Student PDA (Personal Djinn Assistant)

20260715

Prompt from Eiiri’s Prompt Foundry, “Pride 2 Disability Boogaloo”.

“Pardon?” The dean said, blinking owlishly.
“Is having a djinn mandatory?” Ms Smith repeated crisply. “Are you going to insist that I let an otherworldly entity feast on my child’s soul??”
The dean steepled her fingers and rested her chin on them. Bemused gaze flicking from the irate Ms Smith to the meek shadow of a child behind her.
She ventured “I wouldn’t say mandatory? But it’s perfectly safe. And ensures your child is fully supported while studying here-”
“Alfie doesn’t need any kind of ‘support’, thank you!”
“…He is here to learn, isn’t he?”
“Yes, and he’s proven he’s perfectly capable of that without demons whispering in his ears!”
“Oh, good. The djinn can’t study for you. They just help out.”
Ms Smith scoffed “How, exactly, do they ‘help out’?”
“Depends on the student.” The dean shrugged. “When I was studying, I mostly asked mine to lead me around campus - I never could get down which rooms were where. Others ask their djinn to read to them, or take dictation, or track time, or carry messages. Whatever will help you learn more smoothly. Every student is unique.”
“Humph. Alfie doesn’t need any of that. He’s a very bright child.”
“I don’t doubt it.” The dean said mildly. “But even a bright child benefits from proper support. Still, if he’d rather not take a djinn, that’s fine. He can always change his mind later.”
“He won’t.”
The dean peered at Alfie, whose head was ducked, then she shrugged. “Anything else I can help you with?”
_~*~
It was just over a fortnight later that Alfie let himself into the dean’s office, visibly trembling, to ask in a small voice whether “You’d need to tell my mum if I have a djinn”.
“I can’t see why we would.” The dean smiled reassuringly. “It’s something we offer to every student, after all. No need for parental permission.”
Alfie chewed his lip. He scrutinised his shoes. He confessed “I’ve always had trouble writing. It, it’s like my hand can’t hear what I want it to do. Like it gets confused. So it takes me forever, and I have to use so much blotting paper, and often throw sheets out and start again, and…” He trailed off, voice growing shaky, and took a slow, deep breath.
“And Jennifer, in my class, she has problems writing too. Not the same as me - she says the letters get all muddled up somewhere between her mind and the pen. So she tells her djinn what to write, and it writes it down, no muddling. She asked why I wasn’t doing that. And, um, everyone says it’s safe…”
“Perfectly safe, I promise. The youngest djinn we have has been with us for three hundred years, and no student has suffered yet. Their ‘feeding’ on your soul energy is akin to a pet lizard cuddling you to warm up.”
“Then, um, if I could try having one...”
“Of course.” The dean pulled a talisman out and slid it across the desk. “And I’ll refer you to the calligraphy teacher, too - see if we can find ways to make it easier for you to write yourself. But you can certainly ask your djinn to, for as long as you need.”

Prompt was “Support”.