i have never read the book so... yeah. you'll see

After we get all of our stuff moved in I decide to take a small tour of Galileo High to at least see where my classes are. My parents bought me a Vespa since the school wasn't that far away and I really didn't want to ride the bus. I putted my way along to the school and headed inside. As I walked into the principal's office, I found a picture of a boy about my age and under it a plaque that said, In Loving Memory: James Neutron. I lifted my eyebrow at that. Maybe it was just High Tech City, but I know of plenty of students who died and no one put up a nice little picture of them.

"Can I help you?" someone said behind me.

I turned and saw a receptionist of sorts looking at me and I smiled.

"Yes, I'm Cindy Vortex, I'm transferring from High Tech City. I was wondering if my schedule was available and if I could try to find my classes?"

The receptionist looked at me over her glasses but then turned to the computer and started typing on it.

"What was your name again?"

"Cindy Vortex. It might be under Cynthia."

She clacked away and nodded. "Yes, I have your schedule here. I'll print it out for you."

I nodded and looked back at the picture of James Neutron.

"Was he some important kid?" I asked, pointing to the picture.

The receptionist looked up and sighed.

"Ah, Mr. Neutron… he was the brightest of all of our students. He was such a gifted child in almost every subject from the sciences (especially) to the arts. Such a tragedy…"

"What happened to him?"

The receptionist leveled out the papers and handed them to me.

"There are many rumors around his disappearance. Some say he killed himself doing an experiment, others say the experiment killed him… He was known for some interesting projects. He was a boy genius."

"Genius, huh?" I said, looking at the picture. "He couldn't have been that smart."

"From what I heard his IQ was 210 even at an early age."

"210?!" I exclaimed, practically climbing over the desk at the receptionist.

"That's what they say… that's why everyone says it was probably one of his experiments that did him in."

"So… I mean, how exactly did he die? Did they just find him dead in his room or whatever?"

"No… It was a strange… They say he crashed through the window of the second story and fell to his death but that doesn't quite add up to his M.O."

"How do you mean?"

"He had a mechanical canine and from what I had seen, it was programmed to make sure he was out of harm's way. If he had fallen out of the window, or got even close enough to break the glass, the dog would have saved him."

"Wait, wait, back that up. He had a robot dog?!"

"Yes. I can't remember what its name was… but yes, he brought it to school one day for show and tell. He said his parents never let him have a real dog and so he just built one."

"You guys still do show and tell here?" I said.

"Well, I used to work at Lindbergh Elementary where he and many of the other children all went. This is a small town so not very many people are here and/or moved in or out."

"I see… Huh… So did they ever find out what the real cause was for James' death?"

"Find out?"

"Yeah, like did they do an autopsy on him or something?"

The receptionist blinked. "They didn't find anything because they didn't find a body."

"Shut up! You're saying a kid fell out of a two story window and no one saw a body?"

"That's the mystery of it all. That's why everyone says it's a rumor. When his parents heard the glass breaking, they searched and searched for his body but they never found anything. It was as if he vanished into thin air. Again, that's why some people believe it was experiment oriented rather than a mishap."

"But then what crashed through the window?"

"That is the question."

"So no one's tried to figure out what happened?"

"His parents tried but they had to move from the house about a year after his disappearance."

"Why?"

"Strange things began to happen there. Doors would close out of nowhere, food would be eaten that had been set out, messages would be left in the fog of the mirrors in the bathroom, things like that. They moved out and it's been empty ever since."

"Sounds kind of like my house."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, I think a ghost lives there. They left a threatening letter about it being their house and such."

"Interesting… Well, there's your schedule and you can have a look around but we close at noon today."

"Thanks. I'll take you up on the offer."

I left the office and smiled. I have a mystery to keep me busy while I try and break into that stupid shed.

When I got home, I decided to look a little more into James' mysterious death. With a town this small, it didn't take me long to find the website for their local newspaper and a way to look into the archives of stories. I typed in 'James Neutron' and found an article that was entitled, 'Local Teen Falls From Window; Body Not Found'. I clicked on it and there were a couple of pictures that someone had taken of the scene and I realized that the window that had been broken was my window. We were living in James' old house and I was staying in his old room! So that meant that whatever this 'ghost' was had to do with this.

I decided to look up some other articles involving the house and see that most of them are accounts from teens and former residents that claim some of the things the receptionist claimed but also that they would see faces in the windows and mirrors, hear footsteps and laughter. The whole thing was giving me the creeps when I flipped through a couple of articles and landed on one with a black background. I happened to look and I swear that there was someone looking over my shoulder. I screamed and turned around, but of course, no one was there.

I crossed my arms. This was getting kind of ridiculous.

"For someone with a supposed IQ of 210, you sure seem keen on milking this ghost thing. I'm going to chock it up to psyching myself out, but if you really are in here, knock it off!"

I don't hear anything again and go back to the computer.

A couple minutes later I heard something thud on the ground and turned, finding a book had fallen off my shelf and was laying on the ground. I got up to go see what it was when I realized that the book hadn't fallen but has been dropped into place. I picked the book up and saw that it was a copy of The Invisible Man and flipped it back to where the page had been opened to. I scanned the two pages when I saw something that looked like a tiny pen mark at a passage.

I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me. Like the body-less heads you see sometimes in circus sideshows, it is as though I have been surrounded by mirrors of hard, distorting glass. When they approach me they see only my surroundings, themselves or figments of their imagination, indeed, everything and anything except me.

"Invisible, huh? If that were something that could be done, I might actually believe it." I said out loud as I went to put the book back.

As I started to leave, I heard my mouse clicking all by itself and then someone clacking away on the keyboard. I was frozen solid. After a few seconds, the clicking stopped and I turn slightly to the computer. I see that a Word document is up and I gulp, walking over.

Greetings and salutations! It seems you are not as easily frightened as the others. That's good because it gets pretty lonely around here. I won't bother you too much; I'm just curious about you and your family. It would be a nice gesture, though, if you could leave out some food for me after you guys have dinner? It's hard being a ghost.

Happy Hauntings!

I frowned when I heard my books drop again. This time when I went over, I found The Invisible Man and one of my encyclopedias. The encyclopedia had been opened to a page labeled 'chemistry'. I lifted an eyebrow. I thought for a second but I shook my head and put the books away.

"Just so you know, Ghost, you can't make someone invisible. Ghosts aren't real and people can't turn invisible. It doesn't matter how high your IQ is. There's too much bending and refracting of light in the sun for that to happen."

I heard a small chuckle and then the door opened and slammed closed. I decided to let sleeping dogs lie and went back to what I was doing.

Damn it! I fell asleep at the computer again! I hate when that happens… I go to turn the computer off when I see that the IM screen is popped up.

theghostboy360: you seem quite an astute girl, so I was wondering if you would like to play a game with me?

bum bum BUUUUUUUM!