Three Wishes (7 page)

When I got home, I’d have to figure out a good way to broach the topic of the meeting at Emory. My parents would love the idea of me being interested in Habitat, but I didn’t want to overplay it. Mom knew I didn’t have much time for house building, and Dad would probably make Ian go with me. I could hear him now, “Follow your sister’s example, Ian.”

I shuddered. No way did I want to get saddled with Ian. Even if I were really going to a meeting. Instead, I’d be driving around the city again with the Harley-riding hottie who I shouldn’t trust at all. So why did I?

I needed to find out more about his father.

Mrs. Mashburn was one of my favorite teachers. She was smart, and tough, but fair. Unfortunately, Johnson Elliot, the biggest class clown in eleventh grade, was in my comparative government class.

“I’d like you to work on this project in groups of three,” Mrs. Mashburn said. “Each group will take a country. Then you’ll write a ten-page report and give an oral presentation.”

No one dared grumble in Mrs. Mashburn’s class, except Johnson.

“Dude,” Johnson said, “give me two babes.”

Mrs. Mashburn whipped her attention back to him. “One more word, and it’s in-school detention for you.”

I almost got zapped with her laser-beam anger since Johnson had sat next to me today. He liked to spread around what he saw as his entertainment.

Johnson nodded. He kept his comments low and discreet as Mrs. Mashburn started pointing out groups of three. She started on the other end of the room, and I realized with horror that Karen and I were going to end up with Johnson. I liked Karen. She was a good student. I turned and we exchanged a look of shared dread.

Mrs. Mashburn finally got to us, and I tried to make a face to convey our panic. Not a sarcastic face but I twisted my mouth and raised my brow in what I hoped was a please-God-no look.

The teacher faltered, and I could swear her ice blue gaze softened. “Karen and Jen, you can work together. Johnson, you can work alone. I’ll alter your page count accordingly.”

I heard Karen’s sigh of relief from behind me.

I mouthed thank you to Mrs. Mashburn.

A nearly averted crisis wasn’t how I wanted to start the day. I still wasn’t breathing normally after my adventures yesterday afternoon.

Thanks to Mrs. Mashburn, I didn’t have to cope with an academic disaster on top of everything else.

Mrs. Mashburn powered up her laptop and started explaining the project.

I felt such a rush of gratitude. Maybe I should do something nice for her. I was allowed to grant tiny little insignificant wishes. I could give Mrs. Mashburn a tiny wish, but I’d never know what she wished for. If her next wish wasn’t trivial, the grant wouldn’t work until the next trivial wish. I hadn’t granted any in a long time. Two years ago, I granted one for a girl in my class. The next thing I knew, the guy I had a huge crush on walked right up to her and asked her out.

It had been terrible, and I’d resigned never to make that mistake again.

Granting a wish for yourself in the mirror…Leo was nuts.

Of course, Mrs. Mashburn was awesome. And she wasn’t likely to wish for Leo to ask her out. Not that I had a crush on Leo. Because I didn’t.

Shaking off my errant thoughts, I went ahead and granted Mrs. Mashburn her next trivial wish. Then I hurriedly jotted down the notes to catch up.

The bell finally rang, and I crammed my notebook into my bag.

Johnson jumped up as usual, acting all hotshot, and started strutting for the door.

I saw Mrs. Mashburn give him a dirty look. It happened so fast, I almost thought I imagined it.

Until Johnson tripped over his own feet and smashed into the floor. My classmates laughed and pointed.

Mrs. Mashburn jumped back and covered her mouth.

She had totally wished for him to fall on his face!

I clamped my mouth shut as a peal of laughter escaped. I never would have guessed she was so vindictive.

The teacher rushed to help him up, but he shook off her help. “I got it,” he snapped.

Mrs. Mashburn stepped back.

I rushed out of the room before Mrs. Mashburn could realize that I was staring at her instead of Johnson.

I was dying to tell someone what had happened. But I couldn’t. I’d have to tell my mother later. But now that I was hiding things from her, I wasn’t sure I should seek her out for any one-on-one time.

I laughed as I walked down the hall, catching more than one curious look. Johnson had literally flown through the air for a second before crashing down on his face. And he so deserved it.

