Genie In Training

by Meredith Badger

  I’m water. I’m sand. I’m sandy water. I’m watery sand, thought Poppy, over and over again.

  At first, nothing happened. And then, all of a sudden, Poppy felt an odd tingling sensation in her foot which was followed by a whooshy kind of feeling, like she was hurtling down a very tall building in a very fast lift. So Poppy did what any normal, average person would do in this situation. She shut her eyes.

  Finally, she felt a bump and the whooshiness stopped. A moment later, Poppy opened her eyes and found herself in a room that glowed green like a jewel.

  I must be inside the bottle, thought Poppy, shaking her head in amazement. Which is not the sort of place that average, ordinary people usually find themselves.

  Poppy couldn’t resist having a little poke around the bottle.

  Her bedroom at home was perfectly comfortable, but a little boring. Sometimes, when she couldn’t sleep, Poppy would imagine what her perfect bedroom would look like. Then she would drift to sleep, pretending she was in that room.

  Well, the inside of the bottle looked exactly like her dream bedroom!

  The floor was covered with a thick, soft green carpet, dotted with flowers. In the middle of the room was a huge bed, covered with colourful satin cushions. Draped over the bed was a sky-blue canopy, decorated with twinkling silver stars and moons. There was also a bookshelf shaped like a wave that was stocked with Poppy’s favourite books and magazines. And one of Poppy’s very favourite songs was playing, although Poppy couldn’t tell where the music was coming from.

  Just then, there was a puff of purple smoke and Lexie appeared. ‘So?’ she said, looking around. ‘What do you think?’

  ‘I love it!’ said Poppy. ‘It’s exactly how I would design my perfect bedroom.’

  ‘Well of course it is,’ replied Lexie. ‘This is your bottle, after all.’

  ‘My bottle?’ said Poppy, surprised. ‘But you popped out of it.’

  ‘I was just delivering it to you,’ explained Lexie. ‘You get your own personal bottle, so you can decorate it however you like.’

  Once she knew this was her bottle, Poppy really wanted to have a better look around, but Lexie wouldn’t let her.

  ‘We have to get to the training centre,’ Lexie said.

  ‘How do we get there?’ asked Poppy.

  Lexie smiled and produced what looked like a small, rusty teapot. ‘With this,’ she replied.

  ‘With an old teapot?’ said Poppy, surprised.

  ‘It’s not a teapot,’ corrected Lexie. ‘It’s a Location Lamp. Genies use them to get around. This one might look a little beaten up, but that just means that the lamp has been in use for centuries and is very reliable. I’ll show you how it works.’

  Then Lexie twisted the lamp’s lid. Instantly, a plume of pinkish smoke curled out of the spout and began forming into curly, smoky letters. Lexie started flicking the words around with her hand, like she was searching for something. ‘Training centre, training centre,’ she muttered.

  ‘Can I help?’ asked Poppy politely.

  ‘Thanks, but it’s pretty complicated,’ said Lexie.

  Then something odd happened. Two of the smoky words separated themselves from the jumble of letters hovering above the lamp and zoomed over to Poppy! She looked at the words in surprise:

  Training Centre

  ‘Um, excuse me, Lexie,’ said Poppy. ‘Is this what you’re looking for?’

  Lexie stared at the words in Poppy’s hand. ‘Where did you find them?’ she asked, clearly astonished.

  ‘I didn’t,’ said Poppy with a shrug. ‘They found me.’

  Lexie didn’t look cross exactly, but for a moment she had a very strange expression on her face. Then she touched the words like a button. ‘Let’s go then. Oh, and get ready,’ she warned. ‘This can be a wild ride.’

  As Lexie finished speaking, everything went dark. Then the floor dropped away and Poppy once again found herself whooshing along through blackness, wondering how much weirder this day could possibly get.

  Her mind insisted that this was all a dream. But if it IS a dream then I’ll wake up soon enough, she reminded herself. So I may as well just go with it and see what happens!

  Lexie and Poppy twisted and looped through the air. Then, just when Poppy thought she wouldn’t survive another second of it, the ride came to an abrupt stop. And Poppy promptly fell flat on her face!

