The Karma Beat

“I’ll tell you what my other idiot brother did to me at lunch.”

Halfway down the hall, Leo turned and gave me a thumbs up.

That’s when it hit me. Leo rode a motorcycle, and he was giving me a ride home. Me…on a motorcycle.

The Oversight Committee wouldn’t get the chance to banish me to the other realm because my mother was so going to kill me.

Chapter Four

“I definitely think you should do the tidy whities thing,” Alex said between bites of her burger.

“Sean does deserve it.”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I mean to Ian.”

I choked on my potato. “Ewww. There is no way I’m touching Ian’s underwear. Sean hasn’t hit puberty, but Ian…” I pushed my food aside as I thought of all the times he’d locked himself in his bedroom. And the magazines I’d seen him stashing under his mattress. “Do you have any idea all the gross stuff happening in the underwear of a high school senior?”

Alex burst out laughing. “No. And neither do you.”

“I know enough to stay far away. I’ve read Then Again Maybe I Won’t.” I shook my head to clear the unwanted images. “Besides, you’re starting to make me think you’re interested in Ian’s underpants.” I could totally see her handling his tidy whities.

With a laugh, Alex said, “Your brother is hot. He’s only gross to you because he’s your brother.”

“He’s a disgusting freak. How can you like him when he just screwed me over with the Armpit Hostages?”

She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t like him. I just said he’s hot for a high school boy. And he is. Brad Pitt is hot, but I don’t like him as a person either.”

“I can’t believe my brother is your eye candy.”

“Speaking of eye candy,” Alex said with a pointed look across the cafeteria and then back at me. “Leo’s sitting with the band.”

I couldn’t meet Alex’s eyes because she would know I was hiding something from her. I was hiding a lot from her. I’m a genie. He’s a genie. Contact is forbidden. Oh, and he wants me to use my mother to help his father. Way too much going on here.

“Jen,” she said in a teasing voice. “What’s the deal with you and Leo?”

“Nothing,” I said, trying to sound convincing. “I just met him yesterday.” That much was true. I was glad Maggie was sitting outside with her boyfriend, and Brianna was absent. Kelsey and her boyfriend had disappeared too. I didn’t want all my friends knowing my business.

“And you haven’t noticed that he’s yummy?”

I was going to have to let something slip. And since I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks in a full-fledged blush, I figured I may as well fess up to the one part I could share. “I maybe noticed that he’s not so bad looking.”

With a snort, Alex said, “I thought so.”

“Alex, you know not to tease me!”

“Oh, right. It makes you nervous and you won’t be able to talk to him at all.” She raised a brow. “You managed well enough yesterday.”

Right. Another lie. “You know I come through in emergencies. The cat and the frail old woman were in trouble.” Was the fictional Nana frail? I hoped so. I hated lies. They got way too complicated. “Tell me about the game I missed, Alex,” I said, changing the subject. “I heard you scored fourteen points.”

“Fifteen,” Alex corrected, taking the bait. She hated when her stats were misquoted.

Alex tends to be pretty laid back, except when she’s playing b-ball. On the court, she’s all intense and quite frankly a little scary. I’d stopped playing one-on-one with her years ago, and I credited that decision with saving our friendship. Five minutes in the driveway with Alex guaranteed a skinned knee and a couple of bruises. Thanks, but no thanks.

Right before sixth period, I texted Ian that something had come up. “Don’t wait for me.”

He’d assume I had some genie thing to do when he checked his cell after class. Luckily the genie phones we carried didn’t require charging. No way did Ian have the brain power to keep his phone charged.

Confident that he’d get the message, I sat through English class fighting my nerves. Images of being imprisoned and sent to the other realm flashed through my mind. Mom had trained me a little too well. I was terrified to break the rules.

Of course, no one seemed to have noticed that Leo was at my house yesterday. Being together for a few minutes hadn’t set off any alarms at the Oversight Committee. So we were probably okay.

I’d just spend a half hour hearing him out, and then I’d go back to life as the docile daughter.

When the bell finally rang, I realized I’d been doodling prison bars on my notebook. Yeah, I was a real badass all right.

I shoved my book and notebook into my backpack and headed to the parking lot. I was scanning the huge student lot for motorcycles when a bright yellow Toyota Prius pulled up to the curb in front of me. Too bad Leo didn’t drive something like that, it would be easy to find him.

A deep voice called my name from the direction of the Prius, and I turned to see Leo standing at the driver’s side door.

Leo was driving the Prius.

Bad boy Leo was driving a sunshine yellow environmentally friendly car?

I scraped my jaw off the ground and walked over to the car.

Leo’s eyes held amusement as he watched me from across the roof of the little car. “Hop in.”

I opened the passenger side door and climbed in. “So,” I said trying to reconcile the car with the man, “You drive a hybrid?”

Leo laughed, a warm, masculine sound. “What were you expecting? A Harley?” He pulled away from the curb.

Ummm. Now, I felt like an idiot.

With a grin, Leo said, “I didn’t think you’d want to ride on the Harley, so I brought my Dad’s car.”

“You do

ride a Harley?”

He nodded. “Usually.”

We were officially stuck in the bumper to bumper traffic leaving the school grounds. “I’m glad you drove this instead.”

“You’re already going out on a limb by meeting me. The least I could do is ensure your comfort.”

“And safety.” The car didn’t even sound like it was running.

“Hey, I’m completely safe on a motorcycle.”

I searched for something to say. “Maybe you should go ahead and start telling me what’s going on with your dad.” Otherwise, the silence was deafening, and I had no idea how to make small talk with a male genie.

“I’d rather wait until I can show you some things. How about we grab some appetizers and soft drinks at Chili’s? It won’t be crowded in the middle of the afternoon.”

“Sure.” I loved Chili’s. I glanced at Leo. Had Ian told him things about me? No. If Leo had acted interested in me, Ian would have suspected something was up. Nobody was ever interested in me.

When we finally escaped the school parking lot, the car whirred quietly down the road and into a neighborhood. We cut through to the main road on the other side and headed to the shopping center with the restaurant.

I didn’t even realize I was drumming on the dash with my fingers until I caught Leo looking at my hands.

“You can tell you’re a drummer,” Leo said.

“Nervous habit,” I said. A nervous habit that drove my mother nuts.

“I’ve never met a drummer who didn’t do that.”

“Really? I don’t know many other drummers.”

“You never played in the school band?”

“In middle school. But I didn’t hang much with the other drummers. Most of my musician friends are on an email loop called RokrGirlz.”

“Too bad you got activated so early. There’s no way you could play in a band.”

“I know,” I grumbled. It wasn’t fair that the guys got to wait so much longer before they had to work for the U.N.I.V.E.R.S.E.