Out of Sight by Amanda Ashby Page A

Terry Richards, a sixth-grade band guy, almost knocked her out with his oboe case. Sophie only just managed to scramble out of the way in time, and she put her hand over her mouth to stop herself from squealing out in protest. Once she regained her composure, however, she realized that the reason he had almost knocked her out was because he couldn’t see her.
    Nice. Sophie tentatively walked toward her locker, her confidence growing as she stepped past the Tait-bots. None of them even blinked at her, which was a first. Finally, she reached her locker and stood in front of Melissa. Sophie paused for a moment and waved her hand up and down in front of Melissa’s perfect (but sour-looking) face. But instead of even noticing, Melissa merely turned to her Tait-bots and snapped her fingers.
    â€œYou know, nothing annoys me more than having to wait for idiots who don’t even have the decency to show up.” The seventh grader pouted as she and her friends swayed off in the other direction. The minute they were gone, Malik turned up beside her.
    â€œSeriously, did you
see
that?” Sophie demanded as she waved her arms in front of a group of kids who were walking past her. None of them even noticed her. “It worked.”
    â€œWell, yeah. I mean, otherwise you’d just be the girl who was walking around putting your hand in everyone’s face,” Malik said as the bell rang. Sophie reluctantly stopped her arm waving.
    â€œSorry, but you’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool.” She grinned.
    â€œYou don’t have to tell me,” Malik assured her as he walked over to a sixth grader and plucked one of the M&M’s out of his packet and grinned.
    â€œSo what now?” Sophie asked, trying to ignore Malik’s blatant theft as she caught sight of Harvey and Kara walking toward them. “Are you going to stay at school today?”
    â€œAre you kidding me?” He shuddered. “I mean, it was fun watching you mess with Melissa Tait, but I would rather have my eyeballs pulled out and pickled than have to sit through any more of your classes. Especially since most of your teachers seem like complete imbeciles. Anyway, I thought I’d go and catch up on a spot of shopping.”
    â€œEr, okay,” Sophie started to say, but before she could finish, Malik disappeared in a puff of Cheetos crumbs just as Kara and Harvey came to a halt next to where Sophie was standing.
    Kara wrinkled her nose as she looked right through her. “Okay, that was weird. One minute Malik was here, and then he just disappeared.”
    â€œI know. And where’s Sophie? Why would Malik be at her locker when she’s not around? It’s not even like it’s lasagna day in the cafeteria,” Harvey added, just as Sophie said, “Visible,” and snapped her fingers.
    She then watched her friends yelp in surprise.
    Kara’s face drained of color, and she tentatively reached out and poked Sophie’s arm to check that it was real. Next to her Harvey just stared.
    â€œOkay, what just happened?” Kara croaked. “Where did you come from?”
    â€œIt’s a long story.” Sophie linked arms with her two friends and told them about everything that had happened. Then she grinned. Let the fun and games commence.

A ND YOU’RE SURE THAT THERE ARE NO SIDE EFFECTS ?” Harvey asked for the zillionth time that afternoon as they waited at the bus stop.
    â€œHarvey, we’ve been over this,” Kara said in her calmest voice as she hastily sketched a soothing picture of a tropical beach and thrust it into his hands to try to help him relax. “Malik has promised that it’s completely safe.”
    â€œYes, but since when do we believe everything that Malik says?” Harvey pointed out.
    â€œWell, this time I think we can trust him. Did you not see me turn invisible?” Sophie chimed in, still completely buzzing from her newly found