CHAPTER 20

It was official. This was the worst day of her life.

Madison had thought being socially invisible had been bag enough. Honestly, she would have thought that it would be worse, that just not noticing you even if you were there was as low as it got. But nope. Turned out, actually being invisible was so much worse.

She had nearly gotten hit by a car while crossing the street. She had gotten smacked in the face by the door after the student holding it open let go all of a sudden. And she was constantly being shoved and bumped around. She had hoped to stick to the sides and avoid the mob of kids, but this was basically rush hour time for the school, when the hallways were clogged and there was nowhere to go. At least it seemed like no one noticed there was an invisible person among them. Unfortunately, it just meant that they saw an empty space that they wanted to fill.

Madison tried to move aside again when one of the seniors came barreling through, laughing with his friends, and sent her sprawling. She winced and tried to pick herself back up when someone else stepped on her hand.

"Ow!" she cried out but, of course, no one heard her in the mess. She scrambled across the floor to the wall and managed to scrunch up in the corner. Why had she come here? This was a living nightmare. There was no way she could possibly make it through her day like this. How was she supposed to go to class?

Travis. He was the only one who could help her. She didn't know quite how, but he was her best option. But where was he? How would she able to find him the way she was now? She couldn't even move through the hallway without getting bounced around like a pinball machine. And she couldn't stay in this corner forever.

She looked around, desperately hoping that she would catch a glimpse of Travis in the crowd, when she felt a slight tingle in her hands. She glanced down and felt her blood go cold. She could see them. Her fingers were reappearing.

She should be celebrating, but instead she tried hiding them behind her back before realizing her body was still invisible.

Why now? She cried inwardly. Couldn't it have happened when she first got to school? Now, in the middle of the hallway, there was no way her appearing out of nowhere wouldn't cause some sort of scene.

She looked around even more frantically this time and noticed a closet door a little ways from her. Perfect.

Only problem. That little ways happened to be right across the crowded hallway. She could almost picture the path getting longer in front of her.

Come on Madison, she told herself. You can do this.

Could she? She could always just wait until the bell rang and the hallway cleared. But then she might miss Travis. He always came through this hallway since his locker was right around the corner. Not that she was spying on him or anything, she just happened to notice it one time. Gah! Why was she even thinking about that right now?

Madison watched carefully. There were plenty of openings for her, but she would have to be constantly moving in order to dodge everyone. Should she wait just in case it did thin out? No, the bell could ring any second and she would miss Travis for sure. She had to go now.

Just go, she told herself and took a single step forward. Nothing happened so she took another and then another, practically inching her way across the hallway. And no one had bumped her yet.

She nearly smiled in relief until some kid carrying a large stack of books came dashing right for her. She yelped and ducked aside but wasn't quite fast enough, his foot snagging against hers and sending them both sprawling across the ground.

Madison managed to pick herself up rather quickly but the other kid had it worse, his stack of books now all over the floor while he lay there groaning.

"Hey watch it!" a kid snapped.

"Yeah, loser!"

Madison winced, knowing it was her fault. She wanted to stay and help, but what could she do? If people saw books rising up with no one to hold them, they'd think it was something straight out of the Poltergeist films her father watched when he was pretending to work.

As she got back up, she looked down at her hands and almost screamed. They were back. Her hands had completely reappeared. Right in the middle of the hallway where anyone would see them.

Without even thinking, she rushed right for the closet, pushing past a couple people until she slammed into the door, opening it and shutting it firmly behind her.

She stood there, standing and shaking, before the adrenaline faded and she slid down until she hit the ground. She felt like crying right now. This was all way too much for her to handle. But she couldn't freak out right now. Travis could come by at any second.

Slowly, she opened the door a crack. Fortunately, it seemed no one had noticed her rushing into the closet. She let out a pent up breath before looking more carefully. Travis should be walking by any second. She just had to stay calm and wait.

"Let me get this straight. You've had ten whole pancakes with extra syrup, a big slice of my mom's banana bread along with five scrambled eggs and two pieces of toast, and several muffins from the school cafeteria, and you're still hungry?"

Travis's stomach let off a loud growl, answering Franklin's question for him.

"I can't help it," Travis grumbled. "Whenever I run now, I burn so much more energy."

"Then maybe you shouldn't have run so much this morning."

"But it's so much fun! Come on, if you could move as I can now you'd be zipping all over town. Which actually gives me an idea."

Franklin blinked and his friend was gone. Then, a second later, there was a strong gust of wind and he was back, this time with a large bag of Dorito chips in hand. "Problem solved," Travis said through a mouthful of chips.

Franklin sighed. "You do realize that you just burned even more energy, right?"

"So? I got these chips now, so it's all good."

Franklin was seriously starting to regret his decision to become friends with Travis. He was one of the most energetic person he'd ever met before he got super-speed. Now he was like a puppy dog on caffeine, dashing off at any random second to check something out or look at something or find something new to eat.

