Free Let's Get Invisible by R. L. Stine Page B

yesterday,” April said.
    “But Lefty isn’t even here this morning,” I told them as they marched into
the house. “He’s at the playground playing softball with some of his friends.”
    “Who’s here?” my mom called. She came walking into the hallway, drying her
hands on a dish towel. She recognized my friends, then turned to me, a
bewildered look on her face. “Max, I thought you were going to help me down in
the basement. I didn’t know you’d made plans with Zack, Erin, and April.”
    “I didn’t,” I replied weakly. “Lefty—”
    “We just dropped by,” Zack told Mom, coming to my rescue.
    “If you’re busy, Max, we can go,” Erin added.
    “No, that’s okay,” Mom told them. “Max was complaining about how boring it
would be to help me. It’s good you three showed up.”
    She disappeared back into the kitchen. As soon as she was gone, my three
friends practically pounced on me.
    “Upstairs!” Zack cried eagerly, pointing to the stairs.
    “Let’s get invisible!” Erin whispered.
    “I get to go first since I’ve never gone,” April said.
    I tried to argue with them, but I was outnumbered and outvoted. “Okay, okay,”
I reluctantly agreed. I started to follow them up the stairs when I heard
scratching noises at the door.
    I recognized the sound. It was Whitey, back from his morning walk. I pushed
open the screen door and he trotted in, wagging his tail.
    The dumb dog had some burrs stuck to his tail. I chased him into the kitchen
and managed to get him to stand still long enough to pull them off. Then I
hurried up to the attic to join my friends.
    By the time I got up there, April was already standing in front of the
mirror, and Zack was standing beside her, ready to pull the light on.
    “Whoa!” I called.
    They turned to look at me. I could see that April had a frightened expression
on her face. “I have to do this right away. Or else I might wimp out,” she
explained.
    “I just think we should get the rules straight first,” I said sternly. “This
mirror really isn’t a toy, and—”
    “We know, we know,” Zack interrupted, grinning. “Come on, Max. No lectures
today, okay? We know you’re nervous because you’re going to lose. But that’s no
reason—”
    “I don’t want to compete,” April said nervously. “I just want to see what
it’s like to be invisible. For just a minute. Then I want to come back.”
    “Well, I’m going for the world’s record,” Zack boasted, leaning against the
mirror frame.
    “Me, too,” Erin said.
    “I really don’t think it’s a good idea,” I told them, staring at my
reflection in the mirror. “We should just get invisible for a short time. It’s
too dangerous to—”
    “What a wimp!” Zack declared, shaking his head.
    “We’ll be careful, Max,” Erin said.
    “I just have a really bad feeling,” I confessed. My hair was standing up in
the back. I stepped closer to the mirror to see better, and smoothed it down
with my hand.
    “I think we should all get invisible at the same time,” Zack said to me, his
blue eyes lighting up with excitement. “Then we could go to the playground and
scare your brother to death!”
    Everyone laughed except April. “I just want to try it for a minute,” she
insisted. “That’s all.”
    “First we compete,” Erin told Zack. “Then we go out and scare people.”
    “Yeah! All right !” Zack exclaimed.
    I decided to give up. There was no sense in trying to reason with Zack and
Erin. They were too psyched for this competition. “Okay, let’s get it over
with,” I told them.
    “But first I go,” April said, turning back to the mirror.
    Zack reached up for the string again. “Ready? On three,” he said.
    I turned to the door as Whitey came sniffing his way in, his nose lowered to
the floor, his tail straight out behind him.
    “Whitey, what are you doing up here?” I asked.
    He ignored me and continued sniffing furiously.
    “One… two…” Zack