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A high school student finds a grimoire that shows how to make magical disguises. |
Previously: "Cody Shows the Way"  For a long moment, no one moves or says anything. Cody also remains frozen, his shirt held out to you and the others. Finally, Caleb reaches out and takes it. "Dude!" Keith cries out. "I was gonna do it!" "Then you should'a said something first," Caleb retorts. He shoots a quick glare at you likewise. "So what's the story?" he asks Cody as he shakes out the shirt. "You should know after you get changed out with me," he replies. "But basically, I'm supposed to go pick Frida up in thirty minutes, and we're gonna go hang out someplace. Her choice, since Cody doesn't really know the town." "Cool. I'll ask if there's a place by the river, or maybe a rock quarry, where we can hang out." "What are you gonna do for a car?" you ask Caleb. You're not a whiny little bitch like Keith—at least, you hope you're not—but you are feeling peevish. "Use my own." "You don't got a license. I mean, Cody doesn't." "Like it matters," Caleb snorts. He turns to Cody. "Should I take you home now? You can change in the back seat on the way, and then I can—" "Makes sense." To you Cody says, "Is there anything your 'cousin' needs to know before he heads out?" "Just that he got busted for smoking weed in my back yard," you mutter. "Also, he's flunking all his classes back in Memphis or wherever." Caleb gives you a look, then rolls his eyes. * * * * * You and Keith hang out at the school a little longer after Caleb and Teresa have left. "Fuckin' A, man," Keith mutters. "Can you believe this shit? Fuck, I wanted to go out, but Johansson manages to—" "You should've volunteered first." "I was gonna! Only I didn't wanna, you know, look like I was desperate!" "Well, good job not looking desperate, then. You get to hang out with me, and Caleb gets a date with that Frida girl." "Yeah, well," Keith sniffs. "She's not all that." "Then why did you want to—? Oh, never mind." "Dude, I'd do her anyway. And if I didn't have to see her again? Because, you know, I have to go back to Memphis? Oh, fuck me, this is so perfect for Johansson!" He's right, Teresa has basically set it up so Caleb gets one night with a girl and no consequences. He can even meet up with Frida afterward, under his own face, and use his "friendship" with Cody to leverage something else with her. Or with Lori or Esty, if he wants. But instead of feeling bitter about the missed opportunity you try to think past tonight and into the future. If it works with Caleb, couldn't it work with you? Except not as "Cody" but as another semi-anonymous visitor from out of town? Why can't the trick be repeated with a different mask and different girls? You're sitting on the hood of your truck, but you slide off to return to the basement. It's dark, and you have to risk breaking your neck as you go down the stairs, guided only by the light from your phone. Keith follows, asking what you're doing, but you don't answer until you are searching through the drawers and cabinets where you think you stored all the stuff you've made. You find them, finally: five masks that you and your friends made so long ago (it seems) but never finished polishing. You pick one up, then hand it to Keith. "You got a car buffer at home?" you ask. "Sure," he says. "It's how we been making these things, remember? What do you wanna do?" he asks. "I dunno. But I wanna be ready to do something, whatever we do." "We got lots of masks already." "Yeah, but we don't got masks like one of 'Cody'. Masks we can use like— Like Caleb's using his for." "Dude," Keith drawls. "I don't need no mask to go pick sum'n up like Johansson's doing." "Then why don't you ever?" you demand. "Why were you bitching that you wanted Cody's face to go score with?" Keith opens his mouth to reply, then claps it shut. "Oh, fine," he grumbles. "I'll make one, but only 'cos you're gonna make one an' you're gonna want someone to hold your hand when you go out and try to score." "No I won't," you retort as you shove your way through a couple of more drawers, looking for some of the metal doohickeys. When you can't find any, you push a second mask at Keith. "Here, you polish up two of these, one for each of us," you tell him. "I'm gonna—" "How come I gotta do all the work?" "I'm telling you, you work on those, and I'm going to make us up a couple of those metal doodads to go with them." "What we want those for?" "For personalities. You think Teresa was being herself when she talked to those