Parentage

There was only one place suitable for this after everything that had transpired. Simon watched his genie enter his room first with the artifact clutched in her fingers. She had refused to release it, save for their talk on the field. Jessica wanted this to work. It wasn’t hard to decipher. After the week she had, Simon knew that this was the goal of answering the most pressing of issues:

Why and How did this happen?

In anticipation of what was to come, the blonde uncharacteristically asked her childhood friend to keep her naked from the moment he snapped her clothes away again. She had felt powerful wishes before, but none were like the ones that imbued her power into objects. The head cheerleader of Eastlake High School could change reality on a whim. Yet, this process made Jessica exert greater amounts of magical energy, either from inexperience or unknown reason.

For another reason, the risks involved needed to be minimized, if possible. Both Jessica and Simon knew that they would pull someone from outside their own reality once they did this. Until then, they limited their wishes to mostly themselves or those around them.

This made High School seem silly, dealing with Kevin’s impulses and malice nothing but a drop in the stupid bucket and keeping a teacher transformed into a non-factor. This made anything from before this moment quaint. Changing or influencing the lives of others would be inconsequential.

The door was locked, the shutters were drawn, and the magic soundproofed everything inside. No one would hear what was happening to both of them. If they messed up, no one would know until it was too late, and if they succeeded?

Well, they would go from there.

“Place it there, Jess.”

Simon sat at the foot of his bed as the blonde bombshell hesitantly placed the saucer-looking metal object onto his room's hardwood floor. As Jessica stepped away slowly, the stars glowed on his ceiling behind both teenagers. It sat just before the step up to his desk area but spaced away enough that it sat a few feet from the bed and the desk. The auburn-haired genie Master stood and inspected everything to ensure it was in place.

In the corner of his hazel eyes, he noticed Jessica as she bit down on her lip. Her arms folded into her chest as she anxiously waited for the inevitable wave of pleasure to overtake her as soon as he said the words. She clutched her left breast in one hand and placed her fingers at the lips of her pussy with the other.

He had played the scenarios out, but it happened once it happened.

Master and genie nodded to each other one last time as Simon stiffened his resolve,

“I wish this item did as was written upon it.”

Quiet.

At first, the awkward teenager began to feel disappointment and confusion from a failed wish. Something didn't seem right with all the work, theories, and effort to get to this point.

And then Simon saw Jessica.

Her eyes were wide open, her feet lifted onto her toes until they no longer touched the floor, and the blonde bombshell’s hands could not touch herself as they spasmed. Then the emerald green of her eyes and golden choker lit up as her skin brightened, and the cheerleader’s blonde hair shimmered in golden light as if reflecting sunlight.

Finally, Simon covered his ears as his girlfriend suddenly shrieked out in ecstasy so loudly that his hazel eyes watched the bedroom windows crack.

---

Smoke.

Emerald green smoke enveloped her vision as Jessica felt hornier than any wish she had given. Her brain hadn’t felt this way since Jason managed to snag a bag of weed from his brother’s college dorm. The genie felt like she was floating among the stars, with a strange aura cast across her field of vision with strange nebula clouds.

As the naked blonde turned her head, she found her body drifting as if lying in a pool. Even her hair floated around her head as her mind felt itself slipping.

Then she was surrounded by various colors of smoke. A series of colorful whisps danced around her body, drifted across her bare skin, and caused goosebumps. A pleasurable chill ran up her legs and spine as they touched her.

Jessica’s ears then began to hear the whispers as each colorful whisp passed by her. They spoke a language in a hush that felt familiar but not like any language she had ever heard.

As her hand moved to touch an amber-colored whisp, it quickly spun away, and a cloud of ruby dust passed over her head. The teenager heard it whisper as another passed over her,

“This one is young.”

“This one has been bound.”

“This one has only matured.”

“This one does not know of the veil.”

“This one seeks one who has been before.”

“This one has granted the wish of her Master.”

“Is this one the one?”

“This one was raised as a mortal.”

“That means this one has potential.”

“But this one has much to learn.”

“This one cannot be discovered yet.”

“And this one’s Master is mortal.”

They spun furiously around her, continuing to whisper as they passed through her and out the confused djinn’s mouth one by one.

“You are not ready to pass yet, dear sister.”

“You must tread lightly, sister.”

“Return, dear sister, this one must your doubts.”

“This one’s Master has not pierced the veil.”

“This one’s mortal may prove useful.”

“This one may have found one. Keep safe, sister.”

“Stay hidden in your veil, sister.”

“Go, sister!”

“This one must release! Release, sister! Release!”

After the amber, teal, and red smoke whisps danced around her head once more, the teenage genie was ready for this pleasurable acid trip to be over with.

Finally, perplexed, another whisp danced around her head, one made of purple smoke. With some struggle, Jessica pushed her fingers up and grazed them with her nails only briefly. The blonde bombshell suddenly watched as her body exploded into the green smoke from before as she felt herself crashing and falling to earth.

Faster and faster, the feeling of Simon’s cock entering inside her as she arched her back and gasped loudly and desperately for air. Then, finally, she made impact.

---

It seemed to last only a second after the initial shriek, but Simon watched as his girlfriend’s naked body flashed in bright light as she orgasmed and reappeared in a puff of green smoke as if she had cast one of her illusions. Jessica dropped onto his bed with a forceful bounce and began gasping for air as she coughed.

Immediately, the auburn-haired boyfriend sprang into action as he rushed to his childhood companion’s side and saw the state she was in.

The blonde was coated in a combination of sweat and her pussy juices that seemed reminiscent of the previous night. Her eyes twitched as a low groan escaped her throat. The cheerleader was at a complete loss about where she was and what had just happened.

It was easily the most potent wish she had ever granted by a country mile. The wind had evidently been knocked clean out of her from an internal sexual release of that magnitude. Eventually, the genie’s emerald eyes opened toward the worried young man in a pleasurable fog,

“Master….”

Simon quickly brushed her golden locks away from her face entirely so that she could see him smile at her,

“Yeah, it’s me.”

Then his childhood friend began to speak in a soft, gentle tone that dripped in the most submissive demeanor that the dorkish Simon had ever heard from her mouth,

“This one is…so happy to see you, Master….”

Her naked body squirmed and reached out to hold his hand as she looked curiously as he let out a soft chuckle,

“Everything okay, Jess?”

The genie paused and looked at him oddly, although with a great deal of arousal, as she looked down and briefly asked a question to herself aloud,

“This one…is Jess?”

The awkward teenager felt his smile fade as he watched the cheerleader begin to look around, confused about her surroundings, and repeated the strange statement to herself,

“This one is Jess…Jessica…Jessica Edwards…and you are this one’s Master…this one lives only for Master! Master is everything for this one-I mean….”

Simon listened with encouraging signs as the blonde began to sit up and groaned as she rubbed her forehead. Another pleasurable gasp escaped her lips as she managed to weakly prop up one elbow and then the other.

“I am the genie of Simon Harris, and I….”

The cheerleader collapsed again onto her Master’s bed as she clenched her face and wiggled her nose in apprehension,

“And I feel like he just finished fucking me twice over…after a pot brownie at an outdoor dance with a broken AC and spiked punch!”

Well, that was a purely Jessica description of something if Simon ever heard one. His girlfriend began to rub her eyes as she tried to process what had happened due to the wish. Another moan escaped her lips as she slowly reached her hand down and began to finger herself,

“Fuck, fuck….”

The naked and soaked genie gasped again as she squirmed, and her mind swirled,

“My-This one’s…this one’s…my brain feels like it popped…can barely…think….”

