“I must be dreaming,” Ali Miller murmured, sitting up in bed. She rubbed her eyes and stared at her desk. Her pink furry pencil case was wiggling about as if it was alive! Suddenly, the zipper opened and a tiny head with a long blond pony-tail popped out.

“Oh, Genie!” All said. “What are you doing?”

Little Genie grinned. “I thought this would make a really cool jacket,” she said, stroking the fur. “What do you think?”

Ali laughed. Having her very own genie around was definitely the most exciting thing that had ever happened to her.

“I think my pencil case would look great as a jacket too,” Ali said. “But I need it for school today.”

Little Genie wriggled out of the pencil case. Her ponytail drooped. She was wearing sparkly purple pajamas and matching slippers. “I'd better put all your stuff back, then,” she said with a sigh. Ali's pencils, pens, erasers, and ruler were lying on the desk in a topsy-turvy heap.

“I'll help you,” Ali offered, climbing out of bed. She pulled back the curtains. Sunshine streamed into the room. “Isn't it nice out?” She yawned. “I wish I didn't have to go to school!” She looked hopefully overeat Genie.

Little Genie held out her arm. On her wrist she wore a tiny gold watch shaped like an hourglass and filled with sparkling pink sand. “Remember what I told you” she reminded Ali. “Your second set of wishes won't start until the sand begins moving through the hourglass.”

Ali nodded. She was really looking forward to her next three wishes, which would last for as long as the sand took to run from one half of the hourglass to the other The hourglass ran on genie time, which didn't seem to follow any rules. Ali never knew how long her wishes would last, but she still couldn't wait This time she was determined to wish for something she really, really wanted.

“Why don't you want to go to school?” asked Little Genie, heaving a ruler into the pencil case. “You sound like me. I didn't like going to Genie School either”

Ali grinned at her small friend. Little Genie had told her that she'd got into such big trouble mixing up spells that the genie teachers had expelled her Genie had had to stay in her Lava lamp and study magic until her eleventh owner came along—who was Ali!

Genie's magic skills still weren't very reliable. Ali shook her head as she remembered her first wishes. Genie had brought a tiny purple tiger to life from a chocolate advertisement in one of Ali's magazines. The tiger had been very sweet, but keeping him hidden from Ali's mom liad been a nightmare. Not to mention the ten thousand bars of chocolate that had appeared when Ali wished for her favorite treat!

“So what's happening today?” Little Genie asked, perching on Ali's strawberry-scented eraser.

Ali made a face. “A science test and drama class.” Science was pretty fun. But she hated tests. And she wasn't so sure about drama. Some of the things the teacher wanted them to do were kind of dorky.

“Science and drama,” Little Genie repeated longingly. “In Genie School we had to do things like blinking exercises and ponytail swinging.” She frowned. “Not to mention classes like Spells for Beginners and Math for Modern Genies!”

Ali twirled a pencil between her fingers. “Science is pretty cool. We do experiments and mix up chemicals in test tubes. But not today.” Today she'd be trying to think of the answers to questions that were really hard.

“That sounds like Advanced Potions class!” Little Genie exclaimed. “My teacher; Miss Cauldron, didn't like me very much. She sent me back to Spells for Beginners.”

“Why?” Ali asked.

“I almost singed her eyebrows off with my exploding peanut butter;” Genie confessed sheepishly. “Anyway, what's drama?”

Ali shrugged. It was kind of hard to explain. “We do things like pretend to be trees.” She started waving her arms about to show Little Genie what she meant and knocked the rest of the pens off the desk with her flailing hands.

“Oops!” Ali bent to pick them up.

“Drama sounds great!” Genie said eagerly, peering down at Ali from on top of the desk. “In Transformation we actually had to turn ourselves into trees, which always seemed silly. Especially when another genie named Lampella couldn't turn herself back Although it did make our classroom a bit more interesting.” Genie smiled. “Just pretending to be one sounds lots more fun.”

Lampella? Ali shook her head. “I don't think so.”

“Well, if school's going to be such a drag, it's a shame you can't just stay home,” Little Genie said. She sat on the edge of Ali's desk, swinging her legs and looking thoughtful. “Hmmm.”

Suddenly, the bedroom door opened. Quick as lightning, Little Genie dived into the open pencil case, zipping it up behind her.

“Ali?” Her mom came into the room, looking puzzled, “Who on earth were you talking to?”

Ali thought fast Maybe this was her chance to get out of going to school! “I was just trying out my voice,” she said weakly, pretending to cough. “I've got a really sore throat.”

Mom raised her eyebrows. “Open up,” she said.

