Under a Spell

by Amanda Ashby

  “I don’t know,” Kara wailed. “He said that if he had to watch one more person murder “We’re Off to See the Wizard” at the auditions, he would eat his iPod. Then he got a phone call and went off to take it. I just assumed he had come here.”

  “Maybe he went to the bathroom?” Harvey suggested.

  “He’s a ghost. I’m pretty sure that he doesn’t need to use the bathroom anymore,” Sophie reminded her friend before letting out a groan. “I still don’t understand. I made Mr. Pugsy fly, but now I can’t even make that mop lift off the ground.” They all stared at the mop, but it refused to move. Harvey gave a polite cough.

  “Maybe you should try something simple like wishing for a bag of M&M’s?” he said.

  “Harvey, I don’t think—” Kara started to say, but Harvey shook his head.

  “No, I didn’t mean for a snack, I just meant as an experiment.”

  “Oh.” Kara looked embarrassed. “Actually, that’s a good idea.”

  “I’ve been trying to wish for things for the last few minutes, but I’ve got nothing,” Sophie said, barely resisting the urge to panic. “Not even a bag of Cheetos—and I swear I’ve conjured up so many of them that sometimes I make them appear in my sleep.”

  “Like I said, I’m sure there’s a logical explanation for all of this,” Kara responded in an unusually firm voice just as the bell rang. “But until you speak to Malik, you’re just going to have to stay calm and try not to panic.”

  Despite Kara’s pep talk, the next two classes went by with agonizing slowness, with still no sign of either Malik or her magical powers. By the time the last class was finished, Sophie jumped to her feet, eager to get home to try to figure out just what was going on.

  Kara had promised to go to the Art Department and work on Colin the winged monkey, and Harvey was going to view another apartment with his dad after school, so Sophie ended up catching the bus by herself. They had both asked if she wanted them to cancel their plans, but she had refused. Not because she could panic just as easily on her own, but because she had to babysit Meg, and she was sure her friends could do without playing three games of shark.

  She ignored the jostling and yelling of the kids around her as the bus made its stop-start journey. Instead, she continued to try to figure out what was going on. Maybe Kara was right and Malik had forgotten to warn her about using too much power in one day? Or could it be some kind of test that the Djinn Council was giving her? Actually, that kind of made sense, Sophie decided, as the bus pulled up to her stop and she got off. Not that she really understood what they could achieve by testing her on how she coped without her powers, but then again, according to Malik, the Djinn Council wasn’t exactly logical.

  “So how did it go?” Her mom immediately wanted to know as Sophie walked into the kitchen. “Are you going to be the next Paula Abdul?”

  “Not quite.” Sophie shook her head as she tried not to notice the large collection of toilet paper rolls with shark faces drawn on them that were sitting on the kitchen table. Meg had obviously been raiding the recycling closet in her classroom. “Let’s just say it didn’t quite go as planned.”

  “Ah. I think I know what this is about.”

  “You do?” Sophie, who had just bitten into one of the Oreos that her mom had passed to her, looked at her in surprise.

  “I do.” Her mom nodded. “You’re worried that Jonathan saw you trying out and that now he will think less of you.”

  Sophie felt an Oreo crumb lodge in her throat as she stared at her mom. She had been too busy worrying about the fact that Melissa had taken her guitar pick and that she’d lost her powers; she hadn’t stopped to consider if Jonathan had seen her embarrassing performance.

  “But trust me,” her mom continued. “If you two are meant to be friends, then nothing will stop that.”

  “I hope you’re right.” Sophie sighed as she idly fiddled with a piece of paper that was sitting on the table. Then she wrinkled her nose as she studied it more carefully. It looked like some kind of building quote. “What’s this?”

  “Oh.” Her mom winced as she plucked the piece of paper out of Sophie’s hands. “That’s how much it’s going to cost to get the studio leak repaired. I knew it would be bad, but I wasn’t expecting it to be that bad.”

  “What?” Sophie spluttered, since there were a lot of zeroes in the figure. Especially considering that she could fix the leak with a wish. Well, when she had her magic, she could. She looked at her mom in concern; normally it was a big deal if they got Chinese takeout, let alone made a big repair like that. “What are you going to do?”

