Chapter 12: Ch.12: A Long Day

Editing video footage could be a very calm task. Tatiana had jazzy background music as she trimmed and placed different bits she had recorded earlier in the day. Properly layering and sizing pictures and text was easy enough. 

A more draining aspect of her craft included but wasn’t limited to, syncing the previously mentioned music to the footage and moving text.

Creating a sense of stimuli during ‘Tea Time Tutorial’ videos was important. Having multiple videos at the ready was key to staying consistent. It was also crucial not to stare at a computer monitor for extended periods of time. Let alone multiple screens.

“Time to give these legs a good stretch,” Tatiana said to herself.

A miniature, slightly digitized Jiji, poked her head from the corner of the screen, “Who’re you talking to?”

Tatiana reacted appropriately to this breach with a quick scream.

“What’re ya doin’ on my computer?!”

“Seeing how you edit your videos,” Jiji walked along the latest track like a gymnast on a tightrope. Her voice appeared as a wavelength under her feet. “This all seems pretty tedious.”

“It can be,” Tea answered. She used the cursor to nudge the girl back off-screen. Poking her in the side. “Now get out before you ruin my work.”

Upset with the ‘bashing’, “Ow! Stop it! Ow! I’m leaving! I’m leaving! Geez!”

The woman came into the room the way she should’ve the first time. That being, through the door. If she had done this before, then Jiji wouldn’t be rubbing her aching hip.

“That hurt,” Jiji pouted.

“Supposed to hurt. It’s called ‘don’t mess with my set’.” Tea took a sip of her sweet tea. “How was school?”

“Actually, I have a question.” The spare chair zipped to Jiji on command and turned for her to sit, “Are all human boys bad with conversation?”

Tea handed off a spare mug for Jiji. The two tapping the cups filled up Jiji’s with sweet tea. Like copy and pasting a file.

“Depends on the boy. Also, walking out of class is a quick way to piss off your teacher.”

Jiji leaned back before explaining, “It wasn’t a class. I don’t have any classes yet. Although I’m gonna ask Professor Dante if I can get into the theater class so I can meet that pack of cute girls again. One had blue hair and was really-”

Her rambling was interrupted by Tatiana’s less-than-subtle slurp.

“Ew,” Jiji said. “Anyway, I went to the cafe with this cute guy I met yesterday named Stan.”

“The dude whose friend stared at your ass like a dehydrated man spotting water?” When Jiji shot a particular glance over her mug, Tatiana confirmed, “Dante sent a pic.”

Satisfied with the answer, “Yeah him. He talked about physics. Cause, that’s what he’s in school for. Which is cool. Then he started talking about the physics of light and how it could trick eyes into thinking they see magic tricks. Or something. But he kept talking about physics and math and more physics and it was sooooo boring!”

“Wait, you just walked off?” Tatiana checked her monitor. The ‘genie track’ was gone so she decided to quickly save her work.

“What? No! I literally just had that happen to me. I’m not a monster!” Jiji drank just a bit and finished answering. “I made a duplicate and he’s been chatting to a ‘doll’ for the last few minutes.”

“Serious?” Barrett asked.

“Yeah! Check this out!” Jiji let her mug go. 

Instead of falling to the ground, it stayed in the air. Like a glitched video game item. Tatiana then understood why Dante was still unnerved by Jiji’s magic.

The monitor on the right changed from a display of some video game Jiji didn’t care about to what Tatiana could only guess as security footage of the university cafe. Just as Jiji said, Stan was sitting in a booth chatting a clone’s ear off. The clone just occasionally nodded.

“You gave the clone bigger boobs?” Tea inquired.

Unimpressed by Stan’s lack of awareness, “I'm starting to think he’s more attracted to numbers.”

Tatiana shrugged, “Ok but, you shouldn’t just bail on stuff cause it’s boring.”

“I know. But like,” Jiji grabbed her mug from its ‘position’. “He wasn’t asking me any questions. He just kinda started talking and never stopped.”

“Did you tell him he was rambling? And then when he kept talking, you left? Or did you just leave your busty puppet there without saying a thing?”

Jiji didn’t say a thing. She just looked into her cup as she slurped from it.

Tatiana didn’t want to lecture her, so she didn’t. Instead, she gave Jiji a few words.

