Wishful Thinking (7 page)

However, the rest of his words were cut off by the sound of his cell phone. He quickly pulled it from his pocket and checked the text message, which had just come in. Sophie watched in alarm as his face went pale.

“Hey, is everything okay?”

“What?” He blinked for a moment before he finally looked up and shot her an apologetic smile. “Yeah everything's fine. Well, sort of. That was my mom. She wants me to go home, but I'm just going to tell her that—”

“You're going to do no such thing.” She put her hand over his to stop him from texting back a reply (while trying to ignore her own orange, paint-smeared fingers). “I'm sure that the djinn isn't too far away.”

“Are you sure?” Harvey didn't look convinced, but Sophie gave an adamant nod of her head as she grabbed his backpack.

“Yes, I promise.”

“Okay, but I'll definitely do some more research tonight, and by tomorrow we'll all be djinn experts.”

“Thanks, Harvey. You're the best.” She grinned at him while secretly crossing her fingers, since tomorrow she planned to forget that djinns even existed. She then waited until Harvey left before she brought her hands crashing together in an almighty clap to try and summon the djinn.

Then she repeated it again and again until it finally built up into an earsplitting crescendo. Yes, her hands hurt like crazy, but as she continued to clap, she didn't care, because—

“You know, you don't need to clap so loudly. I'm right here,” a voice said from over to the left, and Sophie felt her eyes widen as she realized the djinn was sitting on her bed. His long legs were crossed at the knees, and his hands were neatly folded in front of him as if he didn't have a care in the world.

“You.” Sophie immediately threw Harvey's hood back off her face and marched over to him. “Where have you been? I've been clapping for
hours
.”

“Yeah, sorry about that.” The djinn shrugged. “I did go back to that school place of yours, but you seemed a bit hysterical, so I thought I'd give you some time to settle down, since hysterical girls aren't really my forte. . . 
and burning Sahara sands, what have you done to your face?
”

“It's called paint.” Sophie gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes. “Because, in case you're too dumb to realize, humans don't normally walk around ‘that school place' looking orange.”

“Well, I might not be an expert on humans like you are, but all the same, I'm fairly certain that they don't normally walk around covered in paint, either,” the djinn countered, which only caused Sophie to glare at him some more.

“Trust me, I don't intend to anymore. Now that you're here, can you please swap me back to normal?” As she spoke she nodded her head to positively reinforce her message (which Harvey had actually taught her from his body language book. So far it had worked three times on her mom and once on Mr. Jaws, so Sophie felt confident using it now).

“What little part of our previous conversation did you not understand?” The djinn got to his feet, wandered over to Sophie's bookshelf, and started to examine one of her ancient Tamagotchi virtual pets. “There is no swapping back. You're a djinn. Whether you like it or not.”

“But I can't be,” Sophie explained to him patiently as she continued to nod her head. “Look, I don't who you are, but—”

“Malik.”

“What?” Sophie stared at him as he gave the Tama-gotchi a curious sniff.

“Malik. That's my name. Not that I would normally tell you that, since rule number one for any djinn is to never let anyone find out what your true name is. By the way, you should actually write that rule down. Anyway, I guess now that I'm dead it doesn't matter. Malik, Malik, Malik. Wow, you have no idea how great it feels to say that,” Malik marveled.

“Well,
Malik, Malik, Malik,
I'm pleased that you're so happy, but if you can't understand why you need to turn me back to normal, then perhaps you should take me to this Djinn Council of yours, because I'm sure that they would be most interested to hear what you've been up to.”

Malik instantly burst out laughing, and it took several minutes for him to finally stop. “Sorry,” he eventually apologized as he wiped his eyes. “But it's been a long time since I've heard anything quite so funny.”

“And why exactly is it so funny?” Sophie demanded, folding her arms in front of her.

“You thinking that the Djinn Council might give two hoots about you.” Malik was still silently shaking. Sophie gulped, since until that minute she had herself convinced. Then she remembered that the djinn was a self-confessed liar.

“And why should I believe you?” She narrowed her eyes.

“Absolutely no reason at all.” He didn't look remotely bothered as he gave her a casual shrug. “But it doesn't make it any less true. So you can either forget about this idea that there's a get-out clause, or you can make yourself miserable for the next couple of thousand years. It really is your call.”

“But I can't be a djinn,” Sophie persisted, while trying to ignore the desperate edge to her voice. So much for her fabulous new plan.

