‘Don’t bother trying to shake me off,’ she whispered to the carpet. ‘I’m not going anywhere. So let’s just have some fun.’
Straight away, the carpet seemed to relax a little, but it didn’t slow down. In fact, it went faster than ever. Poppy crouched down low and held on tight. It felt great to be riding again – and at top speed too! She caught a glimpse of the tweenies down below, cheering and clapping, and she grinned even wider.
‘Poppy, don’t panic,’ called Lady Topaz. ‘I’m coming up to get you.’
Poppy saw the worried look on the principal’s face. She sighed. It was time for the fun to end. ‘Down,’ she commanded the rug, and the carpet slipped down until came to rest right in front of Lady Topaz.
Lady Topaz grabbed Poppy’s arm, like she was worried the carpet would take off again. ‘I’m so sorry, Poppy,’ she said, looking puzzled. ‘That’s never happened before. This carpet mustn’t have been sprayed properly with Go Slow.’
‘I’m fine, Lady Topaz,’ said Poppy, smiling. ‘I actually enjoyed it.’
Lady Topaz nodded thoughtfully. ‘You did very well,’ she said. ‘It’s clear that you do have some natural riding talent. Can you show me your own carpet?’
Poppy tugged Rocket out of her backpack. Lady Topaz looked at Rocket in surprise. ‘This is a very ancient rug,’ she said softly. ‘Very ancient indeed. Where did you get it?’
‘Lexie – er, I mean, Princess Alexandria gave it to me,’ said Poppy.
Lady Topaz nodded. ‘Ah. Of course she did. That makes sense. And now I can see why you want to ride it. I’m going to allow it. From tomorrow you can join the intermediate Carpet Control class instead of the beginners’, but I expect you to pay attention.’
‘Thanks, Lady Topaz,’ said Poppy, delighted. Rocket would be so pleased!
But her pleasure soon faded. As she and Zara walked back to their seats, Poppy heard one of the tweenies whisper, ‘You were right. Golden genies are show-offs.’
‘Well, maybe,’ another tweenie whispered back. ‘But to be fair, that carpet did go pretty crazy on her.’
Poppy felt a thump of discomfort – but after the rush of her carpet ride, she was also feeling determined. Even though Zara was a pain, Poppy wouldn’t let her ruin Genie High. One way or another she’d show everyone that Poppy Miller was no different to any other student at this school.
‘So, what do you think of Poppy’s riding now?’ Jake asked Zara smugly when the Carpet Control class had finished.
Zara shrugged. ‘I still say she’s just a very lucky beginner,’ she said, glancing at her Dial-Up. ‘Time to go, Santino. Oh, and Goldie,’ she said, turning to Poppy, ‘if you really want to prove you can ride, how about you compete in the next Bottle Hop?’
‘Definitely!’ said Jake quickly.
‘Excellent,’ said Zara. Then she pressed a button on her Dial-Up. With a burst of green sparks, she and Santino disappeared.
Poppy glared at Jake. ‘What have you gotten me in to?’ she groaned. ‘We don’t even know what a Bottle Hop is.’
‘So what?’ said Jake, his eyes twinkling. ‘It sounds like fun! I can’t wait for Zara to see how good a rider you are.’
Then their Dial-Ups started beeping. ‘Oh, Most Honourable and Wondrous Tweenie,’ Poppy’s Dial-Up chanted. ‘Your Wish Granting class is starting in the Turquoise Bottle.’
‘Yeah, so get your lazy bones down there,’ added Jake’s Dial-Up with a cheeky giggle.
Jake shook his head. ‘I have to change that voice setting,’ he muttered. ‘And soon.’
Lots of other tweenies were already in the Turquoise Bottle when Poppy and Jake arrived. They were staring at Poppy and whispering.
Even though she felt a little shy, and more than a little embarrassed, Poppy decided to go up to them. The sooner they get to know me, she told herself, pulling Jake along with her. the sooner they’ll realise I’m no goody-goody.
When she got there, she took a deep breath and smiled at them. ‘Hi, I’m Poppy, and this is Jake,’ she said. ‘And I guess you’re all staring at me either because I have something gross hanging from my nose, or because I’m a Golden genie. But I’m really no different to anyone else here. I’m just a normal tweenie.’
