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A high school student finds a grimoire that shows how to make magical disguises. |
Previously: "The Field of Play"  Keith's doppelganger must have got the same text, because it leans forward to mutter at you in second-period: "Cody wants to come back to Westside. I'm s'posed to help, and s'posed to ask you to help me." "Why?" you retort. "Your boss know you're a fuck up like he is and needs me to hold your hand?" The golem returns you a sour look, then says, "I'm just tellin' you what I heard." "Well, first of all, I'm going to talk to my boss to see if it's okay. Second of all, I'm gonna bet we can't set anything up for your boss before he was gonna come back anyway." You notice Andy Tackett, who is sitting in the next row, listening, so you murmur, "Talk later" to the golem, and turn around in your seat. But just before shutting your phone off, you get a text from him: Yr boss at ehs? You give Keith a quick, hard wink over your shoulder. * * * * * You don't know why you're pretending to be a golem. Maybe it's just to fuck with them. Maybe because it's easier to look at and talk to them if you pretend there's no difference between you. Or maybe—and given the sharp thrill it gives you, "maybe" should be "absolutely"—it's fun to imagine that you're only pretending to be yourself. Because pretty soon you're going to be someone else, and then "pretending to be yourself" will also be a way of "pretending to be someone else"? Whatever. After second period, you quickly text Jared and Cody to tell them you are pretending to be your own golem, and not to inform their own golems otherwise. Then you spend the rest of the day looking around the school with a cool and almost alien eye. You made some notes during your Film as Literature class. The Hennepin-Gerard-Winkler clique is the big one in there. Karl Hennepin is a tall kid with pile of floppy blonde curls that he controls with a variety of hats. (Today he's wearing a battered fedora.) He's an artist type who favors big pullover sweatshirt, dirty jeans, and sandals. Girls seem to like him because of his "serious artist" vibe. Others in his group include a sensitive-looking "poet" (Tim Gerard); a prissy, glasses-wearing "writer" (Kevin Winkler) who is almost certainly in the closet; and a "normal guy" (that'd be Tackett) who looks and acts like you and your friends. The real attraction of their group, though, has to be Mia DeWitt, a slinky and sexy girl with big eyes and long brown hair, who favors skinny jeans, sleeveless blouses, and berets. The others hover and giggle about her, and she flutters and grins in their company. Even if her mask wasn't for Teresa, you wouldn't mind the chance to hang around with her. Maybe one of them is regularly getting lucky with her!  So keen are you on your "mission" that even you are even looking forward to third-period, Career Planning, which is full of awful people. But they look more enticing now. Nicholas Horner is a mean, grinning little pimple; Kyle Kent and Michael Hurst are stoner-skateboards in muscle-shirts; Jeff Spencer is a borderline-retard with emotional control issues. You'd never want to be near them. But "be" them? That might be fun. You could get in a lot of trouble while wearing their faces and bodies, fucking around with people you don't like, then slipping away, leaving them to take the consequences they don't deserve for what you did, but do deserve for all the other shit they've likely pulled. * * * * * Fourth period. "What about Montoya and Hollister?" Caleb asks you in a low voice. He is peering past you at Carlos Montoya and Michael Hollister, in a back row on the other side of the room. "What about them?"you retort. "Tilley hangs out with them. Maybe he'd like to be them." "I didn't know that." Caleb snorts. "That's 'cos your boss doesn't see what's in front of his face." He smirks at the look of surprise you give him. But you let it pass, and return to surveying the room. "Andrea or Catherine," you say a moment later. Andrea Varnsworth is the incredibly sexy captain of the swim team; Catherine her almost-as-sexy counterpart on the track team. "Your boss wants to be a girl?" "I don't like thinking about what my boss wants to be," you hear yourself saying. At first you think you've misjudged, but the golem actually looks amused. "But maybe," you continue. "Sure, why not? I'd like to see the look on his face when I suggest it." "You, my boss, and me, all three." "Or maybe someone close to them." "I don't know who that would be. 