She was an arousing display even in her stupor. To the photographer’s eye, Simon thought the naked bombshell looked like a renaissance painting splayed out like she was. Her breasts rose and fell with each heaving breath. Her back remained arched as she moaned and let her fingers stop pleasuring herself.

When his hand gently touched her body, she gasped, ready to orgasm again. Instead, the mere touch of the awkward teenager made the head cheerleader spasm. Finally, he placed his palm over her stomach and began to stroke and rub slowly.

“Easy, Jess. Easy.”

“Yes, Master….yes, Master…fuck….”

The blonde’s inhuman ability to recover kicked back in a few moments later. Jessica managed to shake her head and finally sit up on her own, her legs folded. A palm pressed against her forehead as Simon watched his beloved groan and take a deep exhale. Eventually, her mind became more coherent as her emerald eyes suddenly shot toward the end of the bed and the artifact on the floor.

“D-Did it work?”

Before he could respond, Simon heard the distinctive clang of a metal object. Both teenagers scrambled toward the foot of his bed. The boyfriend-somehow on all fours-atop his girlfriend’s bare back in the process. Jessica’s fingers gripped the edge of his comforter as they watched the metallic saucer move on its own. First, the bottom and top popped open, the bottom spun clockwise, and the top spun counterclockwise. Then, the bottom of the saucer inverted and dropped to the floor in a conical shape covered in the strange symbols Simon had transcribed.

Holy shit, the Master realized.

This was actually going to work!

---

...

WHAT THE FUCK WAS TAKING SO LONG?

Jessica glared angrily and impatiently at the metal object that hadn’t moved since that initial change before the sun was even up.

It has been over seven FUCKING HOURS and NOTHING!

The genie’s mood soured with every quick glance she gave her Master’s alarm clock.

The sight of the latter made the head cheerleader slump over. Of course, that’s a story for the next sleepover.

Have you ever orgasmed so loudly that your scream cracked the glass of your boyfriend’s windows?

They barely had any sleep. The blonde’s body was a sticky and soaked mess, but because one of them had to keep watch on the artifact, Jessica could not be washed by her Master. Showering for herself again made her disgruntled. The naked cheerleader telepathically protested back to her dork of a boyfriend how the last time it happened, she had been covered in paint and jumped by Jessica Myers.

It only improved slightly when she returned to his bedroom without Sam being woken up. After discarding her towel, Simon snapped her into a new pair of underwear. The initial sight of him with his eyes on her made her body feel hot. It wasn’t his fault that she had to look away, but the moment that weird moment from the wish caused something to happen to her brain.

For one brief moment, Jessica Edwards forgot everything except that she was a genie. Then it was her Master’s face looking at her from the bed, and the blonde bombshell became one with every urge, whisper, and feeling that had entered her subconscious.

In a flash, she relieved every moment she could remember being in her Master’s life and nothing else.

For that one brief moment, she felt so…happy. PURE. Ready to be of use and be whatever her Master desired.

Then she remembered her name, and like a bucket of cold water, everything came back, and she snapped back into her own body. Simon was concerned for her, of course. She could feel everything he did, but then came the questions.

Why did you start referring to yourself as ‘This One’ instead of a person?

Where did you go?

What color were the smoke whisps?

What did they say to you?

How did it feel?

In her sexy red harness bra and thong, Jessica went over everything, every single minute detail, until her head was ready to explode again. Thankfully Simon had over-the-counter medication for migraines to alleviate her headache.

Unfortunately, his hazel eyes widened like the Queen of Eastlake had just described an encounter with a ghost.

“Those are the same colors that the genies in my vision were….”

The cheerleader hiccupped as her body froze up, realizing that a bunch of little puffs of smoke that danced around her naked body could’ve been members of her kind that whispered to her. The anxious gulp she swallowed moved and reminded the teenager of the golden choker around her neck.

There was a link, and immediately Simon was obsessively writing everything and entered his little world. The cheerleader sighed as she sat next to him and let her bare legs stretched out. Jessica attempted to keep up with his brain’s thought processes but only pouted and whined as he continued for just over an hour. Then once he broke away, they spent a couple hours doing another impromptu photo shoot in his bedroom with at least one interruption that she could have him pose in a photo with her to post again to her social media.

Jessica could spread a message when she wanted to. That message to her followers and classmates was straightforward and blunt.

She was Simon’s now. Simon was hers. Only hers. No one else. Back off.

Some of the replies over her feed weren’t compliments as much as further shock or congratulations that her boyfriend received upon being the one to bag the head cheerleader. Then there were the ones that slut shamed her and demeaned her as ‘easy.’ The reminder of a wild life of wishes in her past made her increasingly angry. Unworthy of any response. However, as Jessica scrolled through her prior history to distract herself, the blonde deleted every photo of her with any boy that tagged her prior that wasn’t just a friend.

Simon openly worried in confusion when he heard her growling angrily as the future prom queen went through her prior history of relationships that were all short, involved only sex, and especially that were utter failures. However, the disappointments hadn’t ended there.

To stay in proximity to the artifact, Breakfast was basic.

Coffee and protein bars. Nothing moved.

Her best friend then woke up and attempted to wrestle her and her Master for their phones when she photobombed another selfie by Jessica. When her brother opened the door, Sammy was again in another new set of lingerie. A result of the genie’s own amusement coming back to bite her.

The blonde had to nearly scream another Simon Says to keep the redhead from asking questions about what the object on the floor was. Now the sun was up, and it was past time for lunch.

Time to go home and face her father.

Jessica Edwards was not ready for that conversation, but Simon snapped on some black leather boots, a green mini-skirt, and a black leather top over her lingerie as another sign she needed to go. Even though the dork reminded her that this was what she wanted-NEEDED-for herself, that wanting to have Simon wish it not to happen was utterly tempting.

With Sam out of the house, and Simon on Genie-Watch, Jessica frowned at the sight of the black car that pulled up before she got inside. Her father had a personal driver, not so much a chauffeur, but before she had her own car, it was a way from Point A to Point B. It was helpful for Homecoming and Prom for her Junior year and getting to friends’ homes like the Harris’s when she was younger.

The familiar black leather interior of the back seat made her sigh in apathy. At least she wouldn’t have to take the car back to her Master. Then, it occurred to her that this was the first drive home since Sammy took her home that first Sunday. As her head rested against the window, she watched the town pass by her again until that familiar path home.

Unlike Sam, the car didn’t stop at the garage. The blonde didn’t utter a word as she wished it would rain to match the mood instead of the bright and sunny day that had greeted her once she left her Master’s house. Instead, the eighteen-year-old briefly mouthed a thank you as she stepped out and closed the door. The car then pulled away and down the hill from her home.

It felt as if the architecture of her family home grew larger and towered over her like a castle. The teenager sighed as she flipped her hair and reminded herself that it was just where she grew up. Her green eyes narrowed as she walked to the front steps and door before reaching for the knob. The door opened from the other side, and Jessica suddenly found herself greeted by her stepmother.

Two things became apparent immediately upon her entrance. The first was the emptiness of her house without those couple members of staff, and secondly, the appearance of the blonde trophy wife clad in uniform as a French Maid.

“Welcome home, my Mistress,” the doll bowed her head and smiled submissively at the genie.

