The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

Orchestrating a New Plan

Previously: "Gimme Space" 

It's probably just as well that Caleb took so long getting back to you. You took advantage of the empty afternoon between the end of basketball practice and suppertime by going up into the fuck room and rummaging through the mask collection. You needed ideas for where to infiltrate the orchestra, and you found them in Eva Garner's mask.

Still, it took you a surprisingly long time, as you lounged on the crusty old gym mats, playing with your boobs, before you figured out what you needed to do and how you should go about doing it. You started by using Eva's own instincts to tell you who in the orchestra was hot and likely to get lots of pussy. Eventually, though, you realized that, if you were going to copy lots of girls into masks, you would be best off striking from inside the mask of a girl yourself—girls are more likely to hang out with each other, and to lower their guards around them.

Even then, it took you awhile to endorse the idea—it is too easy to imagine Patterson and the others mocking you as "gay" or worse for wanting to adopt a girl as your identity. It was only when you remembered how Patterson promised you "two exclusive identities" that you settled on a plan. You'd pick a guy to be one of your "permanent" identities, and tell everyone else that the girl was who you'd use to steal faces for the gang. You might still get some teasing, but it would be better than if you just gave them the name of a girl when they asked where to find you.

But it still left you with a choice of whether to start off with a male identity or a female identity.

Your first and easiest choices were for Audrey Briscoe and Danielle Davis, two girls with lots of friends in the tonier precincts of the school. Audrey is a toothy girl who was on the track team until last year, when she switched her focus to concentrate on music. (She sings in the Chorale in addition to playing in the orchestra.) She has lots of friends, not just of her own but those that she has started hanging out with since she started to date Mitchell Belz. Danielle, meanwhile, is a very pretty black girl from an upper-middle class family.

You also gave lots of thought to Kennedy Palmer, who is a studious and serious girl down in the junior class. She seems exactly like the kind of officious busybody, like Kelsey Blankenship, who would have lots of friends to boss around. But Eva has the impression that she's pissed a lot of people off. A better choice might be Naomi Batson, another girl in the junior class who has a pushy personality, but who has a much plainer face and a fatter figure.

If you wanted to start off with a male impersonation, though, there's only one real choice in the orchestra: Nathan Cruz, who is the first violinist. This gives him a lot of sway on the orchestra—which you could use to get at any of the girls—but he has another life as a member of the swim team, which would get you close to a lot of sexy girls. But Nathan is an asshole, and you're not sure he would have a lot of friends, or that it he would be a very happy home for yourself.

After settling on these, you took Eva's mask off and went home for dinner. At home, you let your own instincts then come to the fore, and later one, up in your bedroom, you came to a decision on where you should start.

So when you call Caleb back at Seth's number, you're ready to tell him that you've settled on:

That's all for now.

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 3)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)"