“Next time something’s boring, try to deal with it before runnin from it.” Tatiana decided this back and forth qualified as her break, “Now change the channel and runoff. I gotta finish this last bit of the video.”

A question mark appeared over Jiji’s head. “I just watched you finish four videos before starting this one.”

“Yeah. Gotta maintain the schedule.” A hand fanned over Jiji and turned the question mark into mist, “Now go back to school.”

“Really?” Jiji’s eyes sparkled and the air around her lit up. Her ‘photo filter’ blinded Tatiana. “Are you sure there isn’t anything I can do to help with the videos? Or just to keep you company? Play some games?”

Tatiana squinted and answered before her eyes began to water.

“Turn off the light show and go back to school. We can watch ‘Star Wars’ when you’re back.”

When Jiji shouted, “Aw!”, the light burst, sending dull sparks everywhere from the floor to the desk. “Oops. One sec.” Two claps later and it was as if nothing happened.

“Cool,” Tatiana nudged her friend’s arm. “Now let me work for a minute.”

“One more question?” Jiji waited for Tea to pick her head back up and seize her long sigh. Then, the woman who had been cut off from society for a millennium asked, “What’s ‘Star Wars’?”

Tatiana’s hands froze over the keyboard. She was facing her screen but wasn’t really looking at it. Until she saved her work and put her computer to rest, Tatiana couldn’t even look at her. When she did, there was only one thing Tea could say. It came with a low tone and an all-knowing smile.

“You know what? Stan can wait.”

-Meanwhile-

Meanwhile, the clone was exiting the cafe with Stan. Parting ways, he headed north as she waited for him to stop looking. Once he was gone, her smile followed. 

“Ugh, at least he’s nice.” Jiji stretched her arms, turning them from stiff twigs to wet noodles. “Welp! Time to look at classes!”

She had no idea where to begin. Yes, Dante had left her a map of the school. Both a paper pamphlet and through the website. But neither highlighted where to start asking. 

Jiji pondered for a moment. Turning the paper upright as if that would help. She groaned as confusion began to take hold.

Then a man with a camera the length of a short sword passed by. 

“Hi!” Jiji cheered. 

The sluggish way he stopped and nodded went unnoticed. 

“Are you busy? Where can I find out what classes the school has? Art classes specifically. Anything where I don’t have to do math.”

Clearly annoyed, “Uh, admin. Library. Online.” He pointed a few meters behind her, ”The bulletin boards.”

You are reading story Jiji Jinn The Genie at novel35.com

“Oh right! Duh! Of course! Thank yo-Oh~!” Jiji cooed. “Are you taking photography?

He looked at his camera and then back to her.

Flatly, “…Yes.”

Ecstatic, “I love pictures! Well, I like illustrations a little more! I grew up looking at those. What do you prefer?”

Holding a $1000 camera, “…Photography.” 

“Neat!” Jiji put her hand out, “Jiji Jinn!”

He didn’t shake, “Eric.” He instead raised the camera up, “I still got some pics to take.”

“Neat!” 

Jiji stood there without a word. She smiled a little. Hope that Eric would have something to say was fading. Instead of a conversation, a nearby bird was chirping. 

“I can’t be late for my thing,” he informed.

“Oh!” Jiji realized, “Sorry! didn’t mean to keep you! I like your chin hairs! And your eyes. You’re handsome! Ok! Bye!”

Eric watched as she jogged off. Not too interested in seeing if she was going in any particular direction. But he was just annoyed by the interaction that wasted 2 minutes. 

“Stupid freshmen,” He cursed and went on his way. 

As the sun hit the board, Jiji was blinded by something on it. A flare reflected off of a brightly decorated flyer. Even Jiji thought there was too much glitter on this ‘Job Fair’ poster. 

“Monday at 5,” Jiji read. 

It was 1 o’clock. On a Sunday. She still had to find a class course. Or at least see what else the school had.

The rest of the board was dedicated to clubs and activities. Like the ‘Anime club’. The giant mecha robot on the flier did look cool to Jiji. 

The next team practice was Cheerleading. A bunch of girls in deep blue and yellow uniforms dancing. If only Dante had found the lamp before school had started. 

