Under a Spell

Heads up!

S
OPH, WATCH OUT,” KARA'S VOICE SUDDENLY CUT
into her thoughts. Sophie looked up just in time to see a basketball heading straight for her nose.

She instinctively went to lift her hands to stop it from hitting her, but her fingers were tangled in the chain around her neck. There was no way she wanted to break it, but she didn't want to break her face either, which meant there was only one other thing she could do.

She closed her eyes and wished for the ball not to hit her.

A nanosecond later a telltale tingle went racing through her body like a sugar rush, and she saw the ball come to a halt, just inches from her face. It hovered there for what seemed like ten hours before it dropped harmlessly down at her feet.

Oh, she should probably also mention the other thing that had happened since she'd started sixth grade: she had kind of become a djinn.

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Magic

Under
a Spell

Amanda Ashby

PUFFIN BOOKS
An Imprint of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

ALWAYS LEARNING

PEARSON

The usual suspects must be listed here because without them this book would just be a big hot mess in my head! To my agent, Jenny Bent, who does everything with style, grace, and candy. To Christina Phillips and Sara Hantz, who read everything I write and probably a lot of things that I shouldn't write. As ever, a big thank-you to Karen Chaplin, who helped bring Sophie to life, and to Kristin Gilson, who took over so seamlessly. Once again to Jeanine Henderson and everyone else who helped create such beautiful covers!

I would also like to thank Michelle Rowen, who didn't even laugh when I sent her a panicked “er, how do you write a series” e-mail. Her advice was priceless and so is she. And finally, to my husband and kids, who are forced to help me brainstorm my books all the time. I'm not saying that I withhold food from them until they get it right; however, I will say that living with a writer can be perilous and they all handle it amazingly well!

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Sophie's Mixed-Up Magic: Out of Sight

T
HERE WERE MANY THINGS THAT SOPHIE CAMPBELL
was good at; unfortunately, basketball wasn't one of them. In fact, as far as she was concerned, instead of making basketball part of PE, it should be banned on the grounds that it was humiliating and cruel to short people like herself. She had also apparently been at the back of the line when hand-eye coordination was being passed out, which made it even worse. It wasn't like she wasn't a positive person, because she was. A really, really positive person. But seriously, how could anyone be positive when she was surrounded by other people's armpits?

Sophie's two best friends, Kara and Harvey, looked equally unimpressed as they all sat in the bleachers of Robert Robertson Middle School's gym on Monday afternoon, waiting for the ritual humiliation to begin. It was worst for Harvey, who was tall and skinny and looked like he should be able to play. Unfortunately, he tended to think of the ball as a weapon of mass destruction
that should be avoided at all costs, which didn't exactly lend itself to success in the sport.

At that moment their PE teacher, Miss Carson, realized that the three of them were still sitting, and she waved for them to come down onto the court.

“And I mean now, Harvey Trenton,” the teacher added when Harvey shot her a blank look. He reluctantly untangled his lanky legs, blew his bangs out of his eyes, and jogged over. Sophie and Kara trailed unenthusiastically behind him and joined the rest of the class doing warm-up lunges. Still, not even the prospect of playing basketball could ruin Sophie's mood. Especially when so many great things had happened to her since she had entered sixth grade just over three weeks ago.

For a start, she and her friends were all in the same homeroom (score). Then there was the fact that over the weekend they had managed to get backstage at the Neanderthal Joe concert, where Eddie Henry (the best bass player In. The. World) had given Sophie his guitar pick. And finally, the icing on top of Sophie's deliciously gorgeous pink cupcake was that she and Jonathan Tait had shared “a moment.”

It had been just after Eddie had given her the guitar pick. In her excitement Sophie had spilled the contents of her purse, and Jonathan had immediately dropped to the ground to help her gather everything up.
And that's when it happened.
They had both reached for her camera at the same time, causing their fingers to touch. Sophie
immediately felt a jolt of electricity go zooming through her, and, as their eyes locked, she tightened her grasp on Jonathan's fingers. It was perfect (and she didn't care what Harvey said, because she knew a moment when she had one, and this most definitely was one).

She let out a dreamy sigh as her fingers tightened around the guitar pick, which was now hanging from her neck on a delicate silver chain. Like she said, a lot had happened in the last few weeks, and—

“Soph, watch out,” Kara's voice suddenly cut into her thoughts. Sophie looked up just in time to see a basketball heading straight for her nose.

She instinctively went to lift her hands to stop it from hitting her, but her fingers were tangled in the chain around her neck. There was no way she wanted to break it, but she didn't want to break her face either, which meant there was only one other thing she could do.

She closed her eyes and wished for the ball not to hit her.

A nanosecond later a telltale tingle went racing through her body like a sugar rush, and she saw the ball come to a halt, just inches from her face. It hovered there for what seemed like ten hours before it dropped harmlessly down at her feet.

Oh, she should probably also mention the other thing that had happened since she'd started sixth grade: she had kind of become a djinn.

That's right, a djinn. As in a genie, complete with
magic, orange skin, and immortality. She even had her own ghostly djinn guide called Malik, who was supposed to be showing her the ropes but instead spent most of his time eating Cheetos, downloading stuff from the Internet, and annoying Sophie on a regular basis. And for some weird reason, despite the fact he could shape-shift into anyone he wanted, he had taken to looking like Zac Efron, right down to the streaky caramel-colored hair and navy blue eyes.

At first Sophie had been tempted to take a special reversal pill so that her life could go back to normal. But then she discovered that her dad, who had walked out four years ago, was actually a djinn, too. And so she had kept her powers so that she would be allowed to see the Djinn Council and ask for its help in finding him. Plus, she had to admit that once she'd managed to make her skin look a normal color, being a djinn definitely had its uses. Like stopping flying basketballs and helping her get backstage passes to meet Neanderthal Joe.

“Whoa,” one of the jocks said from somewhere behind her. “Like, dude, did that ball just float in the air?”

“What? No,” Kara said quickly, since it was important no one found out the truth. Instead, she grabbed the ball and threw it to Harvey (who promptly dropped it). “It most definitely didn't.”

“Are you sure? Because it looked like it was floating to me,” the jock continued in a loud and very persistent voice.

“Of course she's sure. It was merely gravity. You know, Newton and his whole: ‘What goes up must come down' thing,” Harvey added as he kicked away the offending basketball. It looked like the jock was going to protest further, but before he could, there was a piercing whistle, and Sophie turned to see Miss Carson glaring at her.

“Sophie Campbell, since you seem to be off in dreamland, I think I'll make you captain of the red team, and you better hope you don't lose or else it will be four laps for you. Understand?” Then, without another word, she threw another basketball directly at Sophie.