I needed to find Alex and beg her to cover for me tomorrow. I couldn’t risk my brother tagging along. I was so lucky Alex had forgiven me. She’d totally think that something was up with me and Leo.

Lying was not my thing. The whole genie mess really set me up for lying to my friends though. Either that or just be the weird girl who has no friends.

I shuddered. How could anyone survive without friends? Especially if their family was mostly irritating brothers.

Resigning myself to lie convincingly, I made my way to the locker to catch Alex.

She spotted me coming. “Wassup?”

“Are you kidding me? What’s with the hip hop speak?”

Alex laughed.

“I think you’re spending too much time with the boy's basketball team.” Some of them, mostly the white guys, thought they were Lil Wayne.

“You’re just jealous. Or you would be if you ever came to the games and saw the guys play.”

Uh-oh. We were already on the wrong track.

I rushed right into my scheme. “So I’m sneaking out on Saturday to meet Leo for lunch. Will you cover for me?”

“No way! He asked you to lunch?” Her earrings bobbed as she talked. “Like a date? He is so totally yummy. Wait a minute. Why aren’t you just telling your mother the truth?”

Moving closer to her, I said, “Um. Well, because we don’t want Ian to know, and I don’t want to deal with Mom yet. I mean. It’s probably just a one-time deal. Mom would probably worry for nothing.”

“Wow, Jen. I don’t think you’ve ever kept something from your mother before.”

Probably not. “Sure I have,” I lied. “Anyway, it’s no biggie. Can I say I’m hanging at your house?”

“Of course. But I want all the details.”

Great, now I’d have to make up some details. “Okay. You’ve got it.” I switched out my books.

“Why don’t you sleepover? You can tell me everything.” She grabbed her notebook from the locker and slammed it shut.

Making up details face to face would be harder. “I’ll ask. Mom might say no since I’m already spending the whole day with you.”

“Try it, and call me in the morning. Dad and I are heading out to the Georgia Tech b-ball game tonight.”

“Have fun!” The only thing they had in common was basketball. Her father had the extended cable sports package. All those sports networks kept their relationship running smoothly.

When Mrs. Logan announced a pop quiz in English, I groaned and resigned myself to failing.

Kelsey smiled and held up her pen. “Loser buys lunch?”

Kelsey and I were usually the top students in the class. I wasn’t the slightest bit prepared. I had blown off last night’s assignment.

My only chance was if the quiz was heavy on assignments from earlier in the week.

“I’m not going to have my usual score today, Kelsey.”

Her mouth dropped open. She leaned closer. “You didn’t do the assignment?”

I shook my head.

“Jen,” she said wagging her finger to scold me.

I shrugged as Mrs. Logan passed out the quizzes.

With a sigh, I read over it. I’d just met Leo and I was already messing up.

After class, Kelsey said, “Call me. I have to meet Kyle now.” They were wearing matching concert shirts today from a Coca Cola Amphitheater performance last weekend. “I’ve got to hear what happened last night to make you blow off your homework.”

I winced. I’d better start making something up.

When I got home on that afternoon, I discovered that Dylan was sleeping over. He and Ian would stay up all night playing video games.

No way was I getting anywhere near those two pervs.

When Mom and Dad took their walk, I went with them.

Then I hung out in the family room and watched a movie with Mom. Dad and Sean played board games in the kitchen. I was glad to see they were serious about the grounding.

After the movie, Mom went to take a turn with Sean, and I headed upstairs to catch up on the Rokrgirlz and my email.

With the doors to my room and Ian’s closed, I could usually keep from hearing all of their trash talk. Listening to Ian and his friends talking made me wish I was a lesbian.

I started to get hungry and thirsty around midnight. I opened the door and went out to the hall to find Ian and Dylan just ahead of me on the stairs. Bad timing.

“I’m totally kicking your pathetic ass,” Dylan said to my brother.

I rolled my eyes. The idiots were always insulting each other.

Ian ignored him.

“Where’s Derek anyway?” Dylan asked. “I thought he was hanging out.”

“I dunno. He didn’t say.”

“You know why he didn’t come? Cuz he’s doing what he always does on a Friday night, playing GTA4, which he beat over a year ago, just so he can hang with the animated hookers in cyber world.”

“Dude, if the graphics get any better, you’ll probably start doing the same thing.”

Dylan snorted. “Like you won’t.”