"Man, I don't know how I'm going to make it through today," Travis mumbled, looking up at the school walls as they walked up. "Maybe we should just skip?"

"You can go right ahead but I'm staying."

"Oh come on, you're saying you'd rather spend all day sitting and learning then go out and really test what you can do?"

Franklin stopped. Truthfully, yes, he definitely would rather skip school and go test out his powers. His dad would flip about this, writing notes and gauging how strong Franklin was now. He was tempted to grab that trash can and crumple it up, just to see if he could.

But…

"What about our parents, man? If my mom finds out I ditched school, she'd freak and want to know why. And I've never been great at lying to her. Come on, you'll know you'll get in trouble."

"Not really," Travis shrugged. "My parents barely notice me as it is. I'd be surprised if they even found out."

Franklin blinked, not sure how to respond to that. He'd gotten a few hints that Travis's life at home wasn't great but he didn't think it would be like that. His mom was always interested in his and his sister's lives.

"Whatever, let's just go. And stop looking at me like that," Travis said behind him as he walked into the school. "I don't need your pity, man. There are plenty of people out there who have it way worse than me, so I won't complain."

"Right, sorry."

"Besides, I'm going to take this as an opportunity."

"Opportunity for what?"

"Well, if I got superpowers, and you got superpowers, then it stands to reason that other people did as well. So, might as well start here and see if we can find people acting strangely."

They both stared at the packed hallway with kids running around, shouting and shoving each other, and genuinely acting like a riot mob.

"Though in all fairness, that might be a little difficult here," Travis admitted.

"You really think other people got powers too?" Franklin asked as they walked down the hall.

"It stands to reason. I mean, we both got them and I don't think it's because we're huge comic book nerds. The only other similarity is that we're about the same age. Maybe whoever sent these powers is picking kids. Or it's completely random and we just happened to get them. Either way, it's still worth checking out. We just need to keep our eyes peeled and- ah!"

Franklin blinked as Travis seemed to be yanked into the nearby closet. Except, nothing yanked him, it looking more like he somehow stumbled backwards into the closet at a very fast pace. Franklin slowly walked over and gently knocked on the door. "Hey buddy, you ok in there?"

"Uh…not sure. One sec."

Franklin frowned, hearing hushed voices coming from within. Was someone else in there with Travis? Was that why it looked like he'd been grabbed? But, why couldn't Franklin see them?

A few seconds later, the door opened slightly and Travis's head popped out. "Hey man, get in here. There's something you gotta see. Or, not see, really."

"What?"

"Trust me, come on."

"Dude, I'm not walking into a random closet with you in the middle of a packed hallway. I don't want any rumors starting."

Travis frowned and then blinked. "Well first of all, you would be so lucky. And second, just…I don't know, come halfway in or something. But you have to see this."

Franklin sighed before nodding and opening the door further. He then wedged himself halfway through with one foot inside and the other still in the hall. Not perfect but it would do. He just hoped what he 'had' to see really was important.

What he saw was…nothing.

"I don't see anything."

"Exactly!" Travis grinned.

"Why is he here?"

"Gah!" Franklin gasped, nearly leaping out of his skin at the sound of the voice. "What the hell? There's someone in here?"

There came a soft groan and then two hands floated through the air and seemed to cup something. If Franklin had to guess, it would be the face that went along with the hands. Except…there was no face.

"Oh…" he blinked, getting it now. "You're invisible."

"Yeah," Travis nodded. "That is so cool."

"No it's not!" the invisible person snapped. "None of this is cool. Not a single part of this is cool! How is any of this cool? Tell me!"

Travis took a step back, holding up his hands. "Ok, not cool, definitely not cool for you. Sorry."

"So you have powers too?" Franklin asked.

The hands suddenly lowered and Franklin could practically feel the person's gaze on him. "What do you mean, too?"

Travis's grin reappeared. "We have superpowers as well."

Franklin quickly explained the ball of light that had hit them last night. "I'm guessing the same thing happened to you."

There was a second of silence before the person said, "yeah. Sorry, I nodded but that's pointless since you can't see me because…I'm…invisible."

The floating hands suddenly dropped to the ground as Franklin heard a thump. Then he heard the unmistakable sounds of someone crying.

"I don't why this is happening," the person sobbed. "I keep wanting it to be some screwed up dream or something but it's obviously not. I can't even see my own body now. I…I just want it to go back to normal."

Franklin opened his mouth but he had absolutely no idea what to say. Judging from Travis's gaping expression, neither did he.

"Madison," Travis started. "I'm…I'm sorry. You're right. This can be…scary for you. I guess I was so excited about getting my powers, I didn't realize."

"Excited?" she questioned. "Seriously? What is exciting about this?"

"Um…not important. Look…is this the first time you turned invisible?"

"No," the girl sobbed. "I did it this morning too."

"Ok, well, how did you transform back?"

"I don't know!" she practically wailed.