  “Not much right now.” Her mom shook her head. “I can’t afford the repairs, so I’m going to have to move my whole studio down into the basement. It’s just such bad timing.”

  “I guess that makes sense, though won’t it be a bit cramped?” Sophie wondered, since despite all the stuff she had magically moved yesterday, there was still plenty more down there. Then she noticed that her mom was busy studying the quote. “What’s going on?”

  “I was thinking of sorting through your father’s boxes and donating some of his things to the thrift store,” her mom said, still not looking up.

  “What?” Sophie felt her throat tighten, and her heart began to pound in her chest as she realized that Meg had been totally right yesterday.

  “I’m sorry. I know this is going to be hard on you.”

  “Which is why you shouldn’t do it,” Sophie told her. “Besides, there’re plenty of other things down there that could go. Meg doesn’t need her tricycle anymore, and you can definitely get rid of my old Girl2day magazines. I mean, I had planned to keep them in case I ever wanted to use them for a project, but this isn’t about me. It’s about you, and if it will make you happy, then I’ll get rid of them. Besides, you told me the other day that you don’t hate him anymore.”

  “And I meant it. I will always love your father, but the last couple of weeks have been a real eye-opener for me, and getting back into my pottery has really helped. I don’t need to sell the house to move on, but I think it’s time that I make some other changes. Ones that will help us get financially secure again. Remember what I said yesterday? That the things down there don’t hold memories. The memories are in our mind.”

  “Yes, but Dad isn’t a memory. He’s coming back, and when he does, he’ll need his things. Please,” Sophie begged. She longed to tell her mom how close she was to finding out the truth about him, but she knew she couldn’t. At least not until she had some proof. Not to mention that she would have to explain the whole “Hey, Mom. Guess what? I’m actually a djinn” thing first.

  “I wish it was that simple. Perhaps when you’re older you will understand that sometimes things are complicated.”

  “Mom, I do understand how complicated things sometimes are,” Sophie assured her as she tried not to think about today’s disaster. Boy, did she understand complicated. “But you have to believe me that throwing away Dad’s things would be a bad idea.”

  “Sophie, I know you believe he’s coming back, but after four years of waiting, I’ve finally realized that I can’t stay in limbo anymore. And until I can afford to get the studio fixed, I need to make room down there. I was thinking that tomorrow you and Meg could help me. We can all do it together.”

  “Tomorrow?” Sophie stared at her in alarm. “That’s too soon. I’ve got loads of things to do. Er, like homework.” And getting her magic back so she could fix the leak and save her dad’s boxes from going to the thrift store. “You’ve got to wait a bit longer. How about another year? Or at least another month? A lot can happen between now and then.”

  “Or, nothing could change,” her mom countered before letting out a reluctant sigh. “Fine, I’ll hold off until Saturday. But Sophie, until my studio is fixed I’m going to need to use the basement, and all the positive thinking in the world can’t change that. Anyway, this probably isn’t the best time to discuss it since I’m supposed to be meeting Max.” />
  At that moment Meg wandered in, spotted the Oreos, and immediately crammed one into her mouth. Sophie didn’t have the heart to tell her she had been right about what their mom was planning. Besides, as soon as Sophie got her magic back, the whole problem would be easily solved.

  “That’s enough,” her mom said, as Meg attempted to shove two more Oreos into her mouth at the same time. She was putting the rest of the cookies back into the packet just as Mr. Jaws poked his head in to see what was going on. “And now I really do need to go.”

  “Hey,” Meg suddenly said as she scooped the cat into an undignified bundle and held him up in the air. “He isn’t hissing at Sophie anymore. He must like her again.”

  “Gee, lucky old me,” Sophie retorted, while secretly realizing her sister was right. For the first time in ages Mr. Jaws hardly even seemed to notice she was there. Obviously all the cat-snack bribing she had been doing for the last three and a half weeks was finally paying off.

  “Mr. Jaws has always liked Sophie,” their mom quickly said in an unconvincing voice, but before Meg could do more than make a snorting noise, their mom grabbed her car keys and gave them both a kiss good-bye.

