A Puff of Pink

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  Little Genie

  #1 Make a Wish!

  #2 Double Trouble

  #3 A Puff of Pink

  #4 Castle Magic

  Published by

  Yearling

  an imprint of

  Random House Children’s Books

  a division of Random House, Inc.

  New York

  Text copyright © 2004 by Working Partners Ltd.

  Illustrations copyright © 2004 by David Calver

  A Working Partners Book

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  eISBN: 978-0-307-53779-9

  v3.1

  Special thanks to Narinder Dhami

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Chapter One: Six Reasons Why Mary O’Connor Is My Best Friend

  Chapter Two: Blue and White and Pink All Over

  Chapter Three: Sandwich Basketball

  Chapter Four: Flower Power

  Chapter Five: Wash and Dry

  Chapter Six: Something Red

  Chapter Seven: A Shaggy-Dog Problem

  Chapter Eight: Superstars and Stripes!

  Chapter Nine: Give Me a G!

  Chapter Ten: Pink Party Time

  Chapter One

  Six Reasons Why Mary O’Connor Is My Best Friend

  1. She gave me her best BoyFrenzy poster—the one with the boys hanging out on a tropical beach—when the Bulldozer tore mine to shreds with his stupid plastic plane. (SORRY, I mean Jake, my sweet, charming little brother—not. Mom says I have to stop calling him the Bulldozer, but that’s really hard because how else would you describe a six-year-old destruction machine?)

  2. Her dad is way cooler than mine. Mary complains when he tries to sing along to the radio, but at least he’s heard of BoyFrenzy.

  3. She doesn’t have an annoying little brother, so her house is full of peace and quiet compared to this zoo. Okay, so her brother, Daniel, can be noisy too, and let’s face it, all thirteen-year-olds are really weird, but at least he doesn’t SHRED HER POSTERS with stupid plastic planes.

  4. She lets me play with Nugget. Nugget always acts like there’s nothing better in the whole world when you throw a stick for him. He doesn’t always bring it back, but Mary says he missed that part of puppy school (hmmm, sounds like someone else I know! Are you reading this, Genie?).

  5. She likes riding Splash Mountain as much as I do (well, almost).

  6. She is absolutely nothing at all like Tiffany Andrews, Queen of Mean at Montgomery Elementary School.

  Chapter Two

  Blue and White and Pink All Over

  “Thanks for picking me up from school, Dad,” Ali Miller called as she dashed through the front door and headed for the stairs.

  “I’ve never seen you quite so eager to start your homework before,” Ali’s dad teased. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay?”

  Ali grinned. If her dad knew the real reason why she couldn’t wait to get upstairs, he’d be even more amazed. It had nothing to do with homework. It was because, after a long day at school, Ali couldn’t wait to see Little Genie again! When Ali’s gran had bought her an old Lava lamp at a flea market, Ali had never dreamed that she’d find a real, live genie inside.

  “Genie, it’s me,” Ali called softly as she opened her bedroom door.

  “Hey, Ali!” Little Genie was standing on the desk, waving. At the moment she was the right size to fit into her Lava lamp home, about as tall as a pencil. “Watch!”

  Ali gasped as Little Genie launched herself off the desk, her blond ponytail swinging. Her tiny hands gripped a paper clip hooked over a long line of thread. One end of the thread was tied to the Lava lamp on the desk, and the other was knotted around the leg of Ali’s nightstand.

  “Wheeeee!” Little Genie yelled. She whizzed down the thread, kicking her legs.

  “Look out!” Ali warned as Genie got closer to the ground.

  “Oh!” Genie landed in a heap on the carpet. She scrambled to her feet, shaking back her ponytail and smoothing her floaty pants. “That was fun.”

  “It looks like it,” Ali agreed. “I wish I could try.” Then she clapped her hand over her mouth. “Oops, does that count as a wish?”

  Genie waved her wrist in the air. Her tiny, hourglass-shaped gold watch glinted in the sunshine. “It’s all right. Your next set of wishes hasn’t started yet,” she told Ali.

  Ali stared at Genie’s watch. The top half of the hourglass contained a small pile of sparkling pink sand. The next set of three wishes wouldn’t start until the sand began running to the bottom half. Ali could hardly wait.

  She bent down to untie the thread from her nightstand. “What gave you the idea for this?” she asked.

  “I saw it on that reality TV show we were watching last night,” Genie explained.

  “Oh yes,” Ali recalled. The rest of her family didn’t know anything about Little Genie, and it was really difficult for Ali to keep her a secret. Luckily, last night Ali’s dad had taken her little brother, Jake, to a swimming party, and Mrs. Miller had been working on the computer in the dining room, so Ali had been able to sneak Genie downstairs in her pocket to watch TV.

  “Would you like me to come to school with you tomorrow?” Little Genie suggested, beaming hopefully at Ali. “I could show you how to set up a zip wire in the hallway!”

  “I’m not sure about that,” Ali replied quickly, removing the thread from the Lava lamp. She remembered what had happened a week ago, when she’d had her last three wishes. Genie had made herself look like Ali and gone to school so that Ali could stay at home. But she’d got herself and Ali into a whole bunch of trouble. The school had nearly been washed away by a tidal wave, and Ali’s classmates had nearly choked on Genie’s hot-pepper cookies!

