Well, not exactly a ghost. Just me. For when I looked down, I was amazed that I could actually see my feet and my legs and all the rest of me. Somehow I had rematerialized. I was back in the flesh. Looking exactly the way I had when I’d arrived at school just minutes before. And then I realized that everyone else could see me again too. Oliver stood frozen like a marble statue, staring at me, totally speechless. Completely freaked myself, I swooped over and grabbed Oliver’s arm.
“Don’t say anything now,” I urgently whispered through my clenched jaw, as I whisked him into school, wondering what other fabulous surprises the day had in store for us.
8. DUCK AND COVER
* * *
Oliver, recovered from the shock, looked me in the eye. “I’m dreaming, right?” He poked my arm as I hurried him through the crowded hallways. “Because there’s no other explanation for what I just witnessed out there in the quad.”
“If only,” I replied, trying to rein in the considerable panic I was feeling. “It’s the pulse. It has to be.” My eyes locked with his. “How else could I just vanish into thin air along with my clothes?”
“The pulse must’ve altered your refractive index or something,” Oliver hypothesized excitedly.
“My refractive what?” My brain was already reeling from shock. I certainly couldn’t process a bunch of technojargon on top of that.
“How your body reflects and absorbs light,” Oliver explained in a whisper. “There’s so much electrical energy in your body that the electrons are repelling light. A negative refractive index causes light to bend away from you. Think of it as built-in camouflage. You’re really there, but it doesn’t look like you are to anyone else.”
“I think my head’s about to explode,” I groaned.
“We better find Jackson.” Oliver knew I was right.
“Yeah, pronto.” I then quickly texted Jackson, hoping he’d be able to help, though I wasn’t exactly sure how. He was more invisible than I was.
“In the meantime, let’s just go to class and pretend everything’s normal.”
“Awesome idea,” I said sarcastically. “And we do that how? I mean, given my current . . . situation?”
“You think I know?” Oliver shrugged, as flabbergasted as I was.
“Well, I don’t have a clue what I’m supposed to do. Other than try not to vanish during class.” I was also desperately trying not to lose it in the middle of a crowded school hallway, but it wasn’t like I was in control of my body. All I could do was hide behind my frozen smile and wave hello to kids I knew as I passed them by.
“Listen. Just hold it together till third-period phys ed,” Oliver implored. “We’ll figure something out then.” Oliver squeezed my arm, hoping it would reassure me, and then rushed off to his first class.
• • •
World History was pretty much a blur to me. I sat in my assigned seat near the back of the room and pretended to pay attention, barely noticing that Maya was absent. She had skipped class—probably a first for her. I was too caught up in my own drama to wonder what had happened to her. Mr. Ghiradelli rambled on about the concept that became popular in the eighteenth century during the European Enlightenment: free will. Something I was painfully aware I lacked at the moment, considering I was trapped there. Needless to say I wasn’t happy about my situation.
All of a sudden I felt a powerful surge of emotion washing over me. Anger like I’d never experienced before. A tidal wave of rage rose up from the pit of my stomach and coursed through my veins until my entire body pulsated with energy. I felt like the Incredible Hulk bursting at the seams, about to trash the room. I glanced down at my hands and watched in shock as my fingers literally began to disappear before my eyes. Quietly panicking, I yanked my sweater sleeves down over my hands so that no one could see what was happening. That only seemed to speed things up. It was as if all the molecules in my body were separating from each other and disintegrating into thin air.
Terrified that I might totally disappear if I didn’t do something quick (try explaining that to your dad!), I did the only thing I could think of not to flip out. I recalled Master Kru’s simple wisdom and started to breathe. Slow steady breaths. Focusing my mind and body. A few kids gave me strange looks. I rolled my eyes, acting like I was bored to distract them. Until, quite amazingly, my hands started to become visible again. Incredibly relieved, I summoned all my powers of concentration to keep breathing like that until the bell rang, at which time I bolted out of the room before the other kids had even gotten out of their seats.