Stephanie curtsied in the tiny shoulderless black corset dress that squeezed tightly against her breasts and curves, with white trims, headband, gloves, black stilettos, and fishnet stockings. The maid returned to a full uniform that caused her stepdaughter to avert her gaze annoyed. Although, Jessica could do little about the aroused blush upon her face or the adoring look those grey eyes had for her. Stephanie’s cleavage threatened to burst out as she bowed to her Mistress-stepdaughter.

“Your father waits for you in his office. Shall I announce your arrival?”

The genie’s eyes widened, “Does Daddy even know you’re….”

“Theodore believes I am role-playing to cope with the night of passionate sex and his departure. I have done exactly as Master, and you have instructed, Mistress. To the letter.”

The stepmother-turned-maid clicked her heels as she escorted her stepdaughter to the stairwell and bowed slightly to allow the view of her breasts struggling to break free of the tight uniform. The thought of Stephanie twerking in her yellow thong and yesterday’s orgy came to mind as Jessica frowned in embarrassed disgust. However, to the trophy doll, only the approval of the young woman mattered, as she turned and asked her stepdaughter again,

“Shall I grab you a refreshment, Mistress? Coffee? Water? Tea, perhaps? Something strong….”

“No, Steph. Just go clean something or whatever….”

A shiver from the cold retort by the blonde bombshell caused the woman’s grey eyes to widen as she bit her lip in arousal from being ordered by her stepdaughter. Jessica realized only too late the callous tone and gaze must’ve made Stephanie see the resemblance to the genie’s father,

“Yes, Mistress. As you wish.”

Walking like she was still on that catwalk in her mind, the human maid doll sauntered across the floor and upstairs in the opposite direction as the cheerleader. Jessica relaxed her shoulders and sighed. Her mind called out with some hope or excuse she could teleport out of there.

“Anything new, Master?”

Simon’s sigh could be heard through their mental link.

“Nope. Nothing. Still the same as this morning. I’ll let you know if anything changes. With your Dad yet?”

This time she made sure her own hesitancy could reach him back, sighing in defeat,

“Almost. Outside his office….”

As always, Simon was Simon. Her Master picked up on every word and inflection her thoughts transmitted back and forth. For a brief moment, Jessica felt a shiver as if their telepathic link allowed the auburn-haired companion to stroke and pet her ass, or at least tried to. He wanted to seem as if he was standing right next to her,

“You’ve got this, Jess. Don’t let this get the better of you. Your first answers are on the other side of that door. You want them. You need them. Never think you’re alone. I’m with you. Now get in there. Your Master commands you.”

A brief flash of a smile formed on the future prom queen’s face as she nodded and took a deep breath. The emotions began to swirl within her tempered as Simon’s will came through her loud and clear. Her focus found,

“Yes, Master.”

Thank you, Simon. I needed that.

The black door to her father’s office was always large and imposing. Even though she no longer needed to reach up for the handle years ago, Jessica Edwards always thought back to her younger self. The same nervous, anxious, shy little blonde girl that hesitated to knock in fear of rejection. A memory flashed before her eyes of a younger and smaller Simon. The one that talked her into playing in her sandbox after the imposing door shut in her face.

Knowing her Master as she did, he probably already relived that memory at some point. Another deep breath and a shaken hand knocked her knuckles against the door. She pressed down, pushed the door open hesitantly, and peaked her head inside.

Her father’s office was roomy, with a green carpet that could double almost as a putting green. Given the installed hole off to the side and the putter against the wall, it wasn’t hard to figure out why. His dark ornate wood desk was half-hexagon in shape, with a computer and two extra monitors, with a wide-screen television against the back wall. The windows above and to the right allowed the sunlight in, as opposed to a dark and dreaded lair.

A dark leather couch in the corner with a suitcase on top, a matching recliner in the corner, and the back walls not covered in shelves were adorned with paintings and pictures. A man appeared to be reading over something in annoyance. His glasses were pulled off and put into his pocket, although expensive in taste, ever stylish dress.

Even when it was loosened up, his silk collared shirt sleeves rolled up, collar unbuttoned, tailored pants and product in his hair. The features that impressed the genie in the illusion had aged, and his hair was cut shorter than it was on his wedding day, but he was still the man Jessica grew up knowing her whole life. Then his eyes glanced up at her. For a brief second, Jessica wanted to freeze up in terror as if her father’s gaze was suspecting her, but in reality, it was only recognition. The still greying hairs gave him some distinction, but her father’s height and demeanor quickly swallowed her up.

He let out a deep chuckle and slight grin as he laughed when he tossed the paper aside and walked straight to her.

“There’s my birthday girl!”

With some ****, his hands grabbed her head and lower back. Within seconds her father pressed her into his torso and a smothered hug. A hand tossed through her blonde locks as he kept her in a tight grip. Jessica’s emerald eyes tried not to reveal too much as she smiled up at him,

“Hi, Daddy.”

Upon receiving his official greeting as he wanted, Theodore Edwards loosened and released his grip on his daughter. The older man ran a hand through his hair and then placed his arms at his waist in disbelief as he smiled and chuckled.

“Eighteen years. Time moves so fast that you blink and don’t even notice. Maybe I should have your birth certificate checked again. Are we sure you aren’t still sixteen?”

Jessica acted out a giggle as she smiled and let herself get back into the same routine as she had as the man’s Princess,

“Very funny, Daddy….”

Her father shook his head and turned to face his daughter. His hands leaned back against his desk and directed the blonde teenager to have a seat in his office. The bombshell daughter folded her arms as she slowly walked, spun, and dropped herself onto her father’s couch. She crossed her legs and looked off as she knew what was coming.

Theodore Edwards stood up and walked over to cup his daughter’s chin and inspect her face. The man smiled warmly at his daughter’s unique emerald green eyes and ran a thumb over her cheek as he shook his head. The genie’s eyes widened as she finally recognized the facial features of not only her father but of a man reminiscing.

He said nothing, but an expert could read it clear enough. Jessica was no exception in her heightened state of guard. The sad twinge in his smirk and sympathetic look as he failed to hold his gaze as usual.

Her father was reminded of someone else.

“Daddy?”

As he always did, the man stepped away and turned his back toward his daughter,

“It’s nothing, sweet pea.”

The Patriarch of the Edwards household exhaled and momentarily turned to look out the window. Then he went toward the green closet door and called out,

“I suppose I should ask what happened to you this week. Since you promised to keep things low-key after allowing you to throw a party in my house….”

The man reappeared after adjusting his shirt and straightening his sleeves out. The disappointed manner in which he shook his head without a hint of surprise as he glanced up at her only once,

“…and you decided to have a violent and public breakup at that polished dump they call a school.”

Jessica instinctively felt her head lower, her face clenched, and her muscles tightened at her father’s remarks. He remained focused on something else, unaware or uncaring that he once again insulted her own little kingdom of Eastlake. Unexpectedly, Theodore Edwards didn’t devolve into a rant but transitioned to another topic,

“But, to my surprise, instead of seeing you in Ferguson’s office when I called, you were with someone that you’ve known and that I haven’t seen in a very long time.”

Jessica watched as her father smiled, amused, and sat in the chair next to the couch, hands over his knees,

“So. After all the athletes, country club heirs, artists, craven suitors, and hopeless fools, it’s now finally Simon’s turn, eh?”

The teenager bit her lip and glanced at her father nervously as she rubbed her bare left shoulder with her right hand. The blonde nodded without a word as she felt her familial interrogation continue,

“Are you sure the Harris’s are okay with you asking him out? Dating him? I don’t have to remind you that they are a very….”

The cheerleader returned her father’s smirk and corrected him before he could finish, “Actually, he’s the one who asked me out, Daddy…told his parents too….”

