“It’s easy for you,” he said. “Now you don’t even have to work.”

  “It’s not easy for any of us, Cody. I miss my job and it’s even hard for your dad. He’s got to start over at a new bank where he doesn’t know anyone either.”

  “But he wanted to move. He wanted the new job. I didn’t.”

  She sighed. “School couldn’t have been that bad,” she said.

  “You don’t know.”

  “Can’t you think of one good thing about the day?”

  He thought for a minute.

  “Well, an alligator didn’t eat me.”

  She smiled. “I’m so glad,” she said. “Anything else?”

  “I didn’t get abducted by aliens.”

  “Good,” she said. “Want to help me unpack?”

  Cody got up and nodded yes. He chose a box and began to pull things out of it. His old life was everywhere.

  It was like he was an archeologist on a dig. He could look in the box and tell a lot about himself. He pulled out a baseball glove. This boy liked baseball, he thought. He pulled out a drawing pad. This boy liked to draw.

  At the bottom was a card that his class had given him when he moved. It had all their class pictures pasted on it to form the letters BYE. This boy had friends.

  He looked at all the pictures. He had known most of the kids since preschool.

  He remembered when Kate had got new underwear in kindergarten and brought it in for show-and-tell.

  He remembered when Aaron had dressed up like Pippi Longstocking for a book report. He had even worn a dress.

  He didn’t know why those silly things made him like them even more.

  Cody missed his old friends. It was kind of funny, though, how he missed the little things the most. Like how Aaron and Kate always saved the catsup packets with him at lunch and later they would squash them on the playground and pretend that it was blood.

  And he missed their confetti collection. They had been saving all the holes from Ms. Harrison’s hole punch. On the last day of school they were going to have a parade and throw them into the air. Now he would not be there to throw the confetti.

  Here it was like he was invisible. All the wonderful things that he had told those kids hadn’t helped. No one had noticed him all day.

  Cody put the card down and held out his arms in front of him. “Do I look a little pale, Mom?” he asked. “I think I’m turning invisible.”

  “You are not invisible,” his mother said. “I can see you just fine.”

  “I must have been invisible, because no one sat with me at lunch. And no one talked to me at recess.”

  She walked over and put her arms around him.

  “It just takes time, Cody.”

  “How much time?” he said. He imagined himself as an old man hobbling on a walker into the lunchroom alone.

  “I’ll tell you what,” she said in a too-bright voice. “When your father gets home, we’ll order pizza. They have a Pappa’s Pizza here just like in Topeka. Your favorite.”

  She gave him one more hug.

  “Then we’ll talk about school. Your dad can give you some tips about being a new kid. He moved three times when he was young.”

  She walked back to her box. Cody sighed.

  There were a lot a good things about his dad. He always had time to play ball or help with homework. But he was not good at giving advice. It seemed like he always talked in sayings like “Waste not, want not.” Or “A stitch in time saves nine.”

  Cody could never figure out what his father meant. Usually he just pretended, to agree.

  He watched his mom unpacking the box. His parents were usually so concerned about him. That’s why he couldn’t understand why they had ruined his whole life just for a new job.

  “Ah ha!” she cried. “Socks!”

  She pulled out two handfuls from the box.

  His father’s car horn honked outside.

  “There’s your dad,” his mother said. “I’m going to order that pizza now.” They hurried downstairs.

  His dad came through the door, dropped his briefcase, and held out his arms to hug Cody’s mother.

  “There’s no place like home,” he said to the mess around him.

  His mother laughed. Cody didn’t.

  “Cody has the new-school blues,” said his mother.

  “Well, son,” his father said, “tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life. Remember, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

  Cody thought of his own saying. If at first you don’t succeed, die, die again.

  Pizza was usually his favorite food. But tonight he was not one bit hungry.

  Chapter 4

  Smiley Faces

  The next morning Cody checked his cup of dirt and imagined that he was a world-famous gardener. He would grow a wonderful plant—a beautiful, healthy flower.

  “Grow!” he commanded, but nothing happened.

  The soil was still smooth and black. He felt sad for the little seed alone under the dirt.

  “It takes time,” said Ms. Harvey.

  “How much time?” he asked.

  “Time enough.”

  “Are you sure that it’s okay under there?”

  “I’m sure,” said Ms. Harvey. “Take your seat. Time for math.”

  “Hey, new kid.” Chip leaned over Cody’s shoulder and looked at his math test. “You got a zero!”

  Cody stared at his paper. Beside the zero it said See me!

  Chip leaned closer. “I thought you said you were super smart. Like your first word was encyclopedia.”

  “I am smart.” Cody thought for a second, and then Super Cody answered, “It’s not a zero. See, it’s a smiley face.” He drew in two dots for the eyes and a big smile.

  Chip giggled.

  “Right,” he said. “Ms. Harvey always gives smiley faces when you miss all the problems.”

  Cody looked at the row of Xs down the side of his paper.

  “X stands for excellent,” he said.

  “You’re funny,” Chip said.

  Cody looked at his paper and felt sick.

  ver gotten a zero before. The new improved Super Cody was turning out all wrong.

