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“Chicken?” Zack teased her.
“I think you’re stupid for messing around with this,” April said heatedly. “It isn’t a toy, you
know. You don’t know anything about it. You don’t know what it really does to your body.”
“I feel fine!” Zack told her, and pounded his chest with both hands like a gorilla to prove it. He
glanced at the dark mirror. “I’m ready to go back—even longer.”
“I want to get invisible and go outside and play tricks on people,” Lefty said enthusiastically.
“Can I go next, Max?”
“I—I don’t think so….”
I was thinking about what April had said. We really were messing around with something that
could be dangerous, something we didn’t know anything about.
“Max has to go again,” Zack said, slapping me hard on the back, nearly sending me sprawling
against the mirror. “To beat my record.” He grinned at me. “Unless you’re chicken, too.”
“I’m not chicken!” I insisted. “I just think—”
“You’re chicken,” Zack accused, laughing scornfully. He started clucking loudly, flapping his
arms like a chicken.
“I’m not chicken. Let me go,” Lefty pleaded. “I can break Zack’s record.”
“It’s my turn,” Erin insisted. “You guys have all had turns. I haven’t gone once yet!”
“Okay,” I said with a shrug. “You go first, Erin. Then me.” I was glad Erin was so eager to do it.
I really didn’t feel like getting invisible again just yet.
To be honest, I felt very fluttery and nervous.
“Me next!” Lefty insisted. “Me next! Me next!” He started chanting the words over and over.
I clamped my hand over his mouth. “Maybe we should all go downstairs,” I suggested.
“Chicken?” Zack teased. “You’re chickening out?”
“I don’t know, Zack,” I replied honestly. “I think—” I saw Erin staring at me. Was that
disappointment on her face? Did Erin think I was a chicken, too?
“Okay,” I said. “Go ahead, Erin. You go. Then I’ll go. Then Lefty. We’ll all beat Zack’s record.”
Erin and Lefty clapped. April groaned and rolled her eyes. Zack grinned.
It’s no big deal, I told myself. I’ve done it three times already. It’s perfectly painless. And if you
just stay cool and wait patiently, you come right back the way you were.
“Does anyone have a watch?” Erin asked. “We need to keep time so I know what time I have to
beat.”
I could see that Erin was really into this competition.
Lefty seemed really excited, too. And of course Zack would compete in anything.
Only April was unhappy about the whole thing. She walked silently to the back of the room and
sat down on the floor with her back against the wall, her arms folded over her knees.
“Hey, you’re the only one with a watch,” Erin called to April. “So you be the timer, okay?”
April nodded without enthusiasm. She raised her wrist and stared down at her watch. “Okay. Get
ready.”
Erin took a deep breath and stepped up to the mirror. She closed her eyes, reached up, and
tugged the light chain.
The light came on with a bright flash. Erin disappeared.