The dull gold caught the last ray of sunlight, making it seem bright and gleaming. It hinted at the beauty of the lamp, the former glory of this plain Aladdin like lamp. That was what caught my eye.
My two best friends, Nicole and Diana, and I were in the South Seas for a week. Currently, we were on a small island, heading for the beach.
I stopped, looking over my shoulder. The lamp was half buried in the sand of the deserted beach.
Niki turned around. "Faith, hurry up," she told me.
"I found something," I replied, walking to the lamp. I tried to pull it out of the sand, but it was stuck. "Come help me."
Niki and Di walked over to me and helped me dig up the lamp. It wasn't that big and looked just like Aladdin's lamp in Disney's Aladdin.
"It's cute, but I don't think it works," Niki told me.
"I don't care. I like it." I began rubbing the lamp with the bottom of my shirt. "I think it's real gold, so it might come in handy." The gold began to gleam, until it shone like the afternoon sun. It became hot.
Smoke billowed from the top. "Oh fuck," I whispered, dropping it. "I didn't do it.
"Who dares to awaken me?" bellowed a voice as the smoke came together to form a figure.
"We didn't," Niki and Di screamed, backing away. I just stared in shock at the figure.
He looked at me. "Well?"
"Oh my God," I whispered as my shock began dissolving. But I wasn't afraid. This was turning into the adventure of my lifetime.
"You, I take it, dared to awaken me, the greatest genii. How dare you?"
"Oh, shut up," I snapped. "I didn't know your stupid lamp was a magic one." I looked at him. "So, you're a genii?"
"Yes, I am. I am the slave of the lamp."
"Then I get three wishes, don't I?"
The genii sighed. "Yes, you do." He looked at Niki and Di. "Actually, since the three of you found me, you each get one wish."
"Shouldn't we each get three?" I inquired.
"Do you want one wish or none? I'm technically no longer the slave of the lamp, since slaves no longer exist. But I'm being nice, since you got me out of the lamp."
"Oh, okay," I told him. I turned to Niki and Di. "Each of you think of a wish."
"We should coordinate them," Di said. "That way we don't wish for the same thing."
The three of us huddled in a group, discussing the wishes. Finally, we turned to face the genii.
Niki went first. "We want to be able to meet our favorite music artists." The three of us were huge music fans. If I had to choose between a tv or a stereo, I'd pick the stereo. That's how much I loved music. Niki and Di weren't as bad as me, but they didn't really have any favorite actors or actresses.
Di was next. "We want to find our true loves within the next year."
I was last. "We want to get enough money so we can do the things we want to do without having to worry about money." Niki wanted to be a photographer, Di a fashion designer and I wanted to be a writer. We all knew that one day, those dreams would come true, but not soon. The three of us shared an apartment in Orlando, had college, and worked, so we weren't able to spend much time doing what we wanted to do.
The genii smiled and bowed from the waist. "Your wishes are my command." He disappeared.
After a few minute, once the smoke had all disappeared and the lamp was a dull gold, we looked at each other.
"That was strange," I said.
"I agree," Niki said.
"Most definitely," Di agreed, nodding her head.
I picked up the lamp and we walked to the beach.
Part 2
We got back to the hotel at ten. Niki's cell phone was ringing.
"Is this Nicole Simpson?" a man asked, once she answered.
"Yes. Why?"
"Well, Ms. Simpson, you won the trip for three to England., the makeovers, shopping spree, and backstage passes to the goodwill concert."
"I what?" Niki screamed.
"You won the contest you entered two weeks ago."
"Oh my God," Niki breathed, collapsing to a chair.
"We will fly you and two guests to England next Friday. You're staying at the Ritz. You and your guests will get free makeovers Saturday, and each of you will receive $10,000 wardrobes. On Tuesday, you and guests will be provided with outfits of your choosing for the concert and we will send in a hair stylist and make-up artist."
"Do we get to keep the outfit we wear to the concert?"
"Yes, Ms. Simpson. You and guests will go backstage after the concert and meet the performers. You'll be flown home Thursday."
"Okay," Niki said. "Do we need to meet anyone at the airport or something like that?"
