The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

A Second Look at Sydney

Previously: "Another Fashionable Choice" 

You wake Monday morning with a tingling sense of anticipation. You can't figure out why you should be looking forward to school—the only thing on your schedule (you figure) is giving Mr. Walberg your time capsule item.

Not until you are halfway to school—"Oh, fuck!" you yell—do you remember. You were going to wear that cowboy hat to school so Sydney could find you.

Well, maybe she'll find you anyway. Or you could look for her.

Still, you careen off the road and into a parking lot long enough to set an alarm on your phone for in the morning, helpfully labeling it "cowboy hat."

* * * * *

You feel yourself fizzling and popping all the way to first period, and you jump and bob and crane your neck around on the lookout for Sydney, but you don't spot her. In first, you ignore the puzzled look Mr. Walberg gives you when you drop that plastic sack of clothes onto his desk. But when you're in your own desk, he barks at you: "Are these your gym clothes, Mr. Prescott?"

"No, they're for the time capsule!"

He stares at you, looks back down into the sack (which he has opened), then with a shake of his head he puts it into a lower drawer of his desk. "Anybody else got something for the time capsule?" he asks of the class, which is still filling.

"The fuck did you give him?" asks Caleb, who is already in the seat next to yours.

"Some of my old clothes. Duuuuude! My Saturday night! God fuck me!" You writhe in your seat as Caleb looks alarmed.

"So I got a text from that Kristin girl we met up at the mini-golf, asking me to come out and meet them all at this German restaurant. The Bavarian Forest, you know it?"

The alarm on Caleb's face deepens even as he nods.

"Yeah, so I go out there and hang out with them, and then after we go home again we all meet up again at Legends. And I danced with— Jesus!" You throw your head back and stretch your arms, as though to grab the ceiling.

"Sounds like a religious experience," Caleb says, dryly.

"Oh, you have no fucking idea! Duuuude! She was—! Her name was Sydney. She goes to school here, except she's new. You know her?"

Caleb's eyebrows beetle up, and his eyes go a little shifty.

"Blonde girl, looks like a cheerleader?"

"That's her! Wait, you know her?"

"I've got her in my calculus class."

You gasp. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Why the fuck should I? Or maybe I did, but you wouldn'a been paying attention."

"Dude, if you said you had a sexy girl in your math class—"

"You wouldn't even look up from your phone. But you danced with her at Legends?"

"Yes!"

He frowns. "And where was I?"

"I dunno. Where were you Saturday night?"

"Home watching porn," he hisses. "Because someone didn't text me to say he was going out to Legends. Was Tilley there?"

"No, just the guys from the mini-golf."

"Oh, fuck me." He snorts and turns away and slouches in his seat. "And fuck you too."

"Oh, fuck off," you snarl at him, and turn away yourself. If the asshole can't be happy for you—

But then you remember what he said about having her in his math class. "What period you got math?" you ask.

He only gives a baleful glare in return.

* * * * *

But you're pretty sure it's second period he's got calculus, so you follow him close—practically treading on his heels—when he leaves first period. On reaching the classroom, he goes on in, but you loiter in the doorway, hopping on the balls of your feet and hoping that Sydney—who is already inside, and is seated halfway across the room—will notice you without you having to barge on in.

But it's the girl sitting next to her—a hefty girl with long brown hair and a bold gleam in her eye—who spots you, and points you out to Sydney. She turns in her seat to frown at you in puzzlement. Your heart has time to sink before her eyes light up, and she beckons you in with a smile.

She's in a black dress again—this one longer and not showing nearly as much skin—and she looks as healthy and sexy as ever. "Where's your hat, cowboy?" she asks when you reach her desk.

"I forgot it," you confess, and push your fingers up under your cap to rake your hair. "Gonna wear it tomorrow, though!"

"Do that. So what'dja do after I left?"

"Oh, I went home."

Her eyes narrow over her smile. "You didn't sulk, did you?"

"No. I just didn't see the point in staying after you— Besides, I got a curfew. A stupid one, but I have one." You wobble on your feet.

"Mmm," she says. And nothing else.

"What are you doing after school?" you ask her. You wonder if your heart has stopped beating, because you can't feel it in your chest.

"Going home. Doing homework. Eating dinner." There seems something very pointed about the way she says it.

"Oh. Well, um—" You wobble a little more. "Were you serious about owing me? What you said Saturday night?"

Her eyebrows lift. "Oh, you're worried about that," she says.

She half-turns in her seat to rummage inside her pack, pulling out a sheet of paper and a pencil. She starts to write on it, then changes her mind and digs inside her purse, pulling out a lipstick.

And in big red letters with it, she writes "I O U" on the paper, folds it, and hands it to you.

"There," she says. "Present it when you're ready. And when you've got the time for a proper repayment."

You sway and grin and almost float from the room. At the door, though, you have the presence of mind to turn and look for Caleb. He is hunched up in his desk, watching you darkly. You show him your tongue before leaving.

* * * * *

Keith is as much of a jerk about it all as Caleb had been, when you tell him about your Saturday night. (And he looks especially pissed off when you show him the IOU that Sydney gave you.) So when fourth period is over, you text Dean to see where he and everyone else is having their lunch.

It's the cafeteria, which you grumble at silently, and they let you join them in line when you catch up them at the door. (When a guy behind you complains about you cutting in line, Lorenzo silences them with a brief glower.) You are still fizzing hard over talking to Sydney, but after the mood you saw Caleb and Keith in, you decide to refrain from mentioning it to Dean. The girls come close to mentioning it, though.

"So hey, I heard you had fun Saturday night," Lacie tells you with a bright smile. "You even left early!"

"Er, yeah," you reply. (You're puzzled that she thinks "leaving early" is fun.) "Sorry I didn't get to dance with you more."

She and Tiffany look at each other and laugh.

"Oh, don't worry about us," Lacie says. "After we left Legends we went out to the Warehouse. We kind of thought we'd run into you there. But the wrestling team was out there at least." They look at each other again, and burst out giggling.

"Hey, I said no cutting!" someone yells behind you again.

"And I said, Shut the fuck up!" Lorenzo retorts with another bright glare.

You turn to find that the busboy from Lacie's restaurant—Scott? is that his name?—has slid into line behind you. But your gaze is drawn to the kid next to him, a fair-haired guy in a denim jacket, blue jeans, and a cowboy hat. He lifts his chin when Lacie's voice sounds behind you. "Hey Daniel," she says in a sing-song, "where's that girl you picked up at Legends?"

"She has fourth lunch," he says. "We're gonna do something after school, though." He catches you staring at him, and his smile falters a little.

"She had legs like a grasshopper!" Lacie exclaims.

Daniel grins and shrugs, then does another slight double-take at you. Now his smile turns into a frown, so you turn back around.

"So, you do anything after you left?" Lacie asks, still talking to the guy.

"Nah, we just sat around talking. I mean, I know her from class."

"But you never done anything with her?"

"No. We're gonna hit a party this weekend, though. 'Cept we didn't say we were going to it together."

Dean mumbles something under his breath, and briefly catches your eye.

"Where's Patrick?" you ask him.

"Class, I guess," he mutters. "He's got fourth lunch."

Lorenzo snorts. "You and Patrick, man," he says. It takes you a moment to realize he's addressing you.

"Did he end up with Kayla Shea the other night?" you ask.

"Yeah, down by the river. Where'd you end up?" He directs a hard stare at you.

And that's when you realize that everyone here thinks you went off with Sydney when you left Legends.

That's all for now

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