Oops! I Caught a Genie!

Chapter 3

Once in the safety of the changing rooms (Luckily empty) I pulled out the watch.

"Are you trying to get me thrown in a loony bin‽" I hissed.

"Nope, but if I had to say something, do not buy that skirt."

"What?" I asked, taken aback.

"Do you want to look like a colorblind clown designs your clothing?" Fritz hummed.

"I'm not taking fashion advice, from a genie!"

"Hey, Hey! Djinn." Fritz complained.

There was a knock at the door and I shoved the watch back in my pocket.

"If you need help so badly that you're talking to yourself, you could just ask me!" Liana called out with a laugh.

"Oh... I was just going to put this back, it doesn't look right on me." I said lamely.

There was a snicker from the watch.

After putting the skirt back, we continued through the mall without any interruptions.

___

"Can I make run something by you Master?" Came the cheeky question from my pocket.

"As long as you stop calling me master." I grumbled.

I was sitting at my desk, working on over break homework (Screw you too, history teacher). It was now the third day of break. Fritz had been unusually quiet all morning so now was apparently the time to figure out why.

"I've been thinking... If there is a binding spell, there's gotta be a way to unbind right? So all we've got to do, is find it."

"How do we do that?" I asked skeptically.

"I haven't gotten that far." He grumbled.

"Well, when you do think of it. Please do tell."

Poof and there he stood, I blew away some of the smoke that was taking too long to dissipate.

"What now? I'm trying to work on my history homework!" I groaned.

"History? What part?" He leaned on the desk, looking at the paper.

"Economics project, from 1974."

"From forty years ago? I remember meeting Nixon... He wasn't that bad. Until, ya know, that whole spy thing."

"How old are you?" I asked, dumfounded. He looked 17!

"Erh... I'd rather not answer that... It's not important."

"You talk like an old woman. But seriously, can you help me on this?"

"Alright. But, you do realize I could do it with magic?..."

"I'm not cheating!" I huffed.

"Have it your way."

A knock on the front door silenced both of us. Since mom wasn't due back until her shift in the emergency room ended, I jumped up and rushed to the door.

It was Liana, holding a large box of doughnuts. Who could say no to doughnuts?

"Liana! Hi! Whats with the doughnuts?" I asked excitedly.

"The question is why not?" She said, grinning.

"Hmm... Sound logic."

We put the doughnuts on the kitchen table and we each took one. I turned on the television and we sat on the couch.

"Pastries?" Fritz asked. He had gone back inside the watch.

I ignored him, I couldn't think of a way to talk to him without alerting Liana.

But, apparently he was tired of sitting around in his watch. I saw the red smoke coming out of my pocket and jumped to the side.

"What's that smoke?" Liana asked nervously.

"I don't know, probably some powder or something my cousins put in the air ducts finally coming out."

I turned and glared at Fritz, who was now looking at the doughnuts curiously.

When he saw my glare, he shrugged and disappeared in his smoke cloud. He had probably forgotten about them. I knew that they were around in the 1950's.

___

Liana and I watched TV until six, she had to leave then.

"Hey, are you busy tomorrow night?" I asked before she left.

"Nope! Wanna do something?"

"You could spend the night, we could watch scary movies till dawn." I suggested.

"That sounds awesome!" She replied on the way to the door.

"See you then!"

After locking the door behind her, I walked back to my room. It looked so messy... I was going to have to clean all of this up before tomorrow. I groaned and bent over to pick up some dirty shirts laying on the ground.

"You realize that you have a Djinn right? You are very daft. Most humans would not hesitate to order me to clean it up for them." Fritz appeared on my bed.

"I'm not most humans and I feel bad for accidentally binding you"

"Really? Thats sweet."
"Not trying to be sweet."

"Alright... But it's tiring watching you work." Fritz made a waving motion with his hand and things started flying into their place. I ducked as a brush shot over my head.

"Hey! Watch it!" I yelped.

"Well, you could always, ya know, move out of my way?"

"You're being unusually helpful." I commented. I instantly regretted saying it out loud as three dirty shirts landed on my face.

"I can be nice. I just choose not to most of the time."

"Mustn't be too nice. You might catch a case of 'being a good person'" I huffed.

"Oh silence, human."

"Oh! Have I embarrassed you!" I laughed, noticing him turning slightly red.

A pair of shorts hit my face and I burst out laughing.

___

Light streamed into my room, it had a slight green tint to it because of the curtains. I blinked slowly, adjusting to the light. My room looked almost alien, it was almost never clean. I should thank Fritz, it usually took me hours to clean it this thoroughly.

When I finally hauled myself out of bed, it was ten thirty in the morning.

What is the point of school break if you don't sleep past nine? If you work all the time, you don't get to stop and experience a slow day with nothing to do but rest.

The kitchen was dark, mom had turned off the lights before leaving for her first work shift. I glanced over the mini-wall and noticed spiky red locks on the arm of the couch.

"Fritz! What are you doing in the living room‽ Mom could have seen you?"

No witty comebacks, no mocking insults. Something was going on.

I looked over the top of the couch and saw my Djinn, asleep. Did they sleep? Well, it seems that they do. I was about to go back to getting food, when there was a knock on the door. I was so excited, I forgot about the Djinn that was crashed on my couch.