Out of Sight (8 page)

“There you are,” a voice suddenly announced, and Sophie spun around in time to see Melissa Tait standing next to the sofa. She looked as pristinely perfect as ever, with her blonde hair hanging down over one shoulder in a complicated French braid that Sophie could never hope to manage.

The floating boots immediately fell to the carpet with a soft thud, closely followed by the dress. Sophie felt her cheeks start to blaze; getting caught using magic by her arch-nemesis wasn't exactly the smartest move she'd ever made.

“M-melissa,” she stammered as the buzzing sensation in her veins finally started to die away. “You're probably wondering what I'm doing with the”—
floating dress and the flying shoes?
—“outfit,” she finished lamely.

“Well, for a start, I can see that you're about to make a major fashion faux pas,” Melissa retorted, casting a telling eye over the dress and boots that were lying in a heap on the carpet. “I mean, the boots are cute, but the floral dress is so out of fashion that it might as well have a Myspace account. Please tell me that you're not going to wear it to my parents' anniversary party.”

“Of course not. I mean, no. Definitely not,” Sophie said in a rush, relieved that Melissa hadn't seemed to have noticed the little display of magic. She made a mental note always to check that the door was locked before doing anything like that again. Then she frowned as she remembered that she had locked the door when Mr. Rivers had left. “And by the way, how did you get in?”

“Key.” Melissa held it up. “Mr. Rivers is letting me use his place to sort through and scan my parents' old photographs for the party. We're going to get some blown up and framed, plus make a video montage of them,” she explained, walking over to an antique-looking dresser and pulling out a large cardboard box and a very pink laptop that she had obviously left here on her last visit. “Anyway, I'm glad you're here. I need to talk to you.”

“Oh.” Sophie's stomach plummeted as she remembered that she'd spent the better part of yesterday and today making herself invisible just to avoid this very conversation. Would it be very wrong to disappear right now? However, she didn't even bother to answer her own question. Instead, she took a deep breath. She might as well get this over and done with right now. “Look, Melissa, about those books on the Roman Empire, the thing is that—”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Melissa held up a hand so that Sophie could see her perfectly manicured fingers, complete with purple nail polish. “I should've texted Jonathan back to say thank you. Don't worry. My precious brother has already flipped out at me about it. Not that I did it on purpose, it was just that as soon as I got the books, I bumped into Ben, and—”

“Hang on a moment.” Sophie narrowed her eyes as she tried to process what the other girl was saying. “Do you mean that you actually got the books?”

“Well, yeah.” Melissa gave a slight tilt of her head. “And I got the assignment done, too, which, according to Jonathan, was all because of you. No offense, but that isn't completely true—you weren't the one who had to miss
Vampire Diaries
to do it.”

“Riiight.” Sophie was still trying to get used to the fact that Melissa wasn't actually mad at her.

“So then Jonathan flipped out some more when I told him that I didn't apologize to you at school. Which is so unfair when I did actually wait at your stupid locker for ages, but it was like you had disappeared off the face of the earth. Plus, it's not my fault that you're such a freak that you don't even own a cell phone. I mean, seriously, what's that all about?”

“Trust me, it's not my idea,” Sophie assured her, not bothering to point out that calling someone a freak wasn't always the best way to apologize. Then she narrowed her eyes and studied Melissa's perfect face. “So let me get this straight, you've been trying to say you're sorry to me because Jonathan asked you to?”

“We are twins,” Melissa reminded her before reluctantly adding, “Okay, and so the other reason is that we're supposed to be doing a speech together for the anniversary party, and Jonathan refused to do it unless I said I was sorry.”

“Right,” Sophie said again in an uncertain voice. This wouldn't have been the first time that she'd misinterpreted something Melissa had said to her. However, instead of rolling her eyes, Melissa seemed to be...
smiling
. “Er, well, I guess that's great. Apology accepted.”

“Thanks. Oh, and don't forget to tell Jonathan that I've done it,” Melissa reminded her in a sharp voice. “Anyway, I'd better get to work on these photographs. I want to get them finished before Ryan decides to set fire to them or something. Wouldn't put it past the evil little so-and-so.”

“You're going to stay here?” Sophie asked in surprise. “If Mr. Rivers lets you use his place, and you knew you had to do some work over here, why aren't you the one babysitting Ryan?”

“Are you serious? That kid is vile. No offense, but there isn't enough money in the world to tempt me to look after him. Yesterday he was throwing marbles at me over the fence, and he didn't stop until I threatened to have my mom run over his skateboard with her SUV.”

“Snap. He was throwing marbles at me, too, until I hid them all from him,” Sophie said, not bothering to add that she'd used her magic to do so.

“You did? Nice. I didn't think you had it in you.” Melissa nodded her head in approval as she smiled. Then Sophie blinked. Had she somehow ended up in an alternate universe or something? Melissa Tait was smiling at her. Maybe it was another djinn thing that Malik had forgotten to mention? But before she could figure it out Melissa coughed. “Actually, if you're not doing anything, you could help me sort through these photographs. It's such a nightmare, and of course they didn't have digital cameras back then, so everything needs to be scanned in. It's prehistoric.”