“You know since you still seem to have a problem accepting this thing, how about I just give you some alone time, and then when you're ready to talk about it, you can clap your hands?”

“What?” Sophie blinked at him before giving a resolute shake of her head. “I'm not falling for that one again. You can stay here until this thing is sorted out.”

“But there's nothing to sort out,” Malik reminded her. “You're a djinn, and if you want to keep doing the ‘argh, but it can't be happening to me' thing, then that's fine, but I'd rather not be here to witness it.”

“But—”

“Aha. See, there you go again.” Malik pointed his finger at her. “Look, let me spell it out for you. Under that paint, your skin is now the color of a gorgeous tropical sunset. There's a buzzing noise in your ears that indicates that you're tuning in to your new powers. And finally, your core body temperature has risen by about five degrees as you become a true child of the smokeless flame. And you know what all of that stuff means?”

“T-that I'm coming down with the flu?” Sophie asked hopefully as she rubbed her ears and tried not to think about her burning cheeks and orange skin.

“That you're a djinn,” Malik corrected.

“So what are you saying? That I really am stuck like this for the rest of my life?” Sophie felt her lips start to wobble as the reality started to hit her. The worst thing was that she didn't even need Malik to confirm what she already knew. After all, a girl could ignore the fact that her skin was orange for only so long. Or that she was boiling hot despite the San Diego fall weather, or even that her ears were still buzzing like she'd just spent the entire night in the mosh pit of a Neanderthal Joe concert. Something was definitely happening to her, and from the sounds of it, that something was the fact that she had turned into a djinn.

Sophie dropped her head into her hands and resisted the urge to scream. This surely had to be the worst first day back at school. Ever.

Y
OU KNOW I DON'T MEAN TO INTERRUPT WHEN YOU are quite clearly having a moment.” Malik gave a polite cough about ten minutes later. “But you've been quiet for a while now, and the thing is, I'm getting a bit hungry. I don't suppose you have anything to eat around here? Now that I don't have any powers, I guess I'll just have to start getting my food the old-fashioned way.”

Sophie, who was just in the middle of having an official freak-out (about the size of a small European country), finally felt herself snap out of it as she looked up at Malik in disbelief.

“Okay, so let me just be clear about this. You've come along and
completely
ruined my life, and now you're asking for food?”

“Hey, it's been a really tough day,” Malik protested before seeming to notice the dark look Sophie was throwing him. He suddenly shrugged. “But I'm just a ghost, so who needs food, right? And I know I opted out of the whole eternal-life thing, but honestly, it's not so bad.”

“Yeah, right,” Sophie started to mutter before an idea suddenly occurred to her. “Oh, that's it! You tricked me into wearing the ring, so why don't I just trick someone else into wearing it? Not anyone I know, of course, but perhaps a bad person?”

“Yes, why not give unlimited power to an evil person. That's a great idea,” Malik said before shaking his head. “And I hate to dry out your oasis, but you would have to have lived for about a thousand years before you would be even close to having the power to convince someone to take the ring off you. And then there's the whole thing about it potentially killing them. Trust me when I tell you that it's not as easy as it looks. By the way, what's that pinging noise?”

“Oh.” Sophie looked over to her computer. She was supposed to turn it off when she went to school to save electricity, but she had obviously forgotten. “It's probably just one of my friends IMing me to see if I'm still orange.”

“IMing?” Malik walked over to the keyboard and gave it a curious poke with his finger, but Sophie ignored him as she tried to stay cool. Of course it wasn't easy when (a) she was actually boiling hot, and (b) she was apparently a djinn forever after. Even worse, a quick glance at the clock told her that her mom would be home soon, which meant that her new plan had to involve getting her skin color sorted out as quickly as possible.

“Malik,” she said as he picked up the computer mouse and started to lick it. “Malik,” she repeated in a louder voice, but when he still didn't answer, she was forced to march over and take the mouse out of his hands. “Malik, will you please concentrate.”

“Sorry,” he apologized as he continued to stare at the mouse much like it was a piece of chocolate cake. “What did you want?”

“I want to know how to lose the orange skin.”

“You don't like being orange?” He lifted an eyebrow in surprise.

“Not even a little bit,” Sophie assured him. “So can you please zap it away?”