  Although Ali loved having Little Genie around, she had to admit that her friend wasn’t very good at magic. Genie had already confessed that the teachers at Genie School had got so fed up with her causing mayhem, they’d shut her up in the Lava lamp so that she could spend some time improving her magic skills. As far as Ali could see, it hadn’t worked at all.

  “Someone’s coming,” Little Genie whispered at the sound of footsteps on the stairs. With a snap of her tiny fingers, she vanished in a small puff of glittering pink smoke.

  Ali rushed over to the desk and sat down, opening her schoolbag. A moment later her dad came in.

  “I brought you a snack.” He smiled, putting a glass of orange juice and a plate with a cheese sandwich on the desk. “Jake said his cartoons were making him hungry, and I thought you might like something too.”

  “Thanks,
Dad,” Ali said, opening her math book. Genie had vanished just in time.

  “Well, don’t work too hard,” he said. “You know what they say about all work and no play!”

  “Don’t worry. I’m going over to Mary’s later,” Ali told him.

  Her dad kissed the top of her head and went downstairs. Ali gave a sigh of relief. Then she jumped as Little Genie appeared out of thin air, sitting on the edge of the desk and swinging her legs.

  Ali gasped. “I wish you wouldn’t do that!”

  “Invisibility classes were the only thing I was good at in Genie School.” Little Genie grinned. “And speaking of school, you haven’t said when I can come with you again.”

  Ali groaned. “Are you sure you want to?”

  “Oh yes!” Little Genie winked. “Wasn’t it worth it to see that major pain Tiffany Andrews get soaking wet?”

  Ali had to laugh. “Tiffany was being even worse today,” she said. She closed her math book. It was too hard to study when Little Genie was around. “She had her bedroom redecorated, and she was going on and on about how her mom got the most expensive designer in town to do it.”

  “What’s it like?” Little Genie asked, resting her chin in her hands and looking up at Ali.

  “Pink,” Ali replied. “She keeps talking about her new striped curtains and new carpet and wallpaper with big pink flowers on it and everything.”

  Little Genie rolled her eyes and mimicked Tiffany’s snooty voice. “You’ve got to see my new pink bedroom—it’s really cool.”

  Ali grinned. “I’d like a new bedroom,” she added, glancing up. The pale blue ceiling was painted with fluffy white clouds. Her curtains were white. On her bed was a matching blue duvet. “Gran decorated this for me when I was five years old. I wish I could liven it up a bit.”

  “Mmmm, I see what you mean,” Genie said thoughtfully. “You need something a bit more groovy.”

  Plop! A drop of water splashed onto Ali’s head.

  “What’s that?” Ali jumped to her feet and looked up at the ceiling again. Another drop of water splashed onto her face. Then another And another!

  “Oh no! What’s going on? Is it that tidal wave again?”

  Little Genie looked sheepish. “Um— no, it’s the clouds on your ceiling!” she confessed. She held up her wrist, shielding the hourglass with her other hand to keep the raindrops off. “The sand must have started running through the hourglass just before you made your wish to liven up the room,” Genie explained. “Your room really has livened up!”

  Ali pushed her wet bangs out of her eyes. Genie was right Raindrops were falling from every cloud in the bedroom, including the ones on her duvet. But those raindrops were shooting straight up! Glancing around, Ali spotted her new red umbrella and rushed to put it up. Little Genie grabbed an empty CD case and huddled underneath it.

  “Genie!” Ali shrieked. “I wish this would stop! That’s my second wish.”

  “Don’t you remember?” Little Genie replied. “You can’t unwish a wish. You’ll have to make another wish to change the room. That might make the rain stop.”

  Ali tried to think as cold raindrops dripped off the umbrella and ran down the back of her neck. Maybe she could have a new pink bedroom too. Knowing Tiffany, she’d probably gone completely over the top and had everything pink. Ali didn’t want that. It would be like living in a cloud of cotton candy. And how on earth would she explain it to her mom?

  “I wish—” Ali pictured a few things here and there—pillows, maybe, and a new lamp shade. “I wish I had just a touch of pink.”

  Immediately the rain stopped. Ali put down her umbrella with a sigh of relief and eagerly looked around. Where were the pink cushions and the lamp shade? There didn’t seem to be a touch of pink anywhere. Everything looked the same, just a bit soggy from the rain. “What happened?” Ali asked Genie in a disappointed voice.

  Genie looked puzzled. “I’m not sure,” she said. “My fingers went all tingly like they normally do when you make a wish. And the sand in the hourglass didn’t get wet. You must have got your wish somehow.”

  Ali shrugged. She ought to be used to Genie’s magic going wrong, she realized. The most important thing now was to get everything dry again before her mom or Gran saw it.

  Ali went over to the bed and felt the duvet cover. “It’s not too wet,” she began. Then she frowned. “Hey! What’s that?”

  There was a bright pink mark on the duvet cover, in exactly the place where Ali had touched it. As Ali and Little Genie watched, the pink spot grew bigger.