“Er, sure.” Sophie cautiously nodded her head. She had no idea why Melissa was suddenly being so nice to her, but, like everyone at Robert Robertson Middle School knew, it was better to have Melissa as a friend than as an enemy.

A
RE YOU SURE THAT YOU'RE FEELING OKAY?” HARVEY
asked on Thursday afternoon as they crowded into Sophie's bedroom. The minute they shut the door behind them, Sophie conjured up a packet of Oreos and three cans of Diet Coke, while making a mental note to hide the trash from her mom.

“Yeah, because I've heard that prolonged exposure to Melissa Tait can make you break out in hives,” Kara chimed in from where she was sitting cross-legged on Sophie's yellow-and-white comforter, hugging a shopping bag to her chest.

“I'm talking about whether Sophie's had any after-effects from all the flying she did yesterday,” Harvey corrected her as he reached for a cookie and started to pull it apart, which was his preferred way of eating them.

“And I'm talking about the fact that Melissa can't be trusted, so if she was nice to Sophie, then it was for a reason. Oh, and did you see her today at school? All that smiling and waving? Something's definitely going on.” Kara folded her arms and poked out her lower lip.

“Guys, nothing's going on, and weirdly enough, Melissa was actually being quite nice,” Sophie assured them while letting out a silent groan. Despite the fact that she had already explained what had happened at Mr. Rivers's house yesterday afternoon, her friends had been quizzing her about it all day. Which was why Sophie didn't bother to add that she'd actually enjoyed looking at the wedding photographs. It was obvious where Melissa got her fashion sense from, since her mom had been wearing an amazing ivory silk dress that nipped into a tiny waist and had about a zillion tiny beads sewn onto the bodice.

It had taken almost an hour to sort through everything, and once they were finished, Melissa had let her look at a bunch of photos from various family vacations. Sophie had immediately honed in on Jonathan, though she couldn't help but notice how normal Melissa looked in them. There were even a couple where she was making a face, which was pretty funny.

Jonathan was always telling her that his twin sister wasn't so bad, and while Sophie had wanted to believe him, Melissa's personality had always gotten in the way. But after yesterday she was starting to wonder if he had a point. Then she caught sight of Kara's face and realized that no matter what she might think, she wasn't going to change her friend's mind anytime soon.

“But enough about me, I want to see what you got at the mall yesterday afternoon. You're going to look so amazing when you go to the movies. Patrick won't know what hit him.”

“Actually”—Kara bowed her head and started to fiddle with the shopping bag in her lap—“I'm not sure I'm going to go.”

“What?” Sophie shot her friend a perplexed look; it was like Kara had turned into a different person since Patrick had asked her out. “What are you talking about? I thought we discussed this. I mean, you like him and he likes you. Am I missing something?”

Kara didn't answer, and finally Harvey let out a sigh. “Kara had an ‘incident' yesterday at the mall,” he explained. “Her mom had gone to pick up some dry cleaning, and while she was away, Kara saw Patrick in the food court.”

“You did? What happened? Why didn't you tell me about it today at school?”

“I think she was too traumatized. Apparently, it was another
mwhooahwwh
moment,” Harvey said.

“It was way worse than what happened the other day.” Kara let out a wail, her cheeks both bright red. “It was awful. I was completely incapable of speech. There might even have been some snorting.”

“I'm sure it wasn't that bad,” Sophie instantly reassured her. “Besides, I've known you forever, and I've never heard you snort. Not even when we all went to see
Shrek
and laughed our butts off.”

“Okay, so maybe there wasn't snorting,” Kara conceded. “But there was definitely moronic muteness. It's hopeless. I can't go to the movies with him if I can't even talk to him. Why is this so hard for me? I feel like my brain has been taken over by aliens.”

Honestly, Sophie had no idea. Sure, she got nervous when she spoke to Jonathan but never at the expense of her vocal chords. However, there was no way she was going to tell Kara this. Instead, she gave her friend a reassuring smile.

“Of course it's not hopeless. And this is something we can fix. You just need to start talking about stuff he's interested in. That will give you time to relax instead of freezing up. We can work out a list of discussion topics. It will be like an assignment!”

“But I don't know what he's interested in because I can never get the words out to ask him. I told you, it's hopeless.” Kara's bottom lip was wobbling now, and Harvey inched back a bit, obviously worried that tears might be next.

“Oh.” Sophie paused for a moment before widening her eyes. “I've got it! What if tomorrow at lunchtime I turn myself invisible and follow Patrick around? Then I can see what he does and what he talks about. I could even find out what library books he's reading. Then we can work on a list for you.”

Kara was silent for a moment before she slowly nodded her head. “Then, even if I freaked out while we were talking about one thing, I would have something else I could move on to.”

“Exactly.” Sophie grinned as she reached over and squeezed her friend's hand. Then she nodded at the shopping bags, which were the whole reason why they had arranged to meet at Sophie's house after school. “So am I finally going to see this outfit? The waiting is killing me.”

