The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

With Friends Like These

Previously: "New Bosses, Practically the Same as the Old Bosses" 

"I was thinking about Carson," you tell Caleb. "You know. Ioeger."

"What about him?"

"Well ... Swapping places with him. Becoming him."

Caleb's mouth falls open. "What?"

"Anything wrong with that?"

"Well, plenty," he says, sounding flustered. "But I mean, even aside from— Carson?"

"Or James. Maybe Paul. One of those guys, you know." Or Jenny, you add to yourself.

The eyes in Seth Javits's horsey face bug out. "Why?"

"I dunno, man," you sigh. "Maybe to piss you off? Piss Patterson off?"

Caleb blinks hard a couple of times, then shakes his head to clear it. "Are you just fucking with me now?"

"No, I'm thinking— Well, Carson and them are, like, Patterson's enemies. Of him and Gordon and, uh, Seth."

"Yeah." Caleb makes a face. "Tell me about it."

"Well, wouldn't it be kind of, um— Well, if one of them, if Carson, say, was secretly on the team—"

"Oh, no," Caleb moans. "You're not thinking of fucking Carson over just to get in good with Patterson, are you?"

"Well—"

"Because that would be—"

He cuts himself off with a frown, though, before finishing the thought. You wait for him to say something as his distant stare grows more and more intense.

But when he speaks again, it's only to say, "Lemme think about it."

"What's there to think about?" you demand. "Isn't it my choice?"

"Yeah, but—"

He catches himself again, then shrugs.

"You've got to get to class, man," he says, and seizes you by the shoulder. "And give it some more thought. I'm serious. Patterson and them are over at Eastman now. Not much point in—"

But again he cuts himself off, and turns thoughtful.

* * * * *

To "give it some more thought," you decide to have lunch with Carson and his friends. Keith is eager to follow along, but he's less than keen when golem-Caleb also tags along. (And, truth to tell, you're not that keen to have him along either.)

Carson and James seem happy to see you for once—usually they give the impression that they are only indulging your company. You're chagrined when you discover they have an ulterior purpose in welcoming you onto the quad in front of the school, where they are spread out over the grass.

"So I heard you had a date with Javits this morning," Carson says. He fixes you with a bright eye. "What are you getting chummy with him for?"

"What are you talking about?" you ask.

"Don't trying bluffing us," James says. "He was using you in the hallways like a snowplow."

"Oh. It's on account of I had a run-in with him before school," you say. It doesn't please you that you were seen, but it seems best to be as honest as you can with them.

"Are you trying to get between us and him?" Carson asks. He flops onto his side and tears a bite out of his sandwich. "You know him and us got something special going."

"And one of these days," says Jenny Ashton, who has been sitting quietly and reading her cell phone, "Cindy's going to get in the middle of it too. She's gonna kick your asses herself if you don't start leaving her boyfriend alone."

"That'll be awesome," James chortles. "Javits hiding behind his girlfriend's skirts."

"Behind her oh-so-short-short skirts," Carson adds in a dreamy voice. "Ashton," he says in louder honk when she raises her face long enough to give him a murderous glare, "you need to talk her into wearing that pink miniskirt to school again. Last time she wore that to school, I had a five-hour boner. Ow!" he cries as she smacks him in the head.

"Consult a physician if symptoms persist," Jenny growls as she turns her attention back to her phone.

"Is that Yumi?" Paul Davis asks Jenny. Of the kids you're sitting with, he's the quietest, and sometimes you're not sure he's really friends with them at all.

"Yes," Jenny says. Then she adds, "No, she's not coming out" when Paul opens his mouth to ask another question. He shuts it, and sags. He comes alive again, though, when Jenny says, "I'm meeting her after school, you can come along with us."

"Can I come too?" Keith says.

"How come?" James demands of him.

"Because how come not?"

"But you and Javits," Carson says, speaking over the tedious argument that now breaks out between Tilley and Lamont, "what did you have a run-in with him about?"

"He caught me in the gym before class."

"What were you doing in the gym before class?"

You don't answer him right away. Keith is asking where Jenny and Yumi are going, and James is telling him that it's none of his business as he hasn't been invited along. Jenny shuts them both up by loudly announcing that none of them have any business going along with her and Yumi, but anyone is welcome to show up if they want.

So Carson has to ask you a second time what were you doing in the gym. "I was sneaking around the fuck room," you tell him.

The reaction—from everyone—is the last thing that you were expecting. Every head—Jenny's, Carson's, James's, Paul's, Keith's, and even golem-Caleb's—swings in your direction. "The fuck?" James demands.

"I was just fucking around," you stammer, and you feel yourself redden. "You know. Testing out the door knob. Casing the joint."

"Before class?" James's jaw drops open. "With the whole basketball team down on the court?"

"Will, do you have a death wish?" Jenny asks. "Seriously. Do you need counseling?"

But your retort is interrupted by Carson.

"Up," he tells you as he leaps to his feet. "Get up, Prescott," he barks as he nudges and kicks at you. "I don't have—"

You bat at him and protest, but he won't take No for an answer, and when James joins him at trying to pull you up, you give up and let them hustle you, pinned between them, toward the music annex.

"Are you fucking out of your mind?" Carson asks when they've got you to themselves, pressed into a corner.

"It does sound like attempted suicide," James concurs.

"What's the matter with you?" you demand. "You mad I'm horning in on your business? You guys are always—"

"We know what we're doing, Prescott," Carson barks. "You're gonna wind up finding out what Gordon's sneakers taste like."

"He's gonna put a foot so far up your ass," James says, "you'll be able to taste it on the back of your tongue."

These warnings still carry enough of the old weight that they give you a shiver, even though you know they are out of date for you.

Still, you are stung deeply enough that you can't let them pass. "Just because you guys are too chicken-shit to—"

"We're not chicken-shit," Carson says, "we're smart."

"And we don't go barging around the door to the loft when we want to know what—"

Carson punches James in the arm, and his face is pale with anger. A surprised silence settles over your trio. Then James bites his lip and hangs his head.

"The point is, Prescott," Carson says, "that you're a nice little kid, and no one wants to see you hurt. No one that has your best interests at heart, I mean. Black and Javits, though—"

"Oh, fuck you guys!"

"What are you suddenly so interested in them for?" James demands. "Is there something going on with them that you've suddenly got wind of?"

Carson's eyes go wide, and his grip on your shoulder hardens until you wince.

"I don't know nothing," you snarl as you writhe out of Carson's grasp. "I was just—"

"Bullshit. We got our own ways of learning stuff," Carson says, "but you'd save James and me a lot of bother and aggravation if you told us. You'd also save yourself an ass-kicking after we found out what you were holding out on us."

* * * * *

It's another five minutes before you're able to escape them without spilling anything. But they are definitely on the alert, you can tell.

You're more worried, though, by their hints that they have special ways of "finding out" what Patterson and his friends are up to, and you are now determined to infiltrate their little gang. The best way, you figure, is by adopting the identity of:

That's all for now.

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