Genie in Charge by Meredith Badger

Author:Meredith Badger
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hardie Grant Egmont
Published: 2011-12-24T05:00:00+00:00

Poppy decided to get straight to the point. ‘Listen, Aggi, I know you don’t really hate being a genie,’ she said. ‘But I don’t know why you’re pretending you do, and I want to know. I really do. So I’m going to sit in this stinky, squishy basket until you tell me.’

For a long time, Aggi didn’t say anything. She just sat where she was, holding her genie bottle tightly to her chest.

‘Do they ever make mistakes?’ she said finally. ‘Lexie and Lady Topaz, I mean.’

‘What sort of mistakes?’ asked Poppy.

Aggi rolled her genie bottle between her palms. ‘Like, have they ever thought someone had the Genie Gene when actually they didn’t?’

‘I’ve never heard of that happening,’ said Poppy. ‘They’re pretty smart, you know.’

‘They might have made a mistake this time,’ said Aggi. ‘With me.’

Poppy looked at her in surprise. ‘Aggi! You definitely have the Genie Gene,’ she said. ‘You wouldn’t be able to squeeze into a genie bottle if you didn’t.’

Aggi didn’t look convinced, so Poppy added, ‘And you wouldn’t be able to fly a magic carpet if you weren’t a genie, would you?’

Aggi’s face suddenly crumpled up. ‘I can’t!’ she blurted.

‘You can’t what?’ said Poppy.

‘I can’t fly a magic carpet,’ said Aggi, her voice sounding all wonky. ‘Every time I try, I fall off.’

‘Don’t worry about that!’ said Poppy. ‘Everyone falls off when they start flying. It’s totally normal.’

Aggi shook her head. ‘You don’t get it,’ she said. ‘I’m not just a bit wobbly like the other beginners. I’ve watched them. Every time they have a lesson, they get better. But I don’t. I can’t even sit up for one second without falling sideways. The moment the carpet starts to rise up, I feel all dizzy and I have to get off straight away. It makes me feel so stupid.’

‘So that’s why you said flying is boring,’ guessed Poppy. ‘So no-one would realise what was really going on?’ Aggi’s strange behaviour was starting to make sense.

Aggi nodded slowly. ‘The last time we had a flying lesson, I pretended I wanted to do a jigsaw puzzle instead,’ she said. ‘I’ve been so scared that someone would find out and decide they’d made a mistake about me. That I’m not really a genie at all! That’s why I haven’t decorated my bottle either. I thought I might get told to leave, so I didn’t want to get too attached to anything in the Genie Realm.’

‘Oh, Aggi. You poor thing,’ said Poppy. It must have been awful for her, thinking she’d be told to leave the Genie Realm at any moment! ‘But it’s so weird that you feel dizzy whenever you get on a magic carpet. I’ve never heard of that before.’

Aggi hugged her bottle to her chest. ‘See? That just proves it,’ she said. ‘I’m not a genie at all. I should probably just smash my bottle and give up, before Lexie or Lady Topaz find out.’

‘Aggi!’ said Poppy, shocked. ‘Don’t even talk about doing that.’

Poppy wasn’t sure exactly what would happen if Aggi’s bottle was smashed, but she knew it was bad.

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