That day after school, Megan sat down on the bus and stared out the window. She’d actually managed to get her own seat for once – usually she had to share with that bug-eyed freshman or the creepy guy in her science class. But it looked like her magical popularity was already starting to have its benefits.
As she sat there, bumping along and trying not to think about all the homework she had, her mind drifted back to last night – when she’d made that wish. She’d been sitting at the stop for the city bus, trying to figure out how far she could get on $6.42. It was past eight and she should have been home hours ago, but she didn’t care; tonight she was running away.
Megan waited impatiently for the next bus. It wasn’t exactly late, but the place was pretty deserted. Maybe she should have gone down to the bus depot instead. The next bus didn’t even come to this place for another forty minutes. Megan sighed dejectedly, head in her hands as she wondered to herself how it was even possible that she didn’t have a car yet. She had been convinced that the instant she turned sixteen, she’d be driving everywhere she could. But like everything else, it hadn’t worked out the way she expected. Her parents couldn’t afford to just give her a car, and she didn’t have the money to buy one herself. If she did, she wouldn’t have had to scrape together couch-cushion money to ride the bus out of town.
It wasn’t that Megan wanted to run away exactly; she was just tired of being a loser. She wanted to be liked by people, to have more than one friend. Was that too much to ask for? Last year had been bad enough, but she’d promised herself that junior year would be different. So far, it was the worst year she’d had in high school. No one talked to her except Jen, and the two never even got a decent spot in the cafeteria. Which, of course, meant that even lunch was a constant reminder of her loser status at school.
A car drove by, nearly splashing water all over Megan, and she only just managed to pick her feet up in time. At least she managed to do that right, she thought glumly to herself. It was bad enough that she had to run away – she didn’t want to spend hours on the bus soaking wet. As the car sped away, something clattered to the curb. It looked like some sort of old bottle. Curious, Megan walked the few steps to the curb before bringing it back with her. She still had over half an hour to kill, and it wasn’t like she had anything better to do.
The bottle was actually kind of interesting; it was one of those old-fashioned things that bulged out at the bottom and tapered off into a narrow neck at the top. The lip was ringed in what was probably gold paint, and the same gold color twisted down the sides of the neck before crisscrossing the bottom part. An old cork was stuffed into the top, looking completely out of place on such an ornate bottle.
She thought for a minute about tossing it back in the gutter. After all, how many times had her mom told her not to pick up trash? Megan found herself sighing; she wasn’t going to have to worry about listening to her mom anymore. Besides, it was a pretty nice-looking bottle. Megan wasn’t sure she’d really have a use for it out on her own, but she never knew. Maybe she would just keep it as a reminder of the last thing she ever got before she ran away. Yeah, she nodded decisively to herself; that sounded good to her.
Megan absentmindedly wiped a bit of dirt off the side, trying to spruce it up a bit. Then, she decided pull that stupid cork out of the top – it was really ugly anyway. Gently, she pulled on it, almost afraid she’d break the delicately sculpted neck. The cork didn’t budge. She tried again with the same result. She’d almost decided that it really was stuck in there for good when she felt it give way just a little.
She struggled with it for what must have been fifteen minutes without success. And with each passing minute she got more and more frustrated. Still, did she have anything better to do? Of course not; if she did, she wouldn’t be sitting here at the bus stop, would she? So, she kept working at it. And when she finally did get that stupid bottle open, Megan couldn’t believe what she saw.
As soon as the cork was out, a thick, bluish smoke started to pour out of the bottle. It reminded Megan of dry ice, except that it was Cool Raspberry-colored. The stuff seemed to just keep coming, and really, Megan couldn’t see how it had all fit in that tiny bottle in the first place. But it only seemed to cover an area of about a square foot before stacking up on top of itself into a giant blue pile a little over six feet high. It wasn’t long before the smoke cleared, leaving a boy about her own age standing there.
The boy had thick black hair, a rich complexion, and no shirt – just some silver bracers and a pair of weird poofy pants that looked like they cost more than Megan’s entire outfit. She found herself glancing down self-consciously at her frayed jeans and scuffed shoes for a minute. Then, realization sank in, and she was back to staring at the boy. Where had he come from?
Megan glanced frantically around, desperate to catch someone’s eye. But of course, no one was around. Figures, Megan thought. There never was anyone around when you really needed to prove to yourself that you weren’t insane. Finally, Megan stared back at the boy.
“How did you get there?” she asked, once it became obvious that this kid wasn’t going to be saying anything; he was just standing there casually, staring her down – like somehow she’d done something wrong.
“Because you opened the bottle.” he said, as if that explained anything at all. Megan thought she saw a scowl on his face for just a second.
“Wait, what?” she asked dumbly. How was that possible?
But as she continued to stare at him, a few things stuck out in her mind: she’d opened a strange bottle, a kid appeared, and he was wearing fluffy blue pants and weird pointy shoes.
She way too old to believe in fairy tales, but she just couldn’t help herself; could this guy really be a genie? It sure seemed to fit. She almost felt like an idiot for asking, but she really needed to know. Besides, if she was wrong, what did it matter? She was running away in about thirteen minutes and she’d never have to see this weirdo again.