Travis grimaced and then looked over at Franklin, practically pleading for help. Franklin winced, not sure what to do. He didn't even really know who this person was. Her name sounded vaguely familiar. He thought back. Madison…Madison…

Oh right, the girl at the lunch table yesterday. The really shy one. They hadn't talked much, barely at all. The only thing he could recall about her was that she liked computers. But that wouldn't be able to help right now.

Or would it?

He remembered his therapist had once asked him why he liked comic books so much, to explain it. Doing that had helped him deal with…things. Just talking.

"Hey Madison," he said. "Why do you like computers so much?"

"Huh?" he heard her ask. "What does that-"

"Just humor me," he said. "Why are you into them?" He saw Travis giving him a weird look, but he ignored it, focusing on the floating hands.

"Well, I guess because…they make sense. They're logical."

"Ok, in what way?"

"Well…first off, I'm not so much into computers as I am into computer programming. And when I'm doing it, it's like…everything makes sense. There's a specific program that makes the computer do what it's doing, an understandable reason. And when I write a program, I feel like I'm helping to…create something."

As she talked, Franklin noticed that her wrists had become visible. "Cool. Keep going."

So she continued, talking about coding and software and networks, all of which pretty much went over Franklin's head. But he still listened, letting her just talk. Her crying had stopped as she got into it and he could hear the love for it she had as she spoke. But what he most focused on was the way her invisibility began to fade across her body. He could now see her clothes (which was a relief as he was worried she could only turn her skin invisible) as well as parts of her hair. The outline of her face was now visible with more appearing every passing second.

"…so then I just bypassed the firewall. I had never done it before so it was a little scary. But it was also so…what?" she asked, seeing his and Travis's expressions.

"You're back," Franklin said.

"What?"

"You, you're back. You're not invisible," he clarified.

She gasped, looking down at her arms and legs, and then her whole body. She gasped even louder before crying again, though Franklin assumed they were happy tears this time.

"Thank you," she said.

"No problem. Just…if you start turning invisible again, focus on programming. Do what you did now and you should be fine."

Slowly, Madison stood back up and they all exited the closet. As they did, Franklin saw Travis throw him a thumbs-up.

"So, why don't we try and meet up after school," Travis suggested. "We can practice using our powers, get a grip on them, and also see if we can figure out how we got them in the first place."

"Can't, got football tryouts," Franklin said.

"Aw man, do you really?"

"Sorry," Franklin shrugged. Honestly, he didn't much care for it either but it would help him in the long run, so whatever.

"Alright, well sometime this afternoon then."

"I don't know," Madison said hesitantly. "This whole thing is…new for me."

"Well, yeah, I'd be surprised if it wasn't. That's why we need to practice. But we won't force you or anything. It's your choice. Here, let me give you my number."

"Wha- what?" Madison blinked and Franklin saw her blush a little. "Y-your number?"

"Yeah," Travis said. "That way, I can text you where we'll meet up and you can join us if you want to. Sound good?"

"Umm…"

"Great. Oh, hold up. No pen." Travis thought for a second and then he was gone. And then, just as fast, he was back with a pen in one hand and a piece of paper in the other with his number written on it. "There we go," he said, handing it over.

Madison took it wordlessly, just staring at him. "H-how did you…what? You m-moved so…"

"Yeah, like I said, we got powers too," Travis grinned. "I got superspeed. I'm basically the Flash now. Which is just so cool! Best day ever. For me, not for you since…" he trailed off.

Smooth, Franklin thought.

"So anyway, if you think you need more help, come on over and we'll all practice together. But if you think you got this, no pressure."

"Um, ok then. Thanks," Madison said. "I should probably get to class then."

"Remember," Franklin said as she turned to walk away. "If you start turning invisible again, just focus on programming. That feeling you have when you do it. You should be fine then."

Madison still looked nervous but she gave him a small smile before walking off. Franklin hoped she would be ok. Even with that way out, her powers might still flare up suddenly. They could do anything. She could turn her desk invisible or even other people. That's why he agreed with Travis on the training. No matter what, they had to understand what these powers were and what they could do. And, most importantly, where they came from.

He reached his locker while Travis kept going on. "So where should we meet. Can't be at either of our houses for obvious reasons. And the park is too public. So's the mall. I think there might be some areas in the south part of the city that could work. Hmmm…let me check them out real quick."

Franklin sighed as he zoomed away, putting in his combination to open the locker. A few seconds later, Travis reappeared, his hair now even messier. "Yeah, they could work."

"Yippee," Franklin muttered. He frowned as he pulled on the locker door but it wouldn't budge. He input the combination again and it still wouldn't work. "What the hell?" He braced himself and then yanked hard and…

…ripped the door right off its hinges.

He stood there, the locker door in his hand, Travis gaping beside him. It hadn't even been that hard to do. It felt like ripping paper.

"Ummm…I think you opened it too hard man."

"No shit."