The first tweenie to be called up was Hazel. She was introduced to the Royal Family, and then went through her wish routine, which she did perfectly. Her levitation was a little slow to start. But when she finally got off the ground, everyone clapped.

‘Well done, Hazel,’ said Lexie warmly. ‘Now, let’s check your results.’

She lifted up an ancient-looking book with marbled pages and a leather cover. ‘This is the Tweenie Genie Year Book,’ Lexie explained. ‘If you have passed both parts of your exam, your name will appear in it.’

Lexie held up the opened book. Faintly at first, but with growing strength, letters appeared to spell out Hazel’s name! The ballroom burst into delighted cheers.

Rose went next, and sailed through everything easily. Then it was Jake’s turn. Poppy saw his face go white. As he walked passed, Poppy gave his arm a friendly squeeze.

‘Good luck, pineapple-head!’ she whispered.

Jake grinned, suddenly looking a whole lot less nervous. Poppy held her breath when Jake wobbled during his wish routine, and clapped with relief when the smoke-puff appeared as he finished. As for his levitation – well, there was nothing to worry about there. It was perfect.

‘Nice one!’ Poppy breathed when his name appeared in the Year Book. So far no-one had failed!

And then Poppy’s name was called. But Poppy found herself frozen to the spot.

Jake nudged her. ‘Go on, Teeny Weeny!’ he muttered. ‘Get out there and wow them.’

So, with her stomach fluttering like a bag of butterflies, Poppy walked out onto the dance floor.

‘So, what do you want to start with?’ asked Lexie. ‘Wish routine or levitation?’

‘Wish routine,’ replied Poppy quickly. She knew she’d have to face the levitation eventually. But the longer she could put it off, the better!

Lexie nodded. ‘Fine,’ she said.

Snake hands, double-spin, slide, touch-nose- with-tongue. Poppy had done the routine so many times now that it just felt completely natural. Everyone laughed when she did that final, silly move. But it was a friendly laugh, and they all cheered when the puff of silver smoke billowed up around her.

But then came the moment Poppy had been dreading. The thing she couldn’t put off any longer.

‘Levitation,’ said Lexie firmly. ‘Are you ready?’

Poppy nodded, and sat down cross-legged on the dance floor. The purple fizzy drink gurgled in her stomach and Poppy felt sick. Now that the time had come, she wasn’t so sure she was brave enough to tell Lexie about her big secret after all. Especially not in front of all these people!

But I have to, she told herself, or I’m never going to get off the ground. And that would mean she’d never graduate to Stage Two tweenie genie training. It meant other things, too. She’d have to give up her lovely genie bottle. She’d never get another chance to fly on a magic carpet. And she’d probably never see Rose or Hazel or Jake again. Once she thought of it like that, her decision didn’t seem so hard to make after all.

‘Lexie,’ Poppy said. ‘I have something to tell you.’ Then she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. It would be much easier to tell Lexie what had happened if she couldn’t see her!

She began to talk. She explained all about how Astrid had found her bottle and about how she got stuck in the normie world, unable to get her bottle back. And she explained all about the wishes, and how they had halfworked, even before she had her wish routine worked out. The whole room was silent as she spoke. Then, when she’d finally finished, Poppy opened her eyes.

What she saw surprised her. Or, more precisely, she was surprised by what she didn’t see. Where was everyone? For that matter, where was the floor? Poppy looked down. The ground was metres below her, and all the guests were down there, staring up at her. Then Poppy felt something tickling the top of her head. It was the chandelier!

‘How did I get up here?’ asked Poppy, perplexed.

‘You levitated, of course!’ called Lexie. ‘But you’d better come back down now.’

‘OK, I’ll try,’ said Poppy. She tried to think of some heavy things, and the first thing that popped into her head was an elephant sitting on a bus. It was a strange thing to think of, but it worked and Poppy started sinking.

As Poppy’s feet touched the floor, the room erupted into cheers. She had done her wish routine correctly. She’d even levitated! And the written exam had felt pretty easy.

Is it possible that I’ve actually passed? Poppy wondered excitedly.

The crowd clearly thought she had! Poppy’s eyes turned hopefully to the Year Book. But her name wasn’t there.

‘Oh,’ she said, a lump rising in her throat. ‘I failed.’

‘What makes you think that?’ asked Lexie softly.

‘Because my name isn’t in the Year Book,’ Poppy replied miserably.

Lexie smiled at her. ‘You are so determined to believe you are ordinary, aren’t you, Poppy?’ she said. ‘Your name does appear in the Year Book. Just not in this part.’

Lexie opened the book to another page. At the top of the page was the heading, Golden Genies.

‘With every group of tweenies,’ Lexie explained, ‘there is usually one that shows such promise that they are considered Golden. And you, Poppy, are one of them.’

Sure enough, Poppy’s name was there, right at the bottom of the page, written in sparkling gold letters.

‘But that’s not possible!’ said Poppy, shaking her head. ‘I can’t be a Golden genie. I made way too many mistakes. It took me much longer than the others to get my wish routine right. And I kept opening my genie jotter without using the key, remember?’

Lexie and the King and Queen burst out laughing. Poppy stared at them. Why wasn’t she in trouble?

‘We’re still disappointed that you broke the rules. But we’re laughing because the reasons you are giving us are the exact same ones we think prove that you are a good genie,’ explained Lexie. ‘Possibly a great one, if trained properly. The signs were there right from the start. Remember how easily you got into your genie bottle the first time? Most tweenies really struggle with that. And as for opening the genie jotter without a key – well, usually only Stage Three tweenies are powerful enough to do that. And let’s not forget that your wishes half-worked, even though your wish routine wasn’t complete.’

Poppy could hardly believe her ears.

‘But it was when I saw you fly that magic carpet around the Emerald Bazaar that I really knew you were extra special,’ Lexie continued. ‘I’ve never seen a Stage One tweenie get a carpet off the ground, let alone fly it.’

‘You saw me flying the carpet?’ said Poppy nervously.

Lexie laughed at her anxious expression. ‘Oh, yes,’ she said. ‘You were flying one of my carpets, after all. I always make sure that there are a couple of palace carpets patrolling the bazaar when I take tweenies there. You guys have a tendency to wander off, despite my warnings.’

Poppy’s face went hot. It was embarrassing to think that Lexie knew exactly what she’d been up to that day in the Emerald Bazaar. The magic carpet whooshed over, and pushed a drink towards her with one of its corners.

‘I think that carpet has taking a liking to you,’ smiled Lexie.

Poppy gave it a pat. ‘I like it too,’ she said.

‘Consider it yours, then,’ said Lexie. ‘Golden Genies always receive a prize. I will have it sent to your normie home tomorrow. Congratulations, Poppy. You should be proud of yourself.’

There were so many things that Poppy wanted to say right then. But all she could manage was, ‘Thank you.’

She’d passed. And she’d passed really well. It was a wonderful feeling.

When Poppy joined the other tweenies, Rose and Hazel hugged her so tightly she could hardly breathe. But Jake stood back. For a horrible moment Poppy wondered if he might be a bit jealous. But then his face broke into its usual, cheeky smile.

‘You might be a Golden Genie to everyone else,’ he grinned, ‘but to me you’ll always be Teeny Weeny. So don’t go getting a big head, OK?’

Poppy rolled her eyes. ‘Somehow I don’t think that’ll be possible with you as a friend, pineapple-head!’ she laughed.