The Invisible Girl

The Invisible Girl
Laura Ruby

Step into a wildly imaginative world with an invisible girl, a flying boy and where being weird is brilliantly wonderful! A magically fantastical story from American author, Laura Ruby.In a vast and sparkling city where nearly everyone can fly, 12-year-old Gurl is trapped. Orphaned and lonely, she believes she is nothing more than a flightless "leadfoot", until one fateful night when she discovers that she has the power to make herself invisible.But even with this newfound talent, Gurl can't hide from a giant rat man with a taste for cats, a manipulative matron with a penchant for plastic surgery, and a belligerent boy named Bug.Gradually, Gurl learns to control her power and teams up with Bug to figure out who and what she is. Their quest takes them on a wild ride where they confront mind-bending monkeys, an eccentric genius with a head full of grass and a pocket full of kittens and the handsome but lethal Sweetcheeks Grabowski – the gangster who holds the key to Gurl's past…and the world's future.

The Invisible Girl

Laura Ruby

For Anne, who has kittens in her pockets And for Gretchen, the original Answer Hand

Table of Contents

Cover Page (#u34cb1753-7063-5243-afb6-e6b3d2c293cd)

Title Page (#u0d5cf5e7-012b-5f60-a029-f8b544d9e68a)

Dedication (#u148183d7-6703-5e62-b1c8-b281edb58b4d)

The Professor Remembers (#u87798615-2d65-55ff-b1a8-ab15b46b37e5)

Chapter 1 The Girl Who Wasn’t There (#u3b73547b-bf03-5696-b4bd-ce8e15172cdc)

Chapter 2 Blue Foot, Blue Foot (#u3e350c8f-f412-5311-8c4f-78a26562a07b)

Chapter 3 The Chickens of Hope House (#u04a76a74-1930-54eb-be24-703b8c3671cc)

Chapter 4 Bugged (#u4a9b953e-3806-5199-b572-4f50c0167731)

Chapter 5 Attack of the Umbrella Man (#ud857f546-ba35-540f-9cb7-b38f3dddcaef)

Chapter 6 Mrs Terwiliger’s Monkeys (#u55863e15-eefd-579c-b4de-5199130aef2c)

Chapter 7 What Not to Wear (#u2ba5c95e-cf9d-5179-9f35-ff69af054ba6)

Chapter 8 Sweetcheeks: A History (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 9 Outsides and Insides (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 10 Two Little Mice (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 11 Flyboy (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 12 The Richest Man in the Universe (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 13 Turkey Burger (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 14 The Queen Said “Ouch” (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 15 The Punk Invasion (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 16 The Face in the Mirror (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 17 Never Trust a Monkey (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 18 Run (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 19 What’s It To You? Has His Say (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 20 Ups and Downs (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 21 The Black Box (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 22 The Tower (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 23 Supa Dupa Fly (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 24 The Big Fat Hairy Fib (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 25 Bugbears and Bugaboos (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 26 Sweetcheeks Spills (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 27 Unzipped (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter 28 Golden (#litres_trial_promo)

Ha! (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

THE CHAPTER BEFORE THE FIRST

The Professor Remembers (#ulink_3a78cb22-3370-5d3a-932b-fc88a2a94253)

IN A VAST AND SPARKLING city, a city at the centre of the universe, one little man remembered something big.

He was very old, this little man, his full name forgotten over the years. He called himself The Professor. His specialities were numerous and included psychology, criminology, mathematics, history, aerodynamics, zoology and gardening. He also collected beer cans.

Other than the delivery boy who left his groceries at the back door, The Professor hadn’t seen anyone in at least ten years. It was just as well, since a hair-growing experiment had left him with a head full of long green grass. Also, he didn’t like clothing, so he wore ladies’ snap-front housedresses and rubber flip-flops with white socks. He spent much of his time fiddling in his workshop, feeding the many kittens that popped out of his pockets and looking things up on eBay.

Today he stood in front of his blackboard—which was covered with mathematical equations—tugging at a dandelion that had poked up through the lawn on his scalp. Suddenly, his eyes widened. He scrawled a few more equations. Yes! He saw it. Right there, in his many calculations.

A child.

He stared at the figures dancing across the board, his forehead creased with annoyance. How on earth he could have forgotten that such a thing, such a person, existed, was beyond him. But The Professor simply didn’t like people. Not their company, not their conversation, nada. Anything having to do with people made the roots of his teeth pulse with irritation. And here on his blackboard was proof that a very particular sort of person had been born into a cruel and stupid world filled with cruel and stupid people.