by Amanda Ashby
“Well, personally, I would take that as an excuse to sit in here and watch High School Musical on an iPad, but,” he quickly added as he paused in the midst of pulling an iPad out of the ugly man bag that was slung over his shoulder, as if catching Sophie’s annoyed glare. “In your case, let’s look at your options. You could always blow up your locker. That would make her move.”
“Malik,” Sophie growled.
“Okay, so no blowing up lockers. Let’s think. You could do a memory wipe on her so that she won’t be able to remember the most recent annoying thing you did. That’s fun. Oh, or my personal favorite, you could create a mini-tornado that—”
“Do you have any suggestions that don’t involve blowing up the school or messing with her mind? I mean, all I want to do is get past her.”
“Well,” he said in a disappointed voice, “I suppose you could just use your invisibility patch. I mean, it’s not really what I would call a classic, but then again, you’re probably not classic material. I, on the other hand, am pure classic. I remember this one time when I needed to create a diversion, and it was so successful that they still talk about it today. In fact, I don’t like to boast, but they called it ‘the Malik’ and—”
“Wait. Back up,” Sophie cut him off and wrinkled her nose. “What are you talking about? What’s an invisibility patch?”
“Oh, did I forget to mention them? I got you some yesterday when I was playing golf—because that’s just the kind of considerate, generous djinn guide that I am,” he said as he pulled a piece of paper out of his man bag.
“But what is it for? Why do I need an invisibility patch?” Sophie asked. Instinct told her that it would probably make her invisible, but experience had taught her that trusting her instincts when Malik was involved wasn’t always a good thing.
“For your flying lessons, of course. You don’t think I’m going to let you fly around in your backyard so that people can actually see you? In case you haven’t noticed, humans don’t like anything out of the ordinary. Especially when it comes to ugly flying carpets.”
Sophie chose to ignore his comments about her beautiful carpet. “So how do invisibility patches work?” she asked.
“Simple. You just put one on your arm and activate the magic, and next thing you know, you’re invisible. See,” he added before disappearing from sight, as if trying to prove his point. Then he reappeared and took a bow. “So what do you think? Do you want to use a patch to sneak past Melissa?”
“Of course I do,” Sophie agreed, narrowing her eyes. “But Malik, before I put one on, you need to think very, very hard. Is there anything about these patches that you’re forgetting to tell me? Like that if I use one I will suddenly grow a tail. Or turn pink. Or turn pink and taily.”
“You wound me with your words.” Malik pressed his hand to his chest as if he had been mortally injured. However, when he realized that Sophie didn’t seem to care about his fake injury, he just shrugged. “No. There are definitely no side effects. Unless you count the awesomeness of 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.”
“Okay, I’m in. How long will it take for it to work?”
“About 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.’”
“And?” Sophie prompted, but Malik just looked at her blankly.
“And nothing.”
“Yeah, 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.
“You 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.
“How come I can still see my body, but when I look in the mirror, there is nothing there?”
“How 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?”
“I 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?”
“Two 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?”
“The second thing is that when you want to turn back to normal, you just click your fingers and say ‘visible.’”
“Right.” 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.
“Hello, 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, 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.
“You 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.
“Seriously, 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.”
“Well, 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.
“Sorry, but you’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool.” She grinned.
“You 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.
“So 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?”
“Are 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.”
“Er, 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.”
“I 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.
“Okay, what just happened?” Kara croaked. “Where did you come from?”
“It’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.
AND YOU’RE SURE THAT THERE ARE NO SIDE EFFECTS?” Harvey asked for the zillionth time that afternoon as they waited at the bus stop.
“Harvey, 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.”
“Yes, but since when do we believe everything that Malik says?” Harvey pointed out.
“Well, 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 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.
“And 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.
“Good point. So do you think he’ll let you get onto the carpet today?”
“I 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).
“By 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.”
“Of 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.
“Okay, 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.
“The 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.”
“Fine.” 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?”
“Clear.” 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—
“Hello, I might be a dead djinn, but I can assure you that I’m not getting any younger. Could you move it along, please?” Malik cut through her thoughts, and Sophie let out a groan as she began to concentrate. First she had to make sure she wasn’t clutching the carpet too tightly, because doing so apparently affected the aerodynamic qualities or something. Then she carefully angled her head so that it was pointing toward the sky. For a moment nothing happened, and Sophie caught her breath. Before she could ask Malik what had gone wrong, though, the carpet gave a little shake and then gently started to float up into the air until she was level with the kitchen window.
“Nice,” Malik said, and Sophie realized that he was now sitting next to her on the carpet. She grinned and tilted her head to the right. The rug responded, and this time she only just resisted the urge to squeal in excitement as it floated past the living room window. “Now, you just need to use your hands to keep a gentle pressure on the rug. That will keep it going at a level speed. Well, go on then.”
“Really? I can fly past the house? Are you sure that I’m ready?”
“I’m sure.” He nodded his head. “You’ve got the stabilizers on, and if anything goes wrong, they’ll switch to automatic control. Unless, of course, you decide to fly into the direct path of a kite; if you do that, you will be untangling yourself for a week.”
“Right, avoid all kites.” Sophie made a mental note as she felt the woolen fibers of the carpet push into her palms. She increased the pressure, and the carpet gained in speed; soon her house was behind her.
She lifted her head to move farther up into the air, away from the hazards of chimneys and power lines.
The wind brushed Sophie’s face, and she could feel her fine hair blowing out behind her. Below, tiny cars were zooming past, looking like they were from a Matchbox set. It
was breathtaking, and part of her longed to reach her arms out wide, Titanic-style. Then she remembered that her hands were helping her to keep the carpet going, so she sensibly kept them where they were.
“Okay.” Malik’s voice was suddenly in her ear. “Let’s try some close-quarters flying. To do that, you need to reduce your speed and get nearer to the ground. This is particularly handy if you’re chasing an ifrit who thinks that running away from a poker debt is a good idea.”
For a moment Sophie blinked, then gently lifted her hands off the carpet. She felt it slow down beneath them. Then she leaned forward, and the carpet gently headed back toward the ground below.
“Excellent.” Malik nodded in approval. “Now increase your speed just enough so that you don’t crash.” Sophie obediently did what he said, and soon they were flying just above a tree-lined street. Malik pointed to a small park at the end of the street. “Now, let’s see how well you can land this thing. The trick is to make sure that you don’t stall just before you come to a stop, or you’ll fall off and do a face plant.”
Sophie bit down on her lip as she straightened her spine and felt the carpet respond to the command. Then she lifted her hands slowly up off the woolen pile, and the carpet slid to a smooth halt.
She had done it!
She, Sophie Campbell, had flown a carpet! She let out an exhilarating scream, and this time she did raise her hands into the air in victory. Unfortunately, the carpet hadn’t quite touched the ground, and, as Malik had predicted, she went face-first into the grass. Still, even as she untangled herself and looked over to where Malik was rolling his eyes, she still couldn’t stop smiling. That was possibly the best thing she had ever done in her life.
Sophie jumped to her feet, adrenaline still buzzing through her veins. She shot Malik an excited look. “Okay, so what now? Can you teach me some tricks? Oh, what about standing up? That would be great. Or maybe we could—”
