by Andy Coltart
They were nearly into the park when they heard a scream. As they turned towards the noise they saw a little boy running through the trees towards the road. He didn’t look like he was going to stop. Riley reacted without thinking and ran towards the boy. She got there just in time to block his path. He bumped into her and fell to the ground only inches from the road. A car zoomed past. Riley looked at the others who were both stood with their mouths open. Suddenly the child’s mother appeared.
‘Oh, thank heaven you stopped,’ she said. ‘You could have been killed.’ The boy was sat on the floor looking ahead of his position. He reached out as if trying to feel the invisible force that had stopped him. Riley stepped out of the way so he didn’t find her.
The boy’s mother picked him up and walked him back towards the park leaving Riley standing on the sidewalk.
‘Riley,’ said Alex, ‘you just saved that kid’s life! If he’d kept going that car would have hit him for sure!’
‘Wow,’ said Riley.
‘Yeah,’ said Casey, ‘you’re a super hero!’ giving Riley a big hug.
Riley smiled. ‘Thanks, guys,’ she said.
They walked into the park and found a bench to sit on. Riley took a deep breath as she sat down. Her nostrils filled with the sweet fresh air from the park. The smell was of cut grass laced with budding flowers. It made Riley feel calm and relaxed.
‘You know what,’ said Casey, excitedly jumping back to her feet and turning to face their others.
‘No, what?’ said Alex.
‘We could use our invisibility to help others!’ she said. ‘How?’ said Alex.
‘Well, like Riley just did for a start,’ said Casey.
‘You’re right,’ said Riley, also now sounding excited. ‘We could step in and prevent accidents, or protect people, and I know just where to start.’
‘Where?’ said the others together.
‘At school!’ replied Riley.
Chapter 11
Just Visiting
Casey sat back down on the park bench. ‘What are you thinking, Riley?’ she asked.
‘Well,’ said Riley, ‘you know how I have been bullied at school?’
‘Yeah I do,’ interrupted Casey.
‘Well, I think those bullies will be picking on other kids who can’t defend themselves,’ said Riley.
‘You’re probably right,’ said Alex, ‘but what do you expect to do about it?’
‘If stopping that kid from being hit by the car has shown us anything, it’s that we can make a physical difference to situations without being seen,’ said Riley.
‘Okay,’ said Alex, ‘but that still doesn’t answer my question.’
‘I want to get in the way,’ said Riley.
‘I like that,’ said Casey, ‘you mean become a barrier between the bully and the bullied.’
‘Yeah,’ said Riley.
‘Okay,’ said Alex, ‘I guess we have nothing to lose. Let’s try it, but first we need to know how far our invisibility field stretches. Then we can pay school a visit.’
They got up from the bench and went for a walk around the park. They used the opportunity to test how far their electrical invisibility fields stretched. They did this by standing next to people at the lake and throwing acorns. Casey threw an acorn and it splashed in the water.
‘Did you see that?’ said a woman to her friend.
‘I did, but where did it come from?’ Casey stood back a little and launched another one.
‘There,’ shouted the woman’s friend, pointing about a metre in front of Casey. ‘It just came out of thin air.’ The acorn splashed in the water and Casey walked across the path to join Riley and Alex.
‘See,’ she said, ‘simple experiment, but now we know anything we are holding within a metre of us is invisible!’
‘Let’s go back to my house,’ said Alex, ‘we can plan this a bit more from there.’ The girls agreed and they made their way out of the park and back up the road towards Alex’s house. When they arrived his father’s Mercedes was on the drive. The girls looked at Alex with concerned expressions on their faces.
‘Don’t worry, we can slip in without him noticing,’ he said.
Just by chance, or by good fortune, Alex’s father opened the front door as they were walking up the drive. He left the door open whilst he collected a bag from his car. It gave the three teenagers time to slip into the house and up the stairs to Alex’s room.
‘Well that was easier than I was expecting,’ said Alex as he plonked himself down on his bed.
Mr Manning came back into the house and closed the door. The phone was ringing so he made his way to the table in the hall and picked it up.
‘Hello,’ he said. It was his office calling. Alex and the girls had heard the phone and come onto the landing above to listen to the conversation. Well the half they could hear anyway.
‘You’re joking me,’ said Mr Manning, sounding angry. ‘Do they not know what’s happened?’ he added. There was silence for a moment while the person on the other end spoke. ‘How can I with Alex missing?’ added Mr Manning. Silence again, then Alex’s father said, ‘Are you saying I have no choice in this? Well that’s ridiculous, totally ridiculous. I’ll do it but I’ll be putting in a formal complaint,’ he added. Mr Manning slammed the phone down. Any harder and they were sure the table would have cracked.
‘I wonder what that was all about?’ said Riley.
‘I’ve no idea but I’ve never seen my dad react like that before,’ said Alex.
‘Well he’s gotta be pretty stressed right now with his son missing,’ said Casey.
Mr Manning looked up the stairs, which made all three of them jump as if they’d been caught doing something wrong. Mr Manning then walked up the stairs, right past Alex and the girls and into Alex’s room. The three teenagers followed and watched as Alex’s father sat on the bed in the same place Alex had been moments before.
