The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

A Beta Class of Girlfriend

Previously: "Newbie Orientation" 

"So the first thing we need is some of your hair," Philip says.

"Hang on." You raise a hand. "Lemme get this straight. You use my hair, and that will make me the, uh, boss of Javits?"

"Of his beta," Philip says. "Yes."

"And I could even, uh, turn myself into him, like—" You glance at Cindy. It's still hard to reconcile the slim, beautiful cheerleader with your beetle-browed friend. "Like Keith turned himself into Cindy?"

"That's right.," Philip says. Cindy titters.

"Well, what if I want to be somebody else?"

Philip frowns. "You can only be one person at a time, Will."

"No, what I mean is, what if I want to be someone instead of Seth? Like, you guys are all cheerleaders. What if I wanted to be a cheerleader too? Have a cheerleader as a beta, instead of being Seth?"

There's a pause. "You don't want Seth as a beta?" Philip asks.

"I'd rather have someone else as a beta. If I'm gonna have one."

"Well, if Seth isn't your beta, whose beta would he be?"

"Give him to Keith." To Cindy: "Wouldn't you like to be the boss of Javits?"

"I'd love it," Cindy says, but Philip interrupts him.

"Keith already has a beta. Cindy. Even though he's pretending to be Cindy, that's his beta, and each of us can only have one."

"Can Seth be someone else's beta?"

"No, he's got to be yours. I've got Maria, Keith has Cindy, Josiah has Chelsea, Mike and Carlos have Eva and Jessica. There's no one else to take Seth as a beta. Except you."

You're about to give up, but Mike comes to your aid. "How come is that?" he asks Philip. "I know you say it, but how come? Does the book say we can't have more than one?"

"No it doesn't," Carlos says. (And you're thinking The book. It's gotta be the same one that I found at the bookstore.) "The book doesn't say anything about how many betas we can have."

"So how come—?"

"It stands to reason that there's some kind of limit," Philip says, but he hunches his shoulders, as though he's feeling badgered. "Otherwise someone could have used these things to conquer the world already. To have turned everyone into a beta."

There's a thump and a crash from the other side of the wall. Carlos darts from the room. "Well, we better figure out fast what the hell we're gonna do about Seth," Mike says. "Before he gets loose."

* * * * *

Well, there's still a long argument to be had before anything is decided. Philip insists that it's safer to leave everyone with only a single beta, in case there's some unwritten rule that prevents people from having two or more, but the others are now keen to find out if they could get themselves two betas. You keep quiet.

At the end of it, Philip relents. "We'll try it," he says. "But someone is going to have to volunteer for the experiment." He glances around, holding each of his friend's gaze for a moment. "It could be dangerous. It could be fatal."

"I'll do it," Cindy says. You jump at her words. "I've just about run out of ways of torturing Seth. Making him my bitch, well—" She smirks. "That'll be kicking it up a notch."

So Keith strips down to nothingness—and shows absolutely no shame at showing off Cindy's slim legs and bowl-like hips, her globe-like breasts and the tuft of hair between her legs—and lies down on the cold floor. Philip kneels next to her, lays a hand across her brow, mutters under his breath, and pulls. A bluish mask appears in his hand, and where Cindy was—

Gah! You quickly avert your eyes from Keith's bony, spotty, hairy frame.

Philip clips some of Keith's hair off, then replaces Cindy's mask.

"Come on." Carlos nudges you. "Let's go outside." Reluctantly, you follow him and the fake Eva Garner back outside. It's drizzling again, so you huddle close to the building.

"So what's the deal?" Carlos asks. "You didn't want Seth as a beta. You have someone else in mind?"

"Well, not specifically," you admit. "I was just thinking—"

"Cheerleader," Eva says. She smirks. "You said you wanted to be a cheerleader." She throws her arms out and twirls. "Just. Like. Us."

You roll your eyes. "Well, maybe. But—"

"Kendra's available. So's Gloria. You could be one of them. They're a coupla bitches, and it'd be useful to have 'em under control."

"Would it be useful to me?" you reply. "That's what I'm thinking about. This whole, uh, improve-Will-Prescott project. I was thinking I could use someone who could help out there."

"That's smart," Carlos says. "Probably not Kendra or Gloria, then. Probably not anyone on the squad." He squints. "We got you covered there already. You should think about someone with some cachet. Influence."

