Something in the Gatorade

By Aaron Shim

My name is Alex Kilder. I live in Liverpool and I go to North View School. Today was just a typical day. I woke up, brushed my teeth. Then I discovered that I was invisible.

This is how everything started...

So I was hanging out with my friends playing football at Chase Lane Park. I was with my bestfriend Van Davis, who everyone called Vanny, since everyone thought his name was too long. Loftus, Shimel, and Kaka were on the other team.

We kept playing until it was 7 pm. Then Loftus shouted, in his usual Australian accent, “We gotta get outta here mates! I saw that the park closes at 7pm due to some construction or whatever! We gotta go! It is already 7!” Before he even finished his words, we rushed to our bags, grabbed them, took all our stuff, then zoomed past the gate, leaving seconds before lock-down.

“Oh jeez, that was a close one!” I said, gasping for breath.

“Yeah... Thanks for the warning, Loftus!” shouted Shimel.

Shimel noticed that I forgot my water bottle. He said he would buy me a drink. He motioned for Vanny to go ahead. “Vanny, you can go first, I need to buy Alex a drink.”

Shimel and I headed down the road to our houses. We lived right next to each other, but since we were making a pit stop at a convenience store, we went the opposite direction.

“Wait… why are all the lights out?” I said, as we walked down a dark street.

“The shops here probably closed early,” Shimel said. “Let’s just go to that one. Looks a bit creepy, but who cares.”

I care, I thought. But there were no other shops open, so I continued to walk.

We were soon in front of the convenience store. Shimel went in and bought a bottle of Gatorade and threw it at me. “Here, catch!”

“I’ve never seen this color before. It’s like it’s glow-in-the-dark! Wonder what flavor it is?” I asked.

“That was the only flavor they had, and had to rush out since that shop owner looked really creepy.” Shimel said.

“Whatevs man. Thanks!”

I was so thirsty. I drank most of it in two big gulps. It didn’t taste like Gatorade at all. It was a bit slimy, but I didn’t think about that until later.

Shimel and I soon arrived home and I trashed the bottle in a bin in front of our house.

.....

The next day, I woke up with a throbbing pain in my stomach. I called Vanny to check up on him, and his mom answered to say that he had left for the skatepark with James.

Fine, I thought. Maybe I’ll spend the day just hanging out at home.

I said good morning to my mom who was in the kitchen, drinking coffee, just staring at a newspaper. She looked around, but said nothing. I figured she didn’t hear me and kept walking.

It was when I got to the bathroom when I realized that something was terribly wrong. I was invisible! I checked again and again, but I just couldn’t find my reflection!

I panicked and screamed. Mom ran to me but didn’t see anything, she could only hear me screaming, so she panicked as well. Before I knew it, my entire family had rushed to the bathroom and was examining me.

Shimel, who lived just next door, had heard all the screaming and rushed over. He called his family over too. Shimel called Vanny to come over.

Before I even it, there were police, hospital staff and reporters right in front of our house, trying to interview me and see what was wrong with me. In the crowd, I saw my two friends, Shime and Vanny.

I asked my dad to call them and we all walked up to my room. It was a very awkward conversation cause my whole body was gone(ish). I looked at them, but they were facing the other way.

Finally, Shimel broke the silence. “What happened, Alex? You were ok yesterday!”

“I don’t know, when I woke up I was like this” I said. They both turned to the direction of my voice.

Vanny, who was distressed, walked up to Shimel and started screaming, “What the hell did you do to my best friend!” He was about to pounce on him, when I stepped in to stop them.

“Wait, Vanny! It’s not his fault! Shimel, it was the Gatorade!” I said.

“What do you mean, The Gatorade?” Vanny said.

Right then, Kaka and Loftus opened my door.

“Hey guys, is Alex okay?” Kaka said.

Vanny and Shimel pointed at thin air. "That's him."

“We saw the news report and rushed here. Took us a lot of time to get through that crowd,” Loftus said, pointing outside.

“Hey guys, thanks for coming,” I said. “We’re trying to figure out how I disappeared.”

