Pt. 4- Part of the Scenery

The final bell rang and she hurried out of the building. She wondered where Norm was, but decided not to worry about it. She needed to get the popcorn started.

It was ten minutes before Amber was supposed to show up when Norm popped out of nowhere in a puff of smoke and scared Amanda into dropping her bowl of popcorn. He was in his genie-mode again.

"Oh, man!" she cried, falling to her knees to scoop the popcorn back into the bowl.

He laughed. "My bad," he said.

"No problem," she said, "I've got it."

"Kay, so uh, where is your wonderful cook of a mother?" He asked, peering around a corner.

"Mom and dad aren't home. Dad's going to be at work until, like, midnight, and mom's out with a friend karaokeing and'll probably be home around eleven or so. Hey, my friend's coming over to watch a movie. Do you want to-"

He sighed and raised his right hand. Here comes the stupid first wish...

"-hang out and watch it with us? I don't think she'd mind, but I need to know if I should pop another bag of popcorn."

...Or not.

He raised his eyebrows in surprise and lowered his hand. "Watch a movie? Sure."

Amanda was back in the kitchen, going through the cabinets for the box of popcorn. "Do you like your popcorn buttered or salted? I think we have kettle-corn, too." She look over her shoulder questioningly.

"Buttered is fine." He said.

What a weird girl. Making popcorn instead of wishes. What kind of human would pass up a chance to have their greatest desires made reality? Did she not have any desires? Yeah, right. Everyone wanted something. Not that he much cared. The girl seemed to know the reality of things. He was a genie and she was his master- temporarily, anyway- but she respected him as his own person, too. And today had been the greatest in the past nine years. She wasn't such a bad kid.

Amber finally arrived with the movie around six o'clock. Amanda let her in.

"Uh, I invited someone else over, too, okay?"

"Who? Is it one of our friends?" Amber asked. Like everything else, they shared friends.

"Er, no. You've never met him."

Amber kicked her shoes off by the door- they were muddy since it was drizzling outside. "HE, eh? One of your friends? Have you finally given up on Kenneth?" She winked obviously, nudging Amanda in the side.

"Wha- no, it's not-"

Amber hurried into the kitchen, kneeling behind the counter. Amanda followed, kneeling with her. "What are you DOING?" Amanda whispered.

"Is that HIM?" she asked wide-eyed, finding Norm (wearing sunglases) stretched out in a chair with his feet on the coffee table.

"Yeah," Amanda said nervously.

"He's... he's... oh my GAWD, he's HOT!"

Amanda turned red as a beet. She opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off.

"How old is he?? Where's he from??" She asked in a wild whisper, ducking down completely behind the counter.

"I don't know!" Amanda replied. "Come on! Stop spying!"

"I knew you were into older guys, Amanda, but I never thought you were serious about it!!"

"Wha- you- I'm NOT!" she said loudly.

"Not what?" asked Norm, crouching down beside them.

Amanda yelped and fell backwards, thankfully covering Amber's squeal and squashing her at the same time. She went redder. "Nothing!" she said quickly, snatching the movie from Amber and standing up.

"Hiiii...." Amber said, smiling goofily. "I'm Aaaamber, Amanda's best frieeeend...."

"Hi, I'm Norm, and you're still on the floor," he said.

She realized she was in fact laying on her back on the cold tiles. She got up and wiped herself off. "So, Norm, how do you know Amanda?" she asked, finding their only common link.

"Well, she rubbed my la-"

"MOVIE'S READY!!" Amanda cried loudly, interrupting him. She looked outrageously embarrassed.

Amber's eye twitched. She wasn't sure whether or not she was interested in hearing the rest.

...

The rest of the movie went mostly without incident. Amber clearly hadn't heard a word of it, much due to the fact that she was staring at Norm the whole time. Amanda thought it was pretty good, but the tension in the room made it kind of hard to concentrate on it. Norm thought that it had been kind of dumb, but some parts he'd found hilarious.

Amber left in a daze and even forgot to put on her shoes and had to drive back to get them. Now, it was just Norm and Amanda in the now-quiet house. Amanda was cleaning up while Norm kicked back and watched from the bar.

"So what's the deal with her?" Norm asked, his eyes tired.

"What do you mean?" replied Amanda confusedly, a tiny tinge of pink coming to her cheeks, without looking up from her work. "Um- she's always like that."

"Oh."

There was more of a silence, broken only when Amanda finally finished the dishes, set down her washcloth and looked over to find Norm sprawled out, asleep, on the couch. She just watched him breathe for a moment, wondering how it was possible that this guy- this genie- had only arrived last night and had already become part of the house. Such weird thoughts going through her mind, she wondered vaguely if he might be cold under the AC, and half-mindedly pulled a blanket from the storage closet and draped it over him. Then, still deep in thought and groggy with exhaustion, she plopped down in the Lazy-boy and fell immediately asleep.