The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Konspiracy with Keith

Previously: "How to Hide Someone in Plain Sight" 

Cheerleaders.

That's where this "long-term plan" is centered. Fairfax has made it clear that it's his plan, and everyone else is just along for the ride. He and his three friends intend to put four of the cheerleaders on ice, and will use a set of masks to take their place.

It has to do with some kind of "sociological investigation" of the school and the way the various groups interact—Fairfax's theory is that the cheerleaders indirectly run much of the school and he wants to trace out how it works. To do that, his gang will replace Chelsea Cooper—the captain of the cheerleader squad, through whom (he says) all the orders go—with Josiah Shank, while Carlos and Mike replace Eva and Jessica Garner. He himself will impersonate the bubble-headed Maria Vasquez—a good vantage point to observe and record the "data," he says, though he also says he might change locations later.

"What if we want to impersonate someone who isn't a cheerleader?" Keith asks. Fairfax says he'd like it if Keith impersonated someone who could "contribute" to the study.

Long experience with Keith warns you that he's about to say something unfortunate, so you get up in a way that you can step on his hand. "There's time to talk about that later, right?" you say. "I gotta use the head, then I wanna see what Mike and Carlos are getting up to with that mask you made of me." Surreptitiously, you gesture Keith to follow you after Fairfax tells you there's a restroom in the complex's main office.

* * * * *

"Look, man, don't make a scene," you tell Keith when you're outside.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were going to argue with Fairfax."

"No I wasn't! I was just gonna— And where do you get off telling me how I should act with these guys? I know 'em a lot better than you!"

"So what were you going to say to him back there?" You stride along fast so that Keith has to hustle to keep up with you.

"I was just going to say that, you know, some of us aren't really into this social experiment, or whatever the fuck he thinks it is he's running. I don't think any of us are. Are you?"

"It's kind of interesting."

"Really?" Keith stops hard. "You want to put on a mask and pretend to be a cheerleader so Fairfax can write some kind of—I dunno—a fucking term paper about—" He sputters. "I mean, it's not like he can turn it into a class for extra credit!"

"No, I'm not real interested in it because of that." You resume walking, and he hurries after you. "And you're right, I can see that Mike and Carlos aren't into it either."

"Dur!"

"I know why they're going along with it, though. Because it's an excuse to get inside someone's, uh—"

You have to blink away a sudden, dizzying vision. Your brain—that treacherous supplier of wet dreams and other physiological embarrassments—has ambushed you with a vivid fantasy. For the briefest of moments you were wearing a pleated skirt—a cheerleader skirt—and hose and tight tennis shoes. Cool air was blowing up the skirt and kissing you in a spot that was hot and tender. Your legs— But they weren't your legs. They were someone else's legs. A girl's legs, and your legs were stuck inside them like they were thick hose.

You were wearing a girl's body from the waist down, encased about you like a costume.

You brush the back of your hand over your forehead as you fix the fantasy further. Pulling on her legs like pulling on tights. "So," you stammer, "you need to, uh, use this as an excuse too, in order to—"

"But what if I don't—?"

"Hang on a moment, I gotta at least pretend to use the head."

"Pretend?"

"I only said that so I could get you alone to talk. But while I'm in there, think about what you want out of this thing."

The back door to the office opens into a short hallway, one end of which dead-ends into a small restroom. The ventilation fan roars on when you turn on the light and close the door behind you.

Instead of using the toilet, though, you wash your hands and study yourself in the mirror. Your lanky arms are still brown from the summer. A few sun-darkened freckles are showing more vividly now in your face, where the tan is starting to fade. You smile uncertainly at yourself, and your lips tangle up on your big, yellowing teeth. (You need to do a better job of brushing them.) You tug at the long whiskers on your chin.

You close your eyes and try to imagine the mirror returning a different face. But whose?

Your brain, having surprised you with one fantasy, declines to supply you with another.

