The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

Choosing Cinderella

Previously: "The Advisor" 

(text by rugal)

You're not really sure what the best option of any of those would be and frankly you're not even sure if you have much in the way of a preference. Would being a guy be better? A girl? What would be the advantages and disadvantages of each? So you keep your attention on Deanna. "What do you think?" you ask her. "Tell me what you think would be the best choice."

"Honest opinion?" she asks.

"Honest opinion."

"Ms. Simeon," she says without even a moment's hesitation. "Like I said, she runs a club with some of the names you'd already given me as people you were looking at. So if they wanted to hang around or have her set up a second club... well, I doubt anyone would look sideways. And nobody's going to be dumb enough to mess with a teacher, either."

That's a good point, of course. Being Ms. Simeon, or just about any teacher, would basically be like playing with cheat codes enabled. But there's the problem of the fact that you have no idea how you would get close to her. You had her in math your freshman year when she was a newer teacher and you remember her as being younger and cute in that nerdy, mousy, and attainable sort of way. But it's not like you stood out to her; it's not like she knows you. So how to even approach her?

Maybe it's your impatience getting the better of you because you quickly dismiss the idea. "That would be difficult, so," you say before pausing. If you were a freshman you'd have an easier time grabbing her and that dovetails into thoughts of grabbing an underclassman as your identity. But how long do you plan on hanging around as the shadow ruler of the school? Would you really want to lock yourself into two, three, or even four years of this?

Well... no, not really. So that idea comes and goes as well.

"Look, senior guys or senior girls," you say. "I want you to tell me which you think is better."

Deanna gives it a brief moment of thought before speaking. "Go with a girl," she finally says.

"Why?"

"The way I see it, it's the girls who really run things around school," she answers with what you detect is a hint of arrogance. "Chelsea and Kelsey and the like have guys wrapped around their fingers, for one. And if you were a guy, you'd still have to deal with all of that macho testosterone crap."

"What's that supposed to mean?" you ask.

"I mean if you're trying to be somebody that nobody would suspect of running things, it'd probably be the type of person who can easily get on the wrong side of someone like, I don't know, Gary Chen." She pauses to let it sink in for you. "But nobody, not even a guy like him, is going to put their hands on a girl. They'll grumble and grouse but know that they're effectively powerless."

"That's true, I guess, but wouldn't I still have to deal with stuff from girls?"

"Theoretically, I guess," Deanna responds, "but girls are way more social. You tell the right people to send out the right words or lean on the right people and you'll be pretty well insulated from the worst of it."

Deanna seems pretty confident in her assertion. Few are going to know the nitty gritty of the social dynamics at Westside as well as her and stuff like this is why you recruited her so it would be pointless to then completely disregard her opinion, wouldn't it? After all, you did tell her that she's your advisor, not a sounding board.

"Alright, I trust you. If you say that I'd be best positioned inside a girl," you have to stop yourself from smirking dopily at the double entendre, "then who's identity should I take?"

* * * * *

You're down in the basement-cum-workshop where you've been for most of the afternoon since school let out, barring a brief trip home to check in with your mom immediately after school finished. You're giving Chelsea and Deanna the day off from helping you out with the making of things. Chelsea is just going through a normal day for her while you wait for Deanna to compile some possible identities and then email them—as you figure that method's a lot safer from being discovered—to you.

You're actually taking a break when you get a notification on your phone from your email app. You assume it's probably from Deanna and your hunch turns out to be right when at around the same time you get a text from her.

take a look. sry its so much lol

You thank her and then, with curiosity killing you, you impatiently open the app. You wonder just what she could mean by "so much" and you let out a small whistle when you see. It's a long list of girls, of possible identities. Not just names but with Deanna's own descriptions and thoughts and links to their social media pages and all of them grouped into categories. It's definitely a lot to take in and so you decide to put aside your work for the rest of the day so you have as much time as possible to take in everything.

You'd like to get settled into a new identity tomorrow, if possible, so you need to make a choice and tell both Deanna and Chelsea so one or both of them can help get it set up for you.

And to do that means finally doing something you've so far put off doing as you eye the blank masks and bands that sit on the table.

* * * * *

Dinner and the rest of the evening proceeds as normal. You tell your parents that you're heading up early to do some homework and in a sense, you're not lying. But it's not the type of homework that they probably expect or want you to be doing. Instead, this homework is different and much more important. That schoolwork? Well, you're not really going to have to worry about it much longer are you?

It's a freeing feeling, knowing that you won't have to be stuck with all the bullshit anymore. No more shit from your dad, no more annoying little brother, no more guff from your teachers. You won't be totally free from things like schoolwork, of course, but neither will you be at the bottom of the totem pole anymore. Even if you have to put in a bit of work, once things get going then you feel like you'll definitely be way better off than you are now. And who knows? Maybe once you feel like this has run its course and the school year is over, maybe you can even slip back into your old life if your replacement hasn't screwed it up for you.

Yes sir, it's going to be a marked improvement for you, you think as you begin to look at the groups and the names contained therein. After studying them for a while, you start to feel like you need to make a decision and so find yourself zeroing in one of the groups so you can render a final verdict.

Next: "Junior Jubilee" 

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