The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

Party Prep

Previously: "Other People's Heads" 

You've got enough masks for now, you feel, but you might always need some more later. And so as long as Teresa is offering to pay, why not take advantage of it?

* * * * *

"Six-thirty?" Caleb says. "That's kind of early for a party."

It's Friday, lunch time. You and Caleb and Keith are sitting in your usual spot, behind G wing, looking out toward the Agricultural Annex and the baseball diamond. Small knots of students are passing to and fro nearby. None of them, you are sure, are looking in your direction with any great interest, but you're self-conscious anyway, because Teresa is eating lunch with you.

This is the first day that she's joined you and your friends for lunch. None of you said anything when she came trooping up with a "Hi" and dropped herself down next to you, but you're sure the other two were as surprised as you were. No one invited her, and only after she's joined you do you remember that last night, at the old elementary school, while you she was polishing a mask and you were making a new metal strip, that you mentioned that this is when and where you and your friends typically eat.

"I dunno," you say as you chew your sandwich and study the DM Micah sent you giving the part time. "That's what it says." You tap the screen a few more times. "Oh, he says it's a cookout," you add after reading the follow-up DM. "I guess that's how come it's so early. Says we can bring some stuff if we want. But they're doing burgers and hot dogs."

"Who's driving?" Teresa asks. Her question is met with a faint hiccup of a silence as you (and presumably the others) process the implication that she'll be coming too.

"Tilley will," Caleb says after an awkward silence as everyone looks at everyone else.

"Me?" Keith looks surprised.

"You not got a car?"

"Yeah, but—"

"I don't got gas money," Caleb says, "and it'll look funny if four girls come pulling up in Prescott's truck."

But you've hardly been paying attention, concentrating instead on the link Micah sent to a map app. "Guys!" you exclaim "They've having it out in the middle of Bumblefuck, Nebraska! Way out south and west of here!"

"Lemme see," Caleb says.

"Hang on! I'm pulling up street view!" You loose a low whistle as you look at the result. "It's a fucking barn!" You turn the phone around, and let the others study the image.

It shows an immense, open field, bordered by low, wood-railing fences, stretching out for acres and acres. The most prominent building is a large, tumbledown shed a few dozen yards in from the side of the road, but Caleb (after he's taken your phone and played with it) points out that there is in fact a house on the opposite side of the road. It's the only habitation visible, though.

This all leads to speculations about hayrides and horseback riding, but mostly to a sense of puzzlement about what kind of "party" you'll be going to, since the house looks very small. Keith suggests that maybe one of you should go as "a dude, just in case," but you acidly retort that in his mask of "Linda" he won't have anything to sorry about. Which reminds you that you need to tell Michah that you'll be bringing friends, so you DM him back.

And as it happens, he just happens to go shambling by, head down, a few minutes later. "That's him," you tell everyone, and jerk your head in his direction. You cringe as three heads swing around to stare at Micah Larson.

There's a thoughtful silence as they study him, during which you brace yourself.

"Girlfriend," Caleb chortles at you. "He's cute!"

You pound him the chest while he howls with laughter.

* * * * *

You tell your folks you'll be at a cookout/party until eleven, and drive off to pick up Caleb at around a quarter-to-six. You then drive out to the elementary school to meet Teresa and Keith. This is the second time that Keith has been the one to give Teresa a ride, so you try to work up a little gossip about the two of them, but Caleb shuts it down with a withering glance.

He finds the supplies that you and Teresa bought—you made up six masks, and polished one of them—and asks about them. You tell him it was Teresa's idea, which he takes in with a thoughtful silence. "It just seemed like a good idea to have some extras on hand," you explain.

Once everyone is assembled, there is a little awkward talk, and then you all shuffle off into a corner of the room to change into your aliases. Teresa, you notice, crawls in between some bookcases in search of a hidden cubbyhole, which presumably she finds. You, feeling a lot more nervous than you have yet, huddle up in a corner near the big mirror

This is it, you find yourself thinking after you've got your clothes off and are hunched up with the mask near your face. This is going to be the first time for real. The other times, we were just going out and goofing off. Or I was just putting this on so no one would recognize me. Now, I'm going to be going to a party, as this girl. As if she was a real girl!

Almost you feel as if you are turning yourself into someone else—into someone real—as you push the mask to your face.

* * * * *

"Oh, fuck me," you grumble as for the third time in three days you struggle to do something with your hair. It's dim in the basement, but you don't need to see your reflection in the mirror clearly to see that your hair isn't doing what you want it to.

"There's nothing wrong with your hair, Will," says Teresa. For about the fourth time you do a double-take at her reflection. You're not sure you're ever going to get used to the idea that this moon-faced girl is Teresa. "You're just trying to turn it into something it's not."

"Well, how about you do something with it for me!" you gasp as you thrust the comb at her. She looks at you, looks at it, then calmly takes it. You burst out with an exasperated sigh as Teresa—who is still almost as short as her counterpart, even as you are almost as tall as you originally were—pulls up a chair she can stand on so she fiddle with your hairdo. But you meekly turn your head this way and that as she touches it up here and there, straightening the part and arranging the bangs.

"Jesus, Will," says the girl who is Caleb Johansson. She has black hair, Hispanic-dark skin, and a cynical gaze. "You'd think you weren't the prettiest one here. How about you swap with Tilley, if you think you've got it so bad."

"Oh, fuck you, man!" you growl back at her, and dodge the hurt look that shows on Keith's reflected face. "It's not me! It's this girl! She's the one who cares so flipping much about—!"

"Well, there's your problem," Teresa says in a very placid tone as she continues to touch up your hair. "Madison's hair is all different. Bigger, bouncier, body-er. Different color, too. You need to remember, you're not her."

She's right, but still you can't help grumbling. "If it was just longer."

"So let it grow out." Teresa pauses. "I wonder if it would."

"Would what?"

"If you left the mask on long enough. Would your hair grow out? And nails, and all the rest. I wonder if they're growing out even when you're not wearing it."

"Now, there's a question worth asking," Caleb says. "Though the big question's got to be, what kind of a freak would Will give birth to if he gets sloppy drunk tonight and lets Micah have his way with—"

She ducks as you pick up an old stapler lying nearby, and hurl it toward her. Teresa, after forcing your head around to face the mirror again, says, "That's a question for all of us, isn't it?"

"Why, are you planning on—?"

"No. I'm just wondering how realistic these masks are. Like, what if we got X-rays or CAT scans? What would the images show?"

"Oh, man," Caleb says, and her eyes widen. "Oh, Jesus! What if it's all down inside, underneath. Dude, what if—" Her mouth falls open. "What if you dug around inside your pussy deep enough. Could you pull your cock and balls back out through the front?"

Shrieks of horror and disgust fill the basement.

* * * * *

You don't look as good as you'd want, but you look okayish, you suppose, when Teresa is done, and you thank her for it. Everyone else is ready to go too, but Teresa hangs back as you're all making for the stairs, saying that she's got just a little touching up that she wants to do before she joins you.

Outside, you're halfway to the car when you stop to wonder if you left some of your makeup downstairs, and return inside. Teresa looks up at you with a sharp, guilty expression when you come in.

"Just looking for something I think I forgot," you tell her. She has thrust something behind her back, and as you approach the mirror you see in its reflection that it is a mask. You hesitate, then turn with a sigh and confront her about it.

For a moment she tries to stammer and bluff her way past you, but relents when you press her.

"Oh, it's just an idea I had, Will," she says. "I'm just taking one along in case I see a chance to use it."

Next: "Mickey Martin Makes Her Debut" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"