The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Magic on the Loose?

Previously: "Some Suspect Behavior by Sophomores and Seniors" 

You and Michael exchange another look. "Say that again," you tell Dane.

He sighs. "The one guy, he says to me, 'You didn't steal Dane's life, did you, Gordon?' That's how come I'm asking, does anyone else know about these masks?" He looks between you and Michael. "Because why else would they think I'm Gordon and that I—?"

"Well, on account of Dane," Michael interrupts him. "The real one." He looks down at you. "The one we shoved under Gordon's mask. They must'a got to talking to him," he continues as he pulls out his cell phone. "It's the new basketball players you said, right? Joe and Frank Durras? So they're probably interested in Gordon and what happened to him. Fuck, probably the squad back at Eastman are wondering how come he flamed out the way he did."

Dane's brow furrows. "But they asked me, like, if I stole his life! If I was Gordon, and if I stole Dane's life!"

"Like, if you and Dane switch bodies," Michael says.

"But where'd they get the idea—?"

"Jesus!" Michael punches you in the shoulder. "Will, please tell me you're smarter than this moron? He's supposed to have your brain under that face, and I'd hate to think you're as dazed and confused as he is."

In truth, you're almost as lost as "Dane" is. But dimly you think you begin to see the outlines of what Caleb is thinking.

"So you think these guys went and talked to Dane," you say. "To the guy who looks like Gordon Black. And he told them—"

"He told them he's really Dane Matthias and he doesn't know how he wound up with Gordon Black's body," Michael says. He holds up his phone to show you the screen. It shows a photo from a news site or something, showing guys in Eastman uniforms practicing in a gym. "So they come out here to see what 'Dane' has to say about it. What did you tell them?" he asks robo-Dane. "After they said that thing?"

"I just laughed it off. I said, like, who'd want my life?" He spreads his arm to take in the dumpy trailer.

But you're concentrating on Michael's phone. "What's this?" you ask.

"It's the guys who were out here. Right?" Michael shows the screen to Dane, who nods. "Joe and Frank Durras."

You take phone from him to study it closer. Joe is blonde, with a golden tan, with biceps and thighs and calves that would look more plausible on a wrestler. Frank is dark-haired, with a lither build. Even in mid-scrimmage, both are very photogenic, and Lindsay's brain tells you they're both strikingly good-looking.

"You know, I have to get into Dane's mask anyway," you say as you hand the phone back to Michael. "The rest of the guys'll be here pretty soon. Anything you want to ask Dane, you can ask me after I'm back in the mask."

"You won't have the memories, not until later," he points out.

"Then we'll talk about it later. I don't have to go home as Lindsay tonight. And maybe I should make it a permanent switch back over to Dane, at least until we start moving guys up into the senior class."

"Moving what guys?" Dane asks.

But you grab him by the shoulders and push him toward the hall leading to his bedroom. "You'll know what it's all about," you remind him, "when I'm you."

* * * * *

But you almost call Paulina and the others to cancel after you've seen Dane's afternoon with your own eyes, so to speak.

His description really didn't convey just how overpowering his visitors were in person. Joe—blonde, bright, voluble, with a blinding smile and a bell-like laugh—was almost aggressively good-natured. He slapped and squeezed at you (robo-Dane), pronounced the messy house "radically lived-in", and almost wept when you said you couldn't set him up with any weed. He kicked back and started telling dirty jokes about some of the girls at Westside, and asking which ones you thought were the hottest of the hot, and nudging and teasing you about which ones you'd scored with. He offered to go out and get some beer for you all, and groaned when you declined his offer to bring out all his Eastman pals so you could throw a kick-ass party on this school night.

And then he abruptly shut down on you.

You (robo-Dane) weren't paying a lot of attention when it happened. You were exchanging tongue-twisters with him when the smile fell off his face. His eyes, which shone like the bluest summer sky, turned as hard and cold as an iceberg.

He turned into a copy of his brother, in other words.

Frank was taller than Joe, and a lot more reserved. He hung back, saying nothing while Joe chattered and joked at you, and you had the uneasy feeling from his stare that he would very much like to peel your face and skin off to see what was underneath. He was dark and hooded, both in his face and his manner, and your own jokes bounced off him like pebbles off a stone wall.

