Things to Do

            “Why are you doing this?”

“What? Fixing the tub?” I asked my grandma, grunting at the end because of a really stuck nut. “It’s ‘cause it’s broken and leaking all over the place and driving me crazy!”

“That is well and all, but why are you doing this during school hours? This will be the third day in a row that you have not attended classes.”

“Grandma, I’ve got way too much stuff to do to go to school! It’s really hard having so many people expecting so much stuff outta me. And besides, it’s not like I’m going to need school.”

“You will if you want a fulfilling career.”

“Nah, I want to be a rock star! Don’t need school for that.”

One of the ladies in my head scoffed, but I couldn’t tell which one.

“You could go to college and get a fine arts degree. People will take you more seriously with that.”

“Relax Grams! I totally know what I’m doing.”

            I had loved going to school. Trying to become more popular was like a really fun game, and it was kinda nice to flirt with people occasionally. Too bad I had to give it up. There really was too much stuff for me to do to waste time in classes. I had an easy way to get out of trouble with Mom too. I would just fix something up and she’d forgive me. And there was always something breaking!

            Hans and I wanted to start a band together, so practice ate up a lot of my time. He was technically better than me at guitar, but I sounded way cooler.

            Jellybean supported our ambitions.

            I had to practice on my own time too for my solo career and all. I was really going to become a rock star one day!

“Honey, you are no rockstar. You’re pure pop, just like me.”

“You were a singer Vienna?”

“And an actress and model. I was very famous in the city.”

“Wow—” I was going to ask her a question, but she went on a crazy rant about how great she used to be. I just ignored her in favor of my music.

            The witch wanted me to get more control over my genie powers. That was cool by me. I loved to be clean and the pink glow magically cleaning myself gave me was a cherry on top!

            And I was starting to be able to clean the whole house a lot faster and with more accuracy.

            One morning, I woke up super starved.

            And then it clicked right in my head! I pictured some delicious bouillabaisse and my hand started to get all hot and fuzzy.

            Ta-da! Food! “Take that James! I guess you’re not the best genie around.”

            “Fine Jellybean. I guess I can share some of my hard earned food with you.”

            There was other magic stuff that I had to work on too! Daddy still wanted me to overthrow the curse, and so he started having me look over his magic book. It was all so boring and hard to read!

            “What are you doing, Issy?” Jellybean asked while I was looking up some spells. “Researching curses again?”

“I think I could totally learn how to do this mood elevating thing!”

“Are you sure that is such a good idea? Your dad simply wanted you to see if that book had any answers for your family’s problem, not try to learn even more magic.”

            “Watch this!” I shouted, silently reciting exactly what the book had told me to do.

            It didn’t go so well though. “You should leave the witchcraft to the real witches. Those spells can be dangerous if done improperly.”

“Are you trying to say I can’t do it just cause I’m a genie? That’s bull!”

“Well, you’re only half genie technically.”

            The witch lady’s lack of faith made me practice the stupid spell over and over again. I kept getting in worse mood each time. It totally blew. Until it didn’t.

            When I finally got the dumb thing to work, it took away all the bad feelings from my failed attempts. “Ha, take that witchy!”

“That’s my daughter!”

            And there were even more things that people wanted from me. Vienna like it when I worked out.

            Cardio was soooo boring, but at least it made most of the voices happy. A fitter me would be a more attractive me, and I guess that might help break the curse? I wasn’t sure.  Whatever though.

            Sometimes after a workout, I liked to sneak a tasty jellybean.

            It was hard to get anything past people living in your head. They’d all shout at me and I’d have to totally ignore them. I didn’t care if my dad died from eating one. That wasn’t going to happen to me.