During second-period English, I was slightly better able to handle my panic—until we started discussing Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The discussion turned to Victor Frankenstein’s hubris and transgression against God and nature in creating a human out of spare body parts. Most everyone viewed Dr. Frankenstein as somewhat of a villain in the novel. Chase, on the other hand, argued vehemently that Victor was heroic for pushing the limits of science.
“That’s what Watson and Crick did when they discovered DNA and won the Nobel Prize,” he said with authority, like he knew what he was talking about and he wasn’t some dumb jock. But this time he was making a forceful argument, one I might have followed with more interest had I not been watching the clock, eager to reconnect with Oliver.
Then it occurred to me: I was relating to Frankenstein’s monster—I was extremely confused and not quite sure what had been done to me, or how to handle it. And I certainly wasn’t up for having an in-depth conversation with Chase when he cornered me after class.
“Hey. What’s up with you?” he asked, checking me out more than usual.
“What do you mean? Nothing. Why?” It was difficult for me not to sound incredibly defensive.
“You’re just acting . . . weird,” Chase replied with his usual bluntness.
“Yeah, well. That’s me.” And I bolted toward the door before I started to disappear in front of Chase’s eyes.
“Or maybe you’re hanging with Jackson too much,” Chase shouted as I fled into the crowded hallway.
I hurried down the stairs to the gym, nearly tripping over my feet. Oliver was in my phys ed class. I avoided talking to anyone along the way—I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to control what was happening to my body. Fortunately, I made it safely to the girls’ locker room and was changing into my sweats and sneakers when all of a sudden Maya’s quartet of high-strung BFFs ambushed me.
“Oh my God, here you are! We’ve been looking for you!” Annie cooed.
“You have to hear—” Jaden squealed.
“Let me tell her!” Maddie interrupted.
Aggressively jabbering over one another like Alvin and the Chipmunks, Annie, Emily, Maddie, and Jaden were saying something about planning a surprise birthday seventeenth birthday bash for Maya at Chase’s house in a few weeks. They hoped I’d be on the organizing committee.
“A committee for a birthday?” I muttered incredulously. That was a new one.
“It’s a theme party—Katy Perry,” Jaden confided, quite excited, as if that clarified the matter.
“No, it’s not!” Annie angrily retorted, her face twisted in a dismissive grimace. “No one ever mentioned theme.” She was so pissed I thought her head might explode.
“I thought we wanted it to be fun?” Jaden replied, hurt and indignant.
“Fun, yeah. Katy Perry is so middle school.” Annie rolled her eyes, condescendingly.
“Whatever, bitches,” Emily interjected, having no patience. “It’ll be wicked no matter what.”
I didn’t dare say a word. The hostility among these girls was spinning out of control.
“As long as we have a fabulous menu. Like sushi or tapas. That’s where we really need you, Nica!” Maddie glared at me, the world traveler, hoping I’d help calm the choppy waters they were swimming in. But I couldn’t get used to how they celebrated birthdays here. Back in Thailand and most other places I’d lived there were no parties, or birthday cakes, or presents. The mo
st lavish gift I ever gave a friend was a book.
They were all dressed identically, in navy-and-white sporty workout ensembles with painfully cute pink, green, and white clipettes in their hair. I knew the only way I could get out of there quickly was to simply smile and say, “Count me in.” I added, “Absolutely. Sounds genius.” I figured I’d bail on them later, telling them I had to go out of town for the weekend to visit my grandparents in Ohio.
They perked up, extremely happy to have recruited me for their committee. Mission accomplished. And then they continued to argue about the menu, party color palette, and a million and one other mind-numbing details. They were so engrossed in their bickering I was able to slip away and hightail it out of the locker room before something really weird happened. Like my legs or head began disappearing.
• • •
By the time I found Oliver out on the field running soccer drills with the rest of the class, I was almost a complete basket case. I didn’t know how I’d make it through the rest of school, without suffering a mental breakdown.
“Glad to see you’re still in one piece,” joked Oliver, checking me up and down with amusement.
“Don’t even,” I warned him, in no mood to banter.
“Sorry,” Oliver replied as he kicked the ball, pretending to be into dribbling. “Has it been awful?”
