This choice: Get a mind band for Evie • Go Back...Chapter #38The Right Mindset by: rugal b.   You decide that you don't want to risk either Evie or yourself getting booted from the team and while it would feed Hannah's ego tremendously to improve Evie the natural way, you don't feel like you have the time to take it slow. The time frame and expectations given were so vague that you don't need to be paranoid about when the hammer drops.
But why are you so worried about your place, Hannah's place, on the team? How long are you going to actually be her for? A few weeks? A few months? Until she starts getting old and gray and you decide to trade up for a new model? Can the body these masks give you even age? Your head is spinning right now trying to make sense of it so it's best not to worry about it right now. Just do your thing and take it one step at a time. That's the best way to do things and your next step is to contact Evie.
hey girl!!!!!!
change of plans
i wanna talk after school
You send the texts out. You don't expect an immediate response as there's still a few minutes left for the period and she's undoubtedly going to be in class. So you keep the phone out and do some internet and social media browsing until the bell rings. A minute or so later you hear your phone buzz and see a message pop up.
o so u have time for me?
wut happened
not all day just a few mins
sumthin important came up
& we need to talk
important like wut?
about ur team
i need to run sumthin by u
is dat cool?
ok
i can c u @ the entrance
gr8!!!!!! :D
c ya then ;)
You put the phone away and head off towards Henderson's French class and allow yourself to go on auto-pilot. It's easy to draw on Hannah's mind to get yourself through her classes but after that conversation with Luz you're going to need a bit of a break and it's easier to just sit back and bring her personality more to the forefront to get through the rest of the day. When zoology comes along Tara is quite eager know what the conversation with Luz was about. She has a feeling that it was bad just by your general demeanor and offers herself as a sympathetic ear when you confirm that, yes, it was bad. For your part, however, you don't offer her much more than that. You promise to tell her all about it later but for now you need a little bit of time to cool down and drag yourself out of the funk it's put you in.
Becca, Luz's best friend and number two on the JV squad, sits a couple of rows over and you on a couple of occasions give her the stink eye. For the most part she can't see you though you're pretty sure she catches you at least once. If she does she doesn't say anything when she walks by you after class lets out though when does she ever? Getting more than six words out of her is like pulling teeth and with her quiet nature and steely gaze she comes off as rather cold.
English is nothing much either. Though Hannah actually enjoys much of the old works she doesn't much care for the actual class itself and finds Mr. Montague to be a bore. It's a shame Hagerman doesn't teach the class instead. Young, handsome, sharp, probably poetic too. The kind of guy someone like Tim Gerard wishes he could be. So you power through the class until school finally lets out.
* * * * *
You're a little bit closer to the school entrance than Evie so you have to wait a couple of impatient minutes before she finally shows up. Lindsay must have wanted to catch up to her about something because the two are chatting as they exit the building. They don't seem to notice you so you decide to call out. "Hey Evie," you exclaim as you walk up to her.
"Uh, what do you want," Lindsay asks as she does nothing to hide her disgust.
It's a look that maybe is goofier than she intends it to be. Lindsay isn't a bad looking girl really. There's some padding to her in some nice places like her legs, wrapped tightly in jeans, and what shape her upper body might have is hidden by a loose-fitting sweatshirt though from your time as Evie you know there's not much there yet; she's shaped almost like a partially deflated Lin Pol. Her face stands out: her nose is small and turns up in a way that's rather cute. Her cheeks are puffy in a way that you find adorable as well as it gives her a cherubic appearance. Of course that face is covered by glasses which could stand to be a more fashionable variety and hair that hangs loosely in bangs and a ponytail around her head with no volume.
With a bit of a makeover and care devoted to her appearance she would look much nicer even having not filled out yet. But her personality seems to lack the capacity to care about what she probably deems as something "trivial" so your thoughts turn from what she could be to what she is. And to Hannah, what she is is a pest.
"Nobody asked you, hobbit," you tell her. "But if you have to know know I need to talk to Evie for a minute."
"Why? Just to run her down some more," Lindsay challenges. "Besides, she's my ride."
Evie, however, plays it diplomatically. "I'll be back in a minute or two Lindsay, okay," she reassures her friend. The pair of you talk away a bit until there are few people around. "So what'd you need to speak to me about," she asks.
"I talked to Luz at lunch," you tell her. "Her and Anita are pissed about what happened on Sunday between you and Hannah."
"Well that wasn't my fault," she declares defensively.
"Yeah, I know, but that's more on Hannah... on me, now, I guess," you say. "Coach wants dead weight to get cut loose at some point and if you don't start showing improvement then you're gone."
Evie's eyes go wide, "What? But... I try! I try so hard!"
"Yeah, I know, but it is what it is," you state. "But this comes back onto me too. Because they think it's Hannah's fault you're not progressing like you should and if you don't get to a point where they feel comfortable with you on the team then I'm gone too."
You can see how that hits her like a ton of bricks. "But... you were supposed to help me," she exclaims, "That's the entire reason you..."
"I know," you state as you put an arm around her, "and I intend to. After getting Hannah this morning I've been telling people I agreed to start helping you improve. And I am, but not solely due to practice."
"How are you..."
You cut her off once more. "Part of what lets you impersonate people with these things is a band attached to the inside that copies the mind," you say. "I told you that already. So what I intend to do is grab one of those bands and smack it on someone. Get it on Anita or Bonny or Dominique or someone and give it to you."
"That's..." she trails off. "You'd want me to have one of those? I'd have to put it on and I'd have Anita's brain in there too? Wouldn't that be, I dunno, really confusing? And weird and kind of like invasion of privacy and whatever?"
"You have to sort things out at first but once you do it's not confusing at all," you tell her. "So if you have Anita's brain then you have her skills. You could play like her or you'd know how to play in a way that'd suit you because you'd have her knowledge. So what do you say?"
Evie bites her lip and god is it adorable. "I don't... it's just so weird," she says. "But... no. I don't want to get kicked off. So... I guess... I guess I'll try it," she finally says. "But if I don't like it then I can stop right?"
"Absolutely," you smile at her. "Then we'll have to do things the old fashioned way. Either way your stock is gonna shoot way up."
* * * * *
After talking with Evie and getting her to agree to your plan, you send her back to Lindsay and head to your own car so you can drive back to the school. Before you pulled out of the parking lot you texted Caleb and told him to meet you there so you could drop off the mask. You don't tell him it's Luz, he probably doesn't know who she is anyway, but you figure he'll find the surprise pleasant enough. That should put you back in his good graces and make it easy to get him to go with your attempts at making him more palatable to the snobbish set as a romantic partner for Brooke or Eva or whoever.
More importantly, however, you need to pick up one of the blank mind bands. You're still undecided who you should use it on. Getting Anita or Bonny might be difficult. Dominique would be a little easier. Gabriela plays up front like Evie does and wouldn't be too hard. But you're struck by an idea. You'd mentioned the name before but why not Marc?
Marc's one of the best players on the boys' squad so she'd definitely improve with his mind. And there's the bonus of knowing how he'd think, his likes and dislikes, all of that. He would be an open book for Evie once she got the hang of leafing through it. You could get him easily too. You're meeting him up at Balducci's for a slice of pizza and you hope that can lead to a little alone time. You could then easily hit him with the band and give that to Evie.
But you're also a bit put off by that. Evie found the idea of using Anita's brain weird enough. She'd probably be even more weirded out at having Marc's brain in her head and may reject it outright. Hannah's mind, as well, is repulsed by the idea. Maybe it's better to just pass up the easy option.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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