  Why couldn’t he just tell Chip that he hadn’t learned the times tables yet?

  Cody was quiet while Ms. Harvey went over the math tests.

  Chip tapped his back. “Hey, new kid.”

  “It’s Cody.”

  “Can I come and see your emu after school?”

  “Not today,” Cody said.

  “Why not?”

  “He’s at the vet.”

  “What’s the matter with him?”

  Cody tried to think. He remembered when Pal had cut his foot and they had taken him to the vet.

  “Oh, he’s got a hurt paw.”

  “Paw?”

  The way Chip said the word paw made Cody wonder. Does an emu have paws?

  “Time for social studies,” Ms. Harvey said.

  They made time lines of their lives. Cody was glad they didn’t have to show them to each other. He was sure his was the shortest one:

  In English they wrote about their favorite people. He wrote about Aaron and Kate and the confetti collection. But halfway through the story his nose started to run, and he had to stop.

  “Lunchtime,” Ms. Harvey called out.

  Kids began to get their lunch boxes and money. They picked up their jackets for recess after lunch.

  A boy stopped by Cody’s desk.

  “Hey, new kid,” he said. “I’m assigned to eat with you so you won’t have to eat alone again.”

  He made it sound like Cody was some kind of class project. Do your math. Write a story for English. Eat with the new kid.

  Cody got up and walked beside the boy.

  “I saw you get out of a blue station wagon this morning,” the boy said.

  “So?”

  “So I thought you said your mom drove a Jag.”

  He had to think fast. “The Jag is in the shop.” .

  “Sure. How come if you’re from Alaska the license plate said Kansas?”

  Cody didn’t answer.

  It was all getting too complicated. People didn’t seem to like the new Cody very much.

  The boy looked at Cody’s lunch box. “So what do people from Alaska eat for lunch?” he asked. “Blubber?”

  Some kids in line laughed.

  Cody felt sick.

  “I forgot something,” he said.

  He dropped back to the end of the line. He imagined that he was a prisoner who had just escaped from a chain gang. He had to get away.

  He passed Holly, but he didn’t look up.

  “Hey, new kid,” he heard Chip say, but he didn’t answer. When the kids in his class turned to the right to go to the lunchroom, he turned to the left.

  He didn’t care where he ended up, as long as it was not the lunchroom.

  He saw a door marked BOYS and went inside. He was a prisoner again—this time hiding out from the enemy.

  He hid in the bathroom stall and thought.

  He had to make Super Cody even more super, more deluxe, more wonderful.

  He waited, thinking hard, until he heard the end-of-lunch bell ring.

  Then he went back to class.

  Chapter 5

  Mom-asaurus

  “Mother’s Day is Sunday,” Ms. Harvey said. “Write a story about your mother and later in art we’ll illustrate the stories.”

  Cody got out a sheet of notebook paper. He looked at the paper and thought about his mother. What should he write?

  My mother has brown hair.

  My mother sells computers.

  My mother likes to unpack boxes.

  His mother, he realized, was boring.

  A plain old mother.

  He wished his mother was a spy, or an astronaut, or an American Gladiator ....

  Why not?

  He thought about the Gladiators on TV. . They all had names like Ice or Dragon or Tiger.

  He needed a ferocious name—like a dinosaur.

  He began to write.

  When he read his story to the class, not one mouth was closed.

  “Well,” Ms. Harvey said. “That was quite interesting.”

  She didn’t say anything after the other kids finished reading their stories. No one, Cody was pleased to notice, had a mother as exciting as his.

  “Time for art,” Ms. Harvey said.

  The kids lined up.

  “Where are we going?” asked Cody.

  “To the art room,” said Chip.

  They didn’t have an art room at Cody’s old school. They had an art cart.

  Cody loved the art room. It was a sunny room with long tables. In the center of each table was a cluster of baby-food jars filled with paint. A brush waited at each place.

  “Oh boy,” said Holly. “We get to paint.”

  She turned to Cody. “Do you like art?”

  “I love art,” he said. It was the first truthful thing that he had told about himself.

  “Me too,” said Holly.

  He sat by Chip. Holly sat across from him.

  They painted with the brushes.

  Holly painted her mother in a white dress. Her mother was a nurse.

  Chip painted his mother wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt. She was holding plants. She liked to work in their vegetable garden.

  Cody painted his mother in her Gladiator costume.

  “I need brown,” Holly said. “For the patient’s bed.”

  Cody showed her how to mix the red and blue and yellow paints together to make brown.

  Music played while they painted. For one whole hour Cody forgot that he was a new kid.

  “Can I come over after school?” Chip asked as they walked back to Ms. Harvey’s room.

  Cody stopped.

  He really wanted Chip to come over, but how could he say yes? He couldn’t let Chip meet his mother or Pal. And there were teddy bears marching around his room!

  “My mom’s still unpacking,” he said. “I can’t have friends over.”

  “You want to come to my house?”

  Cody was filled with joy, like a balloon that had fresh air blown into it.

  “Sure!” he said.

  “We can stop by your house and ask your mom,” Chip said. “I want to see your mom, anyway. Does she have her costume at home?”