The man leaned back in the chair observant, but keeping his thoughts once again hidden behind his face and seemingly amused reaction,

“Oh, you had to make him earn it, then.”

As insulting as that insinuated, Jessica found herself scoffing at it. If her father remembered anything about the Harris family, he’d know Simon insisted on it. As he took another drink, the man became blunt in his teasing,

“Is your best friend okay with you dating her brother?”

“Daddy!” she suddenly protested and shook her head with a frown.

Her father chuckled, “I’m just saying, Princess. It could be seen as awkward. After all, imagine if Samantha declared she had a crush on me of all people, and I was in a position to date her. How would you react?”

Gross. No. Not even as a magical being. Her father couldn’t have her Sammy.

“That’s disgusting, Daddy.”

Jessica glared angrily at the man as he held up his hands playfully,

“Only teasing, Princess! I have no such desires, and neither does your friend, so far as I know, but do you see my point? How she would feel, she has been your friend for quite a long time….”

The blonde bombshell pouted as she reminded her father of her prior history with booth siblings, “I was friends with Master before I was friends with Sammy….”

The man suddenly laughed as he rubbed his head and mumbled, “Oh, Jessica…don’t I know it. I can already hear you in the back of my mind….”

As he lifted his well-chiseled facial features again to face his daughter, the male Edwards leaned back into his chair and wiped his chin clean,

“So, back to the beginning of this situation. Myers’s boy threatened you, and Simon defended you, was that all?”

“K-Kind of…?”

Her father did not look amused by the answer as his voice repeated it,

“Kind of.”

Jessica rubbed the back of her neck as she began to recall the events of Monday afternoon and spoke as a nervous teenager would,

“W-Well, Brad was trying to beat him up because he got jealous of Simon talking to me. And when he corned Master, then he said what he would do to me, and Master kind of…broke his hand?”

Her father deadpanned to her in seemingly utter disbelief, “Little Simon Harris…the boy that tripped around this house that you dragged around…broke Brad Myers’ hand for threatening you.”

The blonde nodded as her father looked away and shook his head again. Theodore sighed and chuckled,

“That sounds about right. Knowing his upbringing….”

For a moment, Jessica watched her father shake his head and continue to laugh to himself about something, and then sipped his drink again,

“That boy’s not still weird, is he?”

Weird. The very word **** the genie to stand insulted,

“Daddy! Don’t call him that! He’s not weird! Don’t ever insult him like that! At least he’s not some perverted, cheating, dishonest prick! Or someone who goes around fucking….”

“Jessica.”

Jessica must’ve not realized how hard she snapped at the man who raised her. Her father immediately reacted strongly and spoke forcefully,

“You know never to speak that way in front of me. Ever. Now sit down.”

Oh no. The young genie’s eyes widened, and the genie immediately clammed up anxiously as the man dropped his authority with his eyes and voice. The eighteen-year-old Queen of the School was reduced to a childish display and feared punishment as she shrank back into the leather seat,

“Y-Yes, Daddy. I’m sorry, Daddy…I-I didn’t mean it.”

This was much more difficult to deal with. Simon had intervened previously with Stephanie, Tiffany, Kevin, and Miss Littlewood. Everything she told her Master previously and every memory of growing up inflicted the intimidation Theodore Edwards cast over his daughter.

All she had previously wanted was to be perfect for him. Her father had spoiled her rotten her whole life. This was her trial to overcome.

“Well, you still feel strongly for him, I see. That’s apparent.”

The blonde nodded as her father stood from his chair and rubbed the top of her head softly,

“So, does that mean he’s making you happy?”

With his hand still on her, the young woman nodded.

“Y-Yes, Daddy.”

A brief smile managed to escape as she answered the question. But, for a moment, the tension in the air lingered between them. The distant eyes directed away from her as the older man thought to himself, calculating. His fist clenched as she remained the good daughter, silent, hands on her knees.

Finally, the intimidating man sighed and relaxed as he moved away from his daughter again. Never addressed the issue, not following up as he seemed to be contemplating something else. Once again, leaving his daughter to wonder what was going on in the man’s head. As distant as always.

Her emerald eyes watched as he moved to find something else to discuss and then turned his eyes back onto her, motioning with his finger,

“So, was that Simon’s present? That thing around your neck? Looks pretty expensive for a high schooler.”

The genie’s eyes widened as she looked at the jewelry affixed to her and ran her finger across it briefly.

Right, her choker.

An opening finally presented itself as Jessica watched her father continue to search for whatever he had lost in his office. The blonde took a deep breath and answered hesitantly as she stood up,

“N-No. It’s from Mom.”

He nodded, seemingly unaware of her insinuation or purposefully in denial,

“Ah. That makes sense. Stephanie had been going to the jewelers the past month. She’s having a harder time seeing you turn eighteen than I am from how she’s….”

“N-No. Not Stephanie, Daddy.”

He scoffed and chuckled,

“Well, that doesn’t make sense, Jessica. She’s your Mother after….”

Then she took two steps toward him as her voice hurried to get the answer out before her nerves took over,

“No! Daddy, I mean, MOM, Mom….”

The man suddenly froze up and stood with his back turned to her. He said nothing, did nothing. The feeling of his aura became cold, distant as if he didn’t believe her. The blonde had no other chance at this moment. She took another breath and began to babble,

“Sh-She sent me th-this gold band, and this message, it-it had instructions to be d-delivered on my eighteenth birthday…it-it was from Italy and…!”

Theodore Edwards kept his back toward his daughter as she took two more steps closer and began to speak more coherently,

“Daddy. I know that whenever I asked you before, you never told me about her. M-My whole life, I always had this voice asking in the back of my head who she was, and I…I don’t know anything about her. I never knew how you met Stephanie, why we live here, or just anything, and you used to tell these stories that…I just…I’m old enough now. I want to know about Mom! Please, Daddy….”

The distance between the blonde and her father felt like it had expanded by miles. Jessica swore the desk moved further back along with the man’s back to her. The silence was an agonizing eternity that made her palpitations feel like they would break her chest bones. Theodore Edwards seemed to have little to no idea that he was ripping his daughter’s heart out with his stony silence. His sudden head lift and deep sigh at the ceiling only made the genie’s emerald eyes sting and turn red.

“I don’t have time for this….”

The man’s mumbled words as he rubbed his face on his daughter’s chest like an arrow. The cheerleader’s face scrunched as she gnashed her teeth inside her closed mouth. How could he say something like that? But then, he always seemed to never have time for her. A loud sniffle escaped her nose, making her father’s broad shoulders slump.

“I do recall that trip, though. Can’t believe I flew her all the way there just for that….”

Jessica’s eyes suddenly found the opportunity to blink again as she tried to register how he said the sentence, almost reminiscing. He chucked to himself and turned toward the window. He refused to face her, even as she could see the sad smile in his once-proud smirk and the bitterness in his scoff. Theodore Edwards showed discomfort in front of his daughter as she found the urge inside her to take two, then three, steps toward him.

Her light green leather mini-skirt was tied by the sizeable cargo-styled belt that matched it underneath her belly button but hugged her hips. Her leather boots imprinted into the faux-putting green of the carpet underneath them as she held her arms up reluctantly to her chest,

“Daddy, please…tell me….”

Her voice and emotional state hung in the balance as she finally had the opportunity to have her father tell her the truth she now longed to know.

“Laura, she looks so much like you now…when I see that same alluring vision from behind, it’s hardly fair….”

Laura?

Jessica’s eyes widened as she had to double back at the mention of a name.

