Chapter 1

"Sam? Would you put the equipment away?" Mr. Dresden asked.

I didn't mind that my science teacher asked me to put away the lab equipment all the time because I enjoyed doing it. I didn't even mind going late to lunch. I was a loner so I ate in only ten minutes and still had the rest of the lunch period to kill before the next class.

I carefully placed each Bunsen burner on the shelf. I put away all the unused test tubes to be used for future classes. I put the bottles of solution on the cabinets. We just used them to demonstrate certain chemical reactions. This little storeroom was a marvel of different science stuff. I often spent extra time quietly looking at other things in the room.

A loud rumble caused me to jump. What was that? The tall cabinets shook. A box of test tubes vibrated off the edge. I caught the box before it hit the floor and sent broken glass everywhere.

Earthquake! This was the strongest quake I ever felt in my 15 years of life. I turned around in circles unsure of what to do.

A cabinet fell. I put my arm up reflexively, but the weight knocked me to the ground. A second cabinet tumbled forward onto the cabinet already on top of me. The lights went out. The windowless room was pitch black.

The shaking stopped.

I groaned. I was on my left side trapped under two heavy cabinets. Chemicals, broken glass, igniter substances, and other things coated and covered me. My right arm hurt painfully and so did my right ankle.

I pushed up but to no avail. It was too heavy.

The lights came on, flickered off, and stayed on. I was still mostly in the dark underneath the cabinets. My clothing was wet from the solutions which seeped through and were directly on my skin now. I could feel the glass coating of broken test tubes all over my body. I wondered if my ankle was broken. It hurt.

"Mr. Dresden?" I said.

No answer.

"Help?" I ventured. My shoulder hurt now. It distracted me from calling out loudly.

I wondered how long it would take to find and rescue me. Was Mr. Dresden still there? Was he hurt too?

If only I could be invisible I could pass right through the cabinets and escape my trap.

My pain lessened and the cabinets didn't feel as heavy. I could move my legs. Had the cabinets shifted? I pushed up with my right hand and felt no resistance. What the hell? I turned my head. Most of my arm was missing! Frantically I pulled my arm back. There was my entire arm. What the crap?

I tentatively pushed at the cabinet and my arm passed through it. What was going on? I slowly, very slowly, sat up. My shoulder intersected the cabinet. I apprehensively put my head against the cabinet. It went through!

I sat up. My body was integrated with the two cabinets. It was freaky. I slowly stood up on my feet in the middle of the two fallen cabinets. I walked out until my feet were on the floor. The storage room door swung partly closed during the quake. I reached for the doorknob but my hand went straight through it. I tried to grab things but couldn't.

Okay, I had a big problem. I didn't want to be like this. Getting out from underneath a cabinet was a good thing but not being able to touch anything was a very bad thing. How could I live like this? If only I wasn't invisible.

The door opened abruptly and slammed into me.

"Are you okay, Sam?" Mr. Dresden yelled in.

Hey! That hit me! I was visible again!

"Yeah," I said, stepping out from behind the door. "The cabinets fell on me but I'm okay." My body didn't hurt now. The pressure from being underneath must have caused the pain.

"You were underneath that?"

"Yeah." Why did he sound like he didn't believe me?

"The quake was loud but not that strong. I've been asking forever to get those cabinets bolted to the wall. I'm glad you weren't hurt."

"I'm fine," I said though I knew something was wrong. How did I move through the cabinets? Would it happen again? I was scared.

"I'll walk you over to the nurse."

"I'm okay." I just wanted to go home, get out of these clothes, and shower.

"Let's see the nurse," Mr. Dresden insisted.

We passed through the center of the lunch courtyard to get to the nurse's office. Most of the students already thought I was a nerd just because I was a good student and actually liked school except for P.E. I was too scrawny so I was often teased in the locker room. Students saw me soaked in science solutions and covered in broken test tube glass. It added fuel to their usual derision of me. I saw their pointing fingers and their mocking laughs. It was from both boys and girls. School would be awesome if it weren't for the other kids. Even some freshmen teased me and I was a 15-year old sophomore now.