  How embarrassing, thought Poppy, jumping to her feet and dusting herself off. I hope no-one saw that. But she was out of luck. Lexie was standing beside her looking calm and unruffled, and behind Lexie was a group of three kids – two girls and a boy, who all looked about twelve years old. The kids were all staring at Poppy like she was the weirdest thing they’d ever seen.

  ‘What? Haven’t you ever seen someone fall over?’ said Poppy, putting her hands on her hips. ‘If you pay me a dollar I’ll do it again!’

  Everyone laughed. The fair-haired girl near the front of the group smiled apologetically.

  ‘Sorry for staring,’ she said, sticking her hand out for Poppy to shake. ‘I’m Rose. Don’t feel dumb about falling over. We all did exactly the same thing. I guess we’re all new to this genie stuff.’

  Poppy instantly felt less cross. This girl seemed nice.

  ‘Hang on, I didn’t fall,’ corrected a darkhaired boy. ‘Which probably means I’m a super-genie or something.’

  Poppy scrutinised the boy through narrowed eyes. He was wearing a grubby old football jumper, beaten-up jeans and scruffy runners. He looked like the kind of boy that girls at Poppy’s school always had crushes on, although Poppy could never see why.

  ‘A super-doofus, more likely,’ she said under her breath.

  Rose and the other girl laughed.

  The boy glared at Poppy. ‘What did you say?’ he demanded.

  But just then Lexie clapped her hands. ‘Hey, enough chat. You’ve got plenty of time to get to know each other,’ she said. ‘Find a seat and we’ll start.’

  Poppy looked around. Lexie had called this place the training centre, which sounded like a school. But this place didn’t look like a school. The room had the same curved walls as her bedroom bottle. It didn’t smell like a school either – it smelt like hot toast with jam. And there were no tables and chairs to be seen, just big, soft cushions and luxurious Persian carpets.

  ‘Are we meant to sit on the cushions?’ wondered Poppy out loud.

  ‘Well, duh, of course!’ said the boy in the football jumper. ‘You didn’t think genies would have normal desks, did you?’

  ‘I have no idea,’ retorted Poppy, plonking herself down on an emerald green cushion. ‘That’s why I’m here – to learn stuff. Why are you here, if you’re already such an expert?’

  The boy opened his mouth to reply, but to Poppy’s delight Lexie spoke before he got a chance.

  ‘I want you all to picture yourselves this morning,’ Lexie said. ‘What you felt like. How you looked. Who you thought you were.’

  Everyone nodded.

  ‘Now forget all of it,’ said Lexie. ‘You’re not that person anymore. Today you’ve all become trainee genies. You are different from your family and friends. You are out of the ordinary. In fact, you are extraordinary.’

  Poppy felt a little shiver of excitement when Lexie said that. It was pretty cool having someone say that she wasn’t ordinary.

  But Lexie’s next words brought Poppy back to earth.

  ‘Of course you’re all a long way off being fully-fledged genies,’ she said. ‘You might not be normal humans – or normies, as we call them – but none of you are capable of granting wishes yet. You’re somewhere in between. In the Genie Realm we call you guys tweenie genies. And if you don’t listen to me, and do what I say, you won’t ever get past this stage,’ she added sternly. ‘It’s very rare for every tweenie in a class to graduate. The odds are that at least one of you will fail.’

  Everyone looked shocked. It wasn’t a nice thing to hear. To make it even worse, the boy with the foot
ball jumper smirked at Poppy.

  ‘She’s talking about you!’ he whispered. ‘Because you’re more like a teeny weeny than a tweenie genie.’

  Poppy rolled her eyes and turned away, but inside she was seething. How rude! Sure, she wasn’t tall, but she definitely wasn’t teeny weeny.

  I’ll show that boy! she decided. And I’ll show Lexie, too. I’m going to be the best tweenie genie anyone has ever seen!

  Lexie pulled out a pile of red backpacks from a sliding panel in the floor of the Training Centre Bottle.

  ‘These are your tweenie genie kits,’ she explained, handing them out. ‘They’re packed with useful stuff.’

  Each bag had the tweenie’s name on the back in gold lettering. Poppy noticed that the boy’s bag had ‘Jake’ written on it. She quickly looked away and busied herself with her own backpack. The less she knew about that irritating boy the better!

  The first thing she pulled out of her bag was a silver bangle, like the ones Lexie wore. She slipped it on straight away.

