Jake appeared in Jen’s room. It was a little earlier than he’d promised, and he could see that she was surprised. It was almost enough to make him wish that he’d gone to the library instead.
“You’re home early,” Jen told him. She’d been reading one of her textbooks, but she’d put it aside when Jake appeared.
“I didn’t feel like being out,” Jake shrugged. Maybe he should have seen if Greg was busy instead.
“Well, you can stay here, but I’m just doing homework,” Jen told him.
“That’s fine,” Jake said. “I actually have homework myself.”
“I have kind of a ton – you?” Jen asked.
“More than usual,” Jake admitted. He’d been planning on doing it at Megan’s track practice. That was usually when he did it, but he hadn’t exactly gotten the chance.
Usually, he’d read the questions and just magic the answers into being. He answered the questions from the knowledge he already had, of course – he didn’t cheat that badly. But using magic to write the answers instead of a pen definitely cut down on the time it took him to complete everything.
“Well… I only have the one desk,” Jen told him. “And it’s not super big. But I guess you could use that side.” She pointed to the left side of her desk. “You’d have to sit on the bed though, but I guess that’s fine…”
“Well, thank you,” Jake said. It wasn’t ideal, sure. But it was more than Tara had ever offered him. Even Megan hadn’t given him permission to use her desk – especially when she was using it. But Jake suspected that it was more because Megan’s books were usually spread out all across not only her desk, but her bed as well.
Jake sat down near the head of Jen’s bed. He got out his history book and started looking over the packet. He didn’t even bother to open his book – he’d never needed it before, so why would he now?
He did his history in only a few minutes. He casually slid his paper back into his backpack and got the next one out to work on. It took almost no time at all until he was completely done. But he hid that from Jen.
Jake sat there for a moment, not quite sure what to do. He was thinking about telling Jen that he was going to go to the library after all when his phone buzzed. He looked over and saw that Megan was texting him.
How’s it going? she asked.
Everything’s fine, he wrote back. He hadn’t actually spent much time talking to Jen, but so far it seemed to be going surprisingly well.
“Who’s that?” Jen asked idly, not looking up from her book.
“Megan,” he told her.
“What does she want?”
“Probably for me to help with her homework,” Jake shrugged. That tended to be the reason why she usually wanted to talk to him after about six in the evening. That, or she wanted him to cook dinner.
“So, did you do Megan’s homework for her all the time?” Jen asked.
How’s everything with Jen? Megan wrote. So that was it; she was checking to make sure Jen was treating him well. Jake smiled to himself.
Nothing to worry about so far, he texted. Then, he turned back to Jen.
“Not all the time,” he said. Jen shrugged.
“Because I know once she lost… well, you, I guess… then she suddenly started failing again.”
“Yeah, I know.” That was actually part of why Tara had let him start talking to Megan again – so that he could help keep her from failing.
“So, I guess you wouldn’t do mine then...” Jen said.
“Why would I do that?” Jake asked.
He was grinning, but he wasn’t exactly overjoyed to hear that. What was she getting after? He was hoping that the only reason she was even considering it was because she knew that Megan had taken advantage of the situation herself. Or was he nothing but a homework-completing servant? He hoped he was more than that.
“Yeah, I guess that makes sense,” Jen said. “I mean, mine is probably way harder than Megan’s anyway.”
“Is it? How so?”
Jake was pretty sure this was a trap, but he just couldn’t help himself. He always did hate it when humans thought he was incompetent – in any subject. Besides, how hard could her classes really be? After all, they’d were in the same grade, weren’t they?
“Well, I’ve got three AP classes,” Jen told him. “Plus, I’m in French four – not Spanish two.”
“I don’t understand,” Jake told her. What was an AP class? And so what if she was taking French instead of Spanish? They were both languages Jake knew. So what was the difference, really? He was pretty sure that no matter what she said, her homework wouldn’t be any harder then Megan’s.
“You know what AP is?” Jen asked, as if reading his mind.
“I do not,” Jake was forced to admit.
“Basically, it’s like a college course, but you take it in high school instead. I want to get into an Ivy League college.”
“Why?” Jake asked. What was the point of that?
“Well, to get a good job,” Jen blinked. “That’s how you get a good job, right?”
Jake grinned. Of course there was a better way to get a good job – if that was even the point in the first place. He’d known a lot of people who went to those good schools and had ended up on the streets. Or worst – in jail. And sure, it had been a couple of really poorly phrased wishes that had done it, but so what? Jake wasn’t really sure that was a reason to dismiss those failures.
“What?” Jen asked, eyes narrowed. She must have seen the look on his face.
“You know you could just wish for a good job if you wanted, right?” he asked. “Or just wish for the money if you didn’t want the job itself.”
“Well, I guess that’s true now,” Jen rolled her eyes. “But it sure wasn’t true when I signed up for the classes.”
Jake snickered in spite of himself. He knew Jen still didn’t exactly like him, so it was probably better not to antagonize her too much. But he couldn’t help it. Jen glared at him before adding, “So now I’m just going to have to keep the hard classes.”
“I just don’t really see how your classes could be much more difficult than Megan’s,” he said. That was the last comment he’d make, he promised himself.
“So you really think you could do my homework?” she asked.
Jake just shrugged casually but didn’t say anything. He knew he should say probably not – it was what she obviously wanted to hear. But he couldn’t lie to her, so there really was nothing he could say.
“Do you think you could do AP History?” Jen asked skeptically.
“Probably,” Jake told her. “What are you learning?”
“The Industrial Revolution.”
“Yes,” Jake gave a short nod.
“Really?” She seemed surprised.
“Manufacturing? Textiles? Factories? Yeah, I remember that.”
