Under a Spell

by Amanda Ashby

  This was obviously going to be tougher than Sophie thought.

  13

  ARE YOU SURE MELISSA’S EVEN ALLOWED TO DO that?” Harvey demanded as they quickly made their way to class. Sophie tried to avoid noticing the way kids were looking at her (while almost wishing that this really was a scene from High School Musical, just so her impromptu singing session wouldn’t have been quite so out of place). “I mean, shouldn’t there be some kind of sahir code of ethics or something?”

  “Like I keep telling you, Sophie’s bound to Melissa, which means she’s completely under her control,” Malik reminded them. “In fact, the only good thing about this whole situation—”

  “There’s something good about this?” Sophie cut in, her voice a little squeaky. “Did you not just hear me sing? I was like one of those American Idol rejects you like to watch on YouTube. It was terrible.”

  “Well, yes, it is true that you can’t hold a tune,” Malik agreed. “But what I meant was that at least Melissa doesn’t realize the power she has over you, so she has no idea that you will literally do everything she tells you to do.”

  “She might not realize that I’m a djinn, but I’m pretty sure that she knows I’m a freak,” Sophie muttered as they made their way to the back of their Spanish class and got out their books. “So what do I do now?”

  “Obviously, you need to get the ring back from her before she makes you do anything else embarrassing,” Harvey said before he wrinkled his nose. “Are you sure you mentioned the pus and boils? Because that should’ve been a very powerful deterrent.”

  “Turns out that Melissa laughs in the face of family curses.” Sophie sighed as she tried to shake off just how humiliating the whole singing thing had been.

  “I think it’s pretty obvious what you have to do,” Kara said. “I mean, she threw away your Eddie Henry guitar pick and is now refusing to give your ring back. You’ve got to go with Plan B and tell a teacher. And yes, I know that it’s not cool to get your boyfriend’s twin sister in trouble, but—”

  “I can’t.” Sophie shook her head. “I stupidly told her that’s what I was going to do, and she commanded me not to say a word to any teachers about what had happened.”

  “Are you sure she commanded you?” Malik puckered his brow, and Sophie nodded her head.

  “I think so. I mean, there were no stabbing pains or anything, but I couldn’t move my feet. At all. It was like I had concrete sneakers on.”

  “Yup,” Malik agreed. “That’s a command all right. You know, for a novice who doesn’t even realize she’s a sahir, you’ve got to admit that Melissa’s got a natural flair for it.”

  They all turned and stared at him, but before Sophie could comment, Señor Rena walked into the room and told everyone to start work on their plurals. Sophie vaguely listened to what he was saying, but for the most part she was too busy trying to figure out a way to get her ring back. Especially since she could not afford another singing episode in the middle of the hallway. The only good news in the whole humiliating debacle was that Jonathan hadn’t been around to witness it.

  Then she sat up straight as she realized she had the perfect solution. Jonathan. Why hadn’t she thought of him sooner? He had specifically invited her to watch him play today (hence why she was wearing her favorite jeans and a cute gray blouse). Not that her outfit really mattered; the point was that Jonathan could help her. Even though Malik had said yesterday that Melissa had to give the ring back of her own free will, the more Sophie thought about it, the more convinced she was that somehow Jonathan could persuade his sister to do the right thing.

  Plus, Melissa had only commanded her not to speak to teachers about it. There had been no mention at all of Jonathan, which meant she was free to tell him everything that his evil twin sister had been up to. Including the fact that she had thrown away Eddie Henry’s guitar pick. She knew Jonathan would appreciate the offense in that.

  Sophie was so lost in thought as she visualized Jonathan’s horrified expression that she hardly noticed the bell had rung. It wasn’t until Harvey nudged her that she finally got to her feet. A goofy expression lingered on her face as she filled her friends in on the new plan.

  “Do you really think this will work?” Kara asked, while next to them Harvey and Malik were bickering over who should get the last M&M. “I mean, I know they’re twins, but how can he make her do something she doesn’t want to do? And how are you going to ask him without telling him the truth?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll have to figure it out, because there’s no way I can let Melissa boss me around anymore,” Sophie said in a firm voice as they made their way to the gymnasium along with half the school. Her eyes scanned the area, finally locating Jonathan at the far end of the court.

