Under a Spell (7 page)

He was on the other side of the hallway with a sea of kids separating them, but the minute he saw her, he looked up and smiled. Sophie immediately put her hand up to her own so-straight-you-could-rule-lines-with-it hair and made a quick wish so that it suddenly had a bit more bounce and body. Then, once she felt it fluff up under her fingers, she returned his wave.

He held up a basketball as if to explain that he couldn't talk to her right now. Sophie gave him a goofy smile and then watched as he disappeared back into the crowd.

“Aww, that's so cute.” Malik suddenly appeared next
to her. “But seriously, can I please go now? Because if I have to stay in this cursed place for one moment longer, then I'm pretty sure my brains will leak out all over the floor into a messy, slippery puddle, and innocent children might get hurt in the process. We must think of their safety.”

“Do you think there's any chance at all that you might be exaggerating?” Sophie said as she dumped her books off and shut her locker.

“No.” Malik gave an adamant shake of his head. “I can assure you that I'm underselling the situation, because seriously I had no idea that school could be so boring. So here's the deal, if you let me leave now, I could probably still catch an early show of
The Wizard of Oz
to listen to “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Then when I've got my va-va-voom back, we can do some more work on your transcendental conjuring.”

“Is he still trying to leave so that he and Eric can watch a touring production of
The Wizard of Oz
?” Kara asked as she and Harvey joined Sophie at her locker and the three of them headed toward the library. Sophie nodded her head.

“Yes, but it's not going to work since the last time he met up with Eric the Giant, he didn't come back for three days,” Sophie said as they reached the library and made their way over to the beanbags in the corner. As soon as they got there, she wished for some easy-to-understand
history books, and a moment later a neat stack of books appeared. Harvey reluctantly picked up one, but Malik just looked at them in disgust and floated to the top of one of the stacks.

“So how's it going with your Melissa Tait plan? Do you have any ideas?” Kara asked as they settled themselves down. Sophie shook her head and didn't bother to open the history book she was holding.

“What's this?” Malik immediately floated back down from the stacks, his sulky expression leaving his face, since the only thing he seemed to like more than Cheetos was gossip.

“I had a little run-in with Melissa Tait after you left the cafeteria, and it turns out that the reason she hates me is because she thinks that I'm trying to steal her boyfriend.”

‘“Ben Griggs?” Malik raised an eyebrow. “I would've thought he was way out of your league. I mean, I guess you're cute in the short-blonde-girl-next-door sort of way, but you're not really on Melissa's and Ben's level.”

“Not to mention the fact he's a pyro, and according to Harvey, he likes to beat up sixth graders. Not exactly my type. Unfortunately, Melissa doesn't believe me. Oh, and she heard me talking to you before—well, I thought I was talking to you, but you weren't there—so now she thinks I'm crazy, too.”

“Ouch.” Malik winced. “If there was one person in this
whole entire nightmare of a school whom I wouldn't want as my enemy, Melissa Tait would be that girl. You should really try to fix that.”

“That's what I'm trying to do,” Sophie assured him. “But considering we don't have anything in common apart from Jonathan, it's not easy.”

“I'll say,” Kara agreed. “I mean, she's a cheerleader and you're not. She's in seventh grade and you're not. She's a normal nondjinn and you're not…. Oh. I've got it!”

“You do?” Sophie asked eagerly since she didn't like where Kara's speech had been going. “What is it?”

“Burnt sienna.” Kara grinned before seeming to realize that Sophie was staring blankly at her. “It's a really gorgeous warm brown color. Anyway, you have a really cute T-shirt in that color, and the other day Melissa had the exact same color on the scarf she had tied around her purse. Anyway, you could talk about that. It might break the ice.”

“Oh.” Sophie blinked, not quite able to share her friend's enthusiasm. Then she brightened. “Or I could use my magic to conjure her up something in that color. That might work.”

“Would that be ethical?” Kara pondered.