‘Alex,’ said his father. Alex jumped as a cold shiver went down his spine. ‘I can’t believe you’re missing, son. I do hope you come home or someone finds you safe and sound. Work have just called, they’re insisting I fly to Arizona to close a deal for the company. I’m so angry with them. They have no compassion or understanding of what I’m going through, worrying about you.’
Alex stepped forward as if to hug his father. Casey grabbed his arm to stop him and shook her head silently when he looked at her. They waited in silence, watching Mr Manning, who was also silently waiting for a reply from his missing son. When it didn’t come he sighed and stood up.
‘I’ll be gone for a few days,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry, I will look for you when I return.’ When he’d finished speaking he left Alex’s room and went across the landing to his own.
‘Well that was the weirdest thing ever!’ said Casey, sitting down on the bed.
‘He must really be missing you,’ said Riley.
‘I guess,’ said Alex, ‘I expect all our parents are like this at the moment.’
‘One thing this does do,’ said Casey, ‘is make life easier for us here for a couple of days if your father’s away.’
‘That’s true,’ replied Alex.
That evening they sat on the sofa and discussed their ideas for stopping the bullies at Riley’s school.
‘I’m so tempted to just punch their lights out,’ said Casey. ‘They wouldn’t see it coming!’
‘I know,’ said Riley, ‘it is tempting, but we don’t want to become bullies ourselves so we need to find another way.’
‘I think, whatever we do needs to be frightening enough for the bully to make them think twice about bullying again,’ said Alex.
‘True, I also want to check something else out at the end of the school day,’ said Riley.
‘What’s that?’ asked Casey.
‘I want us to try and figure out why the bullies do what they do.’
After eating a pizza that Mr Manning ordered in and then barely touched the three teenagers went to their rooms a
nd turned in for the night. They decided to get to school on time so they had the full school day to see what went on.
They were woken the next day by Mr Manning leaving early to catch a flight to Arizona. He could be heard muttering his annoyance at the whole situation as he loaded his bags and paperwork into the car. Once he’d left the girls got up and took it in turns to use the bathroom. Then Alex did the same and all three finally appeared washed and dressed in the kitchen.
‘You want some toast and coffee?’ said Alex as he placed bread in the toaster and then switched on the coffee machine.
‘That would be great, thanks,’ said Riley.
After they had eaten and cleared away the evidence, they set off for Samson County High School. Travelling on public transport was going to be a major problem at the busiest time of the day. People were bound to bump into them.
‘I think I have a solution,’ said Alex. ‘My father is in a cycling club and members sometimes leave bikes here if they go drinking after a ride.’ The three of them looked in the garage and sure enough there were about eight bikes there.
‘Take your pick,’ said Alex as he pulled his own bike from amongst the others.
The three of them sat on the bikes on the driveway.
‘I hope these are within our invisibility fields,’ said Casey, ‘or people will see three empty bikes riding to school.’ The others laughed but were also thinking the same thing.
‘There’s only one way to find out,’ said Alex as he set off down the drive. The girls followed and as they went onto the road and started to pass people they noticed no one was looking.
‘I guess the bikes are invisible too,’ said Riley as the went along.
It took about half an hour to get to Riley’s school. They put the bikes in the bike shed and then followed the other pupils into the school.
‘This feels weird,’ said Alex,
‘I left here a couple of years ago and never thought I’d be back especially like this.’ They watched the hustle and bustle of pupils going to and from lockers. Then suddenly the bell rang out.
‘Okay,’ said Riley, ‘let’s head to my class and see what’s going on.’
They made their way to the back of the classroom and watched as pupils came in and took their seats. Riley’s chair sat empty.
A hand went up, ‘Sir, any news on Crazy Curls, I mean Riley sir?’
‘No,’ replied Mr Willis, ‘and please don’t refer to her that way, especially not in my presence.’
‘Sorry, sir,’ said the lad.
Casey looked at Riley. ‘I had no idea every kid called you that. I thought it was just the bullies,’ she said.
‘It was at the start, but not anymore,’ replied Riley. They decided to find the mean girls who caused Riley the most trouble and follow them at break. In the meantime they took a look around the school. It was strange being able to wander the corridors during lessons and not be in big trouble for not carrying a hall pass.
At the Bennett home the front doorbell rang and Riley’s mum got up from the chair to answer it. She’d been sat making a list of every possible place Riley might have gone to. She opened the door and two men dressed in smart suits greeted her.
‘Good morning Mrs Bennett, I’m Agent Kennedy and this is Agent Davis of the FBI. We’re here in connection with your missing daughter. May we come in?’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Riley’s mum letting them in.
She sat them down in the lounge and offered them a coffee. They both declined.
‘We’d like you to tell us as much as you can about your daughter. We need to build a profile to help us work out where she might have gone,’ said Agent Kennedy.
‘Well I’ve been making a list of places she might go to,’ said Riley’s mum.
‘That would be useful to have,’ said Agent Davis.
Meanwhile back at school the bell was about to go for break.
‘Let’s wait by the science lab and just see where they go when they come out,’ said Riley.
