Out of Sight by Amanda Ashby Page B

talent. It had taken her most of homeroom and half of first period to convince her friends that she could really turn invisible, and even then it was only when she started talking to them while they couldn’t see her that they finally believed her. The best part had been sneaking up behind Señor Rena and moving his Spanish dictionary around on the desk as everyone was leaving the classroom. Not to mention the fact that she had successfully avoided Melissa Tait for the rest of the day. Result.
    â€œAnd don’t forget the most important thing: now that Sophie has the patch, she can move on to the next stage of her flying lessons,” Kara reminded Harvey, and he grudgingly nodded his head in agreement.
    â€œGood point. So do you think he’ll let you get onto the carpet today?”
    â€œI hope so.” Sophie crossed her fingers and resisted the urge to make herself invisible again (not because she needed to hide from anyone, but just because she could).
    â€œBy the way, I talked to my mom, and she said that we can go to the mall tomorrow afternoon. Is that okay?” Kara asked. “I mean, I understand if you need to do more flying practice.”
    â€œOf course I’m coming,” Sophie said. “I wouldn’t miss it for anything. We need to find you the perfect outfit for Saturday. Plus, I still need shoes, and I can’t conjure anything up if I haven’t seen the ones I want yet.”
    They spent the rest of the bus trip home helping Kara decide which bracelets she should wear. Well, Sophie and Kara decided; Harvey just sat next to them rolling his eyes. But as the bus got closer to her house, all Sophie could think about was that soon she would be learning to fly.

    â€œOkay, so what happens if it starts to rain? Do you, (a) do a weather spell, (b) conjure up a raincoat, or (c) increase your speed to try to beat the shower?” Malik quizzed as he marched along the grass, a surprisingly stern expression on his face. It got sterner as he looked down to where Sophie was sitting on her invisible carpet, with her invisible legs crossed, trying to hide her not-so-invisible boredom.
    When they had first come outside, it had felt strange to roll out the carpet on the grass and sit there, knowing that, despite the fact her mom was in the kitchen and Meg and Jessica were having a rowdy game of shark next door, none of them could see her. Of course, then Malik had pounded her brain with question after question and the awkwardness had quickly given away to annoyance.
    â€œThe answer is ‘b.’” She forced herself not to scream as she gave him a pleading glance. “Now please, you’ve asked me every question in the
Flying Code
at least three times. At this rate we will never be ready in time to get my dad.”
    â€œFine.” Malik relented as he reached out and grabbed the second finger of the Twix bar that Sophie had conjured up for him. “So if you’re ready, I think it’s time for you to try to fly up to the roof of the house. And don’t worry, because the stabilizers are attached, so you can’t accidently get caught in any wind currents. But I mean it, if you even think about doing anything that I don’t like, then it will be back to levitating in your bedroom. Are we clear?”
    â€œClear.” She nodded in agreement as he instructed her to empty her mind the way he had taught her so that she was focused. According to Malik, she needed to use her body like a steering wheel so if she wanted to go up, she had to tilt her head skyward—gently, he had added after the rug had tried to go vertical. It was the same for turning left, turning right, or lowering herself back down to the ground. Then once she mastered the basics of flying, he would teach her how to teleport so that they could get to their destination a lot faster. Apparently, this involved a lot of blinking—
    â€œHello, I might be a dead djinn, but I can