When Megan and her brothers got home, she headed straight up to her room. She tried not to be mad at Drew, but it wasn’t easy. He was so sure she wouldn’t fit in with the popular kids that he couldn’t help but make fun of her for most of the night; even Ben couldn’t get him to shut up. It was almost enough to make Megan regret going out at all. At least now that she was home she could finally get away from Drew and his stupid comments. What did he know anyway?
She was a little worried when she saw she’d left that bottle uncorked. She glanced quickly around the room, wondering if he would be lurking somewhere, waiting for her. The thought that there could be someone here, hiding in the shadows in her own bedroom made her heart beat faster. She looked carefully around, even scanning the closet. She didn’t see him. She hated to admit it, but her next thought was whether or not he’d messed up anything in her room before he took off.
Her room was a little messy – but then, it usually was. She made a mental note to clean it, especially now that she had someone over who would constantly see it. He might have been just a genie, but it was still kind of embarrassing. Besides, she figured it was a good way to make a decent impression with him. She didn’t want him to think bad about her if she could help it – not when he could literally ruin her life if she wasn’t careful.
“Where are you?” she called out quietly into her room – she didn’t want her brothers to hear. “Are you there?”
“I’m here.” he told her, appearing by the bed. Megan jumped. In the dark she thought she saw him smirk. She reached over and switched on the light before turning back to him.
“I kind of thought you’d be gone.” she told him. Especially since she forgot about putting that old cork back in the bottle. She wondered – if it wasn’t sealed up, did that mean he could just leave?
“Go where?” he asked.
“I don’t know – out. Away.”
“Why?”
“Why not?” She was pretty sure she’d have left if it was her.
“I’d have to come back here anyway.” he shrugged. “Because of that.” he added, nodding towards her desk. Megan knew what he was talking about without even turning her head.
“You can’t just take it with you?” she asked slowly.
She really didn’t want to give him any ideas, especially when he still owed her two more wishes. But surely he was smart enough to think of that? He looked at her coolly for a minute.
“If I could really do that, don’t you think I’d have done it long ago?” he retorted.
“Well, yeah...I guess.” Megan mumbled.
She was kind of surprised at his tone. He might have been pretty disinterested in her life so far, but he’d never actually been rude to her. Ok, sure – maybe it wasn’t the smartest question ever asked, but she still didn’t see what the attitude was for.
“Looks like everyone’s in a bad mood today.” she muttered to herself.
She would have thought being popular meant more people would be nice to her. Maybe it didn’t apply to family though. And Megan knew it wouldn’t apply to her genie. But wouldn’t that be nice if it did?
“Problems?” the genie asked. At least he was making an attempt to sound nicer.
“No. Just an annoying little brother.” Megan scowled. And a genie who seems to think I’m an idiot.
“Anything I can do?” he asked, brightening.
Megan stared at him a minute. He looked just a little too happy about the idea of helping her out.
“What did you have in mind?” she asked suspiciously.
“Well, little brothers can be annoying – I know. And if you decided that you really didn’t want one anymore...” he trailed off.
Megan caught herself thinking about it for just a minute. It could be really nice to not have to worry about Drew. There’d be no more sarcastic comments about how she never got invited to go places, or how she always seemed to say the wrong thing. But tempting as it was, Megan just couldn’t do it.
“My parents would kill me.” she said finally.
“Just arrange it so they don’t find out. Or wish them away too.”
“Oh, great idea.” Megan said sarcastically.
She could just imagine how that would work out. And it’d waste the rest of her wishes too. He shrugged.
“If you change your mind, let me know.”
He turned away, seemingly losing interest. Watching him turn like that, a thought suddenly struck Megan.
“Wait – is this what you do?” she asked.
“What?” The genie did a good job of looking confused – like he had no idea what she could possibly be talking about.
“You tempt people into making these wishes that seem like a good idea, and watch as they try to fix it?”
He broke out in a grin, all trace of that confusion gone.
“Sometimes.” he nodded happily.
“But why?”
“Why not? It’s somewhat...monotonous otherwise.”
“So you just do it for fun then?”
“Yeah, basically...” he shrugged, but he did manage to look at least a little apologetic about it. That was probably more for Megan’s benefit than anything else though.
“Because they don’t deserve it.” Not to mention the fact that it seemed to be acting outside his job.
“How do you know?”
“Because they’re people.” Megan told him. “And people don’t deserve to be toyed with like that.”
“Says a girl who just tricked her entire school into liking her?”
“That’s not the same!” she snapped.
“Why not?”
“Because I didn’t mess with somebody for no reason.”
The genie didn’t say anything; he just stared at her.
“Ok – fine. But I didn’t hurt anyone.”
“Neither do I.”
“It’s still not the same.” Megan repeated. She couldn’t explain how, but she just knew it wasn’t.
“Alright.” the genie nodded, and it almost seemed like he was agreeing with her.
But as Megan lay in bed that night, she couldn’t help going over it again in her mind. Was his tricking people really that different from what she’d ended up doing?
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