Genie in Charge Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Copyright Page

  Most people who met Poppy Miller thought she was just like any other twelve-year-old girl. And in some ways this was true. For instance, Poppy lived with her mother, her father and her older sister Astrid in a nice but ordinary house in a nice but ordinary town. From Monday to Friday she went to school. She wore a school uniform and kept her hair neatly tied up in a ponytail. When she returned from school, she did her homework and had dinner with her family. After dinner she helped with the dishes and then maybe, if she wasn’t too tired, she would read a book before bed.

  Now, most people who read this description would probably think, what an ordinary and average person this Poppy Miller must be. But you are not like most people, are you? You know there is one little detail about Poppy that we have neglected to mention. A little detail that proves Poppy is far from ordinary and not the slightest bit average. And what is that little detail?

  Well, here’s a clue. This is Poppy in her school uniform.

  It’s not exactly a typical uniform, is it? But then, Poppy’s school is not exactly a typical school. It’s certainly not the sort of school that normal people would ever go to. At normie school, you learn how to read and write and do maths. But at Poppy’s school, the students learn something completely different. They learn how to be genies!

  See that number three on Poppy’s uniform? That’s because Poppy is a Stage Three genie – or tweenie genie to be precise – at Genie High School. Stage Three is the highest grade of all and when she’s finished, Poppy will graduate and become a fully qualified genie, ready to start work.

  On this particular morning, Poppy was at school early, doing some work in the stables. The stables at Poppy’s school were where 250 magic carpets were kept. Most of the time they stayed rolled up in their ‘resting tubes’. These tubes were silver cylinders that jutted out from the wall of the stable, each one engraved in curly letters with the name of the carpet stored inside it. Every day someone came and exercised the carpets, which meant taking them out of their tubes one by one and flying them around the stables. At the moment that was Poppy’s job, and she liked to get to school early so she could fly the carpets for as long as possible.

  That morning, Poppy was riding a lively, colourful one called Lightning. Lightning was a playful, loop-the-loopy sort of a carpet, with a golden thunderbolt sewn into her underside. Poppy had to hold on very tightly as they flew because she never knew when Lightning might suddenly start to spin and twirl, just for the fun of it.

  Following behind them was another carpet, one that was much darker and heavier than Lightning. This was Thunder and although he was every bit as fast as Lightning, he was far more sensible and not nearly so loop-theloopy. Thunder and Lightning were twin rugs, which meant that although they were different in many ways, they were also very close and never liked to be far away from each other.

  Tagging along behind was Poppy’s very own carpet, Rocket. He was half the size of the others but it was clear he had no intention of missing out on the fun. Rocket whooshed along at top speed, his tassels fluttering madly.

  ‘I wish I could fly like this all day, every day,’ Poppy sighed to herself as she completed her final lap for the morning. Genie school classes were fun, but nothing was quite as much fun as flying.

  ‘So, Teeny Weeny,’ called a voice from down below. ‘I guess you’ve figured out which genie job you’re going to wish for at graduation.’

  Poppy didn’t need to look down to know that her friend Jake had turned up. Only he was cheeky enough to call her by that nickname! Poppy tapped Lightning’s back and the carpet swooped down, sliding to a halt at Jake’s feet. The other two carpets landed just behind.

  ‘Hi, Jake!’ said Poppy, jumping off. ‘Yep, you’re right. Working in the stables is definitely what I’ll be wishing for.’

  Stage Three tweenies were able to try out lots of different jobs to see which one they liked the best. Then there was a big graduation ceremony and all the Stage Three tweenies wished for the job they would like to be given. For Poppy, the decision was easy. She’d tried lots of different genie jobs, including genie judo instructor and smoke-writer, but her favourite by far had been working in the stables. She adored flying and caring for the magic carpets.

  ‘What about you?’ Poppy asked Jake. ‘Have you worked out what you want to wish for?’

  ‘No,’ sighed Jake. ‘The problem is that there are so many different jobs. And they’re all so cool. Genie football player. Genie inventor. Genie chef. How am I expected to choose just one thing?’