One of the girls smiled back shyly. ‘Um, Poppy,’ she said, as the name Alyssa flashed up on her uniform, ‘I have a question. Why are you even at this school? I mean, you obviously already know how to fly, and I’ve heard that you can even grant wishes.’
‘I was wondering that, too,’ said a boy called Nathan. ‘Are you just here to keep an eye on us or something? If you already know everything, what’s the point of being here?’
Poppy shook her head firmly. ‘No!’ she said. ‘I am definitely not here to spy on you guys. And I don’t know everything. That flying thing today – I just held on.’
‘But you’ve granted wishes, haven’t you?’ persisted Alyssa.
‘Well, yes,’ Poppy admitted. ‘But I had no idea what I was doing. It was pretty embarrassing, actually – my sister found my genie bottle.’
‘Oh no!’ groaned Alyssa. ‘That’s terrible!’
‘I know,’ Poppy said, rolling her eyes. Then she explained the whole story about how Astrid had wished to be famous. By the time Poppy had finished, everyone was laughing.
‘I’m glad you told us about that,’ said Nathan, grinning at her. ‘I thought you were going to be a total goody-goody, you know. But I guess you make mistakes too.’
Poppy laughed. ‘Believe me. I make heaps of mistakes,’ she said. ‘It took me ages to even learn how to levitate!’
Suddenly there was a puff of silver smoke, and a genie with shimmering white hair appeared before them. ‘Hello Twos, I’m Madame Pearl,’ she said with a warm smile. ‘Sit down please, and let’s start our Wish Granting class.’
Poppy and the others grabbed some cushions and sat down.
‘Now,’ said Madame Pearl. ‘Let’s find out what you already know. Let’s see … Poppy, can you tell me how to grant a wish?’
‘You do your wish routine,’ said Poppy, ‘and imagine the wish coming true.’
‘And what is a wish routine, exactly?’ asked Madame Pearl.
‘Well, it’s kind of like a dance,’ said Poppy, remembering what she’d learnt in her Stage One training. ‘Every genie has their own personal routine. You have to find out what this routine is by yourself. Sometimes the moves can be pretty unusual.’
Jake grinned at Poppy when she said this, and Poppy knew why. Her own wish routine had a very strange movement in it – she touched her nose with her tongue. It was a trick she’d been doing ever since she was very young. Poppy had never realised that one day it would help her to grant wishes!
‘And can you tell me whether a genie should grant any human wish straight away?’ said Madame Pearl.
‘We’re supposed to find a way of not granting the wish,’ recited Poppy, ‘because normies make such bad wishes. We can also use Wish Twisting. That’s when we spin the normie’s wish around so that it ends up being something they don’t really want at all.’
‘Very good, Poppy,’ said Madame Pearl approvingly.
Poppy felt pleased until she noticed a tweenie called Lisa rolling her eyes. Poppy bit her lip. Oops! she thought, sinking into her cushion a little further. No wonder they think I’m a goody-goody.
Madame Pearl cleared her throat. ‘Now in this class we are going to look at advanced wish-granting techniques,’ she went on. ‘Make sure you pay attention and absorb everything I say. You never know when this information might come in handy.’ Madame Pearl swirled her finger through the air. A trail of purplish smoke appeared where her finger had been, forming words. The words ‘Wish Leading’ hung in mid-air for a moment, then gradually faded away.
Everyone opened their genie jotters and started taking notes.
‘Wish Leading is a more complex form of Wish Twisting,’ Madame Pearl explained. ‘We use it when we want a normie to waste their wishes on somet
hing that’s easy to grant.’
A few of the tweenies looked confused. Madame Pearl smiled. ‘Have you noticed how often normies say the words “I wish”?’ she said. ‘They might say, “I wish I had a sandwich,” or, “I wish I could find my keys”. You can probably see that these wishes are very easy to grant. You could grant them without the normie even knowing you were a genie! That’s what Wish Leading is all about.’
Then Madame Pearl looked around. ‘Does anyone have any ideas on how you could “lead” a wish?’
Everyone was silent. Poppy thought of some things straight away, but this time she was determined to keep quiet. She didn’t want to look like a know-it-all again.
After a moment or two, Madame Pearl smiled at her. ‘What about you, Poppy?’