  And bigger And bigger.

  The pool of dazzling pink spread and spread to all four corners of the bed. In ten seconds, Ali’s pale blue duvet cover with fluffy white clouds was bright pink all over.

  Chapter Three

  Sandwich Basketball

  “My duvet!” Ali stared down at her bed in amazement. “It’s pink!”

  “It looks great.” Little Genie beamed. “I love pink.”

  “But it was blue,” Ali said in a daze. “And now it’s pink!” She put her hands on her hips and swiveled to glare at Little Genie. “What’s going on?”

  “Well, you did ask for a touch of pink,” Genie reminded her. She grinned and pointed at Ali’s jeans. “And now your clothes look really cool too!”

  “What?” Ali gasped. She took her hands off her hips and looked down at herself. Her blue jeans and white tank top had turned the same dazzling pink as her duvet.

  Ali blinked. “D-does this mean that everything I touch will turn bright pink?” she stammered.

  Little Genie nodded. “Isn’t it great? But I wouldn’t touch your hair if I were you.”

  Ali had just been about to push her bangs off her face once more. Now she kept her hands firmly by her sides. “This is the worst thing ever,” she groaned. “What am I going to do?”

  “Don’t panic,” Little Genie said helpfully. “The wish won’t last forever.”

  “Yes, but we don’t know how long I’m going to be like this!” Ali pointed out. The wishes lasted as long as it took the sand to run through Genie’s hourglass watch. But since the hourglass worked on magical Genie time, neither Ali nor Genie knew when the wishes would end.

  “Calm down,” Genie soothed her. “Why don’t you have that snack your dad brought you?”

  Ali nodded and picked up the glass of orange juice. To her dismay, the juice turned bright pink as soon as her fingers touched the glass.

  “Don’t touch the plate,” Genie warned. “I’ll feed you.” She used both hands to break a bit off a corner of the sandwich.

  “I’m not really hungry,” Ali began, but Genie bent her knees, jumped up, and threw the bit of bread and cheese toward her. Ali opened her mouth to protest, then gulped as the bread landed neatly on her tongue.

  “Hey! This is just like playing basketball!” Genie exclaimed, pulling off another piece. She was about to throw it when Ali heard something outside and turned around. A car had pulled into the Millers’ driveway.

  “Rats!” Little Genie said crossly as the bread whizzed past Ali’s cheek. “You have to keep still, you know.”

  Ali rushed over to the window. She pushed the curtain aside and looked out. “It’s my mom,” she said. “She’s home from work.” Then she groaned as bright pink spread rapidly across the blue and white curtains. “I’ve done it again!”

  “Well, you did want a pink bedroom just like Tiffany Andrews,” Genie reminded her rather indignantly. “And now you’ve got one.”

  “Hi, everyone, I’m home,” Mrs. Miller called from the hall. Then Ali heard her mom coming upstairs.

  “Oh no,” Ali breathed. “Genie, you’d better disappear.”

  “I’m just going,” said Genie cheerfully. “But remember—don’t touch your mom, or she’ll turn pink too!”

  Genie vanished, and Ali found herself glaring at thin air. She took a deep breath as she heard her mom reach the top of the stairs—and then she nearly jumped out of her skin! Genie had rea
ppeared, dancing up and down on the desk and pointing at the glass of pink juice.

  “You’d better hide this,” she whispered.

  Ali dashed across the room and pushed the glass behind a pile of CDs. She turned around just as her mom came in.

  “Hello, honey,” her mom said. “Did you have a good day at school?” Then she stepped backward in surprise. “Goodness me! Pink curtains! And a pink duvet cover! Where did they come from?” She looked at Ali. “Has Gran been shopping again?” she asked.

  Ali called her gran the Junk Queen because she loved flea markets, garage sales, and thrift shops. Her tastes were a bit strange, though, and she often gave Ali and her mom secondhand bargains that were pretty hideous.

  Ali opened her mouth to say yes but then thought better of it. After all, if her mom decided to ask Gran about the curtains and duvet cover, things could get pretty tricky! “Um—Tiffany Andrews lent them to me,” Ali explained, staring down at the carpet. “She’s just had her bedroom done in pink, and she let me borrow these so I could see how the color looks in my room.”

  “Tiffany Andrews?” Mom raised her eyebrows. “That was kind of her. I thought you two didn’t get along that well. You’ll have to invite her to play sometime.”

  “Okay,” Ali mumbled. No way! she thought.

  Mrs. Miller was looking around the room, but luckily she hadn’t noticed that the carpet and the duvet cover were suspiciously damp. “I suppose it is about time we redecorated in here,” she remarked. “And if you want a pink bedroom like Tiffany’s, that’s fine. We’ll paint it during the school holidays.”

  Ali tried to smile at her mom, but if there was one color she didn’t want in her bedroom now, it was pink.

  “And where did you get those clothes from, Ali?” her mom went on, suddenly noticing Ali’s jeans and tank top. “I don’t remember seeing those before.”

  “Oh, I found them in the back of my closet,” Ali said, thinking quickly. “I haven’t worn them for ages.” She breathed a sigh of relief as her mom went over to the door.