My name is Raib. I'm a new student at school. I'm fifteen years old. I'm an only child, a girl. For a teenager my age, there's nothing special about me. I have black, long, straight hair. I love reading and have two cats at home. I wasn't a smart kid, let alone popular. I only knew my classmates, and that was around girls. My grades were average, nothing was too great about me, except for language lessons, which I loved.

In tenth grade at this new school, I preferred to be alone and pay attention, watching my friends play basketball. I sat quietly in the crowd in the canteen, in front of the class, and on the court. I was actually a shy kid when I was young. Not shy at all, although I did become the laughing stock of friends or relatives once or twice. It was normal, but it was this shyness that made me different from most teenagers.

I was very different. I had power.

I've known it since I was a child, although to this day neither my parents nor my close friends know.

When I was two years old, I loved playing hide-and-seek. My parents would pretend to hide, and I'd be busy looking for them. I laughed when I found them. Then it was my turn to hide. Have you ever seen a two-year-old trying to hide? Most of them just stand in the corner of the room, or next to the sofa, or behind the table, and cover their faces with their palms. They think that's perfect enough to hide. If you cover your face, it's dark, it's all hidden, but their bodies are very visible.

I also did the same thing when Papa said, "Raib, let's hide. It's Mama and Papa's turn to search." So I laughed comically, ran to my room, stood next to the cupboard, and covered my face with my palms.

I was only twenty-two months old, not even two years old. It was the first great game I had ever played with enthusiasm.

However, the game was not fun. My parents cheated. When it was my turn to search and they were hiding, I always managed to find them. Behind the curtains, behind the big flower pot, behind whatever, I could find them even though I could tell by the sound of them stifling laughter. But when I was the one hiding, they never managed to find me. They were just busy calling my name, laughing, entering my room, busy checking the whole room. They missed me standing right next to the wardrobe.

I was annoyed. I peeked through the fingers of both palms.

My parents must have pretended not to see me. How could they not see me? It happened many times. When I hid in the living room, they also pretended not to see me. Even when I was just hiding in the centre of our living room, covering my face with the palm of my hand, they also pretended not to see me.

When I got annoyed, I removed the palm covering my face. They just exclaimed, "Oh my, Raib? You're actually there?" or "Ouch, Raib, how are you suddenly here? We've been passing by this place, but didn't see you." Then they made faces like they were surprised to see me standing innocently. They made faces that didn't understand how I could suddenly appear. I was really annoyed waiting for when they would stop pretending not to see me.

The hide-and-seek game only lasted a month or two. I got bored.

I really didn't realise it at the time. That was the first time the power appeared. The power that I never managed to understand until today, the power that I kept secret from anyone until I was fifteen. All I had to do was cover my face with both palms, intending to hide, and instantly, my entire body was invisible. It disappeared. My parents really had no idea that their less-than-two-year-old daughter was hiding right in front of them, standing in the middle of the carpet, peeking out from between her fingers.

My name is Raib, a fifteen-year-old girl. 

I can disappear, in the sense of actually disappearing.