Ali opened her mouth wide and her mom peered inside.

“It doesn't look red,” she said briskly. “You'd better get dressed and come and have breakfast or you'll be late.” She went over to the door. “Oh, and don't forget your science book,” she added. “You can do some last-minute studying for your test.”

Ali's shoulders sagged as her mom went out It had been worth a try, but her mom was hard to fool.

“Help, Ali!” called a tiny voice. “I'm stuck!”

The pencil case was twitching wildly from side to side like a fluffy pink worm. Ali rushed over to the desk. Genie's pajamas had got caught in the zipper Ali tugged gently until the pencil case opened.

“Phew!” Little Genie panted as she stuck her head out “Thanks.” She grinned at Ali. “So your mom didn't fall for it?”

“No,” Ali admitted. “She never does.”

Little Genie's ponytail swung back and forth. “Maybe I can help,” she suggested. “After all, I can still do magic without the wishes.”

“Do you think that's a good idea?” Ali asked doubtfully. She really did want to stay home, but she couldn't help thinking that Genie's magic might end up getting her into real trouble.

“Of course it's a good idea!” Little Genie cartwheeled across the desk and grinned up at Ali. “Now let me see.…”

She snapped her fingers, sending silver sparks shooting upward. Immediately a book appeared on the desk. It had a purple cover, and its pages were edged with silver.

“A Genie's Big Book of Sickness Symptoms,” Ali read aloud.

Little Genie flipped open the large book and leafed through. Then her face lit up. “Ah, this should do the trick!” she said. She pointed at Ali and began to mutter some magic words. “Oola, moola, pooh, pill, please make Ali look really ill.”

Ali waited, holding her breath. She glanced down at herself, wiggling her fingers and toes to see if anything had changed. She didn't feel different.

“There you are!” Genie beamed triumphantly. “Now you can stay at home today.”

“But I feet exactly the same,” Ali began. Then she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror that hung over her chest of drawers, “Genne!” she yelled, rushing over to the mirror to take a closer look “What have you done to me?”

Genie looked confused. “I thought you wanted to look sick” she said.

“Yes, but not like this!” Ali gasped. Her face was covered with enormous purple spots. “It looks like I've got a tropical disease. My mom will take me straight to the hospital if she sees me!”

“Okay.” Genie shrugged. “Let's try something different, then.” She flipped through the book again and began to chant another spell.

Ali anxiously watched her reflection in the mirror. She breathed a sigh of relief as the bright purple spots began to fade. But then she noticed that her face was looking a bit orange. She gazed down at her hands and feet. They looked orange too. A few seconds later she was bright orange all over.

“There you go!” Genie declared, looking very pleased. “Orange fever is a very serious genie illness, you know. You're lucky you haven't got any of the other symptoms—”

“Yes, but it's not a human illness!” Ali interrupted her “Genie, this isn't going to work,” she groaned. She wanted to stay home and watch TV, not be rushed off to the doctor! “Make me look normal again—please!”

Little Genie frowned. “But then you'll have to go to school,” she pointed out.

“That's better than looking like a giant, orange!” Ali whispered loudly. As Genie muttered another spell, Ali watched her skin go back to normal. Then she turned to Genie, who was slumped beside the spell book. “Never mind, Genie,” she said comfortingly. “You did your best”

“I'm sure there's other things I could have tried,” Genie said with a pout, closing the book. The pink sand in her magic watch sparkled in the sunshine, catching Ali's eye. A few pink grains of sand were beginning to drift through the hourglass.

“Genie, look!” exclaimed Ali. “The sand is moving. That means my next three wishes have started!”

Genie glanced down at her watch. “Far out!” she said. “And I know exactly what you should wish for”

“What?” Ali asked.

“Why don't you wish for me to look like you?” Genie announced, bouncing up and down. “Then you can stay home and I can go to school in your place.”

A big grin spread across Ali's face. “That's a brilliant idea,” she said. “Let's do it quickly before my mom comes back”

Genie nodded, her ponytail bobbing. “Go on then, Ali,” she urged. “Make the wish.”

Ali closed her eyes. “I wish that Little Genie looked like me!” she declared.

A cloud of glittering pink smoke whirled around the room. Ali couldn't see a thing when she opened her eyes. She coughed and waited impatiently, wondering if she was going to get what she'd wished for. With Little Genie, you never quite knew!

Ali peered through the smoke as it began to clear. Little Genie wasn't sitting on the desk anymore. She was standing on the carpet, full size like Ali. But she didn't look at all like Genie.

Instead, Ali was looking at herself!”