‘Fine by us,’ said Casey. As the bell rang out, doors to classrooms all along the corridor swung open. Kids poured out into the corridor like caged animals escaping captivity. Some headed to lockers, others to the canteen and still others out onto the yard.
The mean girls, who often bullied Riley, appeared in the midst of the chaos. Kids moved out of their way for fear of being singled out, or even noticed, by them. Riley, Casey and Alex followed them at a distance. They dodged other students as they went along the corridor. The mean girls entered the girl’s toilets.
‘I’ll wait out here if that’s okay?’ said Alex.
‘Yeah, no problem,’ said Riley. She went into the toilets and Casey followed. The sight that greeted them was one all too familiar to Riley.
Chapter 12
Mean Girls
The mean girls had surrounded a small Grade 7 girl in the wash area.
‘Have you got what you owe us Lucy?’ said one of the mean girls.
‘Not yet,’ replied the grade 7 girl, her voice trembling.
‘Well this was your last chance,’ said another mean girl. ‘You know what’s going to happen now,’ she added. ‘Please, no, leave me alone,’ cried Lucy.
As the mean girls stepped forward to grab her they found themselves being push back.
‘Did you just push me?’ said a mean girl, sounding angry.
‘No, of course not,’ replied Lucy, still crying.
The mean girl went to hit Lucy. As she threw her fist forward something stopped it and held it there in mid-flight.
‘What the hell,’ she said as she tried to move her hand from its midair trap. Then the mean girl felt herself being dragged towards the door. The door opened on its own and she went flying into the corridor, where she landed on her bum on the floor. A roar of laughter broke out around her as she got up and went back into the toilets.
Riley had turned on the hot tap which was steaming up the mirror above it. The mean girls watched as writing started to appear on the mirror. ‘Leave Lucy alone!’ It read. The three mean girls looked at each other with terrified expressions on their faces.
‘Let’s get outta here,’ one of them said. They turned and ran through the doorway and off down the corridor.
Lucy looked at the mirror and looked around the seemingly empty toilets. She picked up her bag and as she left said quietly, ‘Thank you, whoever you are.’ As Riley and Casey came back onto the corridor Alex said,
‘I guess whatever you did worked, cause those three looked very scared when the ran off just now.’
‘Yup,’ said Riley, in a satisfied tone, ‘it definitely did.’
Mrs Bennett handed Agent Davis the list she’d made. On it where the places she thought Riley might go to. They included the library, the shopping mall and the art museum.
‘Well we can check these places out of course but it’s been several days now so we are wondering if there’s anywhere she might go outside the state?’ said Agent Davis. Riley’s mum thought for a minute.
‘She went on an art workshop for a weekend a few months ago out by the coast but I can’t imagine why she’d go there. The workshop isn’t on anymore,’ she said.
‘Well we like to check every possible lead,’ said Agent Kennedy.
Riley had decided to follow the mean girls and see what they got up to next but they’d disappeared too quickly after losing against Lucy in the toilets.
‘What are we gonna do if they try and hurt Lucy?’ said Casey. ‘We can’t be there every time.’
‘True,’ said Riley, ‘so we need to convince them that being mean to others isn’t the way to behave.’
‘I just don’t get how we are going to do that when they can’t see or hear us,’ said Casey.
‘Through actions,’ said Alex, ‘we will have to show them.’
‘Still don’t get how though,’ said Casey, beginning to sound frustrated.
The bell had gone and the pupils were all back in lessons. Riley, Casey an
d Alex went to the library as it was always empty, especially in lesson time. They found some chairs and sat down together.
‘Let’s think how to make this work,’ said Alex.
‘We could keep doing what we did this morning,’ said Riley.
‘Yeah, they were scared, but only time will tell if that’s worked or not,’ said Casey.
‘The ring leader is Christine,’ said Riley. ‘If we can change her the others will follow. I want to see what her life is like outside school. I think it may help explain why she’s this way in school,’ she added.
‘Okay, let’s follow her after school and see where she goes,’ said Casey.
When the bell rang for lunch the three of them caught back up with Christine and her two friends as they cornered another child, a boy this time, on the school yard.
‘Gives us your money,’ said Christine. ‘Don’t make me ask twice!’ The boy took out what change he had and gave it to her. As the coins landed in her hand Christine felt something run across the surface of her hand and as she looked down the coins were gone.
‘What the hell,’ she said. Her friends both looked confused. The boy just stood there not wanting to comment. Christine wanted to shout at the boy, but something inside her said ‘don’t bother,’ as she knew this wasn’t him. Just like Lucy hadn’t held her fist in midair.
As the three mean girls walked away, still confused as to how the money could have vanished, Riley lifted the flap of the boy’s coat pocket and dropped the coins in. It was only as he walked off and put his hands in his pockets that he discovered the money was back again. He stopped and looked around, trying to find someone to thank but there wasn’t anyone there.
‘She’s still at it,’ said Riley.
‘Okay,’ said Alex, ‘let’s wait until after school and see what else she gets up to.’
The end of the school day came quicker than they were expecting. They waited by the main gate for Christine to appear. They were surprised to see her two friends come out without her. The friends went to the student parking area and got into their car and left.