Her Mother’s name was Laura?

As her jaw went agape as the golden blonde hair shook along with her head,

“D-Daddy?”

Theodore then frowned, “Maybe some other time, Jessica….”

No! No, no, no! The cheerleader was so close as she watched the man turn away from her again. Again. So close. As if she was a child again and nearly made it to him, only to have the door shut in her face. Jessica had a name. She felt her mind claw and scramble until the urges inside her pushed her to step forward.

“Simon says tell me! Simon says tell me all of it! Unfiltered if you have to! Simon says even if you need to forget everything you tell me here after you leave, you will tell me now!”

The cheerleader barely stopped herself from turning into an uncontrollable, dramatic mess. Her tears remained locked in her eyes, and her throat clenched shut as Jessica realized that she had commanded her own father. He paused and froze for a moment, as everyone else she ever commanded did. The same as everyone else.

But this wasn’t the same.

The genie struggled to control her breathing as her father moved away again; keeping his back to her. For a brief moment, Jessica suddenly questioned her magical abilities until he moved one of the paintings on his wall. Her emerald eyes widened. A secret safe behind a painting was both too cliché to be dramatic and yet too fantastic not to be.

Once he opened it, Jessica could barely make out anything inside as her father pulled a picture frame out and held it in both hands. The sculpted chin and lines of his cheekbones turned upward as he sighed and slowly approached her.

“When I lost her, a storm destroyed many of our early family photos. I lost nearly all of them, and I couldn’t keep them; except this one.”

The high school cheerleader nearly gasped as her eyes ballooned when he handed the photo to her, and she reluctantly took it. She was beautiful, stunning, and just as Jessica remembered that first night. The statuesque woman, with the same golden blonde hair, flirtatiously grinned back to the camera in almost nothing. Only a thin layer of oil and sunblock as she wore a teeny bikini in shimmering violet color, with golden jewelry around her wrists, neck, and ankles that matched her open heeled sandals. The familiar faces of women on beach chairs behind her as she held one hand against a bump in her stomach. The same genie that had appeared in her room that night.

It was her. It was definitely her.

“You look so much like her, Jessica…you have no idea. The sight of her, her voice, it still tortures me in my dreams. She was…perfect…just…perfect.”

Jessica tried to process the photo in her hands and landed her ass back onto the couch as she felt her mouth go slightly agape. Her overwhelmed mind circled back to the original reveal that stuck inside,

“Her name was Laura?”

Theodore Edwards sighed heavily as he moved to stand over his daughter and look at the picture himself. He took it from her hands and kept his dark eyes locked onto it, a smirk on his face, lust growing in his irises,

“No. She had another name, but it was close enough that we decided to anglicize it so she wouldn’t arouse too much suspicion. Your Mother had a habit of turning heads whenever she was with me.”

Jessica looked at the photo of her Mother again, the woman with the playful gaze she had toward the viewer,

“Were you behind the camera?”

Her father scoffed, “It was something Kaylee brought along. This stupid little thing with a printer, but your Mother loved to show herself off to me. Especially when she started to show during the pregnancy. Couldn’t pass it up.”

Theodore Edwards spoke openly, uncharacteristic of him when it came to his daughter, but with nothing to hide, he didn’t bother to further share the more scandalous of details,

“I rented out that beach for the whole weekend, just my girls and me….”

Jessica tried to subdue her body’s impulse to flinch at the mention of her father’s plurality of relationships. Still, the older man relaxed as he sat in his chair, unfazed since he would forget this conversation as soon as he left.

“It’s been so long, so much just fades away for one reason or another, but your mother was….”

He sighed contently and smiled to himself as he shook his head and continued to look off and reminisce to himself,

“Incredible.”

There were other words on the tip of his tongue, and Jessica could guess as Theodore Edwards placed his chin in his hand and leaned back. The words came out from him as she could only sit silently and listen,

“There was once a time when I told myself that I wasn’t coming back here. To this town. To this place. I had no real desire after having to just struggle to get out. I wasn’t particularly close with my parents, and my classmates were not entirely fond of me. If anything, let’s just say I know where, Myers-I mean, your last boyfriend got it from….”

The genie managed to suppress a shiver at the mention of the Myers family as she curled her legs up and kept her emerald eyes locked onto her father as he continued,

“So I left this place. I went to school, got my degree, and worked in global finance. Even got my first job at a Hedge Fund in New York. A scrawny, pale kid among a den of thieves.”

The man laughed at his daughter and shook his head as he poured himself another drink,

“Oh, Jessica. Those scenes you see in movies about Wall Street are quite real. ****, sex, and one big hedonistic party. A jungle where you were either swallowed by it or learned to become a predator inside it. Until the night crashes. All it took was for a bubble to burst, and the party was over, and the hangover began. And I, I was not surviving it….”

He drank heavily that time and gasped for air as he smirked again,

“Fast forward in time. And I had just left a coworker who thought taking me to a strip club would help me get over a bad breakup. By that point, I hadn’t felt so depressed since I was in high school.”

Deflated, the man slumped over into his seat once more,

“It was an impulse, but I decided to take a walk along the coast. And there I was, walking alone on a beach when I saw your Mother for the first time.”

He leaned forward, a smile on his face in remembered the feeling of disbelief that made Jessica watch her father’s eyes shut, talking as if her Mother was an alien encounter, his shoulders shrugged as his hand slapped against his leg,

“She just…walked up to me…strange clothing and looking completely lost.”

Theodore laughed as he leaned back, “At first I thought I drank too much, that my work stress was getting to me, but then she smiled, walked over, and asked me that one simple question.”

Jessica watched as her father attempted to imitate the perplexed, innocent, and curious look on his own face as an example for the one in his mind,

“Where am I?”

The man stood up as his daughter’s attention remained affixed on him and the continuously loosened attitude as her father relaxed and poured himself a drink from a decanted bottle on another shelf. He turned and continued to tell the story again with his arms out,

“I laughed at first, of course. If an angel like her suddenly walks up to you and asks you for directions, you give them, and I did. Then she asked another, and I answered…and then again…and again…until she finally seemed to follow me up and down the whole beach.”

The wealthy man took a long sip from his glass and chuckled to himself with a smirk again. Jessica sat quietly as she still attempted to absorb it all. Her skin crawling as if trying to find any cracks from the inside as her father continued,

“It turned out your Mother was completely lost. And I mean, lost. I knew she had to be a foreigner because she originally spoke another language. Her English was broken at times. She didn’t remember where she was or what country she was in. It even spread to technology. The first time she saw a television, coffee machine, fridge - hell, even a toilet - was when I brought her back to my apartment.”

Her father’s eyes made the cheerleader panic internally when they locked on her, but the stress dipped as Theodore only sighed and dropped his shoulders,

“If I had to guess from anything she told me about where she was really from, she had been raised as royalty in some religious cult from the time she was born. Probably a sheik’s palace or somewhere in the Middle East, as weird as that must sound for you….”

He placed the glass down and pointed to his daughter. With the same presence he always had, Theodore smiled and wagged his finger at the blonde teenager on the couch as she remained seated,

“However it happened, Princess, the moment I took in your Mother was the best decision of my life. One I haven’t been able to replicate since…although it didn’t start that way. In some ways, she was a child.”

A tanned, hairy palm reached up as his fingers briefly ran through part of the product that coated his dark, greying hair and kept it swept back. While he seemed utterly relaxed by the details, Jessica remained frozen and kept her emotions locked tightly behind the mask,

“She wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed at the start, but she had that heart of gold and innocence most men yearned for. Dreamed of. She was guarded at times but brighter than the sun in others. Best of all, she didn’t say no to anything…and I mean, anything.”