  ‘Pity there’s no such job as genie nosepicker,’ piped a tinny little voice from inside Jake’s backpack.

  Poppy snorted with laughter as Jake pulled his Dial-Up Device out of his bag. Every Genie High student had their own Dial-Up, a gadget which was used for travelling around the school and sending messages. They also reminded the tweenies about things they needed to do, and some Dial-Ups did this more politely than others! Jake’s Dial-Up had an extremely cheeky smile on its screen.

  ‘Don’t laugh, Poppy!’ said Jake crossly. ‘You’ll just encourage it.’

  ‘Sorry,’ said Poppy, biting the inside of her cheeks to stop the corners of her mouth rising up. ‘I thought you’d swapped your Dial-Up for a new one?’

  ‘I couldn’t,’ said Jake. ‘Lady Topaz said that I had to stick with this one until we give them back at graduation.’

  Lady Topaz was the principal of Genie High. She was a very wise and fair genie, but she was strict when it came to rules.

  Jake pressed a button and his Dial-Up’s face instantly disappeared. ‘Luckily I’ve worked out how to turn on sleep mode!’ he said triumphantly as he shoved the gadget into his pocket. ‘That should keep the stupid thing quiet, for a while at least.’

  ‘Excuse me, Poppy?’ Another Dial-Up was speaking now – one with a much friendlier tone than Jake’s. It was Poppy’s and the digital face smiled cheerily as she removed it from her bag.

  ‘Don’t forget it’s Mentor Day today,’ it said. ‘You need to be in the Velodrome Bottle in ten minutes.’

  Mentor Day! Poppy had been so busy working in the stables that she’d almost forgotten about it. Today was the day that all the Stage Threes found out which Stage Two tweenie they’d be mentoring. It was the last big task the Stage Three tweenies did before they graduated, and was maybe even the most important of all. Poppy couldn’t wait to find out who her tweenie would be.

  Jake frowned and pulled out his Dial-Up. ‘Why didn’t you remind me about Mentor Day?’ he asked it once it was switched on.

  ‘How was I supposed to remind you?’ said the gadget when the little face reappeared. ‘You put me into sleep mode, remember?’ The Dial-Up’s eyes scrunched shut again. ‘And now I’m going to put myself back into it. Frankly it’s the only way I can cope with being in that stinky pocket of yours. Pee-yuooou! How about washing your uniform occasionally?’ The screen went blank again.

  ‘I don’t know if I can wait until graduation to get rid of this thing,’ muttered Jake, as Poppy tried desperately to stifle her giggles. ‘Maybe I can swap it with someone. What about you Poppy? Want to swap?’

  ‘No way!’ said Poppy. ‘Come on. We’d better get going.’

  Poppy rolled up the three carpets. Lightning and Thunder were slotted back into their resting tubes, which were side-byside
on the stable wall. Poppy put Rocket into her backpack and turned to Jake. ‘I’ll race you to the mentor meeting,’ she said, finding the word ‘Velodrome’ in her Dial-Up’s menu. All she needed to do now was click ‘send’ and she’d be on her way.

  Jake nodded. ‘You’re on! Oh, and Teeny?’

  Poppy’s finger hovered over the button. ‘What?’

  Jake grinned. ‘Try not to fall over for once when you arrive, OK?’

  And before Poppy could think of a clever comeback, Jake quickly pressed ‘send’ on his Dial-Up and vanished in a puff of smoke.

  Lean forward, feet out, hands flexed, Poppy reminded herself as she twirled towards the Velodrome Bottle. Travelling between bottles – or between the normie world and the Genie Realm – felt a bit like shooting down a giant curly slide, if the slide was made of smoke and you were travelling along backwards and in total darkness. And of course you went much, much faster than on a normal slide. As you can probably imagine, lots of tweenies fell over when they first started travelling this way. Poppy certainly did. But she’d recently started taking a genie yoga class and her balance had improved. Now she almost always landed on her feet. Still, the trip from the Stable Bottle to the Velodrome Bottle seemed particularly twisty that day, and as the slippery green glass of the Velodrome’s floor rushed up to meet her feet, Poppy found herself toppling over.

