The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Double Dealing and Double Dates

Previously: "Teases for Two" 

"I'll think of something," you assure Eva, and dodge her frown. "Is there a special time we need to do it?"

"No, but we'll need, like, fifteen minutes notice, at least." Eva squeezes in close and drops her voice to a mutter. "But it has to be in the parking lot, in her car or in yours. So, like, try to get her out there after basketball practice is over, or get together with her later tonight. Oh, and there can't be anyone else around. Obviously."

You make a face, but repeat your assurance that you can figure something out. You start to turn away, but Eva is pressing something into your hands. "What's—? Oh!"

It's a mask, and it lusters in your hands.

"It's the one you made of Yumi," Eva whispers. "You have to get it on to her, like you did the other night, to get her most recent memories into it."

Another complication. You gulp.

* * * * *

The second-worst part of the next hour is trying to figure out how to get Yumi alone in the Westside parking lot, and to do it without knowing exactly how the other guys intend to pull off this switcheroo.

But the worst part is arranging the double-date with James.

Several times, as you test out various texts on your phone, you almost bug out of it. But the sensible part of your brain tells you that a double-date with James along would be the best way of impressing on the new Yumi that she should be going out with Will Prescott. Otherwise, the Yumi-encased Chelsea is likely to scamper off in a panic.

But after you finally shoot out the oh-so-casual, totally-not-meaningful invite to James—hey, come hang out with me n yumi and will p at panera fr sup?—you have to wait an agonizing half hour for his curt reply: k sure watt time? You reply that you'll have to get back to him.

Then you text Yumi and your beta, asking them to meet you up at the school around five.

And because you've had a sudden brain-wave, you fire a text to Eva asking if she and the rest of the crew can meet you at the same place at four-thirty, so you can explain your idea and get them to say if it will work.

* * * * *

So when Yumi pulls into the student parking lot, she finds you and your beta lounging in the bed of his truck. The rest of the lot is mostly empty.

"Hey!" you chirp as she climbs from her car with a frown of curiosity. "We're waiting for James!"

"Your James?" she calls back. You wince inside at the implication that you and Lamont belong specially to each other. "What for?"

"We're all going out together. You don't mind a quartet, do you?"

She shrugs, and climbs up into the truck bed with you, as you'd planned. Far off, on the other side of the parking lot, the Garners' minivan slides out of its parking space and prowls over, stopping a scant dozen yards away, parking where Yumi won't see it. The doors open, and the two Garner girls get out; their footsteps can't be heard over the growl of traffic on the nearby boulevard. You keep your eyes on Yumi's face and distract her with a pointless but excited story of a pop quiz that rattled you this morning so that she won't look around and notice that—

Jessica reaches up and around from behind her, to press a mask into her face. It vanishes, and Yumi falls onto her side, banging her head as she goes down.

"Smooth, sis," Eva snorts as she and Jessica hop into the truck bed with you. "Give her a concussion, why don't you?"

"How are Josiah and Chelsea coming along?" you ask as you and your beta scramble to spread your victim out on the bottom of the truck bed.

"All set," Jessica says as she takes out her cell phone. "I'll get Philip to come out here and move Chelsea's car over." Eva begins to pull off Yumi's clothes, and you squat next to her to help.

Ten minutes later, Chelsea's car is parked directly behind your truck with the driver's side door open; the unconscious Yumi, now in Chelsea's clothes—it's a good thing they are nearly the same size—is wedged in behind the wheel. You and your friends stand at the ready, watching anxiously for the reappearance of the mask. When it falls out of her face, Jessica catches it and passes it to you. "Better get out of here," she says.

"That goes for you too," you tell your beta. "Meet you out front." He hops into the truck cab as you sprint toward the school. You look back as you run, in time to see your truck turning out of the parking lot; the Garners are already back in their minivan, leaving Maria alone by Chelsea's car. She bends over Yumi as you watch, then straightens up and closes the door.

A grin spreads across your face. That was her putting Chelsea's mask onto Yumi.