  As usual he looked all sorts of gorgeous, even despite the fact that Robert Robertson Middle School sport colors were cat-vomit yellow and old-person lilac. As soon as he saw her he gave her a wave, and Sophie felt the tension in her heart ease up as she returned his smile. After the match she would talk to Jonathan, and he would help her get the ring back. Perhaps he would even touch her hand again?

  Then she realized that Malik was looking at her oddly, and she felt her face flush. Could djinn ghosts read minds? She certainly hoped not.

  “Now I know why we never normally come to these things,” Harvey complained as he tried to squeeze past everyone to try to find seats. “Because this crowd is crazy.”

  “And the other reason we don’t come is because we don’t like basketball,” Kara reminded him.

  “How can you not like basketball?” Malik demanded as he floated along next to them. “I mean, it’s so athletic, yet skillful. And of course, the dance routines are always catchy…. What? Why are you all looking at me like that?”

  “No reason.” Harvey looked like he was manfully resisting the urge to laugh. “Though I think you might find that this game is slightly different.” Then he leaned forward and widened his eyes. “Hey, Soph, I think that Jonathan is waving for you to go down and see him on the court.”

  “Really?” Sophie jumped to her feet and started to wish her hair would be less flat before suddenly remembering that she had no magic. Instead, she had to content herself with fluffing it manually before she hurried down to where Jonathan was standing. As she went, Malik gave her one final warning not to let Melissa command her to do any more singing. Well, that was a given.

  “Hey.” Jonathan shot her an adorable grin. “I’m glad you came.”

  “Of course I came,” Sophie said, before another player suddenly appeared and dragged Jonathan over to where the whole team was in a huddle in the middle of the court. Jonathan gave a rueful shrug. Sophie was just about to turn back to join her friends in the bleachers when Ben Griggs and his giant shoulders suddenly blocked her path.

  Unlike Jonathan, he wasn’t wearing his basketball gear, and now that she noticed it, he wasn’t smiling either. “Campbell, you should never have given the guitar pick to Melissa. She’s totally screwed up its mojo, and it doesn’t work anymore. I mean, I failed my Spanish quiz, and now I can’t play for the rest of the term unless I pass the make-up quiz tomorrow. Maybe that Neanderthal Joe dude gave you something else I could touch?”

  “Look, Ben, this isn’t a good time,” Sophie said. Not just because the game was about to start and she wanted to watch Jonathan play, but because if Melissa saw them talking, she would no doubt blow a fuse. Which was bad enough when she was just plain mean, but now that she actually had control over Sophie as well, it would be disastrous. However, before she could get rid of him she caught sight of Melissa bearing down on them. She was dressed in her cheerleading uniform, and even her pom-poms looked angry. Sophie gulped.

  “Oh, what have we here? It’s our very own Mariah Carey,” Melissa said, her syrupy voice at odds with the hard expression on her face. “So are you going to sing for us again? Or maybe you will dance this time? Because I’m thinking it would be pretty funny if—”


  “Actually,” Sophie quickly cut her off, remembering Malik’s warning not to let Melissa give her any commands (especially any that involved a potentially embarrassing situation in front of the entire school). “I was just telling Ben how nice your hair looked today.”

  “Really?” Melissa paused for a moment and shot Ben a hopeful smile. Unfortunately, he totally ignored her. Sophie was guessing that this wasn’t a good sign.

  “I’ve got to go,” Ben muttered. “Since someone screwed up Sophie’s good-luck charm, now if I ever want to play basketball again, I’m going to need to find some moron to explain what my Spanish quiz is all about. I’ll know who to blame if I fail it for a second time.”

  “See.” Melissa waited until Ben had stalked off before concentrating her icy glaze back on Sophie again. “He totally thinks this is my fault. You’ve jinxed me.”

  “I’m sorry, but you can’t blame me for what a guitar pick does or doesn’t do,” Sophie protested as she wiped her brow and tried to figure out how things had managed to get so complicated. “Now can we please just talk about my ring? I really need it back.”

