The Cloak Guard

Superpowers, Part 2

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 wanted to wait until the bell rang and the hallway cleared but her fingers were reappearing now. She didn't have time to waste. She watched carefully, seeing there were plenty of openings for her, but she would have to be constantly moving in order to dodge everyone.

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.