detail about it. Plus, I really was hungry yesterday, but I can see that you're far more talented than I expected. So tell me, how did you do it?”

“I just wished that you had on a different shirt, and bingo.” Sophie shrugged before widening her eyes. “Actually, while we're at it, you should really lose those harem pants. I wi—”

“Whoa.” Malik suddenly held up his hands to silence her. “Hey, hey, hey. What part of my little ‘You shouldn't say the words
I wish
speech' didn't you understand?”

“I thought that was only because I didn't know how to control my powers. But since it seems that I do, I figured it was okay.”

“Well, it's definitely
not
okay.” He waggled his finger at her. “In fact, unless it's an absolute life-or-death emergency, you really shouldn't do anything with your powers until your ring is cleansed and you've mastered your exercises.”

“What exercises?”

“Oh, did I not give them to you?” Malik looked surprised as he fumbled around in the pocket of his harem pants and pulled out a crumpled paper napkin that had some messy writing on it. “Huh. Well, what do you know? Anyway, you need to start practicing this right away. They will help give you the control you need.”

Sophie took the napkin and smoothed it out. She studied it for a moment before looking up at Malik. “I need to practice one latte and a pastrami on rye?”

“Oh, no, that was my lunch order.” Malik waved his hand. “But the rest of the stuff is all legitimate.”

“Meditate while standing on my head?” Sophie read out. “Visualize a golden orb of Phatatuela? Chant a strange sentence with too many
r
's in it a hundred times a day?”

“Not as easy as it sounds,” Malik assured her. “Especially if you have a lisp. Anyway, if you do too much conjuring without having the right control, then there can be side effects. Now, if that's everything, I should probably get going. Eric the Giant knows this great restaurant that we were going to check out.”

“Side effects?” Harvey's eyes bulged in panic, no doubt thanks to his watching way too many horror movies. “Like what?”

“Her head will probably explode.” Malik shrugged before grinning at their horrified expressions. “I kid. I kid. Honestly, you guys need to try to relax a bit more. Talk about Generation Overreact Much. I'm referring to headaches, itchy elbows, that sort of thing.”

“That's it?” Even Harvey looked disappointed.

“You've obviously not had an itchy elbow before,” Malik retorted with a sniff. “It's no laughing matter. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Fine.” Sophie reluctantly nodded. “I need to steer clear of conjuring anything until my djinn ring is fully cleansed and I've practiced all of my exercises.”

“Correct. Exercise, exercise, exercise. That's the key.” Malik nodded as he glanced at a large plastic watch that was strapped to his wrist. It looked remarkably like something straight out of
Ben 10
. “And seriously, I really got to dash. That all-you-can-eat buffet isn't going to stay full of shrimp all night. But remember. No more conjuring, unless it's for an absolute emergency. Are we clear?”

“Of course.” Sophie gave her an adamant nod of her head. “One hundred percent, crystal clear.”

I
DON'T THINK I'VE SEEN THAT T-SHIRT BEFORE.” Sophie's mom frowned the following morning as she looked up from the scrambled eggs she was stirring. “Is it new?”

“Of course not.” Sophie instantly sat down at the table and crossed her fingers. Not that it was exactly a lie since, while it might've been brand new last night, today, well, it wasn't quite so new. And Mr. Jaws could stop with all the hissing, too, because she didn't care what anyone said, getting a new shirt for the third day of school was an absolute emergency.

Besides, after Harvey had gone home yesterday, her mom's boss Mr. Rivers had come around with a huge stack of papers, and he and her mom had been holed up in the kitchen all night. Sophie had managed to slip off to her room to work on the exercises that Malik had given her—not to mention use the lotion Rufus had sent to carefully cleanse her djinn ring with—take her anti-orange potion, and surf the Internet to see what else she could find out about her new powers. And then there was her homework (which, considering it was only the first week back at school, seemed more than a little extreme).

So really, she was feeling quite virtuous right now. Especially since she had been longing to get a cool cardigan to go with the shirt, but she had rather heroically decided not to. And as for—

“Earth to Sophie,” her mom cut into her thoughts as she walked over to the table holding the frying pan in front of her. “Did you even hear what I just said?”

“Huh?” Sophie blinked as she realized she had been daydreaming. “Sorry, I was, er. . . thinking about my Spanish homework. What were you saying?”

“I was saying that I'll give you a lift to school today because I'm worried about Meg, so I thought I'd talk to her new teacher. How has Meg seemed to you? Has she been behaving herself after school?”

“Yes, she's been good,” Sophie quickly said since her mom was looking worried. And besides, who was to say that there was anything wrong with lying under a couch and watching shark documentaries?

“No, I haven't been good.” Meg suddenly piped up from over by the doorway. “I've been bad. You should make me stay home from school as punishment.”

