Megan got off the bus that first day after her wish, backpack slung over her shoulder.
“Anybody home?” she called as she walked in the front door. Silence. It was just what Megan expected, really; both her parents should still be at work. Her brother Drew had soccer practice after school, and Ben was in college on the other side of town – he didn’t even get home until almost five most days. Still, Megan had wanted to make absolutely sure no one was home before she went up to her room.
Her desk still had that strange blue bottle on it. She walked over, grabbed it off the desk, and carefully pulled the cork out – she was just glad she hadn’t wedged it in as tight as whoever had it before. Seconds later, that genie was standing in her bedroom.
“How was school?” he asked.
He tried to say it like he couldn’t care less, but Megan saw that look in his eye when he asked it; she was pretty sure he was curious.
“It was way different than it usually is.” Megan told him.
She’d planned on saying it real casual, like maybe her social status just naturally changed like that every day. But she couldn’t stop the excitement from showing through. Megan tried to hide her grin; school was going to be so much easier now!
“I’m glad you liked it.” he told her. Megan couldn’t tell if he was just saying that or not. He was polite enough, but disinterested.
“So, thanks, I guess.” she mumbled, suddenly feeling uncomfortable.
“Did you have a second wish?” the genie asked politely, ignoring Megan’s feeble attempts to be nice.
“Um, not yet.” Megan said.
He sure seemed to be pressuring her about it – she wondered if most people just made three wishes right in a row.
“You don’t have a request?” he asked again, surprised. It was the first real emotion he’d shown since she’d met him.
“No. Why? Is there a time limit on this or something?” she asked.
“No time limit.” he told her, shrugging.
“Then why do you keep asking?”
“I’m just trying to understand why I’m here.” he said cautiously. “I mean, if you don’t have a wish or anything, it just seems a little odd...” he trailed off.
“What? No one’s ever just let you out for no real reason?” she asked. It couldn’t be that weird.
“Not really, no.” he shrugged again. Now it was her turn to be surprised.
“Why not?” she asked before she could stop herself.
But she didn’t need to wait for his response to know the answer; he wasn’t really a person – she was willing to bet no one thought enough about him to do it. It was almost enough to make her feel sorry for him. But that was his job, wasn’t it? It might not be a great job, but it was what he did.
“Megan! Are you home?” someone called from the hallway. Ben. He knocked on her door, and Megan’s eyes got real wide. The doorknob started to turn, and Megan looked frantically at the genie.
“Go – hide!” she whispered to him, motioning him to go back to the bottle.
He nodded and disappeared just as Ben opened the door.
“Who’re you talking to?” Ben asked.
“No one.” Megan said quickly. “I was just on the phone.” she added.
“With who?” he narrowed his eyes, obviously not believing her.
“Jen?” It came out as kind of a question. Megan decided to change the subject. “What are you doing home so early anyway?”
She might not know much about his schedule, but she knew she could usually count on being alone until five.
“No class today.” he told her.
“You ditching?” she asked.
She couldn’t wait for the day when she could just decide not to go to class. Ben shrugged.
“There’s a test next week – all we’re doing is review.”
“You don’t need to review?” Megan asked, remembering her quiz from earlier that day.
“Not with the rest of the class.” he told her. “I’ll do it tonight.”
“So what are you doing until then?”
“I was thinking about hanging out with my favorite sister for a bit.”
“Ok.” she said.
She still kind of wanted to talk to that genie, but she figured he could wait – it wasn’t like he was busy later. His only plans revolved around her, right?
“Did you want to go to the arcade?” he asked. “I know we haven’t been there in a while.”
Megan remembered how she used to go to the arcade with Ben almost every single weekend when she was a kid. And even though part of her thought she was too old to be doing stuff like that, she still really liked it. Of course, Ben knew her weakness.
“And after, I was thinking pizza for dinner – just you, me, and Drew.”
“Sure!” Megan grinned, heading out the door. She didn’t even bother to put the cork back in the bottle.
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As they walked through the mall, Megan caught herself sneaking glances at everyone around her. She knew she was popular now, and she wondered what would happen if any of her new friends were here. Would they catch her going into the arcade? What would they think? She knew it wasn’t exactly something the cool kids did; if it was, she would have seen at least one of them in there before. She glanced casually around before they went in, just to make sure. But the coast was clear.
As soon as they were safely inside, Megan immediately made her way to the racing games in the back. They weren’t exactly her favorite, but she really didn’t want to take a chance hanging out near the front in case any of the kids from her school happened to look over and see her. She wanted to be extra careful not to ruin her good luck before she’d even had time to enjoy it.
Once she was seated, she began to relax. Now, the only way anyone would see her would be if they came into the arcade themselves. And how could anyone make fun of her for being here if they were inside too?
Ben took the seat next to her and put the quarters in the machine. The counter finally hit one, and Megan stomped on the petal. She almost never managed to beat Ben at this game, but she was feeling pretty good about today. She took the first turn pretty hard, but she managed to stay on the track; one of the computers had tried to push her off the road and ended up keeping her going straight. She glanced over and saw that Ben was only two places in front of her. If she timed this right, she really could win for once.
