The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Arsenic From a New Face

Previously: "The Fire Starter" 

You've got your cell phone out even before you hit the street. All set? you text Fake-Will. Be there in 5.

all ok here, he replies while you're still looking for your car in the tiny parking lot back of the cafe. It takes you a moment to remember you are looking for Chris Yves's car. Between Jessica's memories, your own memories, Will Prescott's memories, and the fading influence of Chris's and Summer's memories, it's easy to get confused.

* * * * *

The Koffee Kauldron, where Fake-Will is waiting, is only a few blocks away, and he gives you a quick thumbs up through the glass-fronted door as you approach before vanishing into the interior. By the time you catch up to him in the deserted back room, he is already leaning over the unconscious Rhianna Miller as she slumps in her booth. "Hey, I'm gettin' pretty good at this, don't you think, boss?" he says with a smirk.

"Don't get cocky."

You pick up Rhianna's cell phone, which she has out on the table in front of her. It takes only a minute send Alyssa a text from it, and to then send a text to Rhianna from Chris's phone, cancelling the meeting you were supposed to have with her here at the Kauldron. That gives you a couple of minutes to kill before the mask comes out of her, which you spend fielding replies from Alyssa. The other Rumorati must have already got word to her about the conversation they overheard in the Crystal Cave, for Alyssa instantly accepts Rhianna's supposed invitation to meet over at Nirdlinger's for an impromptu shopping trip.

"What are you going to do for clothes?" Fake-Will asks as you slip the new mask into your bag and turn toward the door.

"That's why I'm meeting up at Nirdlinger's." Chris Yves may hate her father's job and the money it brings her family. But it means she's got a credit card of her own with a healthy credit limit that she's never come close to touching.

* * * * *

You get to Nirdlinger's a full hour before you're supposed to meet Alyssa there—time you need to complete another transformation. You have to guess at Rhianna's measurements, and you hesitate long and hard over choices of outfit, but at last settle on a simple jeans and blouse combo, and some cheap tennis shoes. In one of the changing rooms, you switch from Jessica's mask to Rhianna's and try on the clothes. After swapping out the shoes for a larger size—and swapping back into Jessica's mask—you buy the clothes and retreat to the parking lot, where you change back into Rhianna's face and wardrobe in Yves's car, with only fifteen minutes to spare before Alyssa is to show up.

She shows up ten minutes early.

You're thumbing through the racks again, pretending to be absorbed in the choices, when you look up to see Alyssa marching toward you. She's wearing an expression that Rhianna doesn't often see on Alyssa's face.

Saratoga Falls does not have a large African-American population, which makes it slightly remarkable that two of the Eastman cheerleaders should be black. Alyssa and Rhianna have been friends for a long time, with Rhianna cheerfully accepting the supporting role in the friendship. Where Alyssa has the stronger, more dominating personality, Rhianna is chipper and cheerful and more giggly. Alyssa treats Eastman almost like a job—running the cheerleader squad, managing the Rumorati—while for Rhianna it's a playground. But their friendship is such that Rhianna knows better than to try telling Alyssa what to do, while Alyssa refrains from treating Rhianna like an employee.

So it's remarkable to see Alyssa frowning at you like a boss who has just caught one of her food handlers coming out the bathroom without washing her hands.

Your first, panicked thought is that Alyssa has just come from talking to the real Rhianna, and is here to unmask you as an imposter.

She sets her jaw and fixes you with a hard look. "Is everything okay between you and Kevin?" she asks. That would have to be Kevin McIlroy, Rhianna's football-playing boyfriend.

You feel yourself blanche—partly Rhianna's own native reaction, and partly your own fear at being unmasked. "Sure," you stammer. Then you gasp and clutch at Alyssa. "Why, what have you heard?"

Alyssa shakes you off. "What about Leslie and Nick?"

"What? Oh, I ... think so?"

"You think what?" Her eyes harden.

"That everything's okay between them?" You grin in embarrassment.

"What about Becky and Joe?"

You feel your first wave of relief. Alyssa's just pissed because of the gossip she got from her friends. You glance around furtively, then lean in toward Alyssa. "You mean, like, how serious is it getting between them?"

Alyssa's eyes narrow. "Sure."

"Oh my God!" All your mental circuitry blazes to life. You weren't expecting her to hand you this kind of a chance to pour more poison in her ears. Almost faster than you can make them up, you start to improvise lies.

