Another day, another misery… Ella made her way down the street, hands in her pockets with body and face hidden by a baggy red hoodie. She was walking with no real destination. Just anywhere was better than home right now. Home where no one called her a girl. Home where the name she had tried to throw off was shouted at her from across the room... Only her brother respected her as she was, and he had moved out some time ago...

She noticed an odd estate sale in front of an ancient house and decided to give it a look. It was something to do to take her mind off of things at least. Most of the items were just junk, plain and simple. Upended drawers of lightly rusted kitchen gadgets, a ratty old chair that had probably been left out on the front porch, and… were those old paint cans? Who tries to sell old paint cans?

Her attention was caught by a little table lamp tucked away in a back corner. It was old, and there was no light bulb or shade, but the body of it was clear glass, filled with shards of sea glass in different shades of frosty whites, greens and blues. Just looking at all the pieces made Ella think about all the hours walking along the beach it must have taken to collect them. Hours spent in peace, walking the water’s edge… She couldn’t help but smile thinking about that. Ella gently picked up the lamp and walked over to the woman at the cash box. “How much for this?”

The woman looked up from her phone with an air that said she’d rather be doing anything else “5 bucks kid.”

Ella quickly handed over the money and left with just a brief thank you. She would take being called “kid”. At least it was better than ‘young man’ like teachers still tried to call her. Not wanting to go home quiet yet, she took the lamp and made her way to the park, knowing from many hours brooding and working in her sketchbook, that it was empty this time of day.

She took a seat on the nearest bench and looked closer at her new purchase. She was trying to decide where it would be best  to put it in her room when she realized the lamp had no plug. “What the?” she said to herself. She held it closer to see if maybe the cord had been tucked away in a secret compartment, moving it gently, but still making the glass jingle a little.

“Well, this was probably $5 down the drain… still it’d look nice in my room even if it doesn’t work…” it was then that she noticed a faint mark on the clear glass under a faint layer of dust. Thinking that the whole thing might be factory made, robbing it of all the charm she had wanted it for, she polished the spot with her sleeve and hoped it wasn’t what she feared. In that moment a light began emanating from the top, as if a nonexistent bulb was glowing.

Frightened, Ella put the lamp down on the bench and took several steps back. A faint sound of laughter seemed to be coming from the light. A sound that was slowly growing as the light grew brighter. In a moment, there was a blinding flash, bright enough it forced Ella to close her eyes. When she opened them again…  “No way…”

Sitting on the bench next to the lamp was a beautiful girl. 6 foot tall, toned muscles, lightly tanned skin, bright green eyes and blood red hair tied back in a long ponytail. Her clothes were those of a stereotypical maid, down to the little white lace hat. The girl was laughing and smiling and stretching, “Oh does it feel good to be out in the sunlight again!” Only then did she look about and realize they were outside and see Ella. “Well now, aren’t you a cutie. Tell me, did you buy my lamp off the old man or steal it?”

Ella fell back onto her butt “You… you are… that’s impossible…”

“Impossible things happen every day my dear. But yes, I know what you are thinking, I am in fact a genie. And since you own the lamp and summoned me, I bet you know what happens next!... But first, do you mind if I change clothes? My last master made me wear this all the time, the old pervert…”

“I… yeah… sure…” Ella’s head was still reeling, but… well she wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. It seemed through the dumbest luck in the universe she had gotten a genie! And what’s more she was so stinking cute! “So… your old master. I’m guessing he’s the guy that owned the house back there?”

The genie snapped her fingers and she was in a set of long sweat pants covered in stars and a plain pink t shirt “Yeah that was him. Dead I’m assuming. The old coot used his three wishes all in one week and then held onto my lamp in his basement for over 20 years. I think he was afraid someone else would use the lamp to undo his wishes. I’m assuming you’ve seen Aladdin right? You know how this works?”

“Yeah I… wait, is that really how genie’s work?”

“Basically,” she gave a little shrug, “Someone on the staff at Disney got ahold of my lamp during that whole ‘renaissance’ thing. Gotta say, it was some of my better work, though of course they had to ruin it.”

“Huh…” Ella took a moment to digest that “So, 3 wishes, can’t wish for more wishes, love, or death. That right?”

“Bingo! Now what’s a cute little lady like you want in life?” The genie asked as she changed her shirt to a light blue before being satisfied with the look.

“Well I… I’m sorry, could you say that again?” Ella had to do a double take. She couldn’t have heard that right.

“Say what? What do you want in life?”

“No… I mean… No one ever knows I’m a girl when they look at me…” she looked down, the depressing memories coming to her again.

The genie got up from the bench and walked over to her new mistress, raising Ella’s head to look at her with a gentle touch. “Of course you are a girl. I can see into your very soul my dear… You’ve had a very hard time of it haven’t you…”

Ella nodded sadly “My family… They say all the stupid stuff you expect. Calling this a phase, accusing me of turning their lives upside down… I don’t suppose… Could I wish that I always was a girl?”

“You could… but I wouldn’t. You always have been a girl, no matter what some doctor said when you were born. That would be a waste of a wish if you ask me.”

Ella blushed a little and smiled. This girl was being nicer to her and showing her more respect than anyone had in a long time. “Well… thank you for being so honest… I’m sorry but you haven’t said your name. What do you want me to call you?”

The Genie paused, surprised by the question “Oh! Well… You see I… Well most of my masters only ever call me Genie… I haven’t really been on a first name basis with anyone in… over a thousand years…. I…” a tear rolled down her cheek and her face quickly fell “I can’t… remember my name…”

Ella wasn’t sure why she did it, but she hugged the genie, holding her gently to her body. The red head gasped. It had been over 20 years since she had last felt human touch. She wrapped her arms around the girl and just held her to her body, taking such comfort in the physical contact.

“… Jana. Call me Jana” the genie said after a pause, feeling ready to continue again.

“Alright then Jana. Call me Ella” Ella said with a smile, finally letting go of her odd new magical friend. “Can I ask you something? The whole, ‘free the genie’ thing, is that real too?”

Jana nodded and sighed “Very true. All genies want freedom, but there are two ways that we can get it. Either wish for freedom, or the master… well… gets tricked into switching places. That’s what happened to me… Some genies get so jaded after doing this for so long that they love twisting wishes. I wished for magic powers and boy was I given them… Still no use crying over spilt milk.” She grumbled to herself “I wonder what that jerk ended up doing with his freedom… I hope it was worth it.”

Ella wasn’t sure what to think of that “You’ve been doing this for over a thousand years?”

“And counting most likely…”

“Hey now! You never know, I’m not a person that wants very much from life. Two wishes will be more than enough for me.”

Jana looked up at her and was quiet for a moment “Please don’t make promises you can’t keep Ella dear. I like you. It’d be nice to have a friend for a while if nothing else.”

“Alright then… How about this then? I’ll take my time making the wishes. You can have all of the time out in the world you could want until we figure out what I want. Is that a good place to start?”

Jana nodded, a smile coming back to her face. “It will be nice to live like a human again for a while. Just please keep my lamp somewhere safe. It would kind of ruin my vacation if I got a new master the first day.”

“Alright… Now you’ll need a place to stay… I think that means I finally need to go home… this isn’t going to be fun…”

SkirtsnScribbles

Hey Everyone! The first 3 chapters of this story are all ready to read on AO3! If anyone wants to read them, here's a link!