Oops! I Caught a Genie!

Chapter 6

Amazingly, Fritz played his part as a mindless high school student well. He stayed near me and Liana throughout the day. I was irritated to find out that he could do all of the work perfectly, even though he said he had never been in a human school before.

When the bell rang for lunch after math, I ran up to Fritz in the hallway.

"Are you using your powers to do your work?" I asked accusingly.

"You wound me! Of course not." He said, clapping his hand over his heart like he was offended.

"Sure. I'll believe that when pigs fly."

He started to snap, but I grabbed his hand and pushed it down.

"No." I said firmly.

Liana came out of nowhere and giggled. I let go of Fritz's hand and turned to face her.

"D'Aww." She said.  

"Hush." I scolded.

"Need any help on your homework so far?" Fritz asked us, changing the subject.

"Are you any good with calculus?" Liana asked hopefully.

 

Fritz helped Liana on her calculus during lunch and I worked on my history reading. This was one of the few times that we ate lunch on campus. It was always loud in the cafeteria, the underclassmen are noisy and rowdy.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully. The bell rang at four thirty as always and we ran to the parking lot. After we got home, Fritz flopped on the couch. I got a plain bagel from the pantry.

"How do you humans do it? That was dull as-"

"We don't all have magical abilities but we're used to it." I said sourly.

"Well. I have a little bit of respect for humans now then." He said, grabbing the television remote and turning it on. Only two minutes later he turned it off.

"Respect gone." He said with a grimace.

I sighed and walked to my room. Fritz appeared on my bed and held out a sheet of paper.

When I took it, I groaned loudly. It was my homework.

"Now? Now you want me to do homework the long way?"

"Payback, you do all your homework before six or I turn everything in your house inside out."

"What?!"

"Less mouth. Pencil to paper." Fritz said with a snicker.

I opened and closed my mouth without saying anything.

"Just when you had started doing nice things." I grumbled as I sat down at my desk.

"Must have some balance. Can't be all rainbows and unicorns."

"Wow." I grumbled. Though, I suppose he could be a worse influence. I mean, he was forcing me to do my homework...

As soon as I had put my pencil to paper, there was a loud bang and the room was filled with dark purple smoke.

"Fritz!?" I shouted angrily.

There was a strangled gurgle from my bed. The smoke cleared and Fritz was flat on his back, struggling to pry a pair of hands off his throat. There was a man that looked to be around our age straddling Fritz, choking him. He had blue and black hair and dressed like a member of a boy band.

"You disappear for twenty years and don't bother to tell ANYONE where you went or why you are suddenly hanging out with a HUMAN?!"

"Let-go-of-my-throat-and-i'll-tell-you." Fritz croaked.

The boy let go of Fritz and sat back.

"This is a binder." Fritz said, rubbing his throat. "Her father trapped me in my container. She unwittingly opened it and read a the spell off a paper."

"What?! Did you destroy it? Why is the binder still alive?"

I shifted nervously in my desk chair. This was taking a bad turn.

"She didn't know. Don't you even think about reporting this. We'll deal with it, would you mind researching how to undo a binding spell?"

"As far as I know, there is no way. I'll check when I go back anyway."

I didn't want to sound rude, but I had questions.

"W-who are you?" I asked nervously.

"Oh! How silly of me! I forgot to give a proper introduction to the lovely human!

My name is Mangoo!"

"Like... Mango...?"
Mangoo made a pouting face and Fritz stifled a laugh behind his hand.

"No."

"Sorry..." I mumbled sheepishly.

"This is why I don't interact with humans as much as some" Mangoo said, glaring at Fritz.

Fritz stuck his tongue out.

"Don't make that face too much. It'll get stuck." Mangoo drawled.

I watched, interested as they continued bickering back and forth. I wondered if they had known each other long.  I had so many unanswered questions, but I didn't know how to ask them.

Mangoo turned to me.

"Have you told the human what you are?" He addressed Fritz while studying me.

"Yes. She insisted on calling me a genie for the longest time though..."

"Do you ifrits ever explain anything well?" Mangoo said, sighing dramatically.

"Don't call me 'human'! My name is Nora." I protested. "And you speak like you're a different species."

"Just a different class. I'm a Marid" He said, batting his lavender eyes.

"And?" I asked, not sure what that was.

"FRITZ! You didn't educate your human! A Marid is the strongest class of Djinn. Meaning, I outclass Fritz-o here."

"Silence." Fritz grumbled.

I stifled a giggle, it was nice seeing Fritz humbled. I let them stay and catch up in my room while I tried to work on my homework. After a while, Mangoo went to go research our problem and left Fritz laying bored on my bed.

"Nora, it's six." He said.

It took me a moment to remember what that meant, and when I did, I squeaked.

"Don't do it! Please!"

"Fine, its my fault you were distracted anyway..." He admitted.

I finally finished at six thirty, my mom got home at seven with Chinese takeout.

"So how was your day, honey?" She asked, smiling.

"Pretty dull. Normal school, lots of homework." I said.

"Thats nice. So, honey,"

This didn't sound good...

"I met this guy at work and we're going out to dinner on friday, can you take care of yourself that night?" She asked.

"Yes," I replied. This was going to be awkward.

After dinner I walked as fast as I could without seeming eager or upset to my room. I closed the door and slumped against it. Its not that I didn't want my mom to be happy... Its just... I don't think i'm ready for that. I pushed that thought out of my mind and finished reading a history chapter that was due the next day.

As I fell asleep that night, visions of school work nightmares drifted through my mind.