“So, are you like a genie or something?” It sounded even dumber out loud than it had in her head.
“I am.” the guy said neutrally. Megan felt like he was sizing her up.
“Really?” she tried not to sound too incredulous.
“Really.”
He sounded bored with her, but Megan didn’t care. If this guy was telling the truth, she had her very own genie. Talk about having her luck turn around!
“So, you’re really going to grant me wishes?” Megan asked skeptically.
“Forgive me if I seem rude,” the genie said cautiously.
Great. Megan figured any sentence that started out like that wasn’t exactly going to leave her feeling like a genius.
“But do you not know how this works?” he finished.
And there it was – even this genie thought she was an idiot.
“Yeah, I know how it works, I guess.” she told him. “I get three wishes, and you grant them, right? No matter what they are.”
Take that, genie, she thought triumphantly.
“Close.” he told her.
“Close?” Megan repeated. How was she just close? What was she missing?
“I can’t grant you any wish.” he told her. “I can’t bring someone back to life, for example. Or make someone fall in love with you.”
“Yeah, ok – fine.” Megan grumbled.
Of course she knew that – she’d seen enough movies when she was a kid. Guess that kind of blew a hole in her plan to get people to magically like her. Or did it?
“So what if I wanted to be really popular?” she asked. “Could you do that?”
“I could.” the genie nodded. “Will that be your first wish?”
He folded his arms over his chest, looking like he was just waiting for her to say the word before he did something dramatic. But Megan hesitated.
“How do I know you’re not just messing with me?” she asked.
She didn’t think any of the kids at school were pulling some kind of prank – she wasn’t well-known enough for anything like that. Besides, that trick with the smoke would have been pretty hard to fake. No, her real concern came from the genie himself.
“I can’t lie to you.” he said simply. He shrugged, like he’d had this conversation so many times that he was beyond caring.
“Seriously?” Megan asked.
“Seriously.” he repeated, looking just a little annoyed.
“And you wouldn’t be lying about that, would you?” She narrowed her eyes.
“I just told you, I can’t lie to you. It kind of...evens the playing field.”
“And anyone who says they can’t lie must be telling the truth.” Megan nodded, but her voice was dripping with sarcasm. “How do I know you’re not lying?”
For the first time that night, Megan thought she saw the trace of a smile on his lips. “I guess you just have to find a question that I should lie to, and see if I do.” he told her.
“So helpful.” Megan muttered.
She acted like she didn’t believe him, but deep down, she kind of did. But she still didn’t want him to know that, on the off chance he really was just messing with her.
“So, about that first wish,” the genie prompted. “Were you still planning on using it to become popular?”
He still managed to have that slightly bored tone, even though this was a huge deal. This was Megan’s potential for popularity they were talking about; it could literally change her life. And if people at school liked her enough, maybe she wouldn’t have to run away after all.
“Yeah.” she said decisively. “I would like to be popular.”
She knew she’d already said it, but she decided to say it again. Just to make it official.
“I wish for everyone at school to like me – really like me. Actually, I want every kid who goes there to think I’m the greatest.” If she was going to make a wish for this, she may as well go all out, right?
“Very well.” the genie said.
He didn’t sound particularly impressed, but what did Megan care? It was his job to grant wishes, not judge them. Besides, if this really worked, she was about to have the only thing she ever really wanted. The genie made a kind of complicated gesture with his hand and that was it.
She opened her mouth to ask if anything special was supposed to happen, but she never got the chance. A strange blue light flooded her vision and she got a kind of tingly feeling in her fingers and toes – kind of like when you slept on your foot, except throughout all her limbs. Then, the feeling was gone.
“Anything else?” the genie asked.
“Wait. Is that it?” she asked.
The whole thing had only lasted for a second before Megan felt normal again; she didn’t feel any different from any other day. Did that mean it didn’t work?
“That’s it.” he confirmed. “When you go to school tomorrow, you’ll be the most popular person there. So, what’s your second wish?”
“Um...can I think about it?”
“If you want.” the genie shrugged.
“Great.” Megan said. “So then, let’s go home, shall we?”
Megan opened the bottle and put the genie back inside. He didn’t seem that thrilled about the idea, but what was she supposed to do? There was no way she’d be able to get him upstairs to her room – especially wearing that. Her mom would put a stop to it before they even made it past the door. And there was no way Megan could tell her how she’d just gotten a genie; her mom would probably have both of them locked up!
Once Megan was back safely in her room, she put the bottle in a place of honor on her desk and laid down on her bed. Her parents had gone out with some of her dad’s work friends, so they weren’t home yet. And both her brothers were gone – soccer practice, or friends, or something. Thankfully, this meant Megan wouldn’t have to admit she’d been about ten minutes from running away. It also meant that she could have a little time to herself for once.
Megan really wanted to see if she’d be popular tomorrow. Even though it was a little hard to believe that she could really just wake up and instantly be the most liked kid in school, she was still pinning her hopes on exactly that. And if that genie really had lied to her – well, she could always run away over the weekend.
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