A shudder ran down the genie’s spine as she watched her father’s eyes widen and smile darken briefly. She recognized that look before. A voice inside her whispered to move away, but she was paralyzed. That brief void, that darkness, that way her father’s mouth smirked upward had tugged at her memory. Then, as her emerald eyes snapped away, it snapped his gaze away from the floor.

Then her father’s eyes looked at her as he shrugged and continued,

“It was stressful for a time. I was waiting for a new firm to call me in, coming off a bad breakup, and your Mother, no ID, no return address, needed someone to help teach her the world. So for the next year, she stuck to me like glue…I couldn’t get rid of her, even if I wanted to try…it even made me struggle a few months after I got a new job. She could be quite demanding at times and hated being alone.”

Theodore chuckled, “She was more upset that I left her alone all day when I went back to work than if I brought up being around other women. It was easy to make it up to her with gifts. She loved it when I bought her any kind of clothing or food. A woman who appreciated anything I did, no matter how little or large it was. And she was all mine - a boyhood fantasy come true. She never refused; in fact, my Laura was so eager.”

Jessica again remained frozen as his voice turned possessive again, objectifying her Mother in her presence. As if the woman who gave birth to her was nothing more than his favorite pet. Her father leaned back. Then the man she once idolized rolled his eyes and chuckled,

“When I managed to take her out for a date, it was adorable. Every reaction, from how I dressed her to how everyone treated us. She rambled about her old customs and spent the night with the biggest smile. When we finished that night, she asked why I had to work or have a job, and I told her what I wanted. She was so naïve and confused about our own customs that she wasn’t even aware of what a date was! So I had her watch television episodes on what was expected for two days…god, that woman was glued to that screen…asking me what I desired….”

Her Mother didn’t know anything. Jessica realized that the naïve woman believed everything her father told her. The blonde was putty in Theodore Edwards’s hands. He knew it, too. Even as he told his story to his daughter,

“I was a cocky kid, so of course, I flirted and said her, but then she looked straight through me, and I told her the truth. I never looked away from her eyes in that moment. Something told me not to. But I told her - I told her I wanted to earn so much money that I would never have to think about it again. If I could do that, without the burden of it, I could take her anywhere and do anything with her. I told I where I came from, how powerless I had been, and how wealth could be the gateway to so much in this world she had yet to see for herself. Even after a year together, after she knew everything about me, it was that moment when things started happening. I was starting to do better and better, and then, boom!”

Jessica watched her father lean in and clapped his hands.

“I was in disbelief, Princess. In one day, I made so much that I moved the two of us into a penthouse apartment. Midtown. Then, I took her, my ex-girlfriend, a girl from the office, and a legal supervisor on a private jet to Aruba six weeks from that date. It was otherworldly the way your mother could whisper into their ears and they would melt for her. They couldn’t keep their hands off me. Laura even visited me at the office once she could be convinced to wear the right clothes. The boys on the top floor thought I hired a stripper for a party and endlessly flirted with her. She knew how much it riled me up. It annoyed me to have them around my things, but I soon had my own firm in a couple of months. She became my personal secretary there and I never let her leave my sight. And she was always happy to be useful; she would even take charge of the others to help me. I never told her how impressed I felt watching her at work....”

The genie watched as her father’s smile grew darker, greedy as he shook his head and spoke of her Mother again,

“God, Jessica. Your Mother. When she wanted someone or something, she had no problem. She simply asked me, and I would give permission. All of the girls went through her at least once. They knew the could only have me once they went through her....”

The chill ran down the young cheerleader’s spine as her father stood once more,

“I kept her all to myself. Even with her willingness to explore sexual relationships with me, the woman had no concept of exclusivity among partners, and even then, it took over a year to get her to accept my engagement proposal. By then, dozens of women were in and out of our penthouse. It was over two years later from that walk on the beach, but we had it all.”

He scoffed and corrected himself,

“Well, I had it all. Except for that one thing I needed from her. That thing that would cement Laura as mine forever. And then, finally, one morning, she held her stomach and told me we were having a baby….”

The cheerleader nearly jumped out of her seat as her father’s hand clutched the top and then wrapped around the fingers of her left hand with a smile,

“You, Jessica.”

Jessica stared at Theodore Edwards as he rose to his feet and released his grip and hand before she could grip back and hold it. Her father sighed again and poured another large drink into his glass,

“She wasn’t even showing for another month, but she knew. The moment she knew, your birth became important to her. All the other girls saw that Laura was obsessed with giving you the life she wanted for you. Even if I disagreed with it….”

He drank down the liquid and exhaled as Jessica watched the annoyed scowl grow on his face at the memory,

“It was your Mother’s idea for me to move back here. She wanted me to give you the upbringing that I had. The woman was so fucking set on it. It baffled me. I told her that you would be front and center if we stayed out east, that you could have better schools, better tutors, the best of everything. That everyone would know your name and have the world at your fingertips. If it were a son, he would be my heir. I would teach him everything he needed to know, but again, you aren’t a boy, are you, Jessica?”

The man clenched his glass and scoffed in frustration,

“The moment I knew you were a girl, I accepted that you would be my perfect little Princess. After all, you had my genes, but your Mother’s looks. I told Laura that you would grow up to be on the cover of every magazine if you looked even a fraction like her. That both Mother and daughter would be seen by the eyes of everyone, everywhere….”

He sounded exasperated,

“For some reason, that idea of having a reputation terrified her. She put her foot down in a way I never expected of her. I still don’t know how she convinced me, but I bought the land back home, then the house. It was meant to be because you were born here. Right here.”

Jessica gasped. Born in her own house? Her father had never told her that she was born inside the house,

“What?”

Her father motioned and swirled his glass, quickly correcting his story,

“Actually, you were born in the ballroom downstairs while the house was still being renovated and remodeled. If anything, it made Laura double down on you being raised here. At that point, I was along for the ride. Although, it made the other girls **** to move and fly themselves here to help. Everyone we both knew that was around your Mother adored her. And of course, anyone favorable toward the favorite, well…that went without saying on my part….”

His smile faded, and Theodore Edwards no longer looked toward his daughter. Jessica quivered as she watched her father’s gaze become bitter and his voice change into a deep growl,

“Three and half years later, from that day we met on that beach, I lost her. She was gone, right when you were learning to walk and talk…just gone….”

A sudden snap of his fingers caused the genie to instinctively clutch at her clothes and flinch backward. He sounded so embittered by that fact. So angered. Why wouldn’t he have, though? She thought. He lost his wife, and she lost her Mother.

But it was more than that. Her father’s demeanor was frightening at that moment. He didn’t even look at her. The blonde teenager remained shaken as she softly whispered out to speak,

“Daddy….”

Immediately she was cut off as he slammed the glass onto the table again,

“It didn’t even fucking bother her. My woman, the Mother of MY child. I should’ve realized sooner when she suddenly stopped paying as much attention to me. Whatever foreign customs she had been raised with must’ve kicked in because Laura only ever focused on you. No matter what I did to coax her to bed, I’d find her with you in the morning. At any given moment, she had you attached to one of those perfect, glorious tits she passed on to you. Every morning and that briefest of moments, constantly worried, constantly fretting about SOMETHING. I never asked, I never demanded an answer, she was doing everything to the point I never had to lift a finger, and then she was just…gone…and inside, I knew, something told me she was never coming back.”

