The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Aftermath From an Invitation

Previously: "Some Bare Facts" 

Did Jessica say that if you made a mess you'd have to clean it up?

Well, you've got a week to make all the messes you want! And if you don't get them all cleaned up before next Monday ... Well, it's her fault for sticking you here for a full week!

So dazzled are you by this thought that you don't hear what Carson is saying, so you have to ask him to repeat it.

"Never mind," he snorts. "If you're not going to listen to me—"

"But I am listening to you! I just—"

"I'll talk to you later. Stop by for lunch. If you don't, I'll spoil your news about your date with dickface by telling Jenny first." He shuffles out of the library.

Well, let him go. You need time to think of who to set him up with.

* * * * *

Third period is AP World History, and on entering the classroom, you head straight over to where Kerri Mullen is sitting.

Kerri looks like a leather-jacket lesbian, partly because she wears her brunette hair in a short, boyish pompadour, but mostly because she is hardly ever seen out of blue jeans and a dark brown motorcycle jacket. She has a bold eye, a sharp tongue, and a sense of fun that has landed her in detention more than a dozen times.

But she's not a lesbian, or if she is she covers it well, because she has been going steady for a long time and with great obvious affection with Cam Shore, the backup pitcher on the baseball team.

Her eyes pop when she sees you, and she almost comes out of her chair. "Hey!" she exclaims. "I hear you're going to Maggie's party with Luke!"

You feel yourself turning pink. "Oh. Yeah!" you reply with a shrug. "He asked me out and I said yes."

"That'll be great! We all gonna ride out together? Luke said he's picking you up, and I think he's giving me and Cam a ride out too!" In a lower voice she adds, "Luke's great. You're gonna have fun."

"Should I go look for him at lunch?" you ask in a voice as low as hers. It's a question that's been preying on you.

Kerri glances over at Sydney McGlynn, who she was talking to when you approached, and who has been listening to all this with a bright and polite smile. Then she asks you, "Friday'll be your first date with Luke?"

First date. The words give you a hard thrill. "We hung out at Josie's last night," you reply. "That's when he asked me."

"Maybe tomorrow," Kerri suggests after a short hesitation. "Unless he comes looking for you today."

"That's what I was thinking. I won't make it easy for him to find me, then. Hey Sydney." You greet the other girl in a cooler voice. "You going to Maggie's party?"

Her smile widens fractionally. "I haven't made plans yet."

"We'd all love to see you out there." You pinch Kerri on the shoulder, and with a last grin head over to your assigned seat.

You'd totally forgotten the reason you went over to talk to Kerri—to apologize again for sending Marc and Eva to her house yesterday—but it apparently doesn't matter. You've got another, more amusing thing to think about: Sydney McGlynn.

She's new to Westside (and to Saratoga Falls, in fact) and has made quite a splash. She's apparently from Kansas, but she looks like she's from California, for she has movie-teenager looks: Long blonde hair, a great figure, a beautiful tan, bright eyes, and a winning smile. On top of that, she was a cheerleader at her old school, and went with her squad to a national (or was it only a regional?) competition. Every boy in every class has, since the start of school, been besotted with her.

But she has kept herself apart without making herself unpopular: aloof without being cold; reserved, but without being private. There's no great mystery about her: only the impression that she is trying to get through her senior year without committing herself to anything or anyone, and without leaving more than a very light footprint behind.

Jessica isn't sure if she likes Sydney or not; but you know you'd like to get to know her better, and it occurs to you now that from behind Jessica's mask you could do that—and could maybe introduce her to a boy named "Will Prescott"? Hmm ...

Or (and you giggle at the thought) you could set her up with Carson Ioeger for Maggie's party!

* * * * *

There's no seating chart in AP German IV (your fourth period class; Jessica's schedule, with all its Advanced Placement classes, makes you feel like a slacker), but there's a usual crowd that Jessica sits with. Today, though, you sit on its edge, for you don't much feel like looking at Geoff Mansfield—he who stole Lisa Yarborough away from you—and his snooty, country-club friends. Yumi Saito, who is seated on the opposite side of that cluster, gives you a puzzled look, then moves over into a chair next to you. Before she can speak to you, though, you lean over to address the girl on your other side: Marc's girlfriend, Hannah Westrick.