“I'll tell you what's not ethical,” Harvey suddenly interrupted as he waved one of the books Sophie had conjured up for him. “It's making innocent kids have to read this stuff, because seriously, none of it makes sense. I mean, why did World War I start in France and Germany if it was the Archduke of Austria who was killed?”

“Archduke of Austria? Let me see that.” As he spoke, Malik floated closer so that he was leaning over Harvey's shoulder. Then he made a clicking noise. “Well, of all the cover-ups in all the world. How can they say that it was because of simmering tensions? Please, the real reason that war started was because of Moroccan almonds. Seriously, Wilhelm II loved Moroccan almonds, and the French controlled the trade in Morocco and refused to let him buy any. We all tried to warn Poincaré that no good could come from standing in between Wilhelm and his almonds, but would he listen?”

Sophie, Kara, and Harvey all blinked simultaneously.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” Malik demanded. “It's true, and if you've ever tasted Moroccan almonds, you would understand.”

“Right. Of course it is.” Sophie nodded while trying not to smile. However, next to her Harvey wasn't looking quite as happy.

“Well, nuts or not, none of it is good. I'm about to become a product of a broken marriage. I can't afford to be a middle school dropout, too.”

“You're not going to be a dropout,” Kara reassured him.

“Kara's right,” Sophie added. “From now on there will be no mention of anything that isn't history related. Deal?”

“Really?” Harvey looked relieved as Sophie flipped open her history book and started to jot down some notes
for him, pointing out the best place for him to start.

An hour later the look of panic had left Harvey's face, and he started to gather up his notes. It wasn't the best assignment in the world, but since he hadn't downloaded it off the Internet and it didn't contain anything from Wikipedia, he was probably still ahead of half the class. Even Sophie had managed to do enough research so that tonight she could zap up her own assignment and still have time to practice her transcendental conjuring.

They got to their feet and tried to ignore the pained expression Malik was wearing as they headed down the hallway. It was well after four o'clock, but despite the time there was a group of people huddled up outside the gym door.

“What's going on?” Sophie wrinkled her nose.

“I've got no idea.” Kara shook her head so that her long hair went tumbling over her shoulders.

“It's probably the cheerleading sign-up sheet to find a replacement for Donna Anderson. She broke her leg on Monday, and they need someone else before the big game on Thursday,” Harvey said.

“Um, excuse me?” Kara demanded, since Harvey wasn't known for his love of sport.

“I got stuck sitting next to Benny Masters yesterday,” Harvey admitted. “And he was telling me all about it—despite all the nonverbal cues I gave him to let him know I wasn't interested. Anyway, unless Sophie wants to have another Melissa run-in, we should probably go out the
side door, because if there is one thing that girl loves more than herself, it's cheerleading.”

“Good idea,” Kara said. But instead of moving, Sophie stood where she was and widened her eyes.

“Harvey Trenton, you're a genius,” she exclaimed as she clapped her hands together in excitement.

“I've often thought so,” he agreed before looking confused. “Though I'm not sure what I just said to make you think that.”

“You said that the one thing Melissa loves more than herself is cheerleading, so that's the perfect way for me to become friends with her.”

Kara and Harvey looked at each other for a moment, as if hoping that the other one might understand what was going on before Harvey finally cleared his throat.

“Er, Soph,” he said in a polite voice, “you do know that you're not a cheerleader, right?”

“I know, which is why it's so hard to make Melissa like me when we don't have anything in common. But imagine how much easier it would be if I was on the squad with her,” Sophie explained, completely unable to contain her excitement at having the most perfect idea. Ever.

“Yes, but like Harvey just said, you're not a cheerleader,” Kara repeated, still looking confused.

“Not yet,” Sophie was forced to admit. “But thanks to some transcendental conjuring, I soon will be. Don't you see? It's the perfect way to practice my magic and win Melissa over all in one pom-pom-encrusted swoop.”

“Can you even do that?” Harvey knitted his brows together. “I mean, the other day on the basketball court, it was pretty obvious that you were using magic. Are you sure you should be risking that all over again?”