  Lexie nodded. ‘That’s right. You must all wear your tweenie bangle at all times. And yes,’ she said, turning to the boy, ‘that means you too, Jake.’

  Poppy saw Jake scowl as he slipped the bangle on.

  ‘You should all have one of these in your backpacks,’ Lexie continued, holding up a book with a hard purple cover and a silver pen clipped on the side. ‘It’s a genie jotter. Use it to take notes. And when you need them, important lessons will appear in it, too.’

  Poppy opened hers up and stroked the creamy, blank pages admiringly. It’s like a diary, she thought.

  ‘Mine won’t open,’ called the other girl, whose bag had ‘Hazel’ written on it.

  ‘Of course not,’ said Lexie. ‘Stage One tweenies always need the key to open the diaries. The bangle is actually the key, so press it against the cover to open the diary.’

  ‘Um, Lexie?’ said Poppy nervously. ‘Mine opened without the key.’

  Lexie frowned. ‘That’s impossible! Show me.’

  So Poppy closed the diary and then opened it again, feeling a little silly. Then Lexie gave Poppy the same strange, intense look that she’d given her when the Location Lamp words zoomed to her hand. It was like she was searching her face for something.

  Poppy flushed. ‘Am I in trouble?’ she asked nervously.

  ‘No,’ said Lexie quietly. ‘But in future, please use the key, OK?’

  ‘OK,’ muttered Poppy. It felt dumb using a key when the diary opened up perfectly well by itself. But she could tell there was no point arguing.

  Hazel shot her a look of sympathy, and Rose whispered kindly, ‘It’s not your fault, you didn’t know.’

  Then Jake leant over. ‘Teeny Weeny broke the jotter! Teeny Weeny broke the jotter!’ he sang softly.

  Some things just didn’t deserve a reply, so Poppy ignored him. Then she unclipped the silver pen and wrote her name on the first page. She couldn’t help smiling. How good it looked!

  ‘Are there any questions?’ asked Lexie.

  The tweenies all looked at each other and then shot up their hands. Of course there were!

  Hazel went first. ‘Why did we get chosen to be genies?’ she asked.

  ‘You didn’t get chosen,’ said Lexie. ‘You are genies because you all have the Genie Gene. The Genie Gene is very rare. So when you’re born with it, we watch you until you’re ready to join the Genie Realm. Your genie powers don’t actually start working until you’re twelve so we don’t bother telling you about your real identity until then.’

  ‘Does that mean our families aren’t genies?’ asked Poppy.

  Lexie nodded. ‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘Although sometimes there is more than one genie in a family. That’s very rare, though.’

  ‘Are we the only tweenie genies?’ asked Rose.

  ‘Oh, no,’ said Lexie. ‘There are other groups of tweenies being taught by other trainers right now. But we like to teach you in small groups to start with. You’ll meet up with other tweenies in the later stages of your training.’

  ‘How long does training go for?’ Jake asked.

  ‘You have just started Stage One,’ explained Lexie. ‘It’s like a crash course in genie stuff, just to get you on the right track. Stage One goes for three nights. You’ll come here every evening, study all night and return to your normie families each morning.’

  ‘So, when exactly do we sleep?’ asked Jake, sounding puzzled.

  ‘There won’t be any time for sleep,’ said Lexie firmly. ‘But don’t worry. You’ll get nap breaks.’

  Lexie paced around the room. ‘During the next three days, you will learn about our rules and customs. You’ll learn how to act, and how to look, and hopefully how to feel like a genie. Then, at the end of the week there will be an examination.’

  ‘What kind of examination?’ asked Jake.

  ‘The first part is a written exam,’ explained Lexie. Then she held up a thick book with a red cover and gold-edged pages. ‘This is our Genie History and Culture textbook. You’ll need to know it back-to-front for the exam.’

  Poppy gulped. When were they supposed to get time to read a book that big if they were at normie school all day and at genie school all night? She could tell from the other tweenies’ faces that she wasn’t the only one wondering.

  But Lexie had already moved on. ‘The second part of the exam is more like a Ball,’ she continued. ‘It takes place in the Ballroom at the Genie Palace Bottle. That’s where you’ll be presented to the Genie Royal Family and will have to demonstrate everything you’ve learnt so far. If you pass both parts of the exam, you are allowed to go on to Stage Two of tweenie genie training. That’s when you go to one of the big genie schools with all the other Stage Two tweenies.’

