The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

The Benchwarmer

Previously: "The Court of the Basketball Kings" 

It's like the gym is undergoing gravitational collapse.

(That's a concept you learned about while working with Scott on that research project for Astronomy: put enough loose matter in one place, and it all falls in on itself and kaboom you've got a star or a planet where once there was only a lot of empty space and floaty stuff.

Yes, weird metaphors occur to you when you're feeling stressed.)

So one minute you're crouching on a bleacher with Scott, the next there's half a dozen people crowding around.

"Fuck, man," Ryan Shuler barks as he falls onto the bleachers. "Some'n needs to kill Gordon and Steve b'fore they kill us."

Shawn grabs his package and growls, "Yo, Steve, I got yer fucking hustle right here, asshole" while Brendan mutters, "It's gonna get worse before it gets better."

"Fuck," Ryan groans again. He sprawls back, spreading his arms across the bleachers. "Hey babe," he calls to the golden-haired girl who is approaching. "Come sit on my face, make a shitty day all better for me. Better for you too."

The girl smiles tightly as she squeezes between you and Scott, giving you a faceful of blonde hair as she does so. She says something to Scott about "hanging out," but the rest of her words are lost as Shawn croons, "Jamie, Jamie, Jamie."

Across the court, Gordon Black and Steve Patterson exit the changing rooms and hook a right onto the narrow staircase that will take them up into the loft where the school's top jocks keep a kind of private clubhouse. You look away, before either of them can glance over and see you with their teammates.

Why am I still here? you wonder as Ryan cusses Matt Nichols out, Matt cusses him back, and Shawn knees Brendan Tummler in the hip. They're going to notice you in a moment, the way a pack of wolves will eventually notice the rabbit hunkered down in the grass in the middle of the pack, and then you'll be sorry you ever had the crazy idea of talking to Scott.

"I'll catch up with you later," you murmur at Scott, yet you mumble it so quietly you're sure no one has heard you.

But as you get up on creaking knees, Shawn cocks his head at you. "Where ya goin'?"

"Ng'um," you stammer. "I gotta catch up with a guy." You dodge Shawn's smirk to glance back at Scott, who's looking puzzled. "I'll talk to you later." He doesn't reply, and you scoot toward the exit.

Someone shouts behind you, and you flinch, but thank God! Jeremy chooses that exact moment to come loping out of the changing room. You hop across the gym to greet him with a relieved "Hey!"

He looks startled, but the "Hey" he returns you is friendly if a little subdued. "So what are you up to now?" you ask. Your breath is coming in short gasps, and you try willing yourself to calm the fuck down.

"Nothing. Just gonna hang out with—" Squelching footsteps sound from the changing room, and you cringe as Seth Javits swaggers out and claps your old friend on the shoulder. "What did you wanna do now?" Jeremy asks him.

"Thought we were gonna go hang out with Cindy," Seth says. He lets a cold eye fall on you, but otherwise doesn't react to your presence. "She could call some of her girlfriends out. Eva?" The side of his mouth slides up in a leer. "Or maybe you could try mixing it up with Jessica."

Jeremy doesn't look happy with the suggestion, and gives you a sidelong look.

"I was just gonna hang out in the library a little, get my homework done," you stammer.

Seth snickers.

"Listen, I'll see you around," you tell Jeremy. "You, uh— Things looked great on the court today. You're going to State this year?"

"Fuck yeah," Seth snorts on Jeremy's behalf.

"Yeah, well, things looked great. I'll, uh, catch you around." You stifle the urge to sprint for the door, and are conscious all the long way over that people are looking at your back.

* * * * *

You stop at your locker before heading over to the library. But it's that leather-bound grimoire that you've got open before you—you didn't feel like studying, and were thinking anew about what to do with it—when a hand claps your shoulder. You jump.

"Hey, didn't mean to scare you." Jeremy says. You glance behind him, and are relieved to see that he's alone. "How long's this place stay open?" he asks as he slumps his ginormous frame into a chair.