At the end of the first lap, Megan was sitting in fourth place. Not great, but a lot better than she could have been. Of course, Ben was in second. Still, Megan didn’t let that bother her – she just kept going. It wasn’t until her last lap that she finally managed to swerve around him. He tried to get back around her, but she kept her eyes trained on his screen. If she could just block him for a few more seconds, she’d win. He made one last move to get around her, but Megan saw him and moved left. He smashed into the back of her car just as she crossed the finish line.
“Yes!” she practically screamed, turning to face him. “I beat you!”
“You cheated.” Ben told her, grinning.
“Did not!” she shot back.
“Rematch.” Ben declared, grabbing more quarters.
Ben beat her the next time. And the time after that. All in all, she only won twice, and he beat her the rest. Finally, he looked down at his watch.
“We better get going – Drew should be here soon.” he told her.
“Fine.” Megan grumbled, prying herself out of the seat. She followed him out the doors and across the mall to the pizza parlor.
“So how was school today?” Ben asked as he and Megan took their seats in the red plastic booth.
Drew was still out with his soccer friends, but he’d texted that he’d meet them there. Like Megan, there was no way he’d pass up a chance to get pizza with Ben.
“It was ok.” Megan told him.
He always asked her how her day was, which was nice – especially since her parents didn’t get home from work before she went to bed half the time anyway.
“Anything good happen?”
He was big on that whole staying-positive thing. So he was constantly trying to get Megan to tell him something good that happened. Usually it was kind of hard; there had been more than once where the only thing Megan could think to tell him was the fact that she didn’t have more than three hours of homework due. But today she actually did have something worth sharing.
“Well,” Megan said slowly. “I made a couple new friends today.”
She figured it was true enough, even if her friends didn’t seem to know it.
“Well that’s great!” Ben told her. And Megan knew he was actually happy for her. “See? I told you – you just have to be patient.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Megan mumbled. That and get yourself a genie.
“So what are their names?” Ben asked.
“You remember Tara Pickett and Karen Barlow?” she asked slowly, suddenly realizing where this was heading. She really should have thought this through before she opened her big mouth.
“Those girls you used to complain about all last year?” Ben raised his eyebrows.
“Well, they sat with me and Jen at lunch.” Megan mumbled, staring down at the table. She was really starting to regret bringing this up.
“They did?”
Megan was pretty sure he wanted to ask why, but he wasn’t going to crush her confidence like that. Good – because Megan hadn’t actually bothered to think up a reason for why they’d suddenly be hanging out with her in the first place.
“Well, Karen’s in my English class,” Megan started lamely. She was trying to think of something that didn’t sound completely ridiculous when Drew plopped down next to Ben.
“Who’s in your English class?” he asked. “Did I miss anything good?”
“No, you didn’t miss anything good.” Megan snapped, suddenly not wanting to talk about it. She knew Drew would find the whole thing way too funny, and Megan was still a little too weirded out by it all to be able to defend herself like she should.
“Megan was just telling me about her day.” Ben said.
“I talked to Karen in class.” Megan repeated for Drew’s benefit. Even though she didn’t know why she was bothering to tell him in the first place.
Drew was a year younger than Megan, which meant he knew everybody at school, just like her. He didn’t hang out with the seniors or anything, but that didn’t mean he didn’t know who they were – especially since they were now talking about the most popular kids in school. Drew looked at her knowingly.
“So what – did she make fun of your shoes or something?” he asked, grinning.
“No. Why would she?”
What was wrong with her shoes? Megan caught herself looking down at her sneakers under the table, trying to see what Drew was talking about. They might not be in the greatest condition ever, but they weren’t that bad.
“I just thought that’s what girls did.” Drew shrugged. Then suddenly, he grinned. “So why were you talking to Karen Barlow anyway?”
“I was just saying she ate lunch with me.”
“Really?” Drew actually looked impressed with her for once. “I thought you and Jen ate by yourselves.”
“Not anymore.” Megan beamed.
“So how’d you manage that?”
“I told you – I talked to Karen in class.” Megan shrugged. She figured that was probably the most likely way she would have met them – under normal circumstances anyway.
“So just like that?”
“What do you mean?”
“She finally started talking to you? Just out of the blue?”
“You don’t have to be so surprised.”
“It just seems kind of weird, that’s all...So are you going to start hanging out with them now?” Drew was already grinning at the thought.
“Maybe. Why do you care?” Megan tried not to sound mad, but she really didn’t like his stupid smirk.
“I’m just trying to picture you hanging out with all the preppy girls.” Drew told her. “I mean, I just never really thought of them as your crowd.”
“They’re not preppy!” Megan told him. They were popular – big difference. Preppy girls were snobby and stuck up and thought they were way better than everyone else. Popular girls got to hang out with all the cute guys and have everyone admire them from across the courtyard at lunch.
“I think it’ll be good.” Ben said before Drew got the chance to respond. Megan tried to ignore the fact that he didn’t look completely convinced.
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