The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Ballsy and Ballsier

Previously: "Of Paralysis and Procrastination" 

Be assertive, you were telling yourself just now. Then why do you still have that mask, untested, in your bedroom now, if not for the fact that you have not been assertive up till now? So you pack it in your bag and strut out your bedroom with the most confident gait you can muster.

* * * * *

But just because you are feeling "assertive" doesn't mean you're feeling stupid, and when you see Lester "The Molester" Pozniak lurking on the path you usually take into the school from the parking lot, you make a wide detour to avoid him.

So although you're still trying to feel confident, a lot of the swagger has leaked from your stride when you enter Mr. Walberg's classroom. But you're still assertive enough to ask Caleb, after you're settled in, who he's asking out to the party tonight.

"Who says we're asking people out?" he replies. He glares at you, but his nose is twitching like a rabbit's.

"It's a party. Aren't we taking dates?"

"It's a cookout."

"Aren't we taking dates?" you repeat.

"Well, who said and when?" he demands.

"We were talking about it earlier this week!"

"So what we were doing was talking about it," Caleb retorts. "Talking about doing it. Did anyone ever decide to stop talking and actually do it?"

"I did."

"What?"

"Yeah. I asked Yumi out."

Caleb's eyes, which are already slightly bulbous, protrude farther from their sockets. "You did? Wha'd she say?"

"She told me to fuck off. No, of course she told me she'd come. I wouldn't've mentioned it if she'd said she wasn't coming."

"Yumi Saito is going on a date with you tonight?"

You'd love to preen, particularly as you've noticed that Dean Stratton, in the next row over, is leaning toward you with his ear practically flapping in the breeze. But you also know the kind of shit you'll get if Yumi doesn't show up, or doesn't act like your date.

"Well, okay, it's not a date," you admit. "But I told her about it, and, uh, I asked her if she wanted to go."

"To go?" Caleb echoes. His expression turns shrewd.

"Yeah, to go. As in, go out to Justin and Conor's. To their party."

"To go," Caleb says again. "With you?"

You can't help flushing. "What are you, a lawyer all of a sudden? Sure, with me," you continue recklessly. "And she'll be bringing Jessica and Eva with her."

Caleb's eyebrows go up. "Are they your dates too?"

"What do you want, for them not to show up?"

"I'm just trying to figure out if these are dates, Prescott, or—"

"What do you care? As long as there's girls there?"

A rough, resonant calls from halfway across the room. "Where's there gonna be girls?"

You do a double-take, and flinch a little. Laurent Delacroix, the captain of the wrestling team, is grinning at you from the front of the room. There's a hungry gleam in his eye.

"A party tonight," you call back.

"Where?"

"At some college guys' place."

"Cool." Laurent's grin widens. It is very white against his olive-complected face, under his inky-black hair. "Where is it?"

Caleb jumps in before you can reply. "We'll text you later when we find out."

Kelsey Blankenship, the stuck-up queen of the AP class, who has been listening too, rolls her eyes and says, "You don't know where it is?"

"We know the people, just don't know the address," Caleb shouts back.

Laurent has his phone out. "Where can I text you guys at?" You give him your number when Caleb doesn't answer.

But then later, as class is getting out, Caleb shoves you against a wall. "I can't believe you," he growls. "You just make sure not to tell Laurent where the party is, or you get the address mixed up."

"How come?"

"You want the whole fucking wrestling team, and half the football players, showing up?"

Okay, that seems like a good point.

* * * * *

And, naturally, you can't resist bragging in second period to Keith as well. "Hey, pretty good chance Yumi and Jessica and Eva Garner are gonna show up at the party tonight."

"What party?" the doofus says. Then his eyes pop. "Wait, the cookout at Conor and Justin's?"

"Yup. I texted Yumi about it last night, and it sounds like her and the other girls are in."

"Whoa. Who'dja tell 'em was gonna be there?"

"Well, us! I told 'er it was gonna be at Conor and Justin's—"

"No, I mean, who'd you tell her was gonna be there, so she decided she wanted to show up?"

You blink at him, then flip him off. "I told 'em I was gonna be there. I'd'a mentioned you, but I didn't wanna scare 'em off."

