Last week on Wednesday, Jake had walked into class actually looking forward to the day. He had met up with Megan in his first class, as usual. He didn't know yet that this day would end up being one of the worst of his life.
"Morning." he nodded.
He said it casually, like he hadn't been sitting in her room with her before school. She just rolled her eyes, making him grin.
"You really are enjoying this, aren't you?" she asked.
"What do you mean?"
He'd been going to school with her for over a month now. And even though he'd learned a lot about how humans spoke to each other, he still didn't always understand what she was talking about. Usually the people in charge were much more direct with him; these interactions with both her and his new friends were taking some getting used to.
"You like pretending you're just some regular kid going to school, don't you?"
Of course he did; it was what he'd wanted for as long as he could remember – longer, probably. But he also enjoyed seeing her look just a little bit annoyed. It was something he always did to whoever was in charge. The only difference was that she didn't seem to mind it quite as much as she pretended.
"But I'm not just some regular kid." he told her, grinning. "I'm dating the most popular girl in school."
"I'm going to go sit down now." she said flatly.
He knew she still found it ridiculously annoying that he'd made her as popular as he had. And his wasting – as far as she knew – of her second wish by making himself her boyfriend. Of course, that had been before he actually knew her.
He'd actually surprised himself when he realized that he really did like her. He liked her enough that he was almost sorry that he'd made her as incredibly popular as he did. He'd actually even thought about toning it down for her a little bit. But he didn't. Part of it was the fact that it was remarkably hard for him to change a wish after it had been granted. He'd only managed to do it once or twice – and those had been times when the person had specifically asked him.
The other reason he didn't change it was because it would mean admitting that he'd kind of made a mistake. And he never admitted to mistakes – not even on the rare occasions when it actually would have made his life easier. Mistakes were much more likely to be punished.
Megan had seemed annoyed by his comment, but Jake was pretty sure she was exaggerating. Besides, if she thought he was going to stop saying things like that to her just because she'd agreed not to get rid of him, she didn't know him half as well as she thought.
When she'd first met him, Megan hadn't trusted him at all. Of course, that wasn't new for Jake; no one ever trusted him. And he didn't trust them either. But after watching her for a while, he realized that he didn't actually hate her. And then when he got to go to school with her, he could finally have fun for once. After that, it was only a matter of time before he started becoming friends with her. He'd never been friends with one of them before, but somehow he actually liked doing things with her.
It had taken him a long time to get her to actually trust him, but it had worked out incredibly well for him. Now, he got to go to school, he had friends of his own, and he was allowed to do most anything he wanted. He never would have thought his life could be this normal.
For the most part, Jake breezed through that Wednesday like he did ever other day. History was easy – he'd lived through most of it, after all. Actually, the hardest part was resisting the urge to correct his teacher, Mr. Wilson. It wasn't Mr. Wilson's fault that he was wrong on as much as he was; Jake knew that. It was more a case of history being written by the winners, as Jake knew only too well. And there was also the fact that most history books couldn't exactly put Jake's particular influence into any of the events that he did happen to be involved in, however tangentially.
Of course, there was no way Jake could ever explain to Mr. Wilson exactly how he knew what had actually happened centuries ago. So, he had to just hold his tongue and take notes in class – to memorize the slight inaccuracies that he was taught.
Math was better. He'd had one person in charge of him years and years ago who had essentially locked him in a library and insisted that he educate himself; the man had refused to have an uneducated jinn serving him. Numerous books in that library had been about mathematics. Jake had hated it at the time, but he'd had nothing better to do than read. And he did have to admit, that knowledge had come in handy more often than he could have imagined.
Next was Spanish – that was incredibly easy. He knew it as well as he knew English – maybe better, even. It was mostly a time for him to go over his notes for science class.
Most of his classes were simple, that was true; English was effortless and Math was almost as simple. But that didn't mean that his classes were boring or anything – Jake would never say that. He was so glad to go to school that he didn't even mind how simple the lectures were.
The only class he had even a slight problem with was science. This year, Megan was taking chemistry, so of course Jake was too. It was a little hard – they were currently learning about atoms and how they bonded together.
Jake had never really thought about chemistry before he started attending school with Megan. Really, it just didn't seem to apply to his life at all. Sure, they talked about things like the periodic table and what properties different elements had. And those did seem like things that humans could find important. But since he could just kind of make things out of thin air, chemistry just didn't seem all that relevant. He kind of felt that way about all of the sciences.
One of the guys Jake ate lunch with, Kurt, was taking physics, which was maybe a little bit better – especially for humans to know about. But still, he didn't really care about that class either since it also couldn't possibly apply to his life – unless he wanted it to, of course. He was pretty sure he violated the laws of both chemistry and physics on an almost daily basis.
Chemistry's probable uselessness aside, Jake only struggled a little bit – certainly not as much as Megan. And though he would never admit it to her, he was pretty sure that part of his success was due to the fact that it was really the only class that he actually had to study for.