'Cept maybe O'Brien or Carstairs," he says, jerking his chin at two of the football players. You study them, then sigh. "Maybe one of the bosses'd know how to get a mask of them." "We get the bosses masks of Andrea or Catherine, maybe the bosses'd let us fuck them as a reward." * * * * * You make sure to intercept Teresa before lunch, to tell her that you're pretending to be your own golem. She looks amused, but makes no comment until after you've joined Caleb and Keith behind the school. "So, are you guys having fun?" she asks your circle in a teasing tone. "Why would we be?" Caleb retorts. "You're not having fun being ... yourselves?" Keith looks up from the brown sack he's digging through, and snorts. Caleb sneers. "If it sas fun being ... ourselves, don't you think someone else'd be sitting here having fun instead of us?" "Well, I'm having fun," Teresa says. "You know why?" "I'll bite," Keith says. "Don't worry, I won't." She then goes around the circle, giving each of you a full kiss on the mouth. "That's fun," she says as you all stare back. "Because I can do it with you guys but not the others." There's no followup. But after lunch, she goes with you into the school. "You know, if you like pretending, Will," she says, "I'm taking an Acting class. Maybe you guys could pretend to be some of the people in there." * * * * * It's more football players in sixth, but Carson is in there too. "You go looking for Angel yet?" he bluntly asks you. "No," you retort. "I didn't know I was s'posed too." "Jesus, Will! I set you up—" "What was that, a date?" He gives you a look. "I told you, it wouldn't hurt you to have more people you can hang around. Angel's cool, and he's different from your crowd. And he could roughen you up a little. Have you ever even missed your curfew?" "Yes!" He snorts. "That's not the point. The point is, I shouldn't even have to ask if you've ever missed it." Then he snorts again. "The real tragedy is, I don't even have to ask you anyway, because I know you never have." You just glower back at him, and snap, "And Angel will help me miss a curfew?" "No. But maybe you'll get the confidence to— Well, not to be so ... passive." Class then starts, but afterward you get a text from Carson, telling you where Angel's locker is, so you can look for him after school. You'd ignore it, but then you think: Three of us. Three brothers. And it would really stick it to Keith if I steered him into 'brothers' again. Besides, it didn't seem like there were any adults around there, so maybe you'd have the house to yourselves. And Carson did say that Angel knows how to get action. Come to that, as Angel you could tell Carson to go shove himself someplace small, dark, cramped, and smelling of human shit. Which would be perfect justice after the way Carson tried pushing you at him. * * * * * Seventh period is your study hall. The library is mostly empty. You do some schoolwork, then get on your phone to look for more ideas. Most of the ones are either redundant with who you've looked at, or unattainable. Like, it would be something to be on the basketball squad, whose members swagger around the school like everyone should be glad of a chance to smell and eat their shit. But you don't know any, and it would be dangerous to try getting a mask of them. Really, when you get down to it, you are restricted to getting masks of people you know or can plausibly lure someplace. That would mean Carson Ioeger (friends with you and Caleb); Montoya and Hollister (friends of Keith, apparently); and probably someone in Mansfield's group or maybe Karl Hennepin's circle. (You've talked some with Andy Tackett, the normal one.) Approachability is another reason for taking a look at Angel's family, or going with Teresa's suggestion. But man, to be on the basketball team, or the football team, or the soccer team, or ... yes, on the cheerleader squ— You jerk to attention so hard you almost fall out of your chair. You do know someone on the cheerleader squad! Okay, you don't know know them. But you got to be pretty friendly with Eva and Jessica when you were going around with Lisa (she's a friend of theirs), and they were pretty cool with you. (Especially Eva, who's pretty sweet. Jessica is more tart.) They are twins, and they share the same strawberry-and-cream complexion under their warm tans, and blonde hair (Eva's, long and full; Jessica's cut into a sassy bob). They are popular, outgoing, have lovely, sculpted bodies. Yeah, maybe you wouldn't mind being a girl. You had fun as Mickey. And you're pretty sure you could get Caleb to be the other sister if you picked them. As for Keith, you could give him Marc, the third of the Garner triplets, who is the captain of the soccer team, and another hugely popular student at school. * * * * * Even though you started out super-observant in first period, you don't even glance at anyone in last period. They are either just repeats of people you've looked at already, or not as attractive as most of the others. By the time final bell has rung, you've settled on five choices, and narrowed those five down to one. That's all for now. |
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