Knowing he had a little bit of time before his family woke up, Oliver turned from the window and went to his suitcase. He opened it up and looked inside at all the cogs and wires and levers and buttons hed collected for his inventions. He smiled to himself as he looked at the slingshot booby trap that hed used on Chris yesterday. But it was just one of Olivers many inventions and it wasnt the most important one, not by a long shot. Olivers ultimate invention was something a little more complex, and a whole lot more importantbecause Oliver was attempting to invent a way to make himself invisible.

Theoretically, it was possible. Hed read all about it. There were actually only two necessary components to make an object invisible. The first was bending light around the object so it couldnt cast a shadow, similar to the way swimming pool water bent light and made the swimmers inside look strangely squat. The second necessary component to invisibility involved eliminating the objects reflection.

It sounded simple enough on paper, but Oliver knew there was a reason no one had achieved it yet. Still, that wasnt going to stop him from trying. He needed this in order to escape his miserable life, and it didnt matter how long it took him to get there.

He reached into his case now and took out all the bits of fabric hed collected in search of something with negative refractive properties. Unfortunately, he hadnt found the right fabric yet. Then he took out all the coils of thin wire hed need to make electromagnetic microwaves to bend the light unnaturally. Unfortunately, none of them were thin enough. In order to work, the coils would need to be less than forty nanometers in size, which was an unfeasibly small size for the human mind to comprehend. But Oliver knew that someone, somewhere, someday, would have a machine to make the coils thin enough, and the fabric refractive enough.

Just then, from upstairs, Oliver heard his parents alarm clock jingle. He quickly packed away his items, knowing all too well that theyd go and wake Chris up next, and if Chris ever got wind of what he was trying to make, he would destroy all his hard work.

Olivers stomach groaned then, reminding him that Chriss bullying and torment were about to begin anew, and that hed better get some food in him before they did.

He passed the still broken dining table and went to the kitchen. Most of the cupboards were empty. The family hadnt yet had the chance to go grocery shopping for the new house. But Oliver found a box of cereal that had come over in the move, and there was fresh milk in the fridge, so he quickly made up a bowl and scarfed it down. Just in time, too. A few moments later, his parents emerged into the kitchen.

Coffee? Mom asked Dad, bleary-eyed, her hair a mess.