The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Party Surprises

Previously: "The Switch Back" 

Want to meet somewhere and drive out to Jenny's together?

That's the question that Phoebe Beauchamp is asking in a private x2z chat. Mikaela Bowers wants to know what time everyone would meet, and Dani Sumner wants to know what time people are planning to stay out to.

You have to catch your breath sharply when you realize what they're talking about, and your next, panicked thought is, Oh my God, I totally missed today's game! Anita will kill me! Even after you recall who you are and where you are, and why there's totally no reason to panic, you feel ill and a little shaky. Missing that game would have been only, like, the worst thing ever!

Because today (Saturday) was the day for an exhibition soccer match, the Westside girls' varsity soccer team (the Dragons) against the Eastman girls' varsity soccer team (the Eagles). A "friendly" game, as a fundraiser, but still deadly serious as all cross-town rivalries are. Josie, of course, wouldn't have missed it. The reason you don't remember being at the game, of course, is that Josie's mask is out of date.

Anyway, that's what this party is about. Jenny Taylor, the captain of the Eastman team, is throwing a party at her house tonight, and it is supposed to be another "cross-town" thing: all the girls from both teams getting together, bringing all their friends along, so that everyone can have fun after the game.

Trouble is, most of the girls on the Westside team are talking like they're going out to the Warehouse instead.

Maybe you're just too nervous about going to the Warehouse (which has a bad and dangerous reputation), but you tell yourself that you need to act like Josie, and that Josie would have shown team spirit by making a point of showing up to Jenny's.

* * * * *

There's a lot of argument in the chat about whether it would be bad form or school pride to wear team uniforms to Jenny's, and it's nearly eight o'clock before you and the other girls settle on wearing clean jerseys with jeans, and on carpooling out. By that time, you've finished getting ready.

You do your best not to get excited—or even to pay attention to what you're doing—as you shower. But it's hard. Josie has firm, squeezable breasts, and a soft tummy, and strong, shapely legs. Also, an ass that is perfectly shaped for cupping. But you keep it as business-like as you can as you soap and sponge yourself all over, enjoying the hot water as it flows over you and inside every crevice. She'll never know what kind of fun you're having, a voice whispers in the back of your head. Hell, she's probably expecting you to! But it's a thought that leaves you feeling like a pervert, and you thrust it behind you. Josie is trusting you with a copy of her body, and the best way to repay that trust is by not abusing it. Even if she never could know you didn't abuse it.

Josie is sensitive about the appearance of her skin, so you spend a lot of time with the make-up, getting the shine off and the blemishes covered while trying to preserve a "natural" look. You dry your hair—which is a mocha-brown, and has a ton of body—with a hand dryer and a brush until it is big and fluffy and bounces firmly atop your shoulders. You're going to a party, not on a date, so you stick to deodorant (no perfume), friendship bracelets (no jewelry), and sneakers (but a new pair, still bright and clean).

God, I make a sexy tomboy! you think as you turn and admire yourself in the mirror. I'm adorable! I'd just love to grab me and pull me close and kiss me all over and—!

And somehow, when you're not paying close attention, the fantasy segues into one of a guy pulling you into an embrace and kissing you all over.

It's never happened to Josie, though she's come close at least half a dozen times. Each time, though, it's been one of the handsy jocks—Laurent Delacroix or Alec Brown; James Bridges or Brian Kelly; Ryan Ness or Dylan Lloyd or Marcus Ansell—trying to push her into a corner. But always Josie has managed to slither out and away.

Why is it never one of the nice, sweet, brainy guys? you wonder as you're carried away by one of Josie's more regular trains of thought. Why is it never Luke Richardson or Fred Hildown or Nicholas Gray or Preston Spinks or ...

Or Philip Fairfax?

That's the stop where you get off.

I don't want to think about how Philip Fairfax gets my hoohah excited, you tell yourself as you pack up your phone and a few other accessories. And I definitely don't want to think about how Will Prescott ... doesn't.

* * * * *

"So what time is Hannah showing up?" you ask Phoebe.