"A limo will take you to the airport at in the morning next Friday. I will call you the night before to remind you."
"Cool."
After hanging up, Niki turned to us. "I won the contest."
We all screamed. Two weeks ago, Niki had entered a contest to win a trip to England for three, makeovers, a shopping spree, and most importantly, tickets and backstage passes to a goodwill concert. Most of our favorite music artists were performing. Backstreet Boys, N'Sync, 98 Degrees, LFO, Jessica Simpson, Boyz II Men, Christina Aguileria, and Britney Spears. And our favorites of favorites, Sisqo.
After we all calmed down, I looked at Niki and Di. "Maybe that entire genii and lamp thing wasn't a dream."
"No, it was a dream come true," Niki said, smiling dreamily. For the past two years, since June of 1999, she'd been in love with N'Sync's Lance Bass. They started chatting online in April of 1999 and became good friends. Niki developed a huge crush on him.
Di was staring off into outer space. Through Lance, she'd started talking to BSB's Nick Carter and had developed a crush on him.
I would constantly tease the two of them about getting crushes on people they only talked to online But ever since January of 2001, I couldn't tease them anymore. I started talking to N'Sync's JC Chasez and I, who had never had a crush before, fell for him. And, boy did I fall hard.
Di and Niki, always the optimists, always believed that one day we'd meet the guys. I, at first, wanted to - I figured it wouldn't hurt and I wanted to meet the face's behind the screen names - but no longer. When I first developed my crush on JC, I thought I would like to meet them. But as the months progressed, and I talked to JC more and more often and even started dreaming about him, I told myself, and my best friends, that I never, ever wanted to meet the guys in general - JC in particular. But now it looked like I would.
It never occurred to me that I could say "I don't want ot go." Now that I think about it, I didn't even realize that the trip was based all on freewill. But I wouldn't have said I wouldn't go. Besides the fact that Sisqo would be there, Niki, Di, and I were like sisters, closer even. More like triplets. We didn't keep secrets from each other; we couldn't. If something was wrong with one of us, the others sensed it and pestered and bugged until they figured out what was wrong. And we were practically inseparably. We spent nearly all of our free time together. We had other friends and all, but we were happiest together.
Part 3
We were back in Orlando late Wednesday. We spent all of Wednesday night, and half of Thursday sleeping. Thursday afternoon was devoted to laundry and more packing. The man called Niki Thursday night, explaining everything to her once again.
At six the next morning, a black limo pulled up in front of the apartment. We didn't even have to carry our luggage, except for our overnight bags. The driver settled us in the limo and we were on our way to England, the concert, and what we consider the beginning of the rest of our lives.
We arrived in England I'm not sure how much later. All I know is that it was late and dark outside the windows of the limo that was taking us to our hotel.
Around one Saturday afternoon, we were escorted to the spa where we were getting our makeovers done. Out of the three of us, I looked the most different afterwards. I told the hairstylist and make-up artists to do whatever they wanted to my face and hair. Niki and Di knew what they wanted done with their hair and make-up.
Niki's dark auburn hair was styled shorter than before, falling just below her shoulder blades. Her violet blue eyes were shadowed with purple eye shadow. Her lipstick matched.
Di's light brown hair had been trimmed, leaving it long, nearly waist length. It had been streaked with blonde highlights. Her hazel eyes were shadowed with green eye shadow. Her lips were a pale pink.
The stylist cut my hip length hair to my shoulders and streaked the jet black with a deep red color, giving it a fire like glow. My eyes were highlighted with silver, which is my favorite color. My eyes, midnight blue, were emphasized by the silver. My lipstick was a matching silver.
After that, we went on our shopping spree. Niki and Di made me get one dress. I didn't want to - I never wore dresses, even for formal occasions; I wore dressy pants(the only exception was my prom). But my friends made me get it and I probably would have bought it even if they hadn't forced me to. I fell in love with the dress the minute I saw it. It was a black silk dress, with a modest neckline and tight sleeves. Along the hem of the small train, there was a silver dragon. It had no back to speak of; in fact, the back stated below the curve of my waist. I couldn't wear a bra with it.