"Until five, I think."

"Then it's about ready to close up, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Um. Did Seth go off without you or something?"

"Yeah, all the guys took off. Seth took off." There's a strain in Jeremy's voice. "Thought I'd come see if you were still around."

"You didn't want to go hang out with Cindy? And, uh—?" Eva and Jessica Garner are cheerleaders, as is Seth's girlfriend, Cindy Vredenburg. You'd spend every possible moment with them, if you had the chance.

Jeremy squirms. "No. It would just wind up being me and Seth and Cinders. It always turns out that way." He lets loose a heavy sigh.

"Yeah, that really must suck. Having Cindy around."

Jeremy glares at you. "It's pretty fucking awkward, Will, is what it is."

"Yeah?"

"Fuck, I don't wanna talk about it." His eyes fall to the table, and he pinches the corner of the grimoire. "What's this?"

"Oh, just a book I found in the used bookstore."

"Yeah? What is it?"

Your heart does a corkscrew turn in your chest.

That crazy-ass plan you had, to partner with Scott and through him to get in good with his friends on the basketball squad— It was a crazy plan to use on Scott, but it would be a much better plan to use with Jeremy, for you already have a dormant friendship there that you could reactivate.

Seth would be the only complication—he's good friends with Jeremy. The other guys on the squad don't know you, so they don't have a special prejudice against you and your friends. Seth does.

Still, it just makes too much sense. You flip the book around and push it at Jeremy.

"I don't know what it is," you tell him. "I'm trying to figure it out. It's in Latin, but online translators can help with that. Um, but the really weird part is— Well, just try flipping through it."

Jeremy cocks his head, and his eyes droop with faint boredom, but he pulls at the pages. His lip lowers into a frown as it resists, and his fingers tighten on the edge of the book. He pulls it to him, and with renewed concentration tries to pull some of the inner pages apart.

"The fuck's going on here?" he says at last.

"That's one of the screwy things," you reply. "It's like the pages are glued together."

"That's fucking useful."

"Yeah, but— Here." You pull the book back over, and flip to the front. "First of all, check out those faces at the bottom of the page." You point.

Jeremy glowers at them a moment. Then his brow furrows.

"Huh," he says. "They're like an optical illusion? Is that what—?"

"Yeah. And when I got the book, that's as far as I could get. The next page wouldn't turn loose, like it was glued shut. But then I got home, and—" You flip the page. "It was loose. It just turned loose on me. And then—" You point to your bloody thumbprint, then to a paragraph of text. "It told me stick some of my blood onto that spot on the page. So I did that, and—"

"Jesus! Will!"

"Well, I was curious! Then after I did that, this other page turned loose. So it's pretty weird, like I say."

"Oh, fuck, Will!" His nose wrinkles with skepticism.

"Look, I told you, I'm still trying to figure it out. But the thing is all acting like it's a book of magic, like— Look, don't laugh, okay? I mean, I don't even know if I take it seriously. That's why I'm trying to figure it out. But it's acting like something out of Harry Potter."

Jeremy stares, then barks out a single laugh: "Ha!"

"Look, man, all I know is—" You flip to the last open page, and run your finger down it. "This is like a magic spell. It's written like one. There's a list of ingredients, and directions for how to put them together, and that thing there—" You point to the sigil. "You have to use that to execute the spell. You're supposed to put a bowlful of some stuff in the middle of it."

"Jesus, man!"

You glance up, and see Mrs. DeWare approaching. You shut the book and start pulling your gear toward you.

"Look, all I know is— Yeah, we're getting ready to go," you tell the librarian. "All I know is, it's like a project to play around with, and I wanna see what it does. You wanna help out?"

Jeremy shrugs, then levers himself to his feet. "M'neh. If I get bored, man, I'll let you know."

* * * * *

You figure that will be the end of it. But later that night you get a text from Jeremy: bored wanna get together.

Next: "It's Alive!" 

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"