“You remember that?” She stared at him for a second, and Jake wondered if she was trying to figure out just how old he really was. He just shrugged.
“AP Calculus?” she asked.
“Calculus? Yeah – I like math. I used to do it when I didn’t have anything else to do.”
“Fine,” Jen grumbled.
Jake could see that she was getting frustrated. He’d have to start being more careful; maybe pretend to consider it before telling her how easy her classes seemed. Still, there was no reason to let Jen know that he’d noticed.
“Well, what about French?” Jen asked.
“What about it?” Jake asked.
“You can’t possibly know that,” Jen said.
She had a look in her eye that Jake didn’t particularly like – she was challenging him. He wanted to tell her that of course he knew it. Still, he had to be careful. Hadn’t he just promised himself that he wouldn’t antagonize her any more than he had to?
“I don’t know French?” he asked casually. “Why not?”
How else could he have ruined his master’s wish during that revolution? Jen stared at him a minute. She was looking at him a little more intensely than Jake would have liked. Maybe he should have just kept his mouth shut.
“Well then, prove it. Speak French,” Jen commanded.
Jake sighed. He’d really been hoping she wouldn’t do something like that.
“Bon, d’accord,” Jake said. He’d wanted to say Ok, fine, but of course he didn’t. Why did he always have to do what they said?
Jen seemed surprised. She raised her eyebrows. Then she said, “So how are you today?”
Jake shrugged, grinning in that way that always seemed to make humans nervous. Maybe that would get her to drop this whole thing. But Jen wasn’t going for it.
“Answer me,” she commanded. “How are you?”
“I’m fine,” Jake replied – in perfect French, of course. “Are we done?”
“Well, you do sound pretty good…” Jen conceded. Jake tried not to roll his eyes. He’d learned French almost a hundred years before he’d learned English – of course he was good at it.
“So how’d you learn that anyway?” Jen asked him, apparently changing the subject.
Jake grinned knowingly and gave a shrug. He really didn’t want to have to answer that. He might know that he had to answer her in French, but that didn’t mean he had to let her know that. When he didn’t answer, she asked again.
“No, really. How did you learn that? And Spanish?” She sounded interested. That was something, at least.
“Well, I lived in France for a while. And Spain too. Is there anything else that you would like to know?” Jake gave her his wickedest grin. “Would you like to know the names of the cities? Or of the people I served?”
Jen stared at him intently. Jake didn’t like the look she had on her face. She was planning something, but he didn’t know what. This seemed like a bad sign. Clearly, his attempt at baffling her with a few long sentences in a row hadn’t worked out as well as he’d hoped. It looked like she actually did know French much better than Megan knew Spanish.
“Say ‘Hi, my name is Jake.’” she told him.
“Salut, je m’appelle Jake,” he said, sighing to himself.
“How do you say that English?” she asked finally.
And there it was. She’d told him to speak French. And she’d only asked how he would say it in English – she didn’t actually tell him to do it. So, even though he would have been more than happy to tell her in English, he knew he’d end up saying it in French instead – just like she’d commanded. Best to say nothing unless she specifically commanded it. Jake decided to just grin wildly at her instead. Maybe she’d think he was just messing with her. At least, he knew that’s what Megan would have thought if she’d caught him doing that.
Jen stared at him.
“Can you say it in English?” she asked, not letting up.
“...D’habitude, oui,” Jake said, after a minute. She already knew the answer anyway.
“Usually, yeah…” Jen repeated in English, mostly to herself. She sat there for a minute, chewing her lip. Jake just watched her.
“So that’s really what you do, isn’t it?” she asked.
She had a kind of strange look on her face, but at least it wasn’t hostile. That was more than he would have expected from Jen. He could only guess what could be going through her mind.
Still, he didn’t actually say anything. He wasn’t sure exactly what she was talking about, and he didn’t want to ask. It seemed rhetorical anyway. When he didn’t respond, Jen continued.
“You act like you’re doing things just to be obnoxious, but you’re really not, are you? You’re doing them because you have to.”
Jake shrugged but he still didn’t say anything. Jen rolled her eyes at him.
“Oh, say whatever you want – in whatever language you want. But tell me I’m wrong.”
“You’re wrong,” Jake told her automatically. Then, he grinned. He was trying to cover it up, even though he was pretty sure it was too late for that.
“I am?” Jen seemed surprised. “Really?”
“No…” Jake admitted.
“Then why did you say…?” Jen trailed off. Then, she started snickering. “It’s ’cause I told you to tell me I was wrong, isn’t it?”
“I only did as you said,” he told her, trying to sound overly helpful. He was hoping she would think that he’d said it for the sole reason of messing with her.
“Yeah, I know,” Jen grinned, clearly not buying it. “So you’ll do whatever I say – even if it’s stupid?”
“Please don’t tell Megan,” Jake blurted out.
“Megan doesn’t know?” Jen seemed surprised.
“I don’t think so.”
“How is that possible?”
“Well, she’s never tested me like that before,” Jake admitted.
Megan seemed to have a hard time thinking of Jake as the jinn he really was. Jen, on the other hand, had never had that problem.
Jen thought about it. When she didn’t reply, Jake braced himself. He started thinking, trying to come up with all of the reasons that Jen shouldn’t tell Megan about just how little control he had over his own life. But then Jen surprised him.
“Don’t worry – I won’t,” she said.
“You won’t?” Jake could hardly believe it. And before he could stop himself, he asked her, “Why not?”
Jen sighed, taking a minute before answering. Finally, she said, “Maybe that’s just a little too much power to give your girlfriend. I mean, if Greg knew he could do that to me…”
Jake grinned.
“Thank you,” he said.
ns216.73.216.98da2
and then Add to home screen.