“I guess so.” Kara started to brighten as she reverently opened up the bag and pulled out a gorgeous pair of red skinny jeans and a black-and-white T-shirt with some kind of modern art painting on it. “And thanks. I feel loads better now.”

“Hey, that's what having a positive-thinking friend is all about,” Sophie said as she leaned over and inspected her friend's new clothes. Then she looked up and smiled. “These are gorgeous. You will look amazing. And if you like, you could borrow that black jacket of mine. It's in the closet if you want to take it home and try it out.”

“Are you serious?” Kara instantly jumped to her feet, hurried over to the closet, and started to rummage through it. “You know how much I love that jacket and...hey, where did you get this?”

“Get what?” Sophie stopped inspecting Kara's new T-shirt and looked up to where her friend was holding a turquoise-colored silky dress that nipped in at the waist before falling down to three inches above the knee. Looking at it again instantly made her smile, and she jumped to her feet. “Oh, yeah. Isn't it amazing? I was just about to show it to you. I conjured it up. Do you like it?”

“Um, yeah. I mean, it's gorgeous,” Kara agreed as she held it up so she could study it better. “But what's it for? I thought you had a new policy of not conjuring up more stuff than you needed in case your mom did a random closet inspection.”

“I'm going to wear it to the party,” Sophie explained as she took the dress from her friend so she could hold it against herself as she did several clumsy pirouettes around the room.

“The party?” Kara looked confused as she turned back to the closet and started to flick through the rack. “But what about your other outfit? I thought you'd decided on the floral skirt and the shrug that we saw at the mall the other day? You said you already zapped it up.”

“I had, and I really thought it was perfect.” Sophie stopped her twirling and sat back down on the bed, still lovingly clutching her new dress. “But then I realized that it made me look short.”

“You are short,” Harvey reminded her.

“Thanks, Sherlock.” Sophie rolled her eyes at him. “But the thing is that Melissa says that short girls should never wear floral dresses and shrugs. Apparently, it's some kind of designer golden rule. She said it would be perfect if I was as tall as Taylor Swift, but for someone my height, it would make me look even shorter. In fact, I can't believe I didn't realize it sooner. Anyway, she pulled a copy of
Girl2day
out of her purse and suggested I try something like this, so I did and you know what? She was so right. Can you believe it?”

“Not really,” Kara admitted. “You loved that outfit. You said it was amazing.”

“Yes, but it was
short
amazing. This new dress is
tall
amazing,” Sophie explained. Besides, it was all right for Kara, who looked fantastic in whatever she wore, but when you were height challenged like Sophie was, it wasn't quite so simple. In fact, when Sophie had first become a djinn, she had actually tried to make herself taller, before Malik told her that she could try all she wanted but it wouldn't make a difference. The best she could do was to create an illusion of tallness, and that wouldn't be happening for another three hundred years at least. Which was why, when she found a dress that gave her the appearance of an extra inch, she was going to take it.

But despite this, Kara's lips still pursed, which was odd since, apart from the occasional burst of stubbornness, Kara was never normally prickly. Sophie narrowed her eyes. “Is this because Melissa helped me choose it?”

“Of course not.” Kara shook her head and let out a sigh. “Okay, maybe. Ignore me, I just wish that you had been hanging with me when Patrick had turned up rather than talking about clothes with Melissa Tait.”

“I told you, the only reason I was there was because my mom made me babysit. I would've much rather been at the mall with you,” Sophie assured her friend before shooting her a hopeful look. “So are we cool?”

“Of course we are.” Kara instantly gave a watery sniff. “I was just being a doofus.”

“No, you weren't. If anyone was being a doofus, I was,” Sophie countered.

“Well, personally, I think the pair of you are pretty doofy to be worried over a dress,” Harvey pointed out, but before either of the girls could comment Malik appeared in the middle of the room. Today he was wearing a black T-shirt and gray trousers, and his Zac-like hair was spiked up like a hedgehog.

But Sophie hardly noticed. Instead, her heart started to hammer in her chest as she jumped to her feet, causing the turquoise dress to fall into a heap on the floor. She ignored it as she clutched her hands together and stared at him.

“So? How did it go? Did you find anything out?”

“Oh, yes, I most certainly did,” Malik announced as he made his way over to Sophie's bookshelf and produced a packet of M&M's from behind her collection of books on positive thinking. “And I would've told you about it sooner if I could've found you. I mean, seriously, I was looking everywhere for you yesterday. I even tried the school auditorium, and you have no idea how much of a racket they were making in there. Where have you been?”

“I was babysitting at Mr. Rivers's house, but I was home by six.”

“Mr. Rivers's house?” Malik was immediately distracted as he paused from ripping open the M&M's with his teeth. “As in the basement where I was stuck in an ugly red vase for what seemed like an eternity? That place is evil.”

“That's exactly what we tried to tell her,” Harvey added.

“
And
she had to spend all afternoon with Melissa ‘she thinks she's so great' Tait,” Kara chimed in.

“Look, like I told Kara and Harvey, Mr. Rivers is fine. He's actually been really kind to my mom lately, especially with her pottery business.”