"So, like, that's something you need to talk to Ian about, Alyssa," you temporize. "I'm serious. I've been, like, dying to talk to you about it. But you know, it's not exactly my business?" You giggle nervously.

"What is it, Rhianna?" Alyssa glares.

"Joe is really playing with dynamite there. In my opinion. Like, Becky is practically picking out a wedding dress? In my opinion?" You arch your eyebrows and give Alyssa a very knowing look.

She stares, then throws her head back to bark at the ceiling. "Oh, for fuck's sake!"

"I know! Because Joe, he's not—"

"Becky's not that serious about him!"

"Excuse me, girl? I was there, I think I know—"

Alyssa hauls you by the wrist over to a corner where you can sit knee to knee. "What kind of talk is going around about them?" she demands of you. "On the squad?"

"That's what I'm trying to tell you! Becky's getting serious about him!"

Alyssa rolls her eyes. "She's not picking out a wedding dress!"

"No, but she's starting to get jealous. Last, um, Thursday? It was just a couple of us in the changing room, everyone else had gone? But Becky was there, and she just sort of blew up, 'cos she said she caught Joe scoping out Penny Stricker. And the rest of us were, like, girl, Joe's not—"

"Who?" Alyssa interrupts. "Who was there with you and Becky?"

"Uh, Lorena? And Nina? Except they took off real fast, 'cos they didn't like the scene. But Becky, she tried shutting up about it, 'cos she knew I was right—"

"What did you tell her?" Alyssa sounds like she wants to strangle you.

You blink in affected surprise. "I told her Joe was, like, you know, not gonna tie himself down to any one woman, and she need to—"

Alyssa leans back with a loud groan. "Well, it's true, right?" you exclaim. "But that's how come you need to tell Ian that he needs to talk to Joe—"

"I'll talk to Joe myself. I'll talk to Becky, too."

You clutch her by the arm. "Don't tell her what I told you! She was all, like— She knows what it's all about with Joe. But she can't help it, he's been paying too much attention to her if you ask me."

You pause for Alyssa's retort—No one's asking you, Rhianna, it's not your business—but she has retreating into a frowning thoughtfulness.

So you push harder at the idea. "You know, if Joe's not ever gonna be serious about no one—and you know he's not—maybe you should tell him it's time for him to find some other girl to bother than Becky."

Alyssa leaps in her seat, like you've touched her with a live wire.

"Oh really," she snaps. "That's what you think?"

"Girl, if it keeps him from—"

"Maybe you want to go out with him?"

You gape and squeal. "Me? Me and Kevin—! I mean, him and me, we're—!"

"What about Leslie? Lorena? Kyra? Ann?" Alyssa purses her lips into a hard line.

"Ann?" you gasp. "Our Ann? Ann Sibley?" Alyssa doesn't answer. "Ann and Joe?" You burst out laughing. "Oh my God, Joe would love that, wouldn't he? Just think how he could brag about—"

"Rhianna." Alyssa grips you by the wrist. "Are you and the rest of the girls on the squad talking about taking turns with Joe?"

You let your jaw drop open. "Taking turns with—?" you echo. "What do you mean by that?"

"Taking turns going out with him. Becky breaks up with him so Lorena can go out with him, and then Leslie goes out with him, and then you and then Ann—"

"What are you talking— Ohhhhh!" You pretend to remember. Alyssa's eyebrows go up. "When did you hear about that?" you ask.

So Alyssa tells you what Jessica was overheard telling Frank. You squawk and protest. "It was just a joke!" you plead with her. "We knew she was listening in on us, so we were just making shit up. You know, to get her going!" She demands to know who "we" was. You give her Ann and Kyra's names—neither of them is going to like being accused of what you're accusing them of.

Alyssa doesn't look much mollified as she gets up to leave. "I think I managed to put a stopper in it," she says grimly. "But you guys need to cut that kind of thing out." You grovel and apologize and promise never to do anything like that again.

* * * * *

So there's bound to be a shit show once Alyssa talks to Kyra and Ann, and a worse one when she catches up to the real Rhianna.

Which gives you just enough time to use Rhianna's mask to visit Joe Durras—the playboy basketball star who has so riled the dating scene at Eastman since his arrival—and stir things up on his end.

Or to find some other place to stir things up.

That's all for now.

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