It's nearly ten, and the ace troublemaker on the Westside team—and the reason most of them ditched this party—is nowhere to be seen.

Not that you miss her. It's a great party, and one that Hannah could probably only screw up with her presence.

Jenny Taylor lives on the northeast side of town, on the other side of the mall, in a nice, quiet residential neighborhood, in a low-slung ranch house. The place is not very big, and the day was sunny and warm, so most of it being held out back, where a large deck takes up most of a leafy yard. Those inside are there to dance to music that is quietly playing, or to hang out in the kitchen close to the snacks and (non-alcoholic) drinks.

So as a party, it's nice. As a way to emphasize the "friendly" in "friendly cross-town rivalry," though, it's a bust. Only four members of the WHS girls' squad—you, Mikaela Bowers, Phoebe Beauchamp, and Dani Sumner—showed up. And there's hardly anyone from Westside that your recognize, except some members of the baseball team, who probably showed up only because they're friends of Dani.

That Anita Nuevo, Westside's own squad captain, is missing is especially glaring. But it's Hannah's absence that is really galling. Anita and the others went out to the Warehouse, almost certainly so they could avoid seeing Hannah here. So for Hannah to not even show up— Well, it makes Anita and the others look even more childish.

It's got to be annoying for Jenny as well. After all, Hannah was on the Eastman team with Jenny up until this year. It's a total diss for her to skip out.

But Phoebe isn't listening to you. You're out on the back deck with your cups of punch, standing under a blazing tiki torch, and she's staring down into the back yard with an intense look on her face. You follow her glance, but all you can see are a bunch of Eastman students, most of them in letterman jackets despite the warmth of the evening.

"Phoebe," you prompt her. She tilts her head, but otherwise doesn't react.

"Your friend's pretty distracted," says a voice behind you, and you jump. "Sorry," says the speaker.

He's tall and dark and quite good-looking. So Josie would think, and you'd have to acknowledge. His smile is pleasant and friendly. And—this is a plus—he's dressed in khakis and a soft, green-and-white hoodie rather than a letterman jacket. You'd spotted him earlier out of the corner of your eye a couple of times, and you aren't at all unhappy that he's come over to talk.

"Yeah, she gets this way," you reply, and nudge Phoebe in the arm. She glances over, just long enough to take you and your new friend in, then goes back to staring. "You'd think she'd never seen a guy in a letterman jacket before."

His smile widens even as the rest of his face relaxes. "You guys did good today," he says. "Heartbreaker for you at the last minute."

"Yeah," you drawl. You made sure to find out earlier (by texting Josie) how the exhibition game went. Eastman won, at the last moment, 3 to 2. Josie herself scored one of Westside's two goals, so you smile with modest gratitude when he congratulates you on the play. "My name's Geoff," he says, and puts out his hand. "Geoff Dunholm."

"Josie Holden. This is Phoebe." You nudge your friend again. "She was out there too."

"I saw her," Geoff says, but he doesn't take his eyes off you. "She wasn't as good as you, though."

Don't come onto me so hard, you want to warn him. You look good, but—

But then your eye falls onto the white emblem embroidered into his hoodie, over his heart: EHS Debate Team. "You're on the debate team?" you ask, idiotically.

He glances down at the patch. "Yeah. This is the closest I can get to a letterman jacket."

"But you came out this party, you must be good at some sport."

The light in his eyes cools, so much that you want to kick yourself. "I got friends," he says. "Like Jenny and Kyle."

"So what are you good at?" you ask him.

* * * * *

And that's how you fall into a long, fun and easy conversation with Geoff Dunholm, most of it carried out inside, the two of you perched on the corner of a sofa. You learn that he's smart (he's taking AP classes); funny (with a dry wit); has lots of friends (you're interrupted constantly by a stream of people who have something to say to him); and has a talent for getting more and more handsome the longer you talk.

Oh God, this guy is perfect! you wind up thinking. Perfect for Josie, you correct yourself.

So when eleven-fifteen brings a text from Will Prescott, hectoring you to meet him someplace, you're sorely tempted (for Josie's sake) to tell him you'll see him tomorrow.

That's all for now.

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"