Poppy could feel everyone watching her, waiting to see if she would give the correct answer. ‘Well,’ she said, thinking quickly, ‘you could beckon with your finger and say, “Here, wishy-wishy-wish! I want to lead you!”.’ The class tittered, and Poppy felt a rush of satisfaction.
Madame Pearl shook her head. ‘Not quite. Anyone else?’
Nathan put up his hand. ‘You could ask heaps of really annoying questions until the normie said, “I wish you’d stop that”.’
‘Or you could keep accidentally-onpurpose bumping into them until they said, “I wish you’d go away”,’ said Alyssa.
Madame Pearl nodded. ‘Those are both excellent suggestions.’
I knew that stuff anyway, Poppy thought, feeling pleased. But let’s see who calls me a know-it-all now!
‘The other thing we will talk about is Coincidences,’ continued Madame Pearl, writing the word in the air. ‘Coincidences are another useful way of disguising a wish when the normie you’re granting it for doesn’t know you’re a genie.’
‘How is that possible?’ asked Jake, looking surprised. ‘Isn’t it pretty obvious that you’re a genie if you’ve popped out of a bottle in front of them?’
Madame Pearl raised an eyebrow. ‘Tell me, did any of you believe it when you first saw a genie?’
‘Well, no,’ admitted Poppy. ‘I thought it was a big joke.’
Madame Pearl nodded. ‘Exactly,’ she said. ‘You’d be surprised how often people refuse to believe what is happening right in front of their eyes. Especially adult normies. But a clever genie will use this to their advantage. If a normie doesn’t believe you’re a genie, they probably won’t demand wishes. And if they do accidentally make a wish, it’s much easier for you to disguise it as a coincidence.’
Then Madame Pearl wrote ‘Secret Wishes’ in the air. ‘This is the final thing we’ll talk about today,’ she said. ‘Granting wishes secretly – so that the normie has no idea you’re doing it – is an invaluable genie skill. Perhaps you want to disguise a wish as a coincidence. This is all very well, but what will the normie think if you suddenly start flinging yourself about, doing your wish routine? It might make them a little suspicious, correct?’
Everyone nodded and Madame Pearl lowered her voice. ‘That’s why we have another, much less conspicuous way of granting wishes.’
Poppy and the other tweenies leant forward on their cushions, waiting to hear what she was going to say.
‘You close your eyes and you concentrate very carefully on imagining the wish coming true,’ said Madame Pearl softly, ‘and then you say the special, genie magic word.’ She looked around the room mysteriously. ‘Can anyone guess what that magic word is?’
Poppy’s mind had gone blank, and it looked as though everyone else’s had too. Then Madame Pearl wrote a word up in the air with smoke letters. It shimmered there while everyone stared at it in astonishment.
Please
‘Please?’ blurted Jake in disbelief. ‘The genie magic word is please?’
Madame Pearl laughed. ‘That’s right. You’ve probably been asked thousands of times by adult normies what the “magic word” is – and none of them know just how magic that word is if it’s uttered by a genie.’
Looking around, Poppy could see that the other tweenies were as surprised as she was! Everyone started talking excitedly among themselves, until finally, Madame Pearl raised her hand. ‘That’s enough for today, everyone. I’ll see you in the Sapphire Bottle for your Ancient Genie Languages lesson tomorrow morning. But before I go, let’s do one more important piece of revision. What is the most important thing a genie can do to avoid having to grant wishes?’
The tweenies chanted the answer in unison. ‘Keep your genie bottle well hidden!’
Madame Pearl nodded. ‘Correct,’ she said as they packed up their books. ‘If the normies can’t find your bottle, they can’t ask for wishes – and that saves everyone a lot of bother.’
Luckily my bottle is well hidden under the bed, thought Poppy as she put her jotter into her backpack.
Then Poppy frowned. She had remembered to put the bottle back under her bed, hadn’t she? As soon as she thought this, a queasy feeling rose in her stomach – the one that she’d felt when Astrid had found her genie bottle and started demanding wishes. And when Poppy’s fingers started feeling tingly, she knew for sure what was going on.
Oh no, she thought, filled with dread. Someone had discovered her bottle, and she was being drawn back into the normie world – but by who?
‘I really hope Astrid hasn’t found my bottle again,’ muttered Poppy as she whooshed back to the normie world. Her sister had treated her like a slave!