  The moment their mom was gone Meg glared at her. “I told you so.”

  “Told me what?” Sophie started to say before realizing that Meg had been listening in on the conversation. She gave her a stern frown. “You need to stop doing that. And besides, you don’t need to worry, because by Saturday the studio will be all better and Mom won’t need to move into the basement.”

  “How is that possible?” Meg demanded, her shrewd eyes studying Sophie’s face intently.

  “Don’t you worry about that,” Sophie said vaguely since she could hardly tell her the truth. “But just trust me that nothing is going to happen to Dad’s boxes. I promise.”

  “Humph,” Meg said in a noncommittal voice before she tugged at Sophie’s sleeve and dragged her into the back garden. Sophie let out a groan as she let herself be pulled along. The afternoon sunshine was still coming through the clouds in patches, while Mr. Jaws energetically chased a fly around the overgrown grass. The large sheet of black plastic that was covering the corner of their mom’s pottery studio made a light flapping noise as the wind caught it. Sophie paused for a moment and glared at it. Stupid leak.

  Over on the other side of the fence, Jessica Dalton was halfheartedly playing with a plastic toy, but the minute she saw Meg, she shot her a hopeful smile. Meg ignored her completely and instead turned to Sophie.

  “So now it’s time to play shark,” her sister announced. “I have decided that you will be a shrimp and I’m going to be a great white, and you have to try to escape from me or taste my terrible wrath.”

  “I’m a one-inch shrimp and you’re a ginormous great white?” Sophie raised an eyebrow, momentarily distracted. “How is that fair?”

  “There’s nothing fair about nature, Sophie,” Meg reminded her in an earnest voice before shaking her blonde ringlets. “Besides, great whites are awesome, and it’s my game, which means I get to choose what I want to be.”

  “Fine—” Sophie started to say before she glanced up to her bedroom window and realized Malik was standing there looking like he didn’t have a care in the world. As soon as he saw her looking at him, he gave her a hearty wave. About time. Sophie turned back to her sister. “Er, Meggy, would you mind if I just go up to my room for a while?”

  “Yes, I mind,” Meg replied in a blunt voice. “You promised to play three games of shark with me, and now it’s time for you to taste my terrible wrath.”

  “I know, but this is important,” Sophie insisted. She felt bad trying to fob her sister off, especially in light of the whole basement thing. But then again, the sooner she spoke to Malik, the sooner she would get her powers back and the pottery shed crisis could be solved. Sophie glanced around, looking for inspiration. Her sight settled on Jessica, who was still peering over the fence with interest. “Why don’t you get Jessica to play sharks with you and taste your terrible wrath?”

  “Because she hates sharks,” Meg retorted, still refusing to look over the fence.

  “I’m sure that she doesn’t really hate sharks,” Sophie said in a cajoling voice, determined to get the two girls talking again. Then she turned to Jessica. “Do you?”

  “No, I don’t,” Jessica chimed in. “I like sharks.”

  “Since when?” Meg demanded, her back still turned.

  “Since my mom bought me a book on them. Bull sharks are my favorite,” Jessica replied, and Meg reluctantly turned around an inch.

  “Bull sharks are pretty cool,” she conceded before narrowing her eyes. “But do you think a bull shark could beat a dinosaur in a fight?”

  “Totally.” Jessica was now leaning over the fence, an excited glint in her eyes. “In the book my mom got me it said that bull sharks can live in salt water and freshwater. You don’t see any dinosaurs living in two kinds of air, do you?”

  “Exactly,” Meg responded with a knowing nod. “Not to mention dinosaurs were dumb enough to get themselves extinct. So what other kinds of sharks do you like?”

  “All sorts,” Jessica said as she held up a plastic shark; Meg instantly grabbed it and started inspecting its teeth to see how sharp they were. Then, when she nodded her head in approval, Jessica shot her a hopeful glance and said, “Hey, do you want to come over and see the shark-shaped cookies that my mom made for me? She made some for you, too. Just in case…”

  Meg didn’t even blink as she jumped over the fence and followed Jessica into her house without so much as a backward glance. At her kitchen window Mrs. Dalton waved over to Sophie to let her know that she would take care of the girls.