  “You know, the more I think about it, the more I’m starting to realize there must be something special about this ring,” Melissa suddenly said as she put her hand into her pocket and pulled out a familiar-looking apple-shaped rhinestone-encrusted ring. Sophie widened her eyes. Her ring. Part of her longed simply to reach out and grab it, but then she remembered Malik’s words about free will. Whoever had invented that stupid rule obviously hadn’t met Melissa Tait.

  “O-of course there isn’t. I just like it,” Sophie stammered. Then she looked up and realized that Jonathan was grinning at her from across the court. He did a goofy twirl of the ball, which made Sophie giggle. Melissa immediately stiffened, as too late Sophie realized her mistake.

  “Please, don’t let me stop you from pulling stupid faces at my brother,” the cheerleader snapped in a tight voice, just as Principal Gerrard started to address everyone over the loudspeaker system.

  “I wasn’t—” Sophie started to reply, but before Sophie knew what was happening, she poked her tongue out at Jonathan Tait and then made her eyes cross. Nooooooooooooo. She tried to put her hands across her face to stop it from happening, but instead of covering her face, she found herself putting her hands on each side of her mouth and then wriggling her fingers like there was no tomorrow. Even Meg wouldn’t do something so juvenile.

  For a moment Jonathan just stared at her in confusion; thankfully, someone suddenly threw a basketball at him, and he turned around to make a shot. Sophie let out a mortified groan while Melissa stared at her in disbelief.

  “You are either very stupid or very smart, but either way I don’t really care, as long as you sort out this mess.”

  “W-what do you mean?” Sophie asked, sure that her cheeks were burning with embarrassment.

  “I mean that since it’s your fault Ben’s mad at me, you can fix it or you can wave good-bye to your precious ring. Oh, and don’t try to go blubbing to my brother either. In fact, I don’t even want you to look at him again until you’ve fixed things with Ben and me. Are we clear?”

  “No, you don’t understand—” Sophie started to say, while trying to ignore the irony that if Melissa would just give her the ring back, she could actually sort the problem out right away. However, before she could say anything else, Melissa suddenly walked away and joined the cheerleaders as Principal Gerrard’s speech finally came to an end.

  Sophie raced back to where her friends were and sank down into her seat. It was obvious they had figured out what was going on.

  “Soph,” Harvey started to say, but she shook her head.

  “Don’t,” she begged. “Please, it was too awful for words. She commanded me to make stupid faces at Jonathan. And so I did. It was honestly beyond my control. And it gets worse,” she wailed as she filled her friends in on everything that happened.

  “See, the girl really is a natural,” Malik announced once she had finished. “Notice how she managed to command you to find the solution, while also restricting your chances of actually succeeding in the task itself. It’s a classic sahir response. Truly, it’s uncanny how skilled she is.”

  “It’s not uncanny, it’s evil,” Harvey corrected. “I mean, it’s not Sophie’s fault that Ben sucks at Spanish. It’s so unreasonable.”

  “Er, you do remember this is Melissa Tait that we’re talking about,” Kara said. “I think she specializes in unreasonable behavior.”

  “I know.” Sophie gave her shoulders and neck a shake to try to get rid of her negative vibes. She turned back to Malik. “Are you sure there isn’t another way to get Melissa to give me the ring back? What about that elixir thing you mentioned?”

  “You mean the elixir that all djinns have been searching for since the dawn of time?” Malik remarked drily before shaking his head. “Yeah, I think we can safely assume that we won’t be finding it before ten o’clock on Saturday.”

  Sophie felt the desperation rise up and clog in her throat. “Okay, so what about Rufus’s Bazaar? He sells everything that a djinn could want through his Web site. Do you think he would have anything that would give me my powers back, even temporarily? Or maybe a mind-control drug so that I can convince Melissa to give me the ring back?”

  Again Malik shook his head. “Unfortunately, the Djinn Council banned mind-altering spells about a thousand years ago. It was a very sad day. As for temporary power boosters, I’m afraid that there’s no such thing. Oh, but you know what might work? A petrified lucky date.”