"I was thinking about a girlfriend."

Carlos and Eva both swing around to stare at you.

"Sure," you stammer. "Having the right girlfriend, that could help me out a lot."

They exchange a long glance. "What?" you demand.

"Um," Carlos says. He looks at his feet and tugs at his ear. "Well, maybe first I should ask who you had in mind. Maybe?" He looks up. "Because—"

"Some girls are totally inside your range," Eva says, "and we've built up your range pretty good already. But some of the girls at school," she continues as you feel yourself blushing, "you'd still have to work your way up toward."

She shrugs as you say nothing. "So yeah, a girlfriend could help you out," she says. "But we should still consult on who it could be."

"Like, one or two rungs up the ladder," Carlos says. "Enough to help you up, but not already at the top of the ladder. That's all we mean."

"That's fine," you say, keeping your temper in check. "Maybe that's something you guys could do? Give me some ideas?"

"You could give us some," Carlos replies. "We've been following your hashtags online, you've got some nice possibilities there."

You're not sure you'd agree—most of those girls were not to your taste. But you do give them one name: Kristy Suffolk.

Carlos and Eva nod, then glance over as the door to the unit opens. "Well, look who's on the team," Eva calls out as Philip and a very pinched-looking Seth Javits come out. Cindy is with them, with her arm twined inside Seth's, and she's giggling hard. "Was it fun? Or was it fatal?"

"It seems to have worked," Philip says, though he doesn't look too pleased at having to report the success. "Um, Keith, how about you show them?"

Cindy giggles again. "Okay. Seth? Get down on your knees." Seth, his face flaming with anger, drops to a knee. "Both knees. Get on all fours," Cindy orders him, and he complies. "Now bark like a dog. Bark!"

Ruff ruff. Ruff. Arf, Seth says. His face looks like it's about to melt off the front of his skull.

"Isn't he adorable?" Cindy chortles. "I have my own pet Seth Javits now!"

* * * * *

You get in trouble at home for missing dinner, but you don't really care. Upstairs you take until midnight to do your homework because you keep pausing to scroll through x2z.com and other social media sites for ideas about girlfriends. You jot down some names, but throw them away. You don't want to shoot too low, but neither do you want to embarrass yourself by shooting too high. All in all, it seems best to wait for the others to give you some ideas.

You wind up skipping most of your classes the next day at school so that you can meet with your fellow conspirators. You meet with Carlos—that is to say, Jessica Garner—second period in the library, where he recommends a girl named Sydney McGlynn to you. "She's new in school, moved here from out of town," he tells you. "Since she doesn't know you, it wouldn't be so strange if she started going out with you." You bite your tongue at the implication that to know you is to not want to have anything to do with you. But you like the girl that shows up in the online albums that Carlos shows you. "Yeah, she does look kind of like Chelsea," he agrees in answer to your observation. "But without the psychosis. She was a cheerleader at her old school. I think they even won some championships or something. That's another reason I think you'd like her."

Third period you skip to talk to Eva Garner—Mike Hollister. He doesn't get a chance to go into details with you, for most of the time he has to entertain Jenny Ashton, who is sharing the table with you. But during one of Jenny's brief absences, he suggests Phoebe Beauchamp. "She's on the soccer team. God, she's gorgeous. See?" Yes, she is—tall and slim with mousy brown hair that cascades to the tips of her boobs. A beautiful face, too, with a mischievous grin. "She's sort-of going out with a sophomore guy," Eva says, "so you'd have to break that up. But that'd make you look good, wouldn't it? If she'd dump her boyfriend for you?" You're not sure that your popularity would really be helped by that kind of assholery, but you do add her to the list.

After that, the meeting with Maria Vasquez (Philip) in seventh period—your own study hall—is anticlimactic. "Gillian Kiefer," she suggests. "She likes stylish guys."

"You mean like Braydon?" Delp is her boyfriend, and that's not your idea of stylish.

"Yes," she says, and it sounds like he hasn't caught the sarcasm in your answer. "But you're more stylish than he is. And she is cute, isn't she?" She pauses. "And she's got those giant boobs."

That she does. And it also occurs to you that, even if you don't take Gillian as a girlfriend, she might be a useful spy to put on Braydon, who has his own independent line on the arts and crafts of magic.

* To continue: "How to Make a Switch" 

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