Fortunately, chemistry was the last class of the day. It meant that after his one and only even slightly difficult class, he could relax and sometimes hang out with his friends. Today, Megan and he had tentative plans to go to the arcade together after her track practice. It was always something she seemed to enjoy, and he actually liked it himself.
He was a little more than halfway through class, thinking about how he would definitely beat Megan in that racing game – without even cheating, of course – when he realized that something was wrong. It was a subtle feeling, and if Jake hadn't been doing this kind of thing for centuries, he might have missed it. But sitting in class next to Megan, he could feel a subtle change in the amount of power she had over him; it was just a little less overreaching, a little less absolute. He could almost feel where there could be loopholes that hadn't been there a few seconds ago. She hadn't made her final wish yet, so it could only mean one thing: somebody else had picked up that bottle.
Jake took a deep breath, trying to force himself to calm down. Maybe it was just her mom. Or maybe Ben. There was still a chance that whoever had picked it up would just put it back. If they were simply going through the things in her room, they might not even realize what they had. And if whoever it was didn't actually take ownership of that bottle, he would stay under Megan.
Jake waited a few minutes, hoping that the feeling would go away. If whoever it was would just put the bottle down and walk away, that feeling Jake had would disappear; he'd be safe again.
In the past, Jake had never really been concerned with his master changing. But he was pretty sure no one else would give him the freedom that Megan did. And there was a very good chance that if someone else did take the bottle, he'd never see her again – or any of his other friends.
But as he sat there waiting, the feeling stayed with him. And the longer that feeling stayed, the more Jake felt like maybe someone new would be in charge of him very soon. He gripped the edges of the table, trying to brace himself. He just hoped whoever it was wouldn't be too bad.
"Are you ok?" Greg asked, sounding worried. Jake realized he'd almost forgotten about his friend sitting right there next to him.
Jake just nodded down at the table, but didn't say anything. What could he say? Greg might be Jake's best friend, but he didn't actually know what Jake was. And Jake was determined to keep it that way. Megan might know that he was just a jinn, and even Jen knew it. But that was it; as far as he was concerned, the fewer people who knew, the better – especially when it came to his friends.
"What's wrong?" Megan asked.
Jake looked up and saw she was worried. He hoped that the next person in charge would be as concerned about him, but he doubted it.
"I'm fine." he said as calmly as he could, forcing himself to take a deep breath.
He put on the bland expression he'd perfected eons ago; no sense in worrying his friends if he didn't have to. Megan saw his face, and her look of worry only deepened. Even Jen looked concerned – he must look really bad if even she was worried.
"Later?" Megan asked him.
"Yeah." he said stiffly. As long as he wasn't under someone new by then.
When class got out, Jake pulled Megan aside. He was going to have to be quick, he knew. He could be summoned at any second; he was actually surprised it had taken this long.
"What's going on?" Megan asked, before he had the chance to say anything.
"I think I might have made a mistake." he said.
He thought quickly, trying to figure out how to explain what he knew. He didn't want to tell her how the amount of power she had over him was so oppressive he could normally feel it, but there didn't seem to be another way to phrase it.
"What are you saying? What kind of mistake?" she asked. He could see he was only making her more nervous.
"I don't know – maybe it's nothing." He tried to sound like maybe it was all in his head, but he knew he didn't succeed. And he was still running out of time. "Just...when you get home, move the bottle, ok?"
He knew it probably wouldn't matter either way – the odds were incredibly good that it wouldn't be there in a few minutes anyway. But if it was, he didn't want to have to worry about this again. Megan nodded.
"Ok." she said. "Jake?"
"Yeah?"
"What's happening?"
"It's just a feeling I have." he told her.
He was about to explain about the power change that was getting ready to happen, but he never got the chance. He felt his stomach lurch and a tingling sensation throughout his body; he was being summoned, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Jake didn't even bother to hide the panic on his face. He had less than a minute before he'd be forced to go, and there were way too many people in the hall for him to disappear right now.
"I have to go – I'm sorry." he said, sprinting down the hall towards the stairwell. If he could just get there, he should be safe. He could hide on the landing and vanish from there.
"I'll see you at home then?" Megan called after him.
Jake barely noticed; he was too busy trying to get someplace out of sight to pay attention to what she was saying.
"I'll try." he said, without really thinking.
He hoped he could get through these three wishes in just a few hours. Then, if he was really lucky, he could convince whoever it was to return the bottle to where they found it. Then everything would be fine, and he could go back to the life he'd started to have. If not, there was an excellent chance that the semi-normal life he'd managed to build for himself would be over forever. He ran into the stairwell as fast as he could. He was incredibly glad that no one was around because he only barely made it before he was summoned back to his bottle – and whoever was holding it.25Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0l95Ha2m4s
