Darcy stared up at him. Angry voices and yelling intimidated her, after years of her screaming parents. She understood the currency of high school years, of groups forming ranks in a pecking order, and knew she was near the bottom. Many of her classmates treated her as though she didn't exist, and most adults used their age or authority to pull rank.

She repeated the lessons the guidance counselor taught the kids in the anti-bullying classes about speaking calmly and truthfully and took two breaths. "No one sent me...I see you on the bus alone all the time...I wanted to say hello. But you'd rather be left to yourself." The flap made her forget she had his book. "Good-bye."

She stalked to her locker and opened it. He came up behind her.

"I know she sent you. I know". His voice trembled, and she didn't know who she was that frightened him so. He held her gaze with green eyes. "I will do what I must to protect myself and my world."

"Hunh?" Just your luck, you got a crush on a nut. Probably spends half the day on video games. No wonder he is always alone, Darcy thought, He's a total nut. Now how do I get rid of him? She put her jacket in her locker, took her English notebook out, shoved it in her bookbag and zipped it. His book was deep in her bag. "I'm going to be late for class. Don't follow me."

"Daaarcy, talking to yourself?" Mea Ainsley snickered and her younger sister, Lea grinned with all her perfect white teeth. They were mean girls, safe from punishment because their mother was on the school board and head of the PTA.

"No, I was talking to that strange boy I was sitting next to. On the bus."

Mea lifted one eyebrow. She shook her head. "You're imagining things, Daaaaarcy. No one sat next to you."

"There was a boy sitting next to me!" Darcy yelped. "He--" She looked around, but the boy had vanished. You shouldn't be able to see me, echoed in her mind. "Where'd he go?" She spotted him running for the front doors. "Oh, there he is." She pointed. "Running out the front door."

Mea glanced at the doors, shaking her head slowly. She sighed. "There's no boy going out. Just a couple of freshmen girls coming in." She rolled her eyes. "You are weird, girl."

"Absolutely," said Lea. The sisters walked to their lockers, snickering and looking back at her. They joined the Norton brothers. Mea nudged Don and whispered something to him. He looked over his shoulder at her. Darcy wanted to crawl in her locker and shut the door. He shook his head and continued to class. He was too much the politician to make fun of a voter.

She just knew a story about her talking to an invisible boy would get around. He was there, Darcy knew it. She smelled his aftershave, and she had his book. His book?

Darcy groaned. I forget to give him his book. He's probably trying to catch the bus before it leaves. She went to the door and saw the boy racing down the driveway, chasing their bus as it left the schoolyard. She wondered how vital the book was if he wanted it back that badly.

After a moment she returned to her locker and wrote a message on a sheet from her English notebook. I just wanted to return the book you left on the bus. I'll be in the library third period if you come there. I don't want any trouble. If I don't see you, I'll give it to you on the bus this afternoon. Darcy.

She folded it, wrote 'Invisible Boy' with scooter, folded it, and stuck it in the grid of her locker. Maybe he'd find it and come get his book. Or she'd see him this afternoon and return it. She thought for a moment and took the note out. She tore it up and wrote another. I just wanted to return the book you left on the bus. I'll be in the library third period. If I don't see you, I'll leave the book at Lost and Found in the front office. I really don't want to see or talk to you again.

That last was a bit mean, but Darcy meant to be clear. She added a postscript, On the bus or in school. She slipped the note into the grill, thinking he might look for her there, and she'd have nothing more to do with him.

The warning bell rang. She hurried down the hall and up the stairs to her first class, Algebra II.