‘Don’t worry,’ murmured her Dial-Up, sounding a little rattled by the journey. ‘Genies can only grant three wishes to any one normie.’
When Poppy arrived back in her bedroom in a puff of smoke, she saw her mother lying on the ground with her head under the bed, pulling things out and muttering crossly. The middle of the room was piled high with Poppy’s old shoes, scrunched up school assignments and clothes she no longer wore.
Then Poppy spotted something else – not on the floor, but sitting on her bedside table. Her genie bottle! Mum must have found it, realised Poppy, her stomach sinking.
She checked her uniform. It had changed back to a normie one, just like Lexie said it would. She stepped closer to her mum. ‘Hi, Mum,’ said Poppy, trying to sound as normal as she could.
‘Poppy! What are you doing here?’ asked her mum, pulling her head out from under the bed.
‘I’m home from school,’ Poppy replied. ‘You know – the school I got a full scholarship to because I’m so smart?’
Poppy hoped that reminding her mum of this would put her in a good mood. It didn’t.
‘Well, I hope they’ll teach you how to tidy up after yourself,’ her mum said, sounding annoyed. ‘Your room is a disgrace. Look at all the things I found under your bed.’ She picked up Poppy’s genie bottle. ‘Why is this under there? It’s such a pretty bottle, but it’s covered with dust that just won’t come off!’
Poppy’s mind whirled into action. Mum could make a wish at any time, she thought. I have to be ready!
Then she remembered the class she had just taken. Maybe I can use that wish-leading technique Madame Pearl was talking about. Poppy wasn’t really sure how it worked, but it couldn’t hurt to try.
‘Is there something you wish I would do, Mum?’ asked Poppy innocently. ‘To help with the tidying up, I mean.’
‘Well,’ sighed her mum, ‘I do really wish you’d start putting your dirty clothes in the washing basket.’
Poppy grinned. It had worked perfectly! Poppy picked up a dirty T-shirt and one sock and dumped them in the washing basket.
‘What do you wish I would do now, Mum?’ said Poppy.
Her mum frowned. ‘There are still lots of clothes on the floor, Poppy.’
‘But you only wished I would start picking them up,’ Poppy pointed out. ‘Do you wish I would finish picking them up now?’
‘I’m not in the mood for jokes, Poppy,’ her mum snapped. ‘You’re a tweenager now, not a child.’
Suddenly Poppy felt crabby too. ‘You always treat me li
ke a child,’ she complained, ‘so I may as well act like one! Astrid is allowed to do heaps more things than I am.’
‘Well that’s because Astrid is …’ Poppy’s mum’s voice trailed off.
‘Older,’ Poppy said grumpily. ‘It’s not fair. Astrid will always be older and I’ll never catch up. She’s allowed to do all kinds of things I’m not allowed to do. And you give her everything she asks for. When Astrid asked for a guinea pig, she got one. But when I asked for a bird-eating spider, you said no!’
To be fair, Poppy had only asked for a birdeating spider because she knew she wouldn’t be allowed to have one.
‘Oh Poppy,’ her mother said. She sighed. ‘I wish I could be the perfect mother, Poppy. I really do.’
Poppy stood still, staring at her mum. ‘You wish you could be the perfect mother?’
‘Yes,’ said her mum. ‘But to be honest, Poppy, I don’t know what that is.’
A smile crept across Poppy’s face. Actually, she thought, I might have an idea! Remembering what Madame Pearl had said about granting wishes secretly, Poppy closed her eyes and concentrated on her mum becoming perfect. Then she said the magic word …
‘What are you saying “please” for?’ asked her mum. But even as she spoke, a confused expression came over her mum’s face, like she wasn’t sure where she was. Or who she was.
Two seconds later, her expression had totally changed again. Poppy’s mum smiled brightly. ‘You know,’ she said with a wink, ‘I think we should go and get you that birdeating spider after all. After a celebratory ice-cream, of course.’
‘Right now?’ said Poppy, astonished.
‘Yes,’ said her mum, grabbing her car keys. ‘Don’t worry about homework. A superstudent like you deserves to take it easy once in a while.’ And then she whisked Poppy out of the house.
Poppy’s mum stopped the car on the main road, in front of the new ice-cream shop. Poppy had been dying to go there but her mum had always refused.
Genie High School Page 3
