The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Casting a Webb

Previously: "The Sophomore Candidates" 

You're going to need another mask, no matter what direction you move in, so you drive out to your old neighborhood. Caleb isn't at the community center, and you almost call him so he can come out and keep you company -- and maybe do a little of the work for you -- but you decide to leave him out of it. He'd probably just yell at you for wanting to make another jump.

In fact, you decide not to tell him what you're doing. Let him think that you made a jump directly into-- Well, into whoever you decide to jump into.

Which means there's going to be a fourth victim of this mask madness. Gordon into your life, Dane into Gordon's, Evie into Dane's, and someone else into Evie's. You better make this next one count, you tell yourself.

So you give it a lot of thought as you cast and polish up another mask. And by the time you're done, you've settled on Andrew Webb.

You're at a loss to understand why he's the one you settle on, unless it's Evie who made the decision for you. Every time you think about Paulina or Melanie or Lindsay or Bhodi (or any of Evie's other friends) you feel yourself recoiling. What a betrayal it would be, for "Evie" to be the one to hijack one of their bodies.

It would probably also be dangerous. If you swapped places with them, you and they would still be part of the same group. What would you say to the real Paulina (or whoever you shoved into Evie's body) while you were pretending to be her? Probably your victim wouldn't dare try to tell the others what happened, because "body swapping" is just crazy talk. Still, even if it wasn't dangerous, it would be danged awkward.

But Andrew Webb isn't a friend of Evie's. Quite the contrary. He's a jerk, a bully even, and all of Evie's friends hate him and avoid him. (Bhodi especially. He and Andrew are both in the JV soccer program, and they're always getting up each other's noses.) Andrew is an arrogant asshole who thinks he's one of the really "big guys" in the sophomore class, when he's nothing but a shitty little snot.

So why steal his body and life? To get back at him, you suppose, though you yourself have nothing against him. That's why, you ultimately decide, it's Evie's personality that's making the choice, not yours. But you'll go along with it, because it makes more sense than swapping with one of her friends, and there's no one else you can really think of as an alternative.

After finishing the mask, you make the raw metal band for copying Andrew's brain before packing up everything you'll need for the ambush. Then, after making one more quick stop for a vital bit of clothing, you go home, where you spend the evening carving runes into the metal band and affixing it to the mask.

You also take along Chen's drug drop, to hide in Dane's car in the morning so the real Evie won't be in so much trouble.

* * * * *

You are sick with fear—Evie has the worst set of nerves—as you wind your way through the crowded cafeteria toward the table where Andrew is eating with his friends. They're huddled over their food, laughing and nudging each other, and you have to poke Andrew twice in the shoulder before he turns around and looks up.

He has piggy little eyes and a snub nose, and his upper lip curves easily into a smirk when he's amused. He's amused now, and you flinch at the gleaming leer as he openly looks you up and down from your waist to your brow. His lips part far enough to show one white tooth, which he sucks.

"Hey Andrew," you stammer. "You got a minute?"

"Sure." He leans over to make room for you. "Scooch in."

"No, I— I gotta go back to my friends. I just, um, wanted to ask a favor of you? What are you doing after school?" you ask in a rush.

He holds your eye as he shrugs.

"Well, like, can you hang out after school? In the library, with me?"

His smirk deepens. "Need help with your homework?"

"No. I just—" You feel yourself crimsoning all over. "I just thought we could hang out. Do homework together."

Aaron Riggs, who has been openly listening, guffaws. Andrew shoots him a quick, gloating grin before turning back to you.

"Sure, Evie," he says. "Library. After school."

"I'll be there too," Aaron says.

"Fuck you!" Andrew punches him in the shoulder. Aaron laughs.

You nod, and with a sickly grin back away. Andrew jerks his chin at you and smirks.

Back at the table with Evie's friends: "Wha'd you have to go talk to Andrew about?" Bhodi asks. He looks disgusted. "You have a class with him?" he asks when you mutter something about "homework." You shrug and avoid his eye.