  Jake hauled her up, his smile stretching nearly from ear to ear.

  ‘You could at least try not to smirk like that,’ said Poppy, rolling her eyes.

  ‘I can’t help it,’ said Jake. ‘It’s funny when a Golden genie like you does something so uncoordinated!’

  It had taken Poppy a long time to get used to the idea that she was a special kind of genie – a Golden one – and she used to blush bright red when Jake teased her like this. But these days she didn’t mind so much – not since Lexie had explained that being Golden just meant Poppy had a good heart. That sounded like a nice thing to have.

  ‘That was a Golden fall, Jake,’ said Poppy with a grin as she dusted herself off. ‘I did it so you could learn from me.’ All the same, glancing around the Velodrome, Poppy was relieved that no-one else seemed to have noticed what had happened.

  The Velodrome was where the Stage Two tweenies learnt to fly magic carpets. It was also where lots of carpet races were held. Large screens hanging around the side of the bottle showed clips of the top riders in the school, performing their tricks. One of the screens had a clip of Poppy and Rocket! The central race-track was surrounded by raked seating that stretched halfway up the glimmering glass walls. This was where the tweenies sat to watch the carpet racing and gathered for important meetings with the Principal of Genie High.

  A small stage had been erected in the centre of the race-track in preparation for Lady Topaz’s arrival. It was draped with purple velvet and above it floated a large banner, suspended from a cluster of silver balloons. The words Mentor Day were written across the banner in large, sparkly letters.

  Poppy looked around. The seating was almost completely full and the whole bottle seemed to ring with the sound of excited chatter. On one side were all the Stage Three genies. On the other were the Stage Twos. Poppy looked at them curiously, wondering who she’d be matched up with. Someone shy who needed lots of encouraging, perhaps? Or someone who was struggling with their genie lessons?

  I don’t mind what they’re like, Poppy decided. So long as they love flying. And really, who doesn’t!

  ‘Poppy! Jake! Over here!’

  Poppy turned and saw a genie with shiny brown hair jumping up and down on her seat, waving at them.

  ‘Hi, Alyssa!’ said Poppy, plonking down next to her. ‘Thanks for saving us a seat.’

  Beside Alyssa was a boy genie called Nathan. ‘Hey,’ he said. ‘Can you believe that we’re about to start our last task before graduation? Exciting, huh?’

  ‘So exciting!’ agreed Poppy.

  ‘Well, I’m not excited one bit,’ said Jake gloomily. ‘I bet I end up with some cheeky little know-it-all who’s always getting into trouble.’

  ‘Someone like you, you mean?’ Poppy said innocently.

  ‘Ha ha. Very funny,’ said Jake. ‘Mentoring isn’t going to be easy, even for you, Poppy. I bet you end up losing your temper with your trainee.’

  ‘No I won’t!’ insisted Poppy.

  Poppy had thought a lot about what kind of a mentor she would be, especially because when she was a Stage Two tweenie, she hadn’t liked her own mentor, Zara, to begin with. But that all changed after Zara saved Rocket’s life. Now they were good friends, and even though Zara had graduated and was working as a magic-carpet repairer, she often came to visit Poppy.

  Poppy planned to be as good a mentor as Zara, but even better because there would be no rough patch to begin with. Poppy would have a perfect sisterly relationship with her Stage Two – totally unlike the less-than-perfect one she had with her normie sister Astrid.

  ‘I’m going to be super-understanding,’ Poppy told Jake. ‘And really calm and patient.’

  ‘We’ll see about that,’ said Jake darkly. ‘Personally, I wish I didn’t have to do this mentoring thing.’

  ‘But if you don’t, you won’t graduate,’ said Nathan.

  ‘I know, I know,’ groaned Jake. ‘I’m going to do it. But I’m not going to enjoy it, that’s for sure.’

  ‘It all depends on who you get as a trainee,’ said Alyssa. ‘You might get someone great, or someone really tricky. I’ve heard that there’s this one Stage Two who skips class and wears her uniform the wrong way, and …’

  Alyssa trailed off as a strange purple mist began forming on the stage. It was swirling with increasing speed and as it gathered strength, the scent of plum blossom and roses filled the air. Lady Topaz was on her way! There was a sudden frenzy of activity as the tweenies began frantically smoothing their hair and straightening their clothes.

