I try to return her racket

but she tells me to keep it

and to keep practicing

she moves to the next court

to help some other girls

who glance at

me curiously

Annie and I smile at the bright yellow

neon racket with a red P

in the middle all the way home

the tennis racket is my

face it is no longer

invisible

I don’t tell my mom about

the bubble though

it’s my secret

for

now

Watching

I suddenly feel stronger

I suddenly feel like I can

do anything

almost anything

I decide to watch Clara

every day really carefully

to try and never

take my eyes off her

I decide to design

a science experiment

I start taking notes in my

notebook I count

the number of

hairs in her books

sometimes in places

where Nancy Drew is being

chased or there’s danger

I see more bits of hair

I also learn Clara eats

a lot of Cheetos

she drinks

a lot of orange juice and

doesn’t dilute it with water like she’s

supposed to

sometimes she also

picks her nose and wipes her

finger on her books

I write down the names of those

books so I won’t ever

read them

I watch her day and

night and

fill up my

notebook

with ideas

Three Theories

After weeks of looking and

writing I begin to

notice how often

Clara scratches her head

I jot down the

number of times she touches her head

I’m up to seven times in an hour

she doesn’t really notice me anymore

as I pretend to draw pictures

my head begins to spin with ideas

maybe her head is itchy so she

scratches and her hair falls out

but I wonder what makes

her head

itchy

I have three theories

I draw three arrows and write

shampoo shrimp Cheetos

how can I figure out which one is

causing her head to itch

I am committed to

this mystery

if I solve it

my false will become

true my invisible

will become

visible

Experiments

On the first day I empty out my

sister’s shampoo bottle fill it

with water add lemon add honey for

thickness add mint

I like the new shampoo

Clara tells my mom

but she still scratches her head

seven times an hour

on the second day

I tell my mom that Clara

wants her to make our favorite sweet-

and-sour shrimp for dinner

I watch Clara eat it

I even let her

have the last one

but after

she still scratches her head

the same number of times an hour

on the last day I take all the Cheetos

out of the house and throw

them into the trash

my sister doesn’t

notice and eats

Fritos instead

I watch her and take

notes but still seven times an hour

I’m disappointed my experiments

don’t work

I’m back to

square

one

Library

I eat lunch

in the library at school most

of the time

because the cafeteria is so loud