Wishful Thinking (15 page)

“Yes, but—”

“No
yesbuts
.” Sophie shook her head. “If these people like the house, then they might buy it before my djinn ring is cleansed and my powers are back to normal, and then it will be too late. I mean, what's the point of being a djinn if I'm living in Montana?”

“You know one of the
Idol
contestants was from Montana, and it really didn't look that bad. . . okay, fine. No Montana. I'll try my best.”

“Thank you,” Sophie said as she got down on her knees. “And now if you don't mind, I need to stand on my head and practice my exercises. If you could go away and do whatever it is you do, that would be great.”

For a moment Malik looked like he was going to say something before he finally clicked his fingers and disappeared from sight. Then Sophie balanced on her head and started to chant the words he had given her, while thinking positive, happy thoughts. After all, as a very positive person, she had no doubt that everything would be fine. It
had
to be.

S
O NO SICK DAY, HUH?” HARVEY ASKED ON MONDAY morning as they all piled off the bus and made their way into the main entrance. Fall had really started to make its presence felt, and it was far too cool to sit out on the boulder, so they headed straight for their lockers.

“No.” Sophie shook her head since despite coughing (and limping) all weekend, her mom had refused point blank to let Sophie stay home. Which in itself wouldn't have been so bad if every second sentence that her mom had uttered hadn't been accompanied by the words
“MG said.”
Even Meg was so sick of hearing it she'd said that unless MG knew the difference between a great white and a tiger shark, then she wasn't interested.

Not that her mom had even seemed bothered. Instead, she spent the entire weekend either on the computer or cleaning up the yard before the people came back for a second showing. Meanwhile, Sophie practically had to tie Malik down to give him a few lessons in the art of scaring people. She had made him sit through some select choices from Harvey's scary movie collection to give him a few clues, and Kara had shown him how to use tomato ketchup to write on the walls. In the end they had decided to keep it simple and have him do something like “Beware” and “Doomed.”

“Still,” Kara piped in, “you didn't have any accidents over the weekend, so you just need to get through today and—”

But Sophie hardly heard the rest of her friend's sentence as she caught sight of Jonathan Tait walking toward them. Without a word she darted behind the nearest locker (but not before noticing how gorgeous he looked in dark denims, a blue retro Adidas T-shirt, and some new sneakers with yellow laces).

“Hey, Jonathan,” she heard Kara say. “Sophie is. . . er, well, she was here a minute ago.” As Kara spoke she glanced around before catching sight of Sophie crouched behind the locker. Her friend widened her eyes at her, but Sophie just shook her head and made the international sign for Don't tell him that I'm here or I will die.

“Oh,” Jonathan said in his gorgeous voice, which made Sophie go all tingly. “Well, can you tell her that I'm looking for her? I've got something to give her.”

“O-of course.” Kara nodded while shooting Sophie another pleading glance. Sophie immediately narrowed her eyes and gave three quick shakes of her head.

“Okay, great. So I guess I'll see you guys around then.” Jonathan shrugged as he gave Kara and Harvey a friendly smile and then loped off in the other direction.

“Um, so according to his body language, I'm pretty sure he likes you, and since you have talked nonstop about him since you were seven years old, I can't quite figure out why you're avoiding him?” Harvey joined Sophie in her crouching position beside the locker as she peered down the corridor to make sure Jonathan was gone.

“Yes, but right now I'm like a walking time bomb. So I figured that the best thing to do was just stay out of his way today, and then tomorrow when I've finished cleansing my djinn ring and the RWD has gone away, things can be back to normal. Well, as normal as it can be considering that I'm a djinn,” Sophie explained. After all, it was one thing for his sister to think she was a freak, but it was another thing entirely for Jonathan to think it.

“So that's your plan? To hide out every time you see Jonathan Tait?” Harvey raised an eyebrow.

“Pretty much.” Sophie nodded. “Oh, and I've also decided that if anyone tries to say ‘I wish' around me, I'll just hum in my head and drown out the words.”

Harvey's eyebrow raised even higher, but before he could comment Kara cut in and shot Sophie a supportive smile.

“Well, I think that's an excellent idea, and besides, it won't be long before this is all over and Sophie can talk to Jonathan again without risking anything going weird.”

“Thanks, K.” Sophie returned the smile, and then, once the coast was Jonathan Tait clear, they all hurried to assembly. Sophie tried to ignore the fact that this time last week she had been full of hope and excitement about starting sixth grade. It had been a long seven days, that was for sure. She noticed Mr. Collins was looking at her intently, and she only just revisited the urge to poke her tongue at him since his phone call to her mom was the whole reason she was stuck at school now instead of in the safety of her own room.

Still, she was a positive person, and she had figured out that she had only twelve hours until the ring was cleansed and the RWD was gone. She glanced at her watch. Actually, make that eleven hours and thirty-two minutes. Next to her Kara reached over and gave Sophie's hand a comforting squeeze as Principal Gerrard tapped the microphone.

Sophie felt herself start to relax. Everything was going to be okay. She just needed to stay calm, focus her thoughts, and really—

“Right. Robert Robertson Middle School, I really wish that—”

Oh, no. It was the zipped lips all over again, and for a moment Sophie froze in alarm before she quickly thrust her hands over her ears and started to hum “Zombie Vegas” silently in her mind to block out the words. She could do it. She was not listening. She could not hear. She. . . hey, it was working! Sophie blinked as she realized that her stomach wasn't hurting. That was so cool. She'd avoided granting an “I wish” wish.