“Sorry, I thought I explained that now I'm dead, I don't have any magic at all. Just the ability to walk through walls, which between you and me is pretty cool. Oh, and this—” he suddenly added as he clicked his fingers and she found herself staring at someone who looked a whole lot like Zac Efron.

Sophie's jaw dropped as Zac gave her a half smile.

“Neat, isn't it?” Malik's voice came out of Zac's mouth. “I had no idea that ghosts could still shape-shift. Anyway, I was thinking since you're young that you might feel more comfortable with someone a bit closer to your own age, so I took the liberty of looking through some magazines. It was either this guy or someone called Jonas Brother.”

Sophie dropped down to her bed and rubbed her brow, while reminding herself that she was a very positive person, and just because it appeared as if her djinn guide had not only ruined her life but obviously was insane as well, that was no reason for her to freak out. She just needed to take a deep breath and think happy thoughts.

Ah. That was better. After another calming lungful of oxygen she looked up to where Malik/Zac was inspecting his fingers with interest. She plastered on a bright smile.

“Okay, so I suppose you'll need to teach me how to do it. After all, didn't you tell me that it's your job to help me deal with all of this?”

“You want to learn how to do a double helix spell on your first day?” he double-checked before shaking his head. “Sorry, but that just ain't going to happen. In fact, until your ring has been properly cleansed, you won't be able to do any magic at all. Even when you can do magic it takes quite a while for you to learn how to control it all. Thankfully, now that you're immortal you have all the time in the world.”

“But there must be something I can do?” Sophie pleaded while secretly wondering if she was going to be sick.

“Well, there is Rufus the Furious.” Malik paused and rubbed his Zac-like chin for a moment. “He came up with a potion that completely takes it away. Of course, at the time we all laughed at him, since who in their right mind would want to change from orange to a rancid flesh color? But as it turns out, loads of djinns wanted to, which is why Rufus the Furious is now known as Rufus the Filthy Rich, and—”

“So there is something I can use to make me look like normal again?” Sophie widened her eyes as she felt a surge of relief go racing through her. Thank goodness for positive thinking.

“Yes, that's what I just said.” Malik looked confused. “So does that mean you want some?”

“Absolutely, with bells on top,” Sophie assured him as she pulled Harvey's hoodie back over her forehead. “First I just need to drop Meg back around to the Daltons' place. How long should I tell Mrs. Dalton that we'll be gone?”

“It shouldn't take too long.” Malik gave a dismissive shrug. “Probably four days. Five tops, though it will depend on the trade winds. They can be a bit funny this time of year. Of course it would easier if you could use your magic, but—”

“Four or five days?” Sophie instantly threw the hoodie back from her head and used her hands to fan down her burning face. “Where exactly is this place?”

“Istanbul.”

“Istanbul?” Sophie repeated just in case she had made a mistake. Unlike Kara, who excelled at art, and Harvey, who, despite his appearance, excelled in everything math and science related, Sophie's best subject was history, and her second-best subject was geography, which meant she knew exactly where Istanbul was (or, more to the point, exactly where it wasn't—i.e., down the street).

“That's correct. Why are you looking at me like that? Is something wrong?”

“I'm looking at you like this because I'm eleven years old,” Sophie replied as she continued to fan her boiling face. “I can't even go to the mall on my own, so Istanbul is sort of out of the question.”

“Huh. So that I did not know.” Malik rubbed his chin for a minute before shrugging. “Oh, well, I guess you'll just have to get used to the orange then. Besides, you'd be surprised at how many colors it actually goes with. I mean, you've got all your reds and yellows, and then it contrasts nicely with green and—”

“Stop!” She commanded while trying not to freak out about the fact that not only was she an orange djinn but that the ghost who was meant to be guiding her was quite clearly insane. “You're not helping here. There has to be something.”

“Let's see, double helix or a visit to Rufus to get his potion.” Malik ticked off his fingers before looking back up and shaking his head. “Nope. Sorry, those are the only two options. . . and there's that weird pinging noise again. Are you sure there isn't anything trapped in there, because I once fought this ghul that made a very similar noise. Nasty creature it was. In fact, in the end the only way I could stop it was by chopping off its head. Actually, you should make a note of that. Ghuls respond best to head chopping. Very important.”

“I've got no idea what a ghul is, but I can promise you that there's nothing in there but wires and stuff,” Sophie assured him as she once again glanced over to see that both Harvey and Kara were now impatiently nudging her online. “Now come on, Malik, if you're my guide, then you need to figure something out.”