  The balloon popped.

  He shook his head.

  “I shouldn’t play today. I have to unpack.”

  When Cody came back into the room there was a white envelope on his desk. On the front of the envelope it said NEW KID.

  Holly turned around. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I couldn’t remember your name.”

  “Cody.”

  “It’s for my birthday party Saturday. Everyone in the class is invited.”

  She smiled at him. At least he thought she smiled at him. He wasn’t sure. Maybe she didn’t smile at him. He looked down.

  Cody took the envelope and put it in his pocket. He smiled. He had been invited to a party!

  He waited until no one was watching and then he opened it. On the front of the invitation was a giant roller skate.

  Come to a skating party! the invitation said.

  Cody’s heart sank. He remembered his words from yesterday. I’ve won a lot of skating trophies. Dozens.

  He wished that he had never started being Super Cody. Chip and Holly seemed to like him, but who did they like? Cody or Super Cody? How could he ever know for sure?

  The bell rang for them to go home.

  “Cody?” Ms. Harvey came up beside him. “I have something for you.”

  She handed him a small rectangular box. “Flash cards,” she said.

  “Oh.” Cody took the box. It was one more painful reminder of the things that he could not do.

  “Work on them at home with your parents. I’m not going to count your math grades for a while.”

  “Thanks.” Cody stood up and went to the table at the back of the room. He wanted to check his paper cup one last time before he left. The dirt was still smooth. No sign of life.

  “Ms. Harvey?”

  “Yes, Cody.”

  “Do you think it’s going to be okay?” He was still looking at the paper cup. “My seed, I mean.”

  “Yes,” Ms. Harvey replied gently. “It just takes time, Cody.”

  “How much time do you think it will take?”

  “Oh,” she said, smiling, “time enough.”

  How much is enough? Cody wondered.

  Chapter 6

  To Skate or Not to Skate

  “Ah ha! Spoons!”

  His mother was in the kitchen, unpacking. The floor was covered with crumpled paper. Pal was sleeping next to one of the boxes.

  “So how was your second day of school?”

  “I lived,” Cody answered.

  He stepped over the piles of paper and sat down on a kitchen stool. He rubbed Pal’s back with his foot.

  “Good,” she said.

  Cody pulled the invitation out of his pocket.

  “Mom,” he said, “I can’t go to a skating party on Saturday, can I?”

  She looked up from the box and smiled a big smile.

  “Of course you can.”

  “I can?”

  “I knew you would get along just fine here.” She was beaming. “You’re already invited to a party.”

  “Everyone in the class was invited, Mom. It’s no big deal.”

  “I’m just glad you want to go.”

  “You’d better not let me. I might get hurt.”

  “It’ll be fun.”

  “I might break a leg, or an arm, or my gallbladder.”

  She leaned down to the bottom of the box. Cody could only see her legs.

  “It could be dangerous,” he called to the legs.

  “Ah ha!” she said. “Steak knives.”

  “Never mind,” Cody said. He stood up.

  “Wait,” she said as she put the steak knives into a drawer. “I have two surprises for you.”

  She led Cody to his room.

  “Ta da!” she said. “I finished your room today.”

  His bed was put together and made up with his baseball bedspread. All the boxes were gone and his clothes were put away. His baseball glove and ball were on one shelf, his art supplies on another. It made him glad to see his things, but it made him sad, too. The room looked so permanent. Like he was really here to stay.

  “The second surprise,” she said, handing him a brown envelope. “It’s from Aaron.”

  Cody’s heart lifted at the sight of the envelope.

  After his mother left he opened it.

  Inside was a cassette tape. Cody went over to his stereo and put in the tape. Like magic, Aaron’s voice came over the speakers.

  “Hellllloooooo!” he said in one long burp. “Greetings from the planet Topeka.”

  Cody sat back and listened.

  Aaron had made the whole tape as if he were living in outer space. Cody closed his eyes and listened to Aaron’s voice, pretending that he was with Aaron. He smiled the whole time he listened.

  It made him feel good to know that somewhere, there was still someone who knew him. Really knew him.

  He wanted to write a letter to Aaron but he didn’t know what to say. He could tell Aaron that everything was great. That he was cool and popular here.

  But somehow he couldn’t do that. Aaron liked the real Cody.

  Cody got out a piece of paper and began to write. He told Aaron about the times tables and the skating party. After he finished the letter he illustrated it.

  He drew a picture of a boy in front of a firing squad. And one of a boy hiding in the boys’ bathroom. And finally, on a blank piece of paper he wrote The Invisible Boy. He put the letter in an envelope and wrote Aaron’s address on the outside. After he wrote Topeka, he put his pencil down. Topeka was far away. Aaron and Kate were there and he was alone.

  He spent the rest of the afternoon helping his mother. He didn’t want to stay in his room by himself.

  After dinner he worked on the flashcards with his father.

  “Two times two?”

  “Four,” Cody answered.

  “Great,” his dad said. “Practice makes perfect.”

  Cody had already learned that anything times one is always the same number. And anything times zero is always zero.

 

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