Jessica struggled as her father’s eyes looked right at her as he motioned her to stand. It took an effort to keep her legs and body from shaking due to the tremors she felt inside. Theodore eyed her and inspected her. The genie could feel her father’s hands traced over her shoulders and height. The man examined his only child, his daughter, the perfect blonde bombshell of Eastlake,

“But she left me you, Jessica. Perfect as she was. And you’ve always been such a good girl for me, haven’t you, Princess?”

Her heart rate spiked as she felt her father speak to her like he spoke to a child. The expectations, in his words, of what the cheerleader would do. Always Theodore’s perfect little Princess…

…a good little doll like all his other dolls.

That exact same tone he talked about her. He spoiled her with, and that he always used when she was a little girl, whether to greet or dismiss her. The genie could feel the masked smile crack as her eyes stung. A tear escaped her eye as she quickly ducked away by lowering her chin.

“Daddy….”

Her voice cracked, but the question could no longer be contained. The bombshell daughter needed to know,

“Did you…love her?”

A silence fell across the office and between father and daughter. Jessica’s emerald eyes watched the legs of the man turn his back to her and slowly walk over to the photo he had kept locked away. The blonde could hear her own heart pumping over the silence between them. The agonizing wait again threatened to tear her up even further. He took another deep breath, exhaled again,

“Your Mother was and is always my favorite, Jessica. Love is a silly word for it. For the longest time, I was a scornful young man who didn’t understand what made women tick. They and their ‘love’ had always been a mystery to me, **** to wield against me until she fell into my life. Then I taught and looked after her, and as a result, she taught me what I had not understood. All that mattered was that she was mine.”

Theodore Edwards seemed to fade from his daughter’s mind as he spoke to her with a dark gaze but a confident smile,

“I suppose she was right in the end to have us move back here. I hadn’t considered what she saw, but I thank her for it. When I was your age Jessica, I wasn’t the most popular or the most beloved. Even after I graduated from that same high school. I was still spat on, looked down on, passed over, and brushed aside all that bundled inside of me…because I wasn’t like them when I arrived. I was not elite enough when I walked through the door. So, every night, I would remind myself I would show them, I would show all of them… Finally, I left and channeled my scorn into my desires.”

That bitterness, that anger, and disgust made the genie freeze up. That wasn’t what Jessica associated with her father. That wasn’t who or what Theodore Edwards was in her mind.

It was someone else. Someone the genie knew, as her father chuckled,

“However, someone once told me it wasn’t luck that made people earn their positions. It was skill and effort. Skill and effort require potential, and my potential was squandered by everyone around me my whole life. It doesn’t matter how much skill and effort you put into something; you can still be looked over and stomped on. All it takes is that luck, and fate, to be seen by the right person. Your Mother was that person. The first that saw that in me. She saw me. She knew it, and she acknowledged it. By working on helping her, I wound up helping myself. I wouldn’t let anyone else have her if she were still with us. No one else.”

The man shook his head and took another drink to keep himself going. He was completely unaware of the chasm he had just sent his daughter’s soul into. The words that made her skin feel like it was indeed made of the most fragile of porcelain that could crack at any moment,

“But, when she was gone, she was gone. There was nothing I could do about that. I had to accept it. You needed someone to take care of you, though, Jessica. You were only a baby. However, your Mother had her own excellent sense of taste. I suppose it was only fitting that she chose Stephanie to come with her. She was so loyal; of course, Laura knew her own replacement before I chose one. And she has raised you properly, hasn’t she?”

Replacement. Taste. Worthy.

Her father loved her Mother, and her Mother stayed with him. The genie must’ve cared for him. Jessica knew it had to be the case. The back of her mind cataloged how her father talked about how her Mother interacted. The cheerleader noticed parallels between the genie her father unknowingly spoke of and her childhood friend and Master's observations about Jessica herself.

The blonde stopped breathing, and her mind swirled as she was at a loss for words. On the inside, she wanted to grab her head and start screaming. Theodore Edwards talked about women the way that perverted bastard had. The one that didn’t deserve to be loved and was overjoyed at the Queen of Eastlake’s loss of humanity, constantly reminding her of her purpose.

“I had forgotten how many promises I made to return and show what I had become despite their actions. Your Mother turned all of that into reality, Princess. I can never thank her enough.”

Her father, the man she adored, the man she had desperately wanted for his approval, that kept everything from her…

“I’m fucking tired of it too, Simon. That’s why I could always count on you! Because you know what it’s like to have something taken from you or to have nothing at all. You were right there! Now we can make them all pay for it.”

“Especially when I know I have you, too.”

…he sounded just like Kevin. If that perverted…outcast…loser…got everything that he wanted….

And she was his daughter.

She was HIS DAUGHTER.

SHE WAS LIKE HIM!

“Jessica?”

Her body wanted to be a mannequin again. Hidden in plain sight, frozen, and unable to move a single muscle. She was just property, just like her stepmother, just like her Mother. That’s all they were.

There was no denying that her Mother loved her. She hadn’t wanted to leave her. The only reason she even lived in the house she stood in, went to Eastlake, became a cheerleader, had her friends, met Simon…

…Laura, she wanted Jessica to have this life, but why?

“Honey?”

The feeling of her father’s hand touching her caused the teenager to flinch and back up. Her hands folded in front of her mini-cargo skirt, her eyes twitched, hidden under her blonde locks, and she darted them around the floor.

“I-I-I should let you finish packing….”

“Jessica….”

“Thank you for finally telling me, Daddy….”

The young woman began to move for the door but suddenly froze as her father’s hand grabbed onto her arm,

“Wait, Princess, aren’t you forgetting something?”

The genie screamed internally for her father to release her and let her just teleport to Master as fast as she possibly could. However, that same spike in fear and urge to find Simon that caused her to teleport into his class built up. The urge was difficult to resist: go to Master, go to Master, go to Master…just go. Now.

Her face turned, and she **** as big of a smile as possible. Her eyes turned red and puffy as she held back the dam,

“I-I am?”

An envelope was handed to her. She looked at the colorful paper with her name written in her father’s handwriting, a small object inside. Her father’s lips planted themselves on her head, and she stopped breathing when her father wrapped himself around her, sniffed her hair,

“Happy Birthday, Princess.”

Jessica felt her heart finally rip, and her face scrunched into her father’s shirt to hide the tears that began escaping. The teenage genie didn’t return his embrace and sniffled. She rubbed her face and **** one last smile as he kissed her forehead,

“Back to packing. I’ll bring you back a souvenir. Don’t stay away from home too long, Jessica.”

The genie managed to nod slowly as she watched her father turn his back again to finish his work,

“Bye, Daddy….”

Time slowed as she tried to keep herself together as she shut the door behind her. The genie ambled down the stairs and stopped when greeted by her enslaved stepmother,

“Are you alright, Mistress?”

The cheerleader clenched the envelope from her father and sniffled as the tears began to escape. Jessica glared angrily at the woman, a woman that devoted herself to her father to the point she transformed herself into a version of her own Mother. A mother that she had no hope of competing within the eyes of the man they both devoted themselves to.

“Steph…when you see Kimmy again. You’re to show her the same devotion that you show my father. Make her feel special in how you wanted my father to show you. Love her.”

“Yes, Mistress. As you wish.”

The teenager then stormed out the front door. Her boots echoed against the floors and the silence of her family home. The moment the front door closed, the world swirled again, and the front porch transformed into the familiar sight of Simon’s room.