“Nice work.” Kara mouthed from next to her while Harvey gave her a thumbs-up. Suddenly, Sophie felt some of her good mood return.
See, all she needed to do was keep her positive attitude.

*  *  *  *  *

By the end of the day Sophie had hummed her way through four songs, and, according to Kara, she had avoided conjuring up some blueberry muffins, a set of false nails, and in Melissa Tait's case, a Jessica Alba nose. She had also managed to avoid getting a detention from Señor Rena by frantically doing her homework while they were cooped up in the janitor's closet during their lunch break. But most importantly, she had ducked and hidden herself away from Jonathan Tait no fewer than five times. Of course, the irony wasn't lost on her that last week her greatest wish would've been to know that Jonathan was looking for her in the first place.

“Are you sure this is really necessary?” Harvey double-checked as they lurked by the boulder in front of the school that afternoon. Normally, they just went straight over and joined the bus line, but Sophie had decided that it was too risky and that it was better to wait separately and then just race over when their bus arrived.

“I'm sure,” she said in a confident voice. In fact, if the government ever wanted to hire specially trained djinn secret agents, perhaps they would recruit her, since she was turning out to be quite good at this covert stuff. Then she glanced at her watch. “I only have six hours left before this whole RWD thing will be over and everything will be fine.”

“Okay, if you. . . shoot,” Kara cried out as she looked at her empty hands. “I've left my portfolio in the art room, and I promised Mrs. Ryder I would work on my watercolors tonight. I'll have to go back and get it.”

Sophie and Harvey looked at each other in alarm before Harvey gave a polite cough.

“I'll go with you,” he told her.

“I think I can go to the art room on my own,” Kara retorted.

“Okay, so how about we use your recent visit to the art supply store on Hamilton as an example?” Harvey suggested in a polite voice. “I do believe your exact words were ‘I'll just go get some charcoal and then I'll meet you both in Mickey D's in five minutes.' Two hours and three Big Macs later and Sophie and I had to send out a search party.”

“And even then you didn't come willingly.” Sophie shot Kara an apologetic grin. “You're worse than Meg when she goes to the aquarium. Anyway, you guys go and get the portfolio, and I'll make sure that the bus doesn't leave without you.”

“We won't be long,” Harvey promised as he started to jog slowly back to the main building, Kara trailing in his wake. Sophie waited until her friends had disappeared before she wrapped her jacket closer around her and leaned against the boulder. In half an hour she would be safely back at home and—

“Sophie, there you are,” a voice said from behind, and Sophie felt the hairs on the back of her neck start to prickle as she slowly turned around to see Jonathan Tait standing in front of her. “I've been looking for you all day.”

“You have?” Sophie gulped as she realized she might have to withdraw her application to the Secret Service.

“Yeah, didn't you see me near the vending machines? I was waving at you?” he asked, his blue eyes full of confusion.

“R-really?” she stammered instead. “I didn't realize. My mom is thinking of getting my eyes checked because my vision's so bad.”

“Oh.” He nodded as he ran a hand through his golden curls. “I was starting to get worried that you were avoiding me because of how mental Melissa went on you.”

“What?” She looked at him blankly for a moment before she realized that Jonathan was actually waiting for her to speak. “I mean, no, it's definitely not like that. Melissa who? That's what I say.”

“Well, that's good to know.” He suddenly grinned as he pulled a CD out of his bag. “Anyway, I wanted to give you this. It's the set list for the concert.”

“Thanks.” Sophie reached out to take the CD and felt a little bubble of happiness go racing through her as his finger grazed hers. “And hey, I'm sorry you couldn't find me today. I-it's been a bit of a crazy time lately, but I'm pretty certain that things will be back to normal tomorrow. In fact, I can almost guarantee it.”

“Really?” He didn't pull his hand away, and Sophie felt herself getting lost in his gorgeous eyes.

“Really,” she agreed in a croaky voice as she continued to stare at his perfect face.

“Well, that's good. But you know, if there is something weird going on, I wish you'd tell me what it is.”

Unfortunately, Sophie was so caught up in the sensation of being close to Jonathan Tait that it wasn't until the first stab of pain hit her stomach that she quite realized what he had just said.

Nooooooooooooooooooo
she wanted to scream out loud, but of course between the pain and the overwhelming desire to speak, that just wasn't possible.

“Are you okay?” Jonathan looked at her concern.

“Well, my stomach hurts,” she admitted as she managed to stand up straight again. “But it's only because I've got this thing called Random Wish Disorder, or RWD, as they say in the business.”

What? No. Shut up,
a tiny voice at the back of her head tried to scream out, but another part of her brain ignored it by humming a Neanderthal Joe song.
Oh, that was just plain evil.

“What?” Jonathan looked even more perplexed. “I don't think I get what you're talking about.”

“Sorry.” She shot him a goofy look as her inner voice was completely drowned out. “I'm not explaining this very well. I should probably start at the beginning. You see, last week while I was staring at you through Mr. Rivers's basement window I accidently released a djinn called Malik, who in turn convinced me to wear his djinn ring. See, isn't it pretty? Anyway, now I'm a djinn, and not only did I magically conjure up the Neanderthal Joe tickets, but now every time someone says the words ‘I wish,' I'm compelled to do it, and—”

Before she could say anything else, Harvey and Kara suddenly reappeared. After taking one look at the situation, Harvey clamped his hand firmly over Sophie's mouth so that the rest of her words sounded muffled. Not that it really mattered, since after staring at her like she was something that Mr. Jaws had dragged in from the garden, Jonathan turned and walked in the other direction without even a backward glance. As he disappeared from sight, Sophie was fairly certain that she now had another contender for worst day ever.