He takes the bus back home and starts doing research on genies, feeling very misinformed.

Genies. Are. Weird. They have the most random, asinine goals, don't seem to care about human life per se (only threats of force should they take one), and are very singleminded right up until they get what they want and then decide on a new goal. They don't really have bodies, they're mostly made of wind and dust held together by magic, though they can create mostly-lifelike 'bodies' any time they like and frequently change how they present themselves.

What else does he try to find out?

Limits on power, patterns, population, reproduction, distribution...

Big magic seems to tire them out, or perhaps they're spending against a store - they're very reluctant to do feats beyond a certain size, but have nearly arbitrary flexibility besides. He can find a list of ten thousand unique examples of genies spells easily. One real, proper resurrection every few months is apparently at the very upper limit of most genies' willingness to use magic even for big favors.

Patterns... They seem curious. Whenever they get an idea in their head it's because they want to know something, or want to experience something. 'Domesticated' genies who spend time near civilization can speak and understand languages they've bothered to learn pretty well since this is a prerequisite for interacting with humans, but few can read.

There are perhaps five to ten thousand genies the world over. It's hard to be certain. They appear much like nature spirits, generally in areas not claimed by a nature spirit, but don't stay there. They're pretty evenly distributed around the globe. Geographically. Though lower density over large stretches of ocean.

And locations are secret, yes?

Supposedly. 

Well, the government monitoring of them isn't released. But free speech is a thing. He can get a list of sightings.

Oooh. Patterns? Any nearby ones?

There are entire communities devoted to tracking this stuff!

There are currently two genies thought to be in the general New England/Montreal area. One seems to be touring the White Mountain National Forest looking for rare bettles, the other is trying to figure out what was up with the Salem Witch Trials.

He starts reading up on them—how long has this genie been around—how long will it stay—

Beetles genie: Has been there for three years and doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

Salem Witch Trials genie has been there for all of two weeks. Who knows when it'll decide it's learned enough, though.

Then Salem Witch Trials genie it is. He loads his phone with data on those and reads up as much as he can and on Monday skips school to go searching for it.

It'll take a few hours to get to the right city, even. (Not Salem itself.) America's public transit system is not very efficient.

He's patient. And has several books on the Witch Trials to read.

Eventually he gets there, though.

The genie is reportedly in a park near a public library.

That big cloud of dust with about a hundred open books strewn around near it might be it!

Yes it might. He approaches it carefully.

"Did you bring me more books? Are you more librarian?"

"I have some books," he agrees, "but you've been here a while—perhaps there is some other way I can help you than giving you books?"

"Books are where you learn. I was told this by a librarian."

"That's true. But sometimes you can also learn things from people, and they can be better than books for that, if they know what you want to learn."

"Do you know why humans decided some of them were witches and burned them?"

"Er. Yeah. The answer is not very satisfying, though."

"I have already read answers. They are not what I want. I want to know why."

"Because humans are bigots?"

"But why?"

"Why humans are bigots? ...fundamentally, because it was an evolutionarily successful strategy. Outsiders were more likely to bring trouble, in the form of war or disease or a different culture, and deviation from the norm was not good for survival when we had less resources than we now do."