The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Keith's Confliction

Previously: "Konspiracy with Keith" 

[Text by rugal b.]

"So Cindy and another girl," you ask Keith as you take a sip of your coffee. "Is there anyone in particular that you have in mind?"

"Well, no, I haven't thought that far ahead," he says while shifting nervously.

"So how does it work then," you ask and again it's just more uncomfortable shifting. "So, what, one of us takes Cindy and then just breaks up with Javits?"

"That's... no," he replies. "That's too easy for him. He'll probably just bounce back if you do that. There's probably girls lined up to suck his dick if he were suddenly available."

"Probably true but then how about this?" You begin tapping the table anxiously. You don't know what you're going to say and just kind of blurted something out to reassure him.

"Yeah," is all he can ask.

"Ugh, god I'm trying to think," you continue tapping. "So okay, girls think he's attractive right? I mean he is too -- and I know that's painful to hear but it's true -- but good looks are only going to get someone so far I think."

"So what are you saying?"

You can feel your face turning serious as you think. "So we make it so that he doesn't seem like a good catch," you finally say. "Think of girls that could spread rumors about him or otherwise make him look bad."

"I see," Keith says as he finally perks up. "Alright so Cindy knows Deanna Showalter right? So we get Cindy and Deanna, then Cindy complains about Javits to Deanna who then spreads it around. Something like that?"

"More or less," you say, "Though it doesn't have to necessarily be that. But that's what I mean. We stop and we think long and hard about girls in a position of knowing Cindy or girls in general who might work best to get Javits into trouble." Your face lights up as you go. "Right, yeah, and with one of us in as Cindy things are guaranteed to go south for him real quick."

"See, now that's a great idea," Keith says and he seems to be in much higher spirits than he was earlier. "But then who gets to play Cindy?"

"What do you mean 'who gets to play Cindy'," you ask.

"Well, I mean, I was kind of hoping to," he mutters and it's back to engaging in little nervous movements.

"You," you exclaim. "Sorry but I figured, you know, that'd be hard given --"

"I know, I know!" He takes a sip of his own coffee and sits there quietly for a moment. "It's sitting there in my head. If I'm Cindy then I'm going to have to be his..." he squirms at the thought, "his girlfriend. That means I'll probably have to hug him and kiss him and call him pet names and suck his dick."

"And you're willing to do that?"

"No," he exclaims. "Well, maybe I am. I don't like it but... but," he's breaths are coming heavier, now, and more rapidly. "But if I have to do it I have to do it."

"If it's kicking your anxiety up that much I can do it," you tell him reassuringly. "You can be whoever and I'll be Cindy and suck Javits's dick."

Keith, his spirits having picked up once more at that, laughs. "Yeah, okay, and when you're not sucking him off you can just, you know, suck," he says as he mimes hefting up and sucking on a pair of breasts.

"You really think I'd do that," you ask indignantly.

"It's what I'd do," he grins.

"Then no I wouldn't be doing that," you tell him.

You continue your conversation with him and soon it drifts from Cindy and replacements to general chatter. Once you're finished and leave, however, the matter of who gets to be Cindy is still unresolved. You both agree that you'll think it over tonight and when you see each other in the morning you'll have an answer.

* * * * *

At home your father catches you before you even reach the stairs. He asks you about this supposed "extra credit assignment" and you tell him that a couple of friends have a video review series online and that Mr. Hawks, who teaches your Film as Literature class, is giving extra credit to students who appear in it and are able to give a reasonable critique of a movie. Your father eyes you skeptically for a moment but seems to buy it but not quite accept it as he shakes his head muttering about how he doesn't get how people watch those online videos.

That doesn't surprise you too much though; he's an older guy and practically-minded. The type of person who probably wouldn't get the appeal. Though until this afternoon you didn't get the appeal either so you're not one to talk.

You tell him that you have some homework to do and, accepting that as well, finally lets you go. Once you're in the room you decide to distract yourself from the day's events and to do that you decide to actually be diligent and get started on some math homework. However it's in the middle of doing it that you get a text from Keith.

hey man u near ur laptop?

yeah, you type out the quick reply.

cool! fairfax sent me something & i sent it ur way
he said he wanted us to look it over cuz he wants to start ASAP
so look it over when u get the chance

You decide that now's as good a time as any for a break from the tedium of calculus so you open up your laptop and head to your email where you see one from Keith with a couple of attachments: Fairfax made them. Check them out, is all the simple message says.

It's a couple of pages worth of diagrams listing off a bunch of students. Most are in the senior class, there's a few in the lower levels as well. It's also pretty much all girls. Rings with labels -- Cheerleaders, Bohemians, Athletes and the like -- fill the pages. Lines go this way and that as names are shown in one label then shown in another to indicate connections. As you see those connections some of them surprise you.

Because of your conversation with Keith you're eyes are drawn to Cindy Vredenburg's name. There are the cheerleaders, of course, but there are also other connections. Jenny Ashton is one name you see which doesn't surprise you, both meanwhile are connected to Ellie Kemp who's listed under the athletes and the word "volleyball" written in parentheses next to her name. Wait, there's a volleyball team? Putting that aside, Cindy is also connected to swim team members like Bethany Lewis and Jamie Bornholm.

Under the swimmers you see Bethany Lewis connected to names you can't quite place like Jordana Trujillo or Nancy Trent who are listed as Stoners/Outsiders. Andrea Varnsworth shares a connection with some of the BoHo group with names like Fatima Zahedi and Jelena Petrovic. Those names are connected to other names like Mia DeWitt, who you share second period with, who are in turn connected who's connected with Mindy McAdams who seems to be connected with everyone.

On and on it goes and eventually you decide to write down names that you start to think might be useful and who Fairfax probably wouldn't object to due to connections, even if obliquely, to Cindy or rings connected to the Cheerleader ring that sits majestically at the center of the whole thing.

* * * * *

You meet up with Keith in the parking lot once you get to school and he tells you that they're going to detour by the gym first as that's where Fairfax wants to meet up and talk with you. Keith then asks if you've decided on who you're going to be and you tell him that you haven't. You return the question and he says he has some idea and he's written them down. You say you've done the same. So the both of you decide to pull out lists and compare.

Many names are the same: Anita Nuevo, Kristy Suffolk, Olivia Byrne and Kelsey Blankenship are some of them. Others are different however. On your list are names like Jenny, Stephanie Wyatt, Amanda Ferguson and Tara Weston among others. On Keith's are Fatima, Ellie (who he says he's seen with Cindy off and on), Victoria Rodriguez, etc. But with all of that Keith heavily intimates that it's Cindy he truly wants.

It's a list you'll have to narrow down as when you approach the gym Fairfax pushes himself off of the wall to greet you and it's right to business. "Who did you pick," he asks in that calm, serious voice in lieu of a proper greeting.

"Straight to the point," you say. "Anyway Keith and myself decided that Cindy Vredenburg is going to be one of them."

"Cindy," Fairfax asks as he gets a thoughtful look on his face.

"It gives us a chance to see how the basketball team acts, how info is filtered out to the various gossip hounds and gives us a bird's eye view on being able to see the top rivalry in the school," you tell him.

"And that's all great, Will. They're points I've considered," he tells you. "But you only said Cindy is 'one of them'. Who's the other? Ignoring that you never actually said which of you will get Cindy."

Next: "Cindy for the Win" 

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