Ian laughed.

I cringed, and made a mental note to stay away from Derek. Sometimes the morons were actually right about things.

Chapter Six

On Saturday morning, I grumbled when my alarm went off and then kicked off the covers. I had to hurry to mop the kitchen and bathrooms before Leo got here. Sean had done them last week so they were probably really grungy. The kitchen wasn’t bad. The bathrooms. Ick. While I mopped, I had to figure out what to wear. Not because I cared, but because Alex would ask. Okay, fine. I cared. A little.

At nine-thirty, dressed in a striped top that everyone said flattered my complexion, jeans, and clunky leather belt, I hopped into the car with Leo.

“I have to be back at your house at four for practice,” he said as we pulled away from the curb. “Will your mother be around? Is it safe for me to go?”

“Mom and Dad are going out. You’ll be fine.”

“I hate to lose the time, but I need to keep up appearances. I can’t exactly quit the band and have Ian think I’m spending all my time with you.”

“I’m out with Alex, remember.” The car smelled of something warm and yummy. Leo’s aftershave?

“Oh, right. I appreciate you riding with me. We have a lot of houses to check for Lexus crossovers.”

He paused at a red light.

“Do you think it’s about revenge or about the five billion dollars?”

“I don’t know, but if anybody has too much money, they’ll be easy to spot. What do they pay at Genie Communications anyway?”

“I doubt any of these guys would make over a hundred grand. Mom does two jobs and she makes a little more.”

The light turned green and he pressed on the gas. “So we search for somebody who has left town, gotten in debt, or bought something expensive. I shared the list with Dad and none of them rang a bell.”

“How did you show him the list without them knowing?” I hadn’t imagined private visitation.

“They were probably watching, but I had no choice.”

“Where are we going?”

“We’ll hit a few of the names and then we’ll head over to Emory.”

Emory. “You mean we’re really going to that meeting.”

“Yeah,” Leo said. “Katie’s doing the program, and she asked me to come.”

“But she’ll see us together.” I hadn’t planned on being seen by anyone we knew. It was way too risky. I thought we’d be pretty anonymous driving around in Atlanta traffic.

“Katie’s cool. She won’t tell. She’s working on retracing dad’s steps for the last week or two before the thefts. She knows I asked for your help.”

“I don’t know, Leo.” How could that be safe? Leo seemed like a great guy, with maybe a weird sense of humor, but I didn’t want to be banished for him.

“Katie’s been great ever since the arrest. She’s been stocking the fridge at our place, cooking me meals, doing laundry. She’s awesome. She really cares about my dad. They wouldn’t have let her leave the visitation with her memory intact if she hadn’t agreed to be bonded to him. So even if they aren’t married, they kind of are, now. Dad’s already talked to her about watching out for me if he gets sent away. Besides, with all the laptops, cell phones, and MP3’s on campus, the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. would have trouble tracking us.”

Either he was nuts, or I was an idiot. “What do phones and laptops have to do with anything?”

“Technology interferes with the magic monitoring systems used by the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E.”

I whipped my head around to look at him.

“Don’t tell me you didn’t know that,” he said with a laugh.

I just stared at him. “Are you serious?”

“The major technological advances were made by genies, Jen. And in addition to making money and helping mankind, those genies were motivated by the fact that modern technology interferes with the monitoring systems in place. The Techno Echo. Doesn’t your mother tell you anything?”

Apparently not.

“It’s common knowledge in the genie world.”

“Like the mirror trick.”

Doubt clouded his eyes. “I’m surprised your mother would keep it from you. The upcoming Summit will have a debate about easing the restraints on genies.”

My dad always said we shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand. Know what’s going on, he said. Don’t stand by and let others make the decisions for you.

And yet, I had buried my head in the sand. Or Mom had buried it for me. Did Dad know about all this?

“If you’re so overprotected, how did you get out of the house today?”

“I’m not really. About normal things.” When Mom told me I’d been activated early, she’d warned me that she wasn’t going to complete my education until later. I just thought that meant I couldn’t do all the wish granting stuff. I had no idea she was hiding important things from me. “She does work for the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E. Maybe she isn’t allowed to tell me.” Now, I understood why the Oversight Committee was so much busier lately. They had to work much harder to catch those abusing their powers.