  Sophie let out a sigh of relief. Now that Meg was happy she could talk to Malik. As she hurried up to her room, she crossed her fingers that the rest of her problems could be so easily solved.

  11

  WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?” SOPHIE DEMANDED THE minute she burst into her bedroom, where Malik was standing by the window smiling serenely. “I’ve been clapping for you all afternoon.”

  “Um, I don’t think so.” Malik shook his head. He wandered over to the computer table and sat down on the swivel chair. “Because if you had clapped me, I would’ve appeared. That’s what helpful djinns do.”

  “Oh, really?” Sophie queried as she raised an eyebrow. “So what about all the other times I clapped you and you never bothered to turn up?”

  “That’s different,” Malik explained, looking completely unrepentant. “Because then I knew you were clapping me, but I just chose to ignore it—not that that’s very easy, since you can be quite persistent when you put your mind to it. But the point is that you most definitely didn’t summon me today.”

  Sophie opened her mouth before shutting it again. Getting distracted in a Malik argument wasn’t really on her agenda right now. “Okay, summoning aside, I really need to talk to you. Something weird happened at the tryouts today.”

  “It did? What? Oh, don’t you tell me that Zac Efron turned up. I should never have let Kara talk me into going to those stupid auditions.” Malik looked mutinous, but Sophie quickly shook her head.

  “No, Zac Efron, the international movie star, did not turn up to the Robert Robertson Middle School cheerleading tryouts. Now can you please try to focus, because this is important. Halfway through the tryouts, I suddenly lost all of my power, and…why are you laughing?”

  “Sorry.” Malik put his hand over his mouth to try to hide the fact he was grinning from ear to ear. “It’s just that you’re acting so serious about nothing.”

  “You think that losing my power is nothing?” Sophie blinked at him.

  “No, that’s not what I’m saying. The thing is that it’s impossible for a djinn to lose her power. It just doesn’t happen. Hence my mirth.”

  “Well, it’s happened to me,” Sophie insisted. “So now we need to figure out why. Kara thought that maybe you forgot to tell me about a quota on how much power
you can use on one day?”

  “Do I look like I would forget to tell you something like that?” Malik gave an offended sniff before shaking his head. “And besides, there’s nothing to forget. There’s no limit on how much power you can access.”

  Huh, well, that wasn’t the answer that she’d been hoping to hear. She licked her lips and shot him a hopeful glance. “So is it possible that the Djinn Council is putting me through some kind of top-secret test?”

  “Trust me, that bunch of old women couldn’t keep a secret if their immortal lives depended on it. Blabber mouths, every single one of them. When they test you, you will know about it.” Malik shuddered before realizing she was still waiting for him to answer her. “Anyway, like I said, it’s impossible to lose your powers. I mean, as long as you still have your djinn ring, then your powers are yours to control and…Okay, so why isn’t your djinn ring on your finger?”

  “What?” Sophie blinked as she glanced down and looked at her finger. Her finger that was completely free of her gorgeous apple-shaped, rhinestone-studded ring. She let out a long groan. “As well as my watch and my Neanderthal Joe guitar pick, Melissa Tait still has my ring. You know, she is so unbelievable, and I tried to get it all back after the tryouts, but she refused—” Sophie suddenly paused as she realized Malik was looking at her in horror. “Oh, has that got something to do with the fact I’ve lost my powers?”

  “Um, yeah.” He continued to stare at her in disbelief. “Are you seriously telling me that you gave someone else your djinn ring? Of your own free will?”

  Sophie reluctantly nodded as she realized she had been so distracted with Melissa Tait taking her Neanderthal Joe guitar pick that she hadn’t give her djinn ring a second thought. She was now guessing that this had been a mistake.

  “Are you insane?” Malik had now stood up and was pacing the room in a very agitated manner, before he finally came to a halt and turned to her. “What is the first rule of being a djinn?”

  “Never wish for anything bigger than your head when you are in a confined space?” Sophie joked, while trying not to be thrown by the uncharacteristically grim expression on his face.