The last two papers Jiji spotted were for sports. The first was the upcoming football game on Saturday. The second being an indy-pro wrestling show next Monday. Well, 1 sport and 1 show. 

Without much internet knowledge, Jiji had 1 more option to explore. She had her first cup of coffee a few minutes ago. Might as well use the energy to see what the school library had. 

-Later-

Inside the library, you could find a stray of students. Some studied at a desk alone. Some with friends. Some making out in the romance section. 

Jiji hadn’t noticed the last pair since she was surrounded by books. And no one noticed the girl who came into existence by beaming down from a light into an aisle.   

“Now, let’s see,” Jiji spotted a computer and intended to head that way. If she hadn’t landed in the classics section, maybe she would’ve kept walking. 

“Oooh~!” Jiji sang. She glowed seeing one of her weaknesses: ‘Heart of Darkness’. She couldn’t snatch it fast enough. 

She ran her fingers past classics like ‘Moby Dick’ and ‘Oliver Twist’ as she pondered. 

“Do they have something romantic?” She grabbed a copy of ‘Pride & Prejudice’. 

“Hmmm, I wonder if they have,” a quick backtrack and she landed on ’Lady Chatterley's Lover’. 

Joking, “Hello ‘Lover’.” 

Also joking, “Hardly, we just met.”

To Jiji’s right was a petite woman carrying 3 books. She stood only 4 inches taller than Jinn. Meaning they both needed a library stool to reach the second from the top row.

On her face, a pair of browline glasses that matched her shoulder-length raven hair. On her person, a lightweight v-neck shirt tucked into cargo shorts and high-top sneakers. In her mouth, was a cherry lollipop. 

Why did the candy matter? Well, Jiji was looking at her lips and the woman could only guess why.

Jiji stood in front of an attractive woman. As usual for the genie, certain motor functions ceased and/or faltered until further notice. It began with her knees tucking just a bit and her palm swiftly moving behind her neck. A pinkie even got tangled in the mass of hair.

“Hi~!” Jiji bubbled, “You’re really pretty.”

The woman gestured to Jiji’s sleeveless hoodie, “And you clearly want to show off that you work out.” She blankly asked, “Can I get that copy of ‘Paradise Lost’?”  

“Uh yeah,” Jiji then proceeded to stand there like a plank. “‘Paradise Lost’...definitely took me a few reads to understand,”

The girl did say “Excuse me,” when nudging between Jiji and the shelf to claim her epic poem. She spotted the small pile of glitter behind Jiji’s heels. But, she didn’t feel as though a conversation about the floor would be worth dealing with the blubbering gay jock in front of her.

“Hope you find some sleeves before winter starts.”

The girl started to turn away. The banter, if you could call it that, was over. It was time to study for a class she tolerated. Or at least, it would’ve been if Jiji hadn’t suddenly appeared in front of her between blinks.

“My name’s Jiji. Uh, Jiji Jinn. You’re really pretty and you seem smart. Would you like to go out on a date?”

The woman twisted her head back and forth like a sprinkler. She didn’t see any way for this person to dash around the shelf in a quarter of a second. Nor a reason for the sudden disappearance of the glitter. 

What started as, well, startlement, turned into fascination. And then that fascination disintegrated when she processed what Jiji had just asked.

“Well, you haven't asked my name yet. So no.”

“Oh, sorry. What’s your name?” Jinn asked.

She answered in the same humorless tone, “Alice Higurashi.”

“Hi, Alice.” Jiji smiled, “Would you like to go out on a date?”

“No.”

Slightly disappointed, “Oh, so you like men then?”

Bluntly, “No, I like girls. I just don’t like your approach.” Alice moved past Jiji, “Excuse me.”

Alone and dumbstruck, Jiji tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. She scanned around hoping no one else saw her strikeout. A lone yellow bird outside the window saw everything. It chirped at Jiji upon eye contact.

Annoyed, “Shut up ‘Tweety’.”

End

You can find story with these keywords: Jiji Jinn The Genie, Read Jiji Jinn The Genie, Jiji Jinn The Genie novel, Jiji Jinn The Genie book, Jiji Jinn The Genie story, Jiji Jinn The Genie full, Jiji Jinn The Genie Latest Chapter