Out of Sight by Amanda Ashby

being invisible. Eventually, of course, you’ll be able to turn invisible on your own, but right now, for a noob like yourself, a patch is the best way. Plus, since you’re going to need them when we start the next stage of your flying practice this afternoon, you might as well get used to them.”
    â€œOkay, I’m in. How long will it take for it to work?”
    â€œAbout one second,” Malik said; he peeled a black dot off the page and pressed it to her skin. A second later it brightened in color before disappearing entirely. “There, now that it’s embedded, all you need to do is click your fingers and say ‘invisible.’”
    â€œAnd?” Sophie prompted, but Malik just looked at her blankly.
    â€œAnd nothing.”
    â€œYeah, right. As if it will work just because I click my fingers and say ‘invisible,’” Sophie said, doing just that. “Because—” But the rest of her words died on her lips as a small ripple flashed through her body, leaving a weird twittery feeling in her fingers.
    She hurried over to the small chipped mirror hanging up in the closet. No reflection stared back at her, though when she glanced down at herself, she could still see her body clearly. Sophie rubbed her eyes and stared into the mirror again. Nothing. She still couldn’t see her reflection. She lifted up a finger and poked herself in the face. Ouch. She could feel it but not see it. Malik, who was looking at her with interest, and could obviously see her despite the magic, just gave a casual wave of his arm.
    â€œYou were saying something?” he inquired in a polite voice that was at odds with the slightly smug expression on his Zac-like face. Sophie widened her eyes.
    â€œHow come I can still see my body, but when I look in the mirror, there is nothing there?”
    â€œHow should I know? I’m not an alchemist who deals with matters of science and magic. All I know is that you need to trust the mirror. If it says you’re invisible, then you’re invisible. So? What do you think?”
    â€œI think it’s amazing,” she said, while privately congratulating herself on spending half of fourth grade practicing how to snap her fingers. She knew it would come in handy someday. She finally dragged her gaze away from her invisible reflection and turned back to Malik. “Okay, so what else do I need to know?”
    â€œTwo things. First is that while no one can see you, they can definitely hear you, so no heavy breathing or talking. Well, not unless you want to freak them out—and trust me, nothing is more embarrassing than thinking that you’re invisible when you’re sniffing someone’s hair and then you discover that they can hear you panting.”
    Sophie stared at him for a moment before deciding that there was no answer to that statement. “And the second thing?”
    â€œThe second thing is that when you want to turn back to normal, you just click your fingers and say ‘visible.’”
    â€œRight.” Sophie nodded as she ticked off her fingers. “I can remember that.” Then she checked her reflection in the mirror one more time (phew, still invisible) and slowly opened the closet door so that she could peer out into the hallway.
    Melissa was looking even more annoyed than ever as she leaned against Sophie’s locker, while her Tait-bots hovered just to the left of her. If this didn’t work, Sophie was going to be in big trouble, and for a moment she considered just staying in the janitor’s closet until after class had started. The only thing stopping her was the fact that her mom would freak if she got into any more trouble at school.
    â€œHello, someone could grow old and die in here,” Malik said with a cough from behind her, obviously a lot more used to being invisible than Sophie was. She took one final deep breath and stepped out into the hallway. The moment she did so,