  “A petrified lucky what?” Sophie blinked.

  “Date. You know, they come from palm trees and are considered a delicacy? Of course, I’m not saying they are as good as Cheetos, but they do have their moments,” Malik said as he emptied a packet into his hand and crammed the remaining Cheetos crumbs into his mouth. Finally, he continued to speak. “Anyway, long before four-leaf clovers and rabbit feet, petrified lucky dates were all the rage.”

  “Yes, but what do they do?” Harvey looked confused.

  “Why, they bring people good luck, of course.” Malik looked at him like he was stupid. “I kind of thought it was implied in the title.”

  “You think a petrified lucky date will help me get Melissa to give me my djinn ring back?” Sophie asked to make sure she was hearing right.

  “Well, first you have to get one,” Malik reminded her. “Last time I checked, Rufus was charging fifty bucks, which, if you ask me, is a little steep. Besides, how else are you going to make things right between Ben and Melissa if you don’t have your magic or a lucky date?”

  “I don’t know, but I guess I’ll just have to figure something out,” Sophie said in a positive voice while trying to ignore just how disastrous the day was becoming. Thankfully, before she could think about it further, the whistle blew, and the team jogged out into the middle of the basketball court.

  Once again, Sophie started searching for Jonathan. But before she could find him, her hand flew up to her eyes and covered them. If he had looked surprised to see her pulling faces at him before, he must’ve been really shocked to see this. Unfortunately, thanks to her fingers, she couldn’t see his expression.

  She desperately tried to pull her hand away, but she couldn’t budge it.

  “Er, Sophie. Why do you have your hand over your eyes?” Harvey asked in a low voice. “Because not that I care what people think, but they are starting to look at you funny.”

  “I can’t help it,” Sophie started to say before remembering Melissa’s last command. In fact, I don’t even want you to look at him again until you’ve fixed things with Ben and me. Sophie slunk further down into the bleachers and let out a long groan, her eyes still covered. And here she was thinking that things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

  14

  MAYBE HE DIDN’T NOTICE?” KARA SAID IN A KIND voice as they all piled onto the bus once the game was finished.

  “I had my hands across my eye
s for the entire game. Even Mr. Morton the janitor noticed, and he’s half blind,” Sophie wailed as she rubbed her temples and reminded herself that it was lucky she was a positive thinker, since she was pretty sure that any other eleven-year-old who had been forced to sit through a basketball game looking like an idiot—while her crush was playing—would’ve died on the spot. Whereas Sophie knew that the best thing to do was to look for the positive part of it all. She still hadn’t found it yet, but given time she was sure she would.

  “Yes, but when this is all over, you can just explain to him that you had something in your eye,” Harvey said. “But right now we need to concentrate on getting Ben and Melissa back together. Which, for the record, goes against everything I believe in, since evil like that should never be encouraged.”

  “I know. It’s hardly ideal, but we have to make it work,” Sophie said as she glanced around. “Actually, I was hoping Ben would be on the bus so I could talk to him.”

  “I don’t see him.” Harvey, who was half a head taller than Sophie, craned his neck. “Maybe he went out with the rest of the team to celebrate their win?” Then he caught Sophie’s look of alarm. “Or he might’ve gone to the library to study for his quiz tomorrow.”

  “It’s going to be okay,” Kara said in a soft voice as the bus pulled to a halt. “You just need to go and see him first thing tomorrow and explain to him why it’s not Melissa’s fault he failed his Spanish quiz and got benched. Then once you’ve convinced him, Melissa will be so happy that she’ll give your ring back.”

  “I hope so,” Sophie said as she waved good-bye to her friends and made her way up the front path. There was no sign of Malik, but Sophie was actually pleased to have a little bit of Malik-free time. Especially since she still had to finish redoing her history assignment to hand in tomorrow morning. She had stupidly thought that she could just reprint it from her computer before remembering too late that it wasn’t on her computer because she had created the first one using magic. And it turned out that her magic didn’t have a hard-drive backup, so she was going to have to do this assignment the hard way.