* * * * *

Andrew is ten minutes late coming into the library after school—ten minutes during which you remind yourself that you can always try to hook up with him again tomorrow—and he's looking strong and healthy as he comes swaggering in. He's changed into a red muscle shirt, and his arms are a pink, lightly boiled shade. His white-blonde eyebrows are almost invisible, and his equally white-blonde hair is shorn very close to his skull. Classic bully, you find yourself thinking as you smile up weakly at him. He twitches a chair out with his foot and plops down next to you with his trademark smirk.

You've got your Geometry homework out, and he nods at it. "What period you got math?"

"Last."

"Psh, I got it fifth," he says. "Right after lunch. Rather have it first, y'know, get it out of the way." He leans back and twines his hands behind his head. "But then I couldn't take soccer. I was watching you guys yesterday, you know."

"I know. I saw you. Heard you. What you said." You feel yourself blushing slightly at the humiliating memory, even though it's Evie's memory, not yours.

Andrew holds your eye. A faint stink drifts out of his splayed armpits.

"Yeah, well, you kind of deserved it," he says, "getting yelled at like that. You know, if you want some extra practice, extra training, I can do that with you." He rubs his nose, then puts his hands behind his head again.

"I'd kinda like that," you lie. "Would you charge me?"

He looks startled. "Like being a personal trainer? No. Only you gotta work," he warns you. "I ain't interested if you don't wanna work."

"I'd work. I don't like it when Hannah yells at me."

"Pff, Hannah." He shuts his eyes and shrugs. Another wave of stink rolls out out of his armpits. "I'd yell at you too, but you'd like it when I did."

"How come?"

"'Cos it's for your own good. You don't wanna get yelled at, don't get yourself a personal trainer."

"Is there anything I can help you with in return? Like with math? To help pay you back?"

His eyes narrow. "What kinda grades you getting in there?"

"Eighties and nineties."

"Psh." He looks disgusted. "I could get grades like that if I wanted to. Not worth it, though."

What a fucking arrogant prick, you think.

* * * * *

You can only take about thirty minutes of his company before deciding that you really want to get the swap over with. So you suggest driving out some place to continue, away from the school. "Like the river?" Andrew says. You delicately counter that you were thinking of something more like Starbucks. He shrugs but is willing, and he leans in close to you as you trudge side by side out to the parking lot. You expect him at any moment to drape a possessive arm around your shoulder.

Your plan almost fails when he bridles at letting you drive, but he finally gives in with a sulk. He wedges himself behind folded arms into the front passenger seat of your car while you busy yourself with the bag in the back. He looks puzzled when you open his door, and his puzzlement turns to mild alarm when you crawl in to straddle him. But he doesn't react further before you cover his face with the blank mask. While he's out, you peel his clothes off him. Luckily, he's dressed out for a gym class in that muscle shirt, shorts, socks and shoes only, so it's easy. In the back seat you take off Evie's clothes and hurl them into the front, then change into an extra-large t-shirt and shorts that you picked up at the vintage clothing store. Only then do you tear Evie's mask off your face, fighting to keep awake as you do so.

* * * * *

You fail, and you sit up with a start when you wake again. But you must have been out for only a minute or so, for the mask is still inside Andrew. It's not long in reappearing, though, and you catch it before it can fall into his lap. You plant Evie's mask on him, and catch your breath as her skinny form replaces his. With a gulp, you hop back and, with your clothes and supplies, run for Andrew's car. Without bothering with anything else first, you start it with a roar and hurl yourself out onto Borman Avenue. You pull into the first strip center you pass, and park next to the garbage bins behind. Only then do you stop seal up Andrew's mask and make the final change.

* * * * *

It's with another hard start and a sense of deja vu that you wake again. Your brain aches with confusion, and you dig your knuckles deeply into your eyes. With a snort and a sniff you sit up and look around, trying to remember who and where you are.

Oh yeah. The Mellon Village Shopping Center. You pulled in here when—

You freeze. The sudden pulse in your ear drowns out the grumble of nearby traffic.

Slowly you reach up and turn the drivers' mirror toward you. Andrew Webb's piggy eyes look back at you from its depths.

You can't help it. You smirk.

Fuck, I need to go tell Aaron and Elijah about this! you exclaim to yourself.

Next: "The Challenge" 

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