  ‘And is that the end of the training?’ asked Poppy, feeling a little overwhelmed.

  ‘Not quite,’ said Lexie. ‘After that comes the most difficult part of all. Stage Three. I’m not even going to start talking about that right now, because it’ll scare you. But if you get through that – and believe me, that’s a big if – then you’ll be fully qualified.’

  No-one said anything for a moment. Then Rose asked the exact question that Poppy had been thinking. ‘What happens if we don’t pass Stage One?’

  Lexie’s voice was quiet but matter-of-fact. ‘You’ll be returned to your old life, with your memory wiped clear of all genie stuff.’

  Poppy bit her lip. There was no way she wanted that to happen!

  Then Hazel raised her hand. ‘So can we call our families and tell them where we are?’ She looked a little homesick.

  ‘Definitely not!’ Lexie said, looking shocked. ‘That would be breaking the first Genie Golden Law. You must not tell any normie that you are a genie.’

  ‘Oh,’ said Hazel, looking like she might cry.

  Now it was Poppy’s turn to give Hazel a sympathetic look. How was she supposed to know that? thought Poppy. It’s not like it’s written down anywhere. But then Poppy glanced at her jotter and saw something very surprising. What had been a completely blank page a moment ago now had golden writing on it:

  ‘But won’t our families wonder where we’ve gone at night?’ said Hazel, her voice wobbling a bit.

  ‘Oh don’t worry about that,’ said Lexie. ‘It’s been taken care of. Your houses and schools have all been fitted with an Excuse Generator which starts working the moment you enter the Genie Realm. It will cover for you.’

  ‘When do we get our wands?’ asked Rose eagerly.

  Lexie burst out laughing. ‘Genies don’t have wands. They use special moves to grant wishes. It’s like sign language. Except that every genie works out his or her own special combination of hand movements.’

  ‘That sounds like dancing,’ frowned Jake. ‘And I don’t dance.’

  ‘Well, if you want to be a genie, you’ll have to learn,’ replied Lexie. ‘But don’t worry. Even if you don’t like doing that part of your training, there are other parts I think you’ll
definitely enjoy. Let me demonstrate.’

  Then Lexie sat down cross-legged on the ground and closed her eyes. The tweenies watched her curiously. Was she meditating? Poppy was definitely not expecting what happened next …

  Lexie began rising up into the air, until she was hovering a metre off the ground!

  ‘Are we really going to learn how to do that?’ asked Hazel excitedly as Lexie floated gracefully back down. Suddenly she didn’t look quite so homesick.

  ‘Well, you’ll have to, if you want to pass the test,’ said Lexie, grinning.

  ‘That is going to be so much fun!’ said Hazel. ‘As well as granting wishes, of course.’

  ‘Actually, granting wishes can be a bit of a pain,’ admitted Lexie. ‘One minute you’re relaxing in your bottle and then whoosh! Suddenly you’re plonked in front of some irritating normie who starts demanding all kinds of stupid stuff they don’t need. The best genies are the ones who get out of granting wishes as much as possible.’

  I don’t believe that, Poppy thought. Granting wishes HAS to be fun!

  ‘And you’ll all need to memorise the second Golden Law,’ added Lexie.

  Poppy looked down at her open genie jotter. More words had appeared:

  Lexie clapped her hands, her bangles jangling like chimes. ‘That’ll do for now,’ she said. ‘Let’s go into town. To start feeling like genies, you need to start looking like genies. You lot need a complete style overhaul. Hair, clothes, the lot.’

  ‘You mean just the girls, right?’ asked Jake hopefully.

  But Lexie shook her head. ‘Everyone,’ she said. ‘There’s no way you can learn to be a real genie in that dirty old football jumper, Jake.’

  Poppy couldn’t help laughing at Jake’s horrified face. Well, she thought. At least Jake and I have ONE thing in common. We both hate make-overs!

  Lexie showed the tweenies how to use their Location Lamps. ‘We’re going to the Emerald Bazaar. It’s one of the biggest shopping bottles in the Genie Realm,’ she explained. ‘When we arrive, stay close to me and don’t wander off. It’s a pretty crazy place.’