“You mean other than almost disappearing in the middle of history?” I nervously tugged my sweatshirt sleeves down over my hands, worried about a repeat performance. “Boring it’s not.”
“Well, I’ve got just the thing to cheer you up,” he said cryptically as Coach Lurrell blew his whistle and ordered the class to run laps around the track.
“Follow my lead.” Oliver started to jog very slowly, drifting to the back of the pack, with me obediently trailing behind him. I couldn’t help but notice two Bar Tech Security officers striding across the field.
As we circled around the first bend in the track, I saw Officer Korey and Officer Lorentz chatting with Coach. I had this momentary fit of paranoia. Were they looking for me? Before I could find out why they were there, Oliver grabbed my hand and whisked me off the track. We were underneath the bleachers in two seconds flat. Out of view from the rest of the class.
I opened my mouth to chew Oliver out for pulling such a risky stunt when I saw Jackson standing there. Wearing faded jeans and a black-and-white flannel shirt he was also sporting a three-day growth of beard, looking as scruffy and unbearably handsome as always. My heart practically skipped a beat. I hadn’t seen him in days and I felt this urge to run up to him, jump into his arms, and kiss him.
“Hey.” Jackson acted like he could care less that he hadn’t seen me in a while.
“Nice of you to make an appearance,” I responded with attitude.
Jackson gave me a small smile. “Oliver filled me in on what’s happening. How you holding up?”
Even though I wanted to remain annoyed at him for ignoring my texts and dropping out of sight the way he had, I could feel my anger melting. “Excellent. Can you explain it to me? Because I’m about to lose it—literally.” I held up my hands, hoping he had an answer. (And maybe a long kiss—you can’t blame a girl for fantasizing.)
“It’ll be okay. Just roll with it. The first time is really scary, I know. And you’ll probably have a headache the day after. But you’ll be fine, really.” Jackson was doing his best to reassure me, but it wasn’t good enough. I needed some tangible proof that I wasn’t going to spend the whole day disappearing again.
“Can I quote you? Because I’m not exactly feeling it.” However, I was starting to feel something else: a vibrating sensation radiating out from my spine. It was all too familiar a sensation to me that day. Kind of like when you hit your funny bone, except with the tingling feeling magnified a thousand times.
“Oh no.” I held out my hands and watched as they started to disappear. “Here we go again.”
I didn’t fight it. I didn’t try and stop it from happening. Not this time. Not with Oliver and Jackson watching. I wanted to appear tough. I disappeared within a matter of seconds, vanishing without a trace right before their eyes. And yet I was still standing next to Oliver and Jackson. They just couldn’t see me. It was both unsettling and thrilling at the same time—for me. For Jackson and Oliver it was also awesome, but in different ways. Oliver thought it was kind of cool, while Jackson took a more clinical, dispassionate approach.
“Freaky,” Oliver said.
“Can you control it?” Jackson asked, as he slowly circled the spot where he had seen me standing a moment earlier.
“If I concentrate hard enough. With my breathing.”
Jackson turned around toward the sound of my voice. I was now standing right behind him, though he couldn’t see me. I pondered the possibilities and realized that being invisible had its advantages. What would happen if I wrapped my arms around Jackson? Yes, the thought did cross my mind, even while I sounded quite rational—a lot less emotional than I actually felt inside.
“Pretty crazy stuff, huh?” Oliver said to Jackson. “Now you see her, now you don’t. Must be some kind of negative refraction going on. It’s as if Nica’s been shielded from electromagnetic radiation. The light is actually going around her body and clothing rather than being reflected by it. Sort of like infrared waves or microwaves.”
“So theoretically,” said Jackson as he pondered the possibilities, “anything inanimate Nica touched would be hidden or invisible as well.”
“Yeah.” Oliver shrugged. “I suppose it would.”
Jackson nodded, running his right hand through his hair, deep in thought. I noticed he did that whenever he was feeling troubled or uneasy, one of a million sexy habits he had. And today he couldn’t help being spooked by my newfound ability. But there was something else going on, something that was bothering him even more than my sudden disappearance.
“It can’t be a coincidence,” blurted Jackson. “The three of us.”