"So we're invitin' girls, huh? Mia!" he calls to a girl who is just entering the classroom. She's a curvy dish in a tight t-shirt, a trailing scarf, and a beret. You'd ogle her more often in class, but she sits far off behind you right shoulder so it's awkward to turn around. "Party tonight. You in?"

She pauses in mid-stride with a surprised look on her face. It's probably nothing on the ghastly look of shock that is probably on yours. "Party?" she says. "Where?"

"Up near campus. College guys. We're invited, and now so are you."

"Jesus," you mutter under your breath. "Dude, what are you doing?"

"Do I know them?" Mia asks.

"Conor Hutchison and Justin Carr. They graduated last year."

"Oh, yeah, I know them!" Mia exclaims. "Sure, maybe. What time? Where do they live?"

Keith punches you in the shoulder. "Er, six?" you stammer. "It's a cookout. I can send you directions if you, um, give me your phone number."

Mia rattles off her contact info, which you (and Keith, you notice) enter into your phone. "I think the guys are at work now," you tell her, "but when I get the address I'll text you." Mia nods, then sweeps on to her desk.

Keith smirks at you. "Now, what was you askin', about what was I doin'?"

* * * * *

It rattles you badly, the ... assertiveness ... that Keith showed in asking Mia to the party. First of all, it was a much ballsier move than you've been bragging on yourself about. But (worse) it makes you wonder if Yumi wasn't full of shit about that "girls like assertiveness in a guy." Oh sure, Mia said yes, but that was probably on account of she already knows and likes Conor and Justin. But if "assertiveness" was attractive, how come you doubt that Keith could get a girl just with that?

Still, you start keeping your eyes peeled in your classes for others you can invite. There's no one in your third-period class, because you don't know anyone there, but then in fourth period—

"Tilley invited someone else to the party tonight," you tell Caleb when you reconnect with him in English.

"Who, and how hideous is she?"

"She's cute. But she already knows Justin and Conor," you add when Caleb's eyebrows go up. "He just came out and asked her."

"That's usually how you ask girls out," Caleb says, dryly.

"Then why don't we do it more often?" you ask. It's a question more for yourself than Caleb. You look around. "Think we could get Catherine over there to come out? Or— No!" You groan with banked desire. "How about Andrea?" That would be the sensationally sexy captain of the school swim team.

But Caleb puts up his hand and snaps his fingers. "Hey Cassie! Cassie!"

You pale all over. "Dude, what are you—?"

"Party tonight! You're invited! Me and Will are gonna be there!"

"What did you ask Cassie for," you grumble to him later, as you're leaving for lunch.

"She's cute, available, and she was going to say yes."

"But she talks!" And talks and talks and talks and talks. She makes your ears hurt, and she made your ears hurt when she came over to chatter at you excitedly about this party you were inviting her too.

"Don't forget to text her directions, like you promised you would when she finally let you get a word in," Caleb says with a smirk.

* * * * *

You're slumping at a library table in seventh period, which is your study hall, when you remember that you still have to get that mask on someone. You suppose you'll have to try that again after school. Except you didn't get it onto anyone last time, so what makes you think you could get it onto someone this time? It's while you're mulling this that Justin replies to your text asking for an address and/or directions to his place. With a sigh you settle back and prepare to fire off texts to the people you promised directions to.

But before you can, you get a brilliant idea.

Instead of searching the school for a guinea pig, why not lure one out, with these directions as the bait?

Sure! All you have to do is send a text offering to meet the, er, test subject at some neutral location before the party. Then, when you meet, get the mask onto them! Simple!

Oh, but which of them? Laurent, Mia, or Cassie? You're still thinking it over when you go into your last period of the day, where in a wild fit of madness you invite the intimidating Stephanie Wyatt—one of the girl basketball players—to the party, and she says, "Lemme think about it." So that's a fourth.

But what if (it occurs to you) none of these decide to go to the party? Or what if they show up with friends? Maybe it would be safer and surer to target someone you know you can get alone. You're now lukewarm on trying to make Caleb or Keith a test subject. But what about Carson Ioeger?

Next: "Masking Mia" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"