So Yumi Saito is now inside Chelsea Cooper's body and Chelsea Cooper's clothes. When she wakes it will look to her like she's been body-swapped.

Inside the school, you jog off for the nearest boys' restroom, where Seth Javits, his arms crossed, is slouching by the door. He glowers, but lifts his chin in acknowledgement. "Is Cindy around?" you ask him.

"She's waiting for me, said to come find her after you showed up. The fuck are you faggts up to? Never mind, I don't wanna know." He lurches upright and with a scowl swaggers off the way you came. You make a face at his back.

It gives you a queer turn—though you were expecting it—when you push into the restroom and find two identical copies of Josiah Shank waiting for you inside.

Well, they're not exactly identical. Only one of them is wearing glasses; the other peers at you near-sightedly, and huddles inside the sleeping bag he's wrapped around himself.

"Jesus, man," you snort. "What if some of the basketball guys came in here and found you like this?"

"Jesus yourself," the one in the glasses snaps back. "That's how come we put Seth out front. And the fuck took you so long getting here?"

"Hey, I got it here as quick as I could." You hand him the mask you made of Yumi.

He takes it only to pass it off to the one wrapped in the sleeping bag. The bag slips a little as he takes it, dropping just enough to show that he's wearing the top that you and Jessica pulled off Yumi. (It's a good thing the tiny, bony Shank isn't much bigger that Yumi.) "And when the fuck are you gonna get me a mask of Deanna?" the real Josiah demands.

"I thought Mike and Carlos were handling that. Come on, don't we need to get you into the girls' bathroom?"

"They've been too busy fucking around with this goddam shit," he mutters. "I want Deanna's face by this goddam fucking Saturday night, okay?"

You haven't had a lot of dealings with Josiah, so it surprises you a little to find that this mousy blonde nerd likes to cuss so much and so hard. "We'll get it done, don't worry," you assure him as you peer into the hallway, then gesture him and the other to follow you out. It takes an ungodly long time for the fake Josiah to bunny-hop his way around the drinking fountain and into the girls' restroom.

"You know that's my price for going along with your fucking shit," Josiah grumbles as he maneuvers his beta into one of the stalls and helps it out of the bag. "I was having a lot of fucking fun—"

"Yeah, you were having a lot of fucking fun fucking around with Chelsea's fucking tits," you growl at him. "Did you have a lot of fucking fun fucking her boyfriend too?" you unwisely add. Josiah scowls, but he says nothing before bending over his beta to rip at its face. He fumbles at it a little more before straightening up.

And when he backs out of the stall, it's Yumi Saito who is sprawled next to the toilet.

"Okay, there's that," Josiah says. "I hope you have fun with her." With a glower he hikes the sleeping bag up under his arm and flees.

You're not long in following, after you arrange the new Yumi so that she doesn't look so much like she's passed out in a drunken stupor. You prop her purse next on the sink, then go out to wait in the hallway.

And now that the deed is done, your heart begins to hammer hard in your chest.

What have you done? Okay, obviously you've pulled off a kind of body-swap between Yumi and Chelsea, two cheerleaders who loathe and detest each other. But what will they do when they wake up in each other's bodies? Will they freak out? Will they hurt themselves? Will they run around squawking that they've been body-swapped, drawing attention to you and your friends? Will they figure what's happened and how it's happened?

Will someone wind up—you gulp at the thought—dead?

You settle back against the lockers with your head bowed over your cell phone. You text James, telling him to plan on meeting you in twenty minutes at Panera, then flip through old texts and Twitter and Instagram and other social media sites without reading—without hardly even seeing—the pages. Your eye flicks at the time, counting down the minutes until you can go into the restroom to check on the new Yumi. Ten minutes, Philip and them told you. Sometimes twelve, sometimes eight, before they wake up.

Ten minutes to go before you go in to check, to ask her if she's finished getting ready for the double-date that you've set up for tonight.

Next: "Breaking Bread with the New Girl" 

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