Her Master snapped himself off the floor from his impromptu nap by the metal artifact that hadn’t moved,

“Jess?”

The moment she saw that care for her, that worry in his eyes, the genie finally allowed herself to break. The blonde bombshell nearly tackled her boyfriend to the floor as she stumbled and fell into his chest wailing and crying.

---

She clutched onto him as they lay on his bed until the sun went down. Simon had held Jessica when she cried before; that was nothing new. What was new was what revelations she babbled out hysterically to her childhood companion and boyfriend.

It was a constant hammer to remind her that she wasn’t human, but the details of how her parents met. How Theodore Edwards met and unknowingly took in the future Mother of his child. That the genie, who would be dubbed ‘Laura,’ eventually aided Jessica’s father in his meteoric rise to power and wealth that made him the man he was.

“He’s just like Kevin….”

That realization shattered the blonde bombshell that clutched onto Simon for dear life. The moment she had said it, tear-stained and snot pouring from her nose, the awkward teen’s empathy went into overdrive. For Jessica, the realization that the father she had wanted her please for so long was no different than his best friend, whom she despised, made his stomach drop.

The auburn-haired teen held her close and tried to reassure his girlfriend,

“It sounds like your father at least knew that he had to….”

“Don’t you get it? We’ve always just been things to him…he loved her more than anyone, and she was just his favorite pet! All just children! Kevin doesn’t think of others as people, and Daddy doessn’t either!”

The genie sniffled and spat, “I was always just going to be special as the doll he made himself!”

“…I don’t think you’re just a doll….”

As the words escaped his mouth, the blonde bombshell embraced her impulse to press her lips against his forcefully, to hold herself closer to him. Once her kiss finished, Jessica buried herself into his neck and chest again. She was making sure that he couldn’t move without her saying so,

“You’re the only one who ever did….”

Simon sighed as they remained in his room. Sam knocked on the door and barged in earlier that evening to find the post-breakdown state of her best friend as she pinned her brother under her while she slept. The redhead approached in understanding and remained hushed. By talking to his sister, Simon made sure that she never paid attention or noticed the metal object on the other side of his floor.

It was good to talk. Sam was a hothead, quick to compete, but the redhead was also incredibly understanding. Upon his request, she let her best friend continue to sleep on him.

“I wish she didn’t have to be so hard on herself sometimes, y’know?”

Then his sister stood up and smiled at him. She pecked her surprised brother on the cheek, a rare sincere smile on her face as the awkward boy stared,

“I’m glad you make her happy, Simon. Things have been really rough for her. She needs it.”

Then Sam turned and smirked with some amusement,

“It’s funny. The thought of you and Jess together drove me nuts, but now I’m just reminded of all the times we had fun together.”

Simon raised an eyebrow and caused his sister’s blue-green eyes to roll as she scoffed with her lips still turned upward,

“You weren’t always a nuisance to me, dolt. We’re family. I’ll always stick up for you.”

A hand messed with his hair briefly as the awkward young man sighed to his sibling as she again tried to take the role of the authority among them,

“It’s okay for me to stick up for you, too, Sam.”

“I know that….”

He raised his gaze to her as she now began to look away with doubt,

“You don’t have to fight for control all the time. It’s just us.”

Sam seemed to exhale deeply as she shook her head and then nodded quietly as she turned her face briefly enough for him to notice the sad frown on her face,

“Yeah….”

Within moments of her gaze lost, she quickly regained the smirk on her face with confidence as she stopped at the door,

“Feels like I knew what was going on and had things figured out, and everything starts going crazy. I can’t shake this feeling that there’s more behind my back.”

Sam scoffed as she smiled at her brother again,

“Then again, that’s probably a symptom of dragging Jessie and myself into popular cliques. You never really cared about that stuff. I guess keeping you and Jess at arm’s length of me is just business as usual for you.”

The redhead leaned her body against the doorway as she crossed her arms. Her eyes gazed at the sleeping blonde in his arms,

“Life really was easier then.”

That was the last time he saw the redhead for the night. He stepped out once to use the bathroom and get a drink. The garage door opened and closed which meant his sister had gone out somewhere. It was a Thursday night of a long weekend. He hadn’t checked her schedule to know.

Jessica grumbled, annoyed that he had gotten up and left her asleep alone again. The conversation between them turned to the dreams and visions that they both had since their reunion via magical entanglement. It turned into an interesting discussion, but Simon could tell that his beloved blonde was off in her own world. She longed for her Mother, so they waited.

And waited.

He was about to doze off himself. The week had been long, and his eyes were growing heavy. But, his genie had the right idea, and his insomnia had been more tempered by the cheerleader. Jessica Edwards was the best body pillow ever made in his mind, obviously.

Simon Harris had a lot of patience, but even his was wearing thin with his creation.

Jessica needed something to go right today, just one thing.

“Would you just fucking work already….”

Click.

Like a dog that heard a squirrel, the awkward teenager snapped up and looked at the object on his bedroom floor. He had to act quickly and grab Jessica’s body before she rolled off onto the floor. The blonde groaned in discomfort.

The sound was similar to a spring released, and the photographer’s hazel eyes snapped to the object as the top disk opened and spun.

“Jess….”

He shook his girlfriend which made her groan in protest. Simon began to shake her more forcefully to wake her as the metal object began to transform. The pentagram star collapsed into the stand as the pictograms and language script hollowed out.

“Jess! Wake up!”

The blonde finally rose groggily, her hair messily going in different directions, having slept so long on the bed. Her emerald eyes squinted, and she finally saw her Master wasn’t looking in her direction.

“What?”

The genie turned her head and saw the same sight her boyfriend had witnessed. Simon’s heartbeat was racing as he watched the metal stand pop open and transform, spinning and changing into what looked like clockwork and counter-rotating discs with the seal of Solomon at its base.

“Holy shit!”

The bombshell cheerleader flung herself forward and gripped onto the end of his bed, her ass stuck in the air to display the red thong under her green cargo skirt ridding up. For once, Simon didn’t take the time to notice as he lunged forward with his childhood best friend.

The language and script whirled to life like golden energy, twisting and gathering as a metal ring shot out of the object and then hovered to collect the golden light like a halo. At the base of the metal, purple smoke gathered and flooded out and inside. A golden silhouette appeared briefly as it was overtaken by the same purple cloud. Jessica ducked her head next to him as Master and Genie shielded themselves from the discharge of the purple cloud against them as if a soft gust blew through the young man’s room.

Simon looked up slowly, and then his eyes widened in awe.

The smoke revealed a beautiful woman that looked almost identical to his girlfriend. She was statuesque, with the same golden blonde hair, the same skin, and her body nearly the same as her daughter’s, if not slightly older in appearance. However, her body was barely covered - if it could be called covered. Simon made notes in his head. She was given nothing more than gold jewelry and silk as if to enhance her own exposure.

When her eyes opened, he noticed a slight difference between her and her daughter. A purple undertone that mixed with a veiled green. The observant teenager also noticed that her face appeared somber and submissive as if she was coming off a hard and dreary day where nothing else existed.

That quickly switched to disoriented. The gorgeous, older blonde realized she was not where she intended to be. She didn’t have long to find out.

While Simon had noticed and studied the woman, her daughter spent those same seconds scrunching her face as she smiled, leaped from her Master’s bed, and rushed toward the newly appeared genie.

Jessica’s Mother quickly gasped as she had her daughter suddenly embrace her tightly and froze in complete shock as her ears heard the word that made her react as if it was the one word she was destined to never hear again,

“MOM!”