“Honey, we've been through this.” Her mom finished dishing out the breakfast. “And I promise that soon it will get easier, until one day you will actually find that you want to go to school.”

Meg might've been only six, but she wasn't buying it for a minute. “Yeah, right,” Sophie's little sister muttered as she sulkily sat down at the table and looked at the food on her plate. “Why can't I have Coco Pops?”

“Because you can't,” her mom said in a patient voice as she picked up her coffee cup and rejoined them at the table. “And just because you ask for the same things every morning, it doesn't mean you will get them. Now while you girls are eating your breakfast, there's something I need to talk to you both about.”

Sophie, who had been giving the scrambled eggs an unenthusiastic prod, looked up in surprise. She had completely forgotten that her mom had wanted to “talk” to them. Mind you, the thought of losing her broadband wasn't quite as daunting as it had been yesterday, since now that she had magic, she would be able to zap them up some more.

“What about?” Sophie asked as Meg poked out her bottom lip and looked like she was going to cry. Sophie reached out to squeeze her little sister's hand, but before she could do so, there was a spluttering noise from over by the kitchen bench and she looked up to see Malik/Zac standing there pulling faces at the remaining eggs, which were still sitting in the pan.

“Oh my freak show. What are you doing here?” she yelped before she could catch herself. The minute she did so, she put her hand over her mouth to stop any more words from coming out. But seriously, this was bad.

Not that Malik even seemed to notice the chaos he was causing as he glanced over at her.

“I'm looking at this stuff,” he explained to her before wrinkling his nose. “What on earth is it? Because I've been around for a long, long time, and I've never seen anything that looks this bad. And that includes the time my buddy Philippe the Red Terror made us all eat buttered-rat casserole. What? Why are you looking at me like that? It's true,” Malik insisted before finally figuring something out. “Oh, right, you're worried about their seeing me—well, don't be. I'm completely invisible to them. Though apparently that cat can sense that something's up. What's his problem anyway?”

Sophie looked over to where Mr. Jaws was going into hiss overdrive, and she felt like she was going to be sick.

“Honey, who are you talking to?” Her mom looked over to where Malik was standing and Sophie started to fan her face down with her hand; thankfully, he must've been telling the truth (for once), since her mom seemed oblivious to the fact there was a ghost in the kitchen, and instead she swiveled back around and gave Sophie a concerned glance. “Is everything okay?”

“What?” Sophie blinked as she got to her feet while making a mental note to kill Malik. “I mean, yes, everything's fine. I was just practicing something for school. A-and speaking of school, I've just remembered there's something I need to get. From my room,” she added as she shot Malik a pointed glare.

“But you haven't finished your breakfast, not to mention the fact there's something important I need to talk to you about.”

Fortunately, before Sophie could even start to explain why she didn't care about getting rid of the broadband as long as she could get Malik out of the kitchen, the phone rang. She only just stopped herself from giving the Universe a big thumbs-up in gratitude.

“Fine.” Her mom let out a sigh as she stood up to look for the cordless phone. “But we're leaving in ten minutes, okay?”

“Okay,” Sophie instantly agreed before she raced over to where Malik was still making faces at the eggs. She shot him a mutinous look.

“Boy, you really aren't a morning person, are you?” he complained, but he seemed happy to follow her out of the room and back upstairs. Well, she intended for him to follow, but really he just disappeared from sight and was waiting for her, cross-legged on the corner of her bed, when she pushed open her door.

“Are you insane?” she demanded in a low voice in case Meg had decided to tag along behind her. “What are you doing coming into the kitchen like that? You scared me.”

“Was it the Zac thing? Perhaps I should've just come in as myself? Or a panda bear. They're so cute, no one can be scared by a panda.” As he spoke he clicked his fingers and for one terrifying minute, Sophie thought that a panda was going to appear in her room. But thankfully he just seemed to be smoothing down his perfect Zac Efron hair.

“It's not the shape-shifting. It's the turning up when my family is around. You can't do that.”

“I was hungry,” Malik protested. “And I mistakenly thought I could get some food from down there. Boy was I wrong. How do you eat that stuff?”

“Normally, we make our own breakfast, but because it's the first week back at school, Mom feels like she should cook for us.”

“Well, she shouldn't.” Malik gave a decisive shake of his head. “Not ever.”

“Hey, you're preaching to the choir on that one,” Sophie assured him before narrowing her eyes. “And besides, that's not really the point. The point is that you can't just come and wander around the house anytime you like. Anyway, don't let me keep you from whatever it is you do all day when I'm not around.”

“Actually”—Malik glanced over to the computer—“I was thinking of staying here and having a go on that thing while you're at school?”