“Shimel, remember the Gatorade? The color was so weird. Maybe there was something in the drink that made me this way. I threw the bottle in the bin in front of our house last night.”

Shimel agreed. “Yes that’s probably it. It would be good to see that bottle, mate.”

“Ok,” I said. I’ll get it. I will try to crawl past the crowd. Guys, just wait here.”

.....

I left my bedroom and went downstairs, choosing the back door. Even invisible, it was very hard to get through the crowd, but I did my best to squeeze through. I’m sure some of the reporters felt parts of my body as I weaved through.

After 10 minutes or so, I made it out of the house and was in front of the bin. I rummaged through the trash and found the bottle.

“Yess…!” I picked it up. Then I forgot that I was invisible, but whatever I picked up wouldn’t be. So the Gatorade bottle looked like it was floating in mid-air!

“Oh, man!”

Reporters, policemen and everyone in the yard started pointing and running after me.

I ran as quickly as I could, and ducked behind Shimel’s house. There was a secret entrance he used to get into mine, and as I walked in, my dad, James, said, “Did you steal that?”

“No! I am just trying to find out what caused this stupid thing,” I said.

My friends came rushing down the stairs, hearing me talk to my dad.

I turned to Loftus. “Loftus, you are quite good in science right? Can you try to find out what this substance is?” I held up the bottle. My dad is a scientist too, maybe you can work together? We have a make-shift lab in our basement”

“Sure. Good idea,” Dad said.

“My pleasure. Will do my best,” said Loftus.

Shimel, Vanny and I all gathered back in my room. Loftus and dad came back after two hours.

“Sorry, but we still don't know what the substance is,” Dad said.

"There is a famous scientist who lives not very far from here. They moved to our neighborhood a week ago. Maybe he knows what this substance is,” said Dad.

“You still have the sample right?! Let’s go before it gets too late!” Kaka shouted.

We all agreed. Trying to escape without reporters detecting us was a challenge! My mom had to help distract them, while Dad took us in the car.

.....

“Is anyone there?” Dad knocked on the door of the scientist's house.

There was no reply.

“Anyone?”

Please, please, please…I thought.

Then, there was a stomping sound, the door creaked and it slowly started to open.

A short old man with messy hair came out. His eyes were red and he looked tired. He was also wearing a white messy lab coat.

Vanny whispered, “He looks like Einstein.”

Then the Einstein-looking guy said, “What do you guys want?! Oooh! What is that?”

He was pointing at the floating bottle.

“You are not surprised?” Loftus asked

“No, not at all. I know what it is," he said.

"It's our friend Alex," Shimel replied. "He drank a bottle of Gatorade and it made him invisible."

"Yes," the scientist answered. "I was experimenting with this stuff and I ended up with that substance. It is a very rare potion. Also, I am guessing… your name is... Alex Kilder, right?” he said, pointing at me. "I saw you on the news."

“Can we quit chit-chatting and get to the solution?" Vanny said impatiently.

“My name is Ryan Maddison. Call me Maddy," the scientist said.

“James. My son Alex, and his friends," said Dad. They shook hands.

“If you know who sold you this bottle, you should probably report him or her. This counts as illegal drug selling,” Maddy said.

My dad called the police immediately, and he and Shimel drove down to the store where we bought the Gatorade.

Meanwhile Maddy returned with some kind of a pink drink. He said, “Drink it. It will cure you.”

So, I drank it. My stomach felt weird. Vanny said, “Alex, you okay?”

Right after he said that I felt a burst of energy flowing through me, and I was back to normal in a split second!

Everyone was shocked! “Thank you, Maddy!” I said, looking at myself in the mirror.

“You are prime Maddy!” Vanny shouted.

All of us headed to the store. We about a dozen policemen arresting the store’s owner and pulling him into a squad car. Then, my dad walked up to thanked Maddy. Once again, reporters showed up from nowhere and everyone wanted to interview me.

And now, here I am, at home watching the news about me! It's kinda weird seeing myself on TV. I shut it off, tired after such a long day.

I head up to bed and hope nothing that crazy happens to me again.