Then the floor lamp went flying at your face. You were seated on the living room sofa, and again you flinch as you look down now at where it lies, broken near your feet.

No one touched it or grabbed it. It was on the other side of the room from both you and your visitors, when on its own it flung itself at your head. You cried out and ducked, and it missed you, but you felt the breeze as it went past. When you looked back up again, both your visitors were glaring at you.

Then the kitchen exploded. Cabinet doors flew open, and dishes and food blasted out. Drawers jumped out, dumping silverware and utensils all over. The refrigerator door flew back, and the food leaped off the racks and fell to the floor.

When it all stopped, Frank said, It's a bad idea to let magic loose. Because once you let it loose, sometimes it stays loose.

Holy shit holy shit holy shit, is what you replied. At least, you've impression that's what robo-Dane said.

We can help you stopper it back up again, Joe said, and like his brother he betrayed no surprise at the poltergeist-like explosion in the trailer.

Then he asked you if you'd ever seen a book about this big (he'd gestured with his hands) bound in red leather with gold lettering, containing magic spells for making magical disguises.

At least robo-Dane had the guts to tell him No, and stuck to his denials even when Joe's eyes blazed up in flame.

They got up to leave. But at the door Frank turned around and said, 'We'll talk about it some more tomorrow.

Yes, after reviewing all of that mentally, you come real close to cancelling the meeting with Paulina and the others.

* * * * *

But you're too slow to dig out the phone, and before you're even ready there's a hard bang on the door. It's Andy Webb and Ethan Clayborne, arriving early. They chortle over the mess after they're inside, and so does Kaylee Mercier. But Paulina turns up her nose when she and Bhodi arrive with Gabriela Costa (really Joseph Dickerson) who you've not met yet. Michael rounds out the attendance.

As Caleb had warned you, Andy and Justin are only lukewarm on the idea of trading in their new identities for ones in the senior class. Joseph doesn't offer an opinion (the girl he's pretending to be is already a senior), but Grant nearly comes out of Kaylee's skin when Caleb suggests that he could turn himself into Chelsea Cooper, the captain of the cheerleader squad. And Paulina and Bhodi are both strongly in favor of making the switch.

So it's the enthusiasm of Bhodi and Paulina and Grant that carries the others along. Justin is the most resistant—being Ethan Clayborne must be a really sweet deal for him—but you jolly him along with suggestions of some of the senior athletes he could turn himself into.

"And no one says you can't turn yourself back into Ethan at some point," Caleb tells him. "Your new guys'll graduate next May, move on and up out of the school. You can go back to your guy then"—he chucks his chin at Ethan—"when he's a junior. Or, I dunno." He shrugs. "You can turn yourself into one of the new seniors and save Ethan for when he's a senior."

"Are we going to be these people for the rest of the school year?" Kaylee asks, sounding awed. Before you can answer, she pumps her fist and shouts "Yes!"

"So who are we gonna be?" Ethan rumbles. "I mean, none of us know anyone in the senior class."

But they do, as Bhodi points out. He knows Marc Garner and Austin Dougherty and other guys on the varsity soccer squad. In his guise as Ethan, Justin knows the senior wrestlers. Gabriela, of course, is already a senior, and can make suggestions. Names are soon flying.

And it distresses you a little to realize that many of them are names of people you really don't know all that well. You sit back to listen.

But when Andy suggests "the new guys from Eastman," you summon Caleb into the kitchen with a crook of the finger.

"Two questions," you tell him. "First, where's Dane's mom?"

"She's not interested," he tells you. "She says she's staying as Leslie, period."

You shrug at that. "Second, these guys from Eastman, the ones that were out here today. You think maybe we should include them?"

Michael rears back. "You mean ask them to join the body-swap party?"

"No! I mean, should they be someone we should swap with? You and me, I mean. It seems like they know something."

Michael gnaws his lower lip.

"Might be a good idea," he muses, even without your telling him the rest of what happened to robo-Dane. "Even if they don't know anything—and you know, Will, how could they?—the school's already losing its shit over them. They're gonna be two of the most popular guys we could pick."

* To make Frank and Joe Durras your aliases: "A Reunion of Fakes" 
* To avoid them and find other aliases: "Caleb and Complications" 

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"