“I highly doubt it’s contagious,” Oliver declared. “Maybe we’re part of some giant alien experiment?” Jackson’s paranoia seemed to be rubbing off on Oliver.
I knew Jackson was right, and by the ashen look on Oliver’s face he did too. However, before either one of us could say anything else, a large figure suddenly appeared by the edge of the bleacher stands. It was Coach Lurrell in all his blustery glory.
“What the heck’s going on here? Last I looked, gym class is going on out there,” Coach Lurrell growled, reminding me of a cartoon bull angrily stomping its hooves, steam billowing out of its flared nostrils.
I held my breath and didn’t move a muscle, not wanting to suddenly reappear. How awkward would that be?
“Hey, Coach,” replied Jackson as he stepped in front of Oliver. “Just had to give my man O. the good news.” He sported a friendly demeanor, trying to defuse the situation.
“What news?” Coach eyeballed him suspiciously, waiting for an explanation. I was hoping Jackson would be able to come up with one. “Well, nice of you to finally make an appearance, Jackson.”
“Sorry, Coach,” Oliver bravely interrupted, not wanting to let Jackson take all the heat. “Those rad Vans I ordered two weeks ago from Winters Sporting Goods finally came in, and Jackson knew I’d want to know ASAP.” Everyone knew that Jackson’s parents owned Winters Sporting Goods, so Oliver ordering a hot new pair of sneakers and Jackson being the bearer of the news of their arrival had the vague ring of truth.
“Yeah, they’re totally rad, flying off the shelves,” Jackson added for dramatic effect.
Still, Coach Lurrell didn’t seem convinced. “Is that so?” He stared at Oliver, waiting for him to crumble. Beads of sweat formed on Oliver’s forehead as he nervously glanced over to Jackson, silently pleading, Now what? Jackson’s cool eyes slyly scanned the area, obviously concerned about me reappearing, as was I.
I crept back from where they all were standing, praying that Coach Lurrell would not hear my footfalls softly crunching on
the dirt. Making noise was the least of my worries, because I started feeling that warm, spine-tingling sensation emanating from my lower back. I may have been new to the whole body-chemistry-change thing, but I knew enough to know that this feeling wasn’t a good sign. My body would start reappearing. I tried not to freak out or panic. I just kept hearing Master Kru’s voice echoing in my head, commanding me to breathe.
As I inched my way out from under the bleachers, I heard Coach Lurrell bark at Oliver and Jackson: “Monsalves, give me three laps. Winters, my office, pronto.” Oliver obediently jogged back out to the track, knowing better than to complain about his punishment. Jackson, however, walked in the opposite direction from the office, when the coach blocked his path.
“You deliberately trying to screw up your life, Winters? Because you’re doing a heck of a job.”
“Glad to know I excel at something, sir,” Jackson replied without a hint of sarcasm as he obediently turned and followed the coach back to his office.
• • •
I stole back into the empty lockerroom. Summoning all my powers of concentration I tried to will my body to reappear. Nothing happened. I tried a second time. Again nothing. I had less than five minutes before the rest of my class returned from the field. Frustration welled up inside me. What if I was stuck like this forever? I kept thinking, Why me? What did I do to deserve this? But the Nica pity party would have to wait.
Just then I heard the locker room door swing open. I instinctively hid inside one of the bathroom stalls, forgetting for a moment that no one could see me. Two girls stumbled in, their voices muffled. I couldn’t tell who they were, but I prayed they’d stay out of the bathroom. No such luck. They hovered at the sinks, brushing their hair and checking their makeup in the mirror for any flaws. They were gossiping about Maya being Little Miss Perfect. Dishing about how she always got everything she wanted—cheerleading captain, class president, and Chase Cochran. So I wasn’t the only one who had issues with her. Those bobble heads kept chattering on, enthusiastically trash-talking all the other cheerleaders. Instead of rushing off I hung around as they divulged inconsequential stuff, like how Emily supposedly shoplifted cosmetics. And how Maddie and Annie talked behind everyone else’s backs. And how Jaden had gotten an awful nose job over summer vacation.
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