“You want to surf the Internet?” Sophie asked in surprise.

“No, I want to look at that magic screen of yours,” Malik corrected, and Sophie only just stopped herself from rolling her eyes.

“And if I let you, you won't go wandering around the house or anything like that?” she double-checked.

“Djinn's honor.” He held up his fingers in some sort of complicated salute that Sophie was pretty sure he had just made up. However, he looked earnest enough, and also, if he was here at the house, at least she would know how to get to him if she had any more djinn emergencies (not that she would, of course, because they were a thing of the past). She let out a reluctant sigh.

“Okay, fine,” Sophie said as she took the mouse out of his hand and put it back onto the table so she could show him how to use it. A few minutes later Malik nodded as she explained how Google worked. “Understand?”

“Sure.” Malik gave a vague wave of his hand before suddenly turning around and shooting her a winning smile. “Though, actually, one more thing. Could you conjure me up some of those Cheetos?”

“What?” Sophie looked at him.

“It's just that I'm hungry, but I've already promised not to go wandering around the house.” As he spoke he did some sort of pout thing that might have worked if he was six, but right now it just looked like a two-thousand-year-old dead ghost stuck in Zac Efron's body. In other words, it wasn't a good look.

“Is this some sort of test?” She narrowed her eyes at him.

“Test? Why would you say that? I don't understand?” Malik looked confused.

“Well, yesterday you told me not to use my powers, blah, blah, blah, and now you want me to zap you up some junk food.”

“I would hardly call those divine sticks of cheesy goodness junk,” Malik protested. “And besides, this is an exception.”

“Why? Because it's for you?” Sophie rolled her eyes.

“Exactly. Rule number one. Always do what your djinn guide asks you to do.” Malik nodded in delight as he held his hand out for the Cheetos, but when Sophie still didn't do anything, he narrowed his eyes. “Besides, don't think I can't recognize a newly conjured T-shirt when I see one. Or for that matter the new stationery that's currently sitting in your bag. Of course, I could reprimand you for your using your powers when I instructed you not to. . . or I could choose to overlook it just this once.”

“Fine.” Sophie let out a sigh and closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them, there were twenty packets of Cheetos sitting on her bed and Malik was rubbing his hands in excitement.

“Well done,” Malik congratulated her as he collected them all and stuffed them under his bulging T-shirt so the he looked more like Homer Simpson than a ghost “Don't forget to clap if you need me.”

“Yeah, because that works so well,” Sophie retorted, but before she could say anything else, her mom called out to say that it was time to go.

*  *  *  *  *

“So I've got this for you,” Harvey said as they walked down the corridor at lunchtime. As he spoke, he handed her a piece of paper that had some kind of chart on it, with lots of different colors all over it.

“What is it?” Sophie looked at him blankly.

“It's a flowchart, to help you remember to do all of your ring cleansing and meditation,” Harvey explained as he began to point out the lines and colors. “It seems like there is a lot to remember—not to mention all the homework and stuff—so I thought this might help. Plus, my folks were arguing last night, and the printer helped block out some of the noise.”

“Harvey, this is so nice of you,” Sophie said as she took the chart and then giggled as she noticed that he'd even included a break so that she could listen to some Neanderthal Joe music.

“I just didn't want you to think that I wasn't being helpful. I mean, I knew what was happening, but it wasn't until I really saw Malik with my own two eyes—”

“You mean Selena,” Sophie teased, and Harvey's face immediately brightened.

“Okay, so that part was just weird. But anyway, I figured this might help you get through it all.”

“Well, I really appreciate it,” she said as they reached her locker. Then she frowned as she realized that Harvey was looking at her strangely. “Are you okay? Why are you doing that thing with your eyebrows?”

“Er, because I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to be meeting Kara, and you know what she's like if you're late,” he said, and then took off without another word. Which was weird since Kara never cared two hoots if anyone was late or not. Sophie was just about to go racing after her friend to check if everything was all right when there was a coughing noise from behind her and she spun around to see Jonathan Tait standing next to her locker.

“Oh, hey. I didn't see you there,” she stammered as she watched him use his left hand to brush his perfect hair out of his perfect eyes. For a moment she grinned as she remembered that yesterday, on this very spot, he had sortofkindofmaybe asked her out to the Neanderthal Joe concert.

However, her grin started to fade as she then remembered something else. And that was, despite how nice and gorgeous he was, Jonathan was still Melissa Tait's twin brother, and so there was no way he didn't know about the jeans mix-up. Which, in turn, meant that whatever weird and crazy thing had prompted him yesterday to ask if she wanted to hang out with him at the concert was probably long gone. In fact, he and Melissa had likely started to call her the-crazy-jeans-stealing-babysitter girl, and—