“But I still don't understand what it does?” Malik, who didn't seem remotely bothered by Sophie's panic, was instead tentatively poking the screen, much like one would poke a sleeping tiger. Sophie gritted her teeth.

“It's a computer, and most people use it for the Internet, which is a place where you can go and look up just about anything. I mean, Harvey even found loads of stuff on—”

However, the rest of the words died on her lips as she realized how dumb she had been. Of course. It was so simple that she couldn't quite believe that she hadn't thought of it sooner.

“What are you doing?” Malik demanded as Sophie edged him out of the way and brought up a search engine. Then she grinned in delight as she studied the results.

“If I can't go to Istanbul, I'm going to see if Istanbul can come to me.”

“Well, I don't mean to discourage you, but when Solomon attempted to get one of his djinns to move Israel a bit closer to France (apparently he had a thing for croissants), the whole exercise was a total fail from start to finish.”

“I'm not talking about magic.” Sophie shook her head as she clicked on a link. “I'm talking about Google. . . ta-da.”

“Yes, but,” Malik started to say before he leaned forward and once again pointed to the screen, this time in astonishment. “Hey, that's him. That's Rufus. Ooooh, though you know, he really shouldn't let people see his left profile like that. It's not what I would call flattering. Anyway, what is this thing he's in?”

“It's called a Web site, and thankfully this one has online shopping,” Sophie explained as she quickly scanned the first page.

Welcome to Rufus's Bazaar, where we hope to cater to all of your djinn needs, from turbo-charged rugs to sahir repellents. All major credit cards are accepted, and on occasion we do trade in livestock as well, but only if they're house trained and don't swear. . . 

“Interesting.” Malik looked impressed as Sophie started to scroll through the products before realizing she didn't have a clue what she was looking for.

“So what's this stuff called?”

“He called it Rufus's Glorious and World-Famous Orange-Detractor Potion,” the djinn told her before rolling his eyes. “Which between you and me is a slightly egotistical name, but then that's Rufus all over. Two parts sand and eight parts high opinion of himself. Oh, there it is.” He suddenly pointed to a small icon that had a circle-shaped bottle on it.

Sophie immediately clicked on it. A larger image of the bottle immediately sprang up on the screen along with a description in which Rufus solemnly assured his faithful shoppers that this potion would take the user back to whatever his or her natural skin color had been, all for the one low price of two hundred dollars.

“Two hundred dollars?” Sophie widened her eyes before turning to Malik. “That's a lot of money. Besides, if this Rufus is a djinn
and
a friend of yours, couldn't we just ask him to do the double helix spell on me. As a favor?”

Malik pushed back his caramel-colored Zac Efron hair as if to study her better. “Okay, so first thing, I wouldn't exactly call Rufus a friend. Especially after what happened in Egypt, not that I'm allowed to talk about it due to legal reasons. But more importantly, rule number one about being a djinn is that you should never ask another djinn to do you a favor, because you can guarantee that they will want to collect on that favor when it least suits you. Actually, you should write that down. Oh, and while you're at it, you should never borrow money from a djinn either, because they will kill you with the interest rates.”

“Why don't I just write down that I should never trust anything a djinn says or does since they are all apparently liars and cheats,” Sophie retorted.

“That actually sums it up pretty well,” Malik instantly agreed, not looking remotely ashamed about it. “You know, for a kid, you really have a good way with words.”

Sophie glared at him for a moment before realizing that it would be completely useless to keep arguing with him. Instead, she let out a reluctant sigh and transferred the potion into her shopping basket.

“Oh, and you might as well get some of that Fruits of the Desert Ring Cleanser as well.” Malik pointed to another thing on the screen. “You can probably buy it locally, but Rufus puts a lovely hint of vanilla in this one, which makes it smell pretty.”

At thirty dollars a bottle it had better smell pretty, Sophie privately thought as she obediently added it to the basket. Then, when Malik seemed to be done with making her buy stuff, she went to the payment screen.

Technically, she wasn't supposed to do any online shopping, but then again, technically she probably wasn't supposed to be a djinn either, so she figured that the two of them canceled each other out. Besides, she had no intention of her mom finding out about either thing. So instead she went and got her bank details. Her dad, before he disappeared, had been an accountant, and so he had insisted that Sophie start her own junior-saver account when she was three years old.