  The mist began to clear, revealing a genie with a very sparkly turban perched atop her dark brown hair. Lady Topaz was rumoured to be over one thousand years old, but she looked much younger.

  ‘Happy Mentor Day, tweenies!’ said Lady Topaz, waving. She was sitting in her lionfooted chair, which began walking stiffly around the stage. ‘Now, as I’m sure you know, we are doing things a little differently this time. This is the first Matchmaking we’ve done in the Velodrome with all the Stage Twos and Threes present. Our Stage Twos have been at Genie High for a month, so they’ve already learnt some basic skills. They’ve even had a flying lesson or two! But of course they will still need help and advice from their Stage Three mentors.’

  Lady Topaz’s chair stopped in front of the Stage Threes. ‘I don’t need to tell you how important this task is,’ she said softly, ‘because you have all had mentors yourself.’ Lady Topaz looked around. ‘Now. Are there any questions before we begin the Matchmaking?’

  Jake’s hand shot up. ‘What if we don’t like the tweenie we’re mentoring?’ he said. ‘You know – if we really don’t get along.’

  ‘The Matchmaking tool we’ll be using knows what it’s doing, Jake,’ said Lady Topaz reassuringly. ‘When it pairs you with someone, it means you have something to offer your trainee – even if it takes a little while to work out what this is.’

  ‘Can we swap trainees?’ asked Nathan.

  Lady Topaz shook her head. ‘That’s not possible, I’m afraid. But don’t worry. Most of the time, mentors and their trainees get along very well indeed. And remember that it’s not just about the mentors helping the trainees. Often the trainees help their mentors too.’

  Poppy had to try very hard not to laugh. It was clear from the look on Jake’s face that he didn’t think this was likely.

  ‘Well, then. Let’s begin,’ said Lady Topaz. She pressed her hands together, then slowly drew them apart. The air between her palms began to twinkle and shudder, like something hot was forming. Gradually the twinkling became more solid and the outline of a box began to appear, shimmering like a mira
ge. The box grew increasingly solid until finally there was a little wooden chest with brass corners floating in mid-air. Lady Topaz reached out and, after lifting the lid, removed something from inside. There was a creak of chairs as everyone simultaneously craned to see.

  ‘What is that thing?’ whispered Jake. It looked like a match, except it was as big as a chopstick and entirely silver.

  ‘This is the Matchmaking Match,’ explained Lady Topaz. ‘In a moment, I will call each Stage Three tweenie down here one by one. Then I’ll strike the match, and all you need to do is look into the flame and wait.’

  ‘Just you watch as everyone goes running down there when their names are called,’ muttered Jake. ‘But not me. I’m going to take my time getting down there.’

  ‘Jake,’ called Lady Topaz.

  Poppy giggled as Jake instantly leapt to his feet and rushed down the aisle, two steps at a time. So much for taking his time!

  When he was standing on the stage, Lady Topaz struck the match against the side of the box. Instantly there was the flare of a bright purple flame. ‘What can you see, Jake?’ said Lady Topaz.

  Jake squinted. ‘It’s a word … It says … Nico.’

  Over in the Stage Two group, a boy whooped and jumped up. ‘Hey! That’s me!’ he said and began running down the steps, two at a time.

  ‘He looks like you, Jake,’ someone called out.

  ‘He runs like you too!’ called someone else.

  ‘Oh, that’s just great,’ said Jake’s Dial-Up loudly. ‘Just what I need. Another Jake to deal with.’

  On the stage, Jake and Nico shook hands and then Lady Topaz sent them to sit together in the stands. Next she called down Alyssa, who was paired up with a Two called Maddie. After Alyssa was Nathan, who was soon paired up with Harry and sent to sit down again.

  Watching her friends being matched made Poppy feel all wriggly and impatient. When would it be her turn? But the moment her name was called, Poppy’s excitement suddenly turned to nervousness.