The Invisible Day Read Online Free PDF Page B

for every rude thing I’d ever said to her.
    And what if I do come back? I wouldn’t be able to tell her what happened. It would be a secret from her forever. My mother wouldn’t really see all of me from then on. My life would be more and more away from her as I got older. And what about her? Do I ever see her? Or is she invisible because she’s just my mom? I was feeling dizzy from all this thinking. I admit, my eyes got hot and my nose was stinging, I was trying so hard not to cry.
    I put my palms flat across my eyes and breathed slowly. I suppose if I waited longenough, the powder would wear off, but how long would it be? There must be a solution. I would go and get Hubert. Together we would find a cure! I would get the antidote for my condition. Like an explorer in the jungle with a snakebite.
    I opened my eyes and caught my breath. Alyssa was leaning against the table. She slammed down a stack of books about China. She pulled out a chair with a scraping sound, dropping my backpack, as well as her own, onto the floor between us. She sat next to me with a thump.
    My mother turned around and shot her a warning glare. Alyssa made a snooty face behind her back. I had to sit on my hands so I wouldn’t smack her. Then she flipped open the top-most book and started to write on her notepad. She looked back and forth between her page and the book and kept steadily writing. It took only a minute to figure out thatshe was copying, word for word, everything in the book. I could tell she wasn’t even reading the words. She probably didn’t know what she’d just written.

    Suddenly I was determined to get revenge.
    I couldn’t wait to tell Hubert, but I was trapped by Alyssa and her pile of books. I satthere, as quietly as I could, trying to come up with a plan. This was one bad guy I intended to catch!
    The bell rang in the distance of stairs and corridors. My mother ushered the little kids into the hallway. Jane held on for an extra minute, but my mother managed to peel her arms away and send her off with the others.
    Hubert poked his nose around the corner. He was coming to look for me. I tried to think how I could let him know I was there. He saw my pack at the same moment that he saw Alyssa. She looked at him with disdain.
    “Excuse me, Bertie,” she sneered. “I just have to reshelve these books on China.” She stood up and pushed past him. I quickly leaned over and poked his shoulder.
    “Aah!” he cried.
    “What?” Alyssa stopped to stare at him.
    “You did a very bad thing,” said Hubert. He was showing me he could stand up for himself.
    “You did a very bad thing,” mimickedAlyssa. “Ooooh. You scare me. What are you going to do to me, Bertie? Blow a bubble in my face?” She fake-laughed over to the card file.
    My mother chose that moment to come around the stacks.
    “Alyssa Morgan, I’ve had enough of your noise today. Hubert, is everything all right?”
    “Sure.” His eyes skipped around the library, wanting to warn me, but my mother had spotted my backpack.
    “Isn’t that Billie’s?” she asked, picking it up. It couldn’t be anyone else’s. Not with a huge STONER in liquid-gold marker on the back pocket and twelve keychains hanging from the zipper.
    “Uh, yeah.”
    “Hey,” interrupted Alyssa. “I was looking after that for Billie.” She stepped closer and reached past Hubert for it.
    “I haven’t seen anything of Billie today,” said my mother in that jolly voice she uses when she thinks she’s missing something. Shewas still holding on to the backpack. My key-chain collection jingled slightly.
    “I haven’t seen much of her myself,” said Hubert. I wanted to kick him. “But I’ll take her pack, Ms. Stoner. I’ll be seeing her any minute.”
    “You haven’t seen her,” said Alyssa to my mother, “because she’s not here. She hasn’t been here all day.”

11 • Phone Call
    I didn’t wait to see what my mother’s face looked like. I was out the door before my next