“Yes, but that was before I started learning how to do all this new fancy stuff. I have much better powers of concentration now. Besides, it isn't going to be anything too big. Just a few twirls and high kicks,” Sophie assured him before she turned to Malik. “So, is that something I can manage?”

“I guess so.” Malik reluctantly nodded. “But remember that concentration is everything. If you lose focus and your wish goes awry, then you could find yourself in the middle of a crowded bazaar wearing only a piece of fabric that you had to steal from a blind beggar while all of your
supposed
friends laugh at a certain part of your anatomy in a very unkind way.”

For a moment all three of them just stared at him before Sophie coughed. “Er, Malik, have you ever heard of the phrase ‘too much information'?”

“Oh, right. Was that inappropriate?” he said, and Sophie nodded her head.

“A little bit,” Kara told him in a kindhearted voice before turning back to Sophie, concern still covering her face. “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Of course I am.” Sophie grinned. “And it just goes to prove how amazing the Universe is. I mean, I had a problem, and after doing some positive thinking, the most
perfect solution suddenly landed in my lap. It would be wrong if I didn't follow it through.” Then, without another word, she jogged over to the sign-up sheets and scribbled her name down. Had she mentioned that this was the best idea ever?

L
ATER THAT AFTERNOON SOPHIE REALIZED THAT
there was one small kink in her perfect plan. Her bedroom. Not that there was anything wrong with her bedroom, apart from the fact that it wasn't designed to practice cheerleading routines in. Actually, it was a wonder she had never noticed before just how small it was. There was no way she could even attempt to do a high kick, let alone a magically induced backflip.

Of course, if Malik had been there, she could have asked him if there was a way around the problem, but he had stepped outside an hour ago to take a cell-phone call and she hadn't seen him since. No points for guessing that he and Eric the Giant were currently watching a production of
The Wizard of Oz
somewhere. Which meant she was going to have to figure this one out on her own.

She chewed her lip and was just trying to decide what to do when there was a knock on her door. A moment later her mom appeared.

“I just wanted to see how the history assignment's going,”
her mom said. As usual she was wearing one of Sophie's dad's old shirts, her straight blonde hair was tied up in a messy knot, and there was a smudge of clay on her nose.

“All done.” Sophie held up the assignment that she'd zapped up earlier. Three weeks ago her mom would've just believed her, but thanks to a few ups and downs after her djinn magic had first come through, these days her mom wanted cold, hard evidence. If only her space problem was so easily solved. Then she realized her mom was still looking at her, and Sophie felt a stab of panic. “I-is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything's fine. Well, apart from the leak in my studio. I discovered it this morning and have spent most of the day moving my stock down into the basement in case it rains. Unfortunately, the basement's now full, so I was hoping you could move some of the old boxes of junk up to the garage for the thrift store to collect. I'm already so far behind on this order, and I really need to get it glazed this afternoon.”

Sophie was about to make some excuse, since moving boxes from the basement was her least favorite job ever (not because she was trying to be unhelpful, but because for some reason known only to bug experts, there were about a zillion spiders in her basement, and not one of them was nice and friendly like Charlotte). However, she suddenly realized that despite its spider problem, the basement was actually the perfect place to do some
magical cheerleading. And if she used her powers to move the boxes, she would have plenty of time to practice. Plus, after all the chaos Malik had been causing around the house lately, the very least Sophie could do was help out.

“Of course,” she said as she followed her mom downstairs, while trying to ignore the fact that Meg was lounging around in front of the television, not even pretending that she was going to help.

The basement was just as dark and musty as Sophie remembered, but her mom didn't seem to notice as she led Sophie over to a huge pile of boxes that was sitting in the middle of the floor. Sophie flipped the lid on the first box and was greeted by a bag of marbles and Meg's old Barbie dolls, which all had bite marks on the legs. Then she caught sight of a hideous green sweater that she vaguely remembered loving when she was five years old. She turned to her mom.