girls? You think Caleb's being himself right now with Frida? I'm— We're gonna need, you know, a personality to go with them." "I don't need no 'personality' to make it with a girl," Keith sneers. "Except my own." "Well I'll make you up a doodad anyway," you retort, "for when you realize your repulsive personality isn't gonna do you any favors." "Fuck you." But as you feel around for the stuff you need to make more of the memory strips— "Crap!" you exclaim. "What?" "We need the book. To make the doodads." "I told you, I don't need one." "Yes you do, but we can't make one." "So what are we gonna do with these?" He juggles the masks at you. You think a moment. "Give me one. Or no, I'll just take two more and— Shit. Well, I'll polish up two if you polish up two. So we'll have them ready to go." "For what?" Keith asks. "For stuff!" you scream. "What were we just talking about doing with them?" "I think we were talking about using them copy some guys," Keith says. "Except it was you saying that, an' I was sayin' I don't need to copy some other guy to go out an' score." "So what do you want to do with them?" Keith gives you a look. "Okay, fine, maybe we'll do that with them," you say. "But we'll do something with them, and then we'll be ready to do it when we're ready." * * * * * The day's and evening's events have been enough to leave you frazzle-headed, but worse is waiting when you get home. As you're heading up the stairs, your mom calls you back down. "I think one of your school friends dropped by this afternoon while you were out," she says. "At least I think he was one of your friends. He wasn't looking for you, though." "So who was he looking for?" "A girl named Mickey." A frown of curiosity shows on her face. Your heart thuds once, very hard, then seems to go dead. "Well, there's no one lives here named Mickey," you stammer. "I know that, Will. I just thought you might know what it was all about." "Not a clue," you reply as you struggle to maintain a poker face. "Must've got a wrong address." "That's what I told him. I just wondered if you might've known who he was or who he was looking for. He said his name was Micah." "Nope, not a clue." You turn and run up the stairs before your face can have a chance to betray you. * * * * * You are exhausted when you drag yourself from bed the next morning, for in addition to the two hours work with the car buffer, you had homework to do, and had to stay up past midnight to get it all done. You have a slight headache when you get to Walberg's class, and your mood isn't improved by the smug smile on Caleb's face. "What the hell are you grinning at?" you demand, as though you can't guess. "Frida," he says. "That girl's a little tigress when she gets going." "Shut up, I don't want to hear about it." "Okay, I'll save it for lunch. I want Tilley to hear about it too." So you warn Keith when you see him in second period, and you agree that today will be one of the days you eat lunch out front with Carson Ioeger and his friends, so that Caleb won't be able to brag to you guys about what he did on his date. It also means, though, that you and your friends get to introduce Carson and them to Teresa when she joins you. "So how'd you start hanging out with this girl?" Carson asks as you're going back inside for sixth period. It seems like he's following you, because he never goes inside with you, or goes the same way, as he is doing now. "Oh, we just bumped into her after school one day." "You hang out with her outside of school?" "Oh, sometimes." "When? Doing what?" Hackles of fear ripple up and down your back. "Oh, just hanging out. Like, if we wanna go hang out at a coffee shop. Like the way Jenny hangs out with you guys," you add with what feels to you like a stroke of ingenuity. "Huh. Well, that's interesting." "Why's it interesting?" you ask, even though you know it's a bad idea to extend the subject. "Because there's this weird sexual chemistry starts up when Jenny's around with us." He smiles plumply at you. You glare daggers back at him. He just laughs and moves on. * * * * * Keith finds you immediately after the final bell, to ask how you want to "git 'er done." But you have no answer for him, for your talk with Carson has reminded you of how you first met Teresa, and of the danger of ambushing people at school. If you're going to do it, maybe you should do it tomorrow, bringing some disguises with you. But you are also thinking how easy it would be to lure Micah Larsen into an ambush. Next: "Caleb Gets In the Way" |
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