Fairfax's cheerleader ploy sounds interesting—it would be a wild time, that's for sure, pretending to be a cheerleader, or someone else. And you could easily go along with it, if for no other reason than that you're acutely conscious of being the "new guy" on the team. It seems best to keep on their good side.

But Keith is going to make trouble. Keith always makes trouble. That's one reason it's just you and Caleb so often, because Keith gets in these weird moods where he just mulishly has to go against everyone else.

And if Keith pisses off Fairfax and his friends, and if Keith is the one tying you to the group—

Well, there's someone back there in the climate-controlled units who is right now sitting in front of a video camera and pretending to be you. It doesn't take much imagination to think that maybe they might decide to conduct a different sociological experiment, one that requires someone to impersonate you for the rest of the semester, or the school year.

Or for a lot longer than that.

You splash some cold water on your face and put out the light.

"Yeah, so?" Keith says when you're back outside with him.

"So tell me what you want out of this project."

Keith jerks his shoulders and hangs his head.

"Look, it sounds like you want something in particular out of this. I think I know you well enough. You're always talking about the 'hot' girls and the cheerleaders. If you didn't have a better idea for yourself, you'd be yukking it up in there with Hollister and Montoya."

Keith peers at you narrowly.

"If you were in charge of this project," you continue, "if it was you, not Fairfax making the decisions, and if it was just you and me, and I said 'Keith, dude, whatever you want to do, I am on it,' what would you say?"

Keith looks past you. He shades his eyes and chews the inside of his cheek. He glances at you, then lets his eyes fall. "You'd think it's stupid."

"What, you want to be me?" You try to laugh, but he just gives you a puzzled look. "'Cos that's the only stupid idea I can come up with. Keith." You grip his arm. "Whatever it is, I wanna do it with you. You're my friend in this group, not Fairfax and them. We should do our own thing. It's just that we need to figure out a way of doing it that doesn't piss the other guys off."

Keith shoves his hands in his back pocket and kicks at the ground. He sucks on his upper lip.

"So, this stuff is, like, super powerful, you know?" he says. "You use these things, you could fuck up someone's life, fuck up their friends' lives, by pretending to be them. You know?"

"Uh huh?" Prickles go up your spine.

"You could use it get back at people."

Get back at people? His meaning begins to dawn on you.

"You know. People who've fucked you up, and who—"

"Javits," you say for him. "You want to use these things against Javits."

He looks you in the eye. His own eyes are watering.

* * * * *

Back inside the unit, you tell Fairfax that you and Keith have to take off. He frowns. "We still have to talk about—"

"Tomorrow. Anyway, we got the gist of what you want to do, but I think we might have a counterproposal for you. Something that's, uh, definitely in line with what you want to do, but is maybe a little outside the box."

"I guess that's okay," he says slowly. "But remember, we're not doing this in order to just goof off or—"

"Trust me, we'll make sure it has a legitimate, scientific angle." You grip Keith by the elbow.

"You wanna watch Carlos and Mike doing the video?" Fairfax asks. "It'll be you in there—"

"That's okay, I'll watch it when it gets uploaded. Besides, it would be kind of creepy, wouldn't it, seeing myself?"

Fairfax tugs at his lip, then shrugs. "We'd really like to get this project moving soon," he says. "We were kind of hoping that tonight—"

"If we figure out something, and, you know, we've already got some ideas, we'll call or text you tonight," you assure him. "But I do need to get home."

You just catch a look of consternation crossing Fairfax's face before you hustle Keith out the door.

Instead of going home, though, you and he land at Starbucks, where you huddle in a back corner and talk quietly over some ideas.

It starts with Keith nixing the idea of anyone impersonating Javits himself—he wants Seth to suffer indirectly. He is quite open to the idea of using Seth's girlfriend, though, to sabotage him, and also open to the idea of using another girl in conjunction with Cindy.

Finally—though this might not fly with Fairfax—an impersonation of some of Seth's basketball teammates might also give Keith what he wants.

Next: "Keith's Confliction" 

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