Oops! I Caught a Genie!

Chapter 5

"What do you want to know?" Fritz asked me, walking to the chocolate coloured armchair and kicked up his feet. By that time, the questions I had intended to ask had deserted me and I was forced to sit down on the couch to think of a fresh batch.

"What are the extent of your powers?" I asked finally, having completely blanked on any other questions. Fritz thought for a moment.

"Well... I can't mess with fate... Can't bring humans back to life, that wouldn't be pretty... Uh, how about what I can do? That's easier."

"Alright then," I said, "What can you do?"

"This." He said, grinning mischievously and then clicked his fingers.

When I opened my eyes, not remembering closing them in the first place, I saw the kitchen table. This struck me as odd, and then I remembered why. The couch faces the TV, not the kitchen. The kitchen was directly behind the couch. The couch had turned 180 degrees, along with every other piece of furniture in the living room.

"You're like a poltergeist!" I exclaimed.

"Fun fact: Poltergeists are djinn playing pranks." Fritz said, holding up his index finger like he was lecturing.

"Huh... Do you not have anything else to do?"

"I don't think I can tell you much about us without council approval..." He said sheepishly.

"I understand. Just... one thing. What was with the pants you came out of the watch wearing? Do all of you dress like the stereotype?" I asked.

"They're comfy. Shut up. Would you like to be trapped in a watch wearing uncomfortable pants?" He said with a huff.

"Point taken." I had to agree. "Are you going to put the furniture back now?"

"Alright." Fritz said, clicking his fingers and I was facing the television again.

Fritz made me watch another movie, claiming that he needed to catch up on pop culture.

After the movie, I clicked off the television with a force that signified finality.

"Where did you find these movies?" I asked.

"Um, the market?"

"What market?"

"I don't know where..."

"Alright then..." I grumbled. "Just, don't go back to buy movies..."

The next two days consisted of me trying to teach Fritz about modern things. New fads and inventions. He seemed quite interested in new medical advances, though he did tell me a couple were incorrect and would probably kill someone. And I didn't know how to respond to that...

He got on to talking a little bit about the past, just before he had been trapped in the watch.

"I had been travelling and met a man, your father, at a bar in Salado. He seemed quite harmless at the time, but obviously that wasn't the case. He bought me a drink and spiked it with holly."
"Why holly?"

"Shut up and let me finish. Holly is deadly poisonous to us, more so than humans. If we get stabbed with it, it's like being stabbed with a hot metal rod, only if you expose it to cherrywood smoke though... Otherwise it's like a regular infected wound...

Enough about that, so, your dad drugged me and took me to some storage place. Where he bound me to my own watch. After that, I have no idea what happened. We need to find out what happened, and, how he got his hands on that spell! Djinn were told to kill anyone with that spell on site."

"Could there be a traitor?"

"Likely. So i'm going to be careful about who I tell about it."

I yawned, we had watched movies all day and I was tired. It was the last day of break, and I did not want it to end. I was just about to get up and go to bed when I remembered something.

"Hey Fritz? School starts tomorrow. You will go the school as a normal student and take classes." I said. I thought I was getting the hang of giving direct orders (Much to Fritz's irritation) but I was learning the hard way that I had to be very, very, specific because he was brilliant at finding loopholes. I had asked him to turn the lights on in the morning and he had turned every light in the house on except for my room, though admittedly, that was bad wording and Fritz trying to being annoying.

"Fine, i'll go get it set up." He said grumpily and disappeared in his smoke.

I went to bed, trying to remember if I had forgotten any of the homework that was due tomorrow. I really should have let that go, because after I fell asleep I had a nightmare about a history essay that was due and I had completely forgotten about it and everyone kept yelling at me in REM lyrics. Thankfully that was just a dream, just a dream...

My alarm went off at 6:40 the next morning. I sleepily rolled over and tried in vain to hit the button on the clock. After flailing my arm around for a minute, I managed to hit it.

I drug myself out of bed and threw on my clothes for the day, light blue t-shirt and blue jeans, nothing fancy. I put the watch in my jeans pocket, but not before pressing the button.

"Ugh. I had hoped you forgot..." Fritz groaned when he appeared.

"Nope. I have to go to school, you're coming with me."

"Why?"

"I don't trust you wandering alone. And who knows, you might actually like it. At the very least you'll learn about modern culture."

He puffed and his clothes changed from his marshmallow pants into a pair of jeans and a plain t-shirt. I guess he was mimicking me.

"Alright. School starts at seven thirty so we have about..." I looked at the clock, "Thirty minutes before we have to go." I state, walking to the kitchen. "Do you want something to eat?"

"No, i'm fine..." He said.

I put two frozen waffles in the toaster and set it for four minutes. My usual breakfast is only two waffles and a glass of juice, it serves its purpose.

After getting all my books in my bag, I pushed a still reluctant Fritz out the door and into my car.

We arrived at the tan brick school building five minutes before the morning bell. I parked in my designated spot and led Fritz inside. He pulled out the schedule that he had gotten the night before and pointed to the first class listed, he was in the same class as I was.

"I organized it that way, I have all your classes, except for two. I have free periods there."

"How do you have free periods‽" I asked, incredulous.

"I'm a genius, and a Djinn."

I sighed and decided to let that be the last word. I took him to my first period and he gave the teacher a note and said that he was new. She boredly filled him in on what we were doing and gave him some makeup work.

The bell rang and we all took our seats.