Josh continued in his attempt to dry off and getting into some drier clothing before his overprotective mother caught him. He quickly found a red, 'retro' looking 'Flash' T-shirt and slipped it over his head. Just in time too, because just then he heard a light rapping on his door. "Yeah?" He called out to the mysterious visitor behind the doorway. The door creaked open and in walked his Mom, Kim, carrying some of Bri and Courtney's clothes under her arm so that she can put them away in their room. "Oh, hey Mom, what's going on?" He asked as he picked up the drenched shirt and tossed it into the hamper across the room.
"Why are you wet?" She asked him as he eyed both him and the shirt that he recently tossed into the hamper. "Did you forget your umbrella again?"
"Yeah, but you probably wouldn't believe me if I told you." Josh sighed as he motioned her to his used office chair next to his desk. "Do you need help with something?" Mom nodded and caused her strawberry blonde hair to fall into her eyes.
"No, I was just bringing Courtney and Bri their clean clothes." She responded as she grabbed the rogue pieces of hair and brought them back behind her ear in an attempt to bring them back under her control. Kim then placed the clothing on his bed. "I hope you don't mind if I lay them here?"
"Oh, not at all." Josh chuckled as he lay down on his bed next to her clothing.
"So, what happened to you today after you missed the bus?" His Mom wondered as she started to refold her clothes that had come unfolded when she laid them down earlier.
Josh thought about it for a moment and whether or not he should tell his sister everything. He thought back at his Great-uncle Phil, who lives out in the desert surrounded by aluminum foil to 'help keep the aliens from reading his thoughts'. His family never really talked about him or really talked to him at all. He sighed as the tried to make a decision. "I don't know."
"Awe, it's okay." His Mom reassured him as she finished refolding the clothes. "Remember when I caught you coming in late from that concert."
Josh thought back to a couple months ago when he got back from a local band concert, but completely lost track of time and had to sneak back in before his Mom caught him. But he got caught when he tripped on his backpack strap coming through the window, this caused a loud 'THUMP' to be heard in this room and his Mom caught him. "Yeah, but I had to do all the chores for a week because you told me it was penance."
Kim nodded at him having to do all the chores. "But I felt it was worth it and i doubt that you're going to do that again. So won't you tell me what happened to you today?" She put her hand on his shoulder in a pleading manner to help win her case.
After a couple minutes of silence, Josh finally caved in. "Fine." He went about to tell her the story about the book and the odd Djinn that seemed to pop out of it. Josh looked over at his Mom who didn't really change her stance or anything. "Well?"
"You're not doing drugs or anything right?" She asked her eldest son as her smile grew across her face.
Josh, not really able to hold it in, stood up abruptly. "I mean it." Knowing that his Mom wasn't going to believe him, he reached over and turned on his Playstation and noticed that Kira was on. Josh noticed a sigh coming out of Kim's mouth as she saw one of Courtney's friend's names on his game system.
"I don't know you play with her so much." She replied, remembering the stink that Courtney brought up since Kira bought the Playstation almost 6 months ago, she would complain at seeing less and less of her friend since then. "I wish you had more friends around your age like I do."
Almost like some of the old cartoons, Josh felt a wave of illumination. "How about we see if that little genie guy did give me something."
"You've got to be kidding me, you can't be believing this." Kim replied as she tried to shy herself away from her only son.
"How about we try it and see if anything happens." Josh suggested. "I will swap my friends with you."
Not feeling too sure about this, she finally came around after several second"Alright, I guess. I mean, whats the harm in showing you that this is a bunch of bull crap." Kim replied, but felt nothing different. "I told you it wouldn't work."
Josh thought about what would be the best way to check this out. "Oh, I know how we can see if it worked." Pulling out his phone and started to look at the list on his contacts. "Hmm. Who are Leah, Ashley, and Mary?" He asked out loud, not knowing who they were. He'd seen them come around the house when it was time for his Mom's Book club but never knew their names.
"Wait, are you serious?" She exclaimed as she made a move to grab the phone to get a better look. Always liking to prove that he's right, he happily gave it to her. Seeing her friend's names in her son's phone was a little mind blowing and she dropped it on the bed. Not only did she see Leah, Ashley and Mary, but also Cat and Beth too. "This is a little too much." She said as she brought her hand up to her temples, something she did when she was trying to compute something.
"Well what does your phone say?" Josh wondered. He was trying to see if the book really did give him some special powers. Not knowing what else to do, she pulled her phone out of her back pocket to see if her son wasn't playing a prank on her. When she unlocked the phone, she pulled up her recent texts that usually showed the texts between the book club members, but didn't see it. Instead, she found the lovely girl Jen and several other guys that she'd never seen before.
"This is too much." Kim said with a huff.
Josh, seeing that she was starting to freak, asked. "Do you want to switch back, I think we can do that."
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author