Lola McAffrey's Great Disappearing Act

A Ghost of a High School Student

We waited our turn to get Mr. Arlow's approval. As I eavesdropped on the other groups, I realized we were making the right decision to go a different way. Everyone else seemed to be doing the eyewitness thing.

"Cori, Lola—what have you ladies got for me?" Mr. Arlow looked deeply bored having to hear the eyewitness pitch seven times already.

"Well," I started out. I was so used to Cori doing the pitching I didn't know where to start. "I, uh, thought of an experiment, but I don't know if you'll go for it."

"Try me."

I looked at Mr. Arlow. He seemed almost excited to hear something different from the pack. I dropped my voice a bit lower. Our project idea would need to be discreet. The fewer who knew, the better. "I was thinking that one of us could disappear."

"I'm not sure the school board would be too happy with me if one of you disappeared."

I needed to find a way to really sell it. "No, see one of us would get permission to leave school for the duration of the project. We would need your help too, because the empty desk would be noticeable. You would have to change the seating chart or something so the absence didn't draw attention." I was grinning. It was an amazing idea. I knew it. I looked at Cori. She didn't look as happy, but I was sure she was eager to know if we could pull it off.

"What's the object of the experiment?"

"Well..."

Cori stepped in to save me, just as Mr. Arlow seemed to lose interest. "It's an experiment to see if the class, or the entire school for that matter, would notice a missing student without someone pointing it out to them. Would they go about their lives, or would they finally notice something wasn't right?"

"I like the idea, but I really don't think we could get this hashed out with the administration."

"How about this—give us until the end of the day. If we can get permission from the administration and other teachers, can we do it?"

"Have Mr. Peterson talk to me. If he approves." I smiled at Mr. Arlow. This was going to be an experiment he would never forget.

"It's not going to happen, you know." Cori whispered as we sat back down at our desks.

"Why shoot down the idea before we try?"

"I just think it's a huge hassle." She had a point, but I didn't want to back down from the challenge. Not yet anyway.

"Want to play Rock, Paper, Scissors to see who gets to skip for two weeks?"

"I assumed you would be the one to leave."

I looked around to see if anyone was listening in. No one cared. They were all completely, utterly focused on themselves. "Why me? I thought you would want to have a break from all your millions of to-dos."

"That's just it—I'm in too many activities. People would notice if I suddenly didn't show up for tennis practice or orchestra. You don't have anything going on like that—no offense."

"Certainly none taken." Cori was right. I had a life that was a ghost of a high school student as it was. It would be much easier for me to slip out of school and potentially go unnoticed. After all, what could be so bad about skipping almost two weeks of school? I was down with it.

"Now we just have to convince Mr. Peterson it's a good idea."