"Did Marc say anything to you about someone going through his room and taking something out?" you ask her. You don't know why, for it seems really unlikely that he would have said anything to her about the "gear" that got taken from his room, for then he'd probably have to explain what it was. But the spirit of Jessica is strong upon you, and you let it carry where she would go.

Hannah frowns and shakes her head. "What's the deal?"

"Oh, I shouldn't say anything. He just lost his shit with me last night, accusing me of snooping through his room and taking something."

"Did you?"

"Hannah! No-ooo!"

"I was just teasing. No, he hasn't said anything. Wha'd he lose?"

"I don't know, he won't tell me." You glance around, and lean in close. "The way he was acting, especially when I asked if maybe our mom found and took it, was making me think it was porn or something." You feel your eyes narrow over a sudden smile. "Have you and Marc been taking 'selfies' together?"

She gasps theatrically and splays a hand over her ample bosom. "Jessica! We don't even post those online!" She giggles.

You can't tell if she's serious, and you play it off with a laugh of your own. "Well, just the way he's talking about whatever he lost—"

"Is he giving any hints?"

"About what it was? No, just that—"

You look up at a figure who has suddenly loomed over you: Meghan Farris, a short, charisma-vacuum whom Jessica never thinks of, except with a feeling of pity and a sense of vague guilt over the way she ignores her.

"Hey, I don't know if you've heard," Meghan says, "but I'm having a party at my place on Friday—"

"Oh, cool!"

"So, if you wanna show up—"

"That sounds great! Oh wait, what day did you say? Saturday?"

Her sweaty smile falters a little. "Friday."

"Oh! Oo, that's too bad, I just made plans last night to go to Maggie Crenshaw's. LukeRichardson asked me," you babble, trying to find some way to not totally destroy Meghan's feelings as the smile now falls entirely off her face. "He and all his friends are going to Maggie's."

"Oh. Well, if you want to stop by my place early, it'll be starting by around seven—"

Way too early, you think, but you assure her that you'll keep her and her party in mind. You feel her humiliation and yours both as she lingers just a little too long after you've turned back to Hannah to resume your conversation. She finally moves off, but the slight ache of vague guilt lingers still in your chest.

* * * * *

Yumi never got a word in before class began, so she is boiling over when it finally ends. "You didn't say anything to me this morning about you and Luke!" she exclaims as you and she scramble from your desks.

"Did I have to?"

"Well no, but—"

"Are you going to Maggie's party?"

She makes a face. "I dunno. Maybe."

"Want me to set you up with one of his friends?"

Her jaw falls open and she flushes, and for a moment you think she's going to yell at you. But she seems to change her mind, and with a very pinched expression she asks, "Like who?"

"I don't know. But I think he's got a lot of friends, and I bet—"

"Are you having lunch with him today or something?"

"Well, no. I wasn't planning on—"

She grabs you. "Come on," she snaps. "Let's go find Jenny."

So together you hustle out the door and toward the grassy quad where Jenny Ashton likes to eat lunch and hang out with Carson and James and some other of her friends.

* * * * *

They're not there yet, so you and Yumi wait. She frowns and crosses her arms and kicks at the ground with first the toes on one foot and then the other. You pretend to be much calmer, but in fact you are feeling strangely excited. It sounds like you're going to be in for a session of real, honest-to-goodness girl talk!

Paul Davis is the first one out, and he greets Yumi with a shy and slightly moist regard: the crush he has on her is an open and embarrassing secret among your common circle of friends. Then Carson and James appear. Carson greets you and Yumi both with a tight smile. James is more open and cheerful.

He says something, but you don't hear his words, for you are struck by a sudden and vivid thought:

James is tall and dark-haired, like Jeremy Richards. He is smart, like Carson. And he's a normal and unpretentious nobody, like ... Will Prescott. But though he's like each of them in one regard, he is unlike them in ways that are just as important. Unlike Jeremy, he's not a dick. Unlike Carson, he can dress up pretty nice. And unlike Will ... Well, he isn't an immature dip. (You wince a little at the last thought.)

In other words, he's got everything Eva seems to be looking for, but with none of the baggage.

Next: "Boys in Mind" 

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