Three Feet Above Invisible

Leo had spent two years perfecting the art of being background furniture at Creekwood High. Social pyramid? He wasn't even the foundation. He was the dirt underneath.

"Dude, you HAVE to bear witness to this," Maya said, dragging him toward the gym. "The AV club's pyramid of speakers literally collapsed during pep rally setup."

Leo frowned. "Literally or figuratively?"

"Both. Mr. Henderson is losing it."

The gym was chaos - a fallen tower of equipment, tangled cables everywhere like spaghetti thrown at a wall, and one very red-faced teacher. Leo spotted Jordan, the guy who'd made Leo's middle school life miserable, standing nearby smirking.

"Watch this," Jordan whispered to his friends. He yanked a main power cable loose.

The entire setup went dark. Someone screamed.

Leo didn't think. He just moved - diving under the fallen equipment rack, reaching blindly for the disconnected cable end in the darkness. His fingers closed around plastic and copper. He jammed it into the socket.

Lights blazed. Music thumped back to life.

He crawled out from under the rack, covered in dust and cobwebs, to find the entire gym staring at him. Maya was grinning like crazy. Jordan looked annoyed.

"Okay, whoa," Mr. Henderson said. "That was... actually impressive."

"He fixed it in like, three seconds," someone murmured. "In the dark."

Maya threw an arm around his shoulders. "THIS is Leo. He's basically low-key legendary with anything electronic."

Jordan opened his mouth, then closed it.

"You gonna help us set this back up?" Maya asked Leo.

He shrugged, trying to seem chill about the fact that everyone was actually looking at him. Not through him. AT him.

"Yeah," Leo said, "I got this."

For the first time in two years, the social pyramid didn't seem so vertical. And definitely not worth bearing the weight of worrying about anymore.