Chapter #35Nursing Grudges by: Seuzz   You take a deep breath and glance over your shoulder, then scurry over to the cabinet. Inside: Hallelujah! It's the book, along with half a dozen masks.
Your heart pounds. There is no way you can make off with the book and not get caught. Even standing here in front of the open door is a bad idea. What if Gordon or Steve or Jason suddenly walked in?
The lock is laying on a nearby crate, and because you don't want Patterson to even suspect you've been inside the cabinet, you put it back onto the door and spin the dial.
With a sigh you return to the mat and the work Gordon left for you. It doesn't take long, and when you're finished you call up Patterson. He just grunts when you tell him that Gordon left you with the job of sealing up the two new masks, and says he'll let you know later what your new target will be.
* * * * *
It's early Sunday afternoon, and Patterson still hasn't called you with a new job, so you call up Caleb. "What's going on? Nothing? Wanna get together, see a movie? I got some free time."
"Keith called and asked me to help him get Yumi. I said no."
"So you're free too."
"I mean it would be awkward if I spent time with you after telling him to fuck off."
"He deserves it. He was a cunt yesterday, and it wasn't just Cindy's, if you know what I mean."
But Caleb continues to demur, and you hang up without making plans. You briefly toy with calling Keith and offering to help him out with Yumi. But you don't want to waste a free day. After a bit more calling around, you finally manage to make plans with Carson Ioeger and James Lamont, and wind up at the mall. It only proves there is more than one way to waste a Sunday.
* * * * *
"I hope you had fun at least," you tell Caleb on Monday morning when you meet up at your lockers.
"I did homework," he says without looking back at you. "Did you get together with Tilley?"
"Someone say my name?" Keith appears from behind you.
"Yeah. How are you doing with your project?"
He makes a face. "A little help would be nice," he mutters.
"Better think of an excuse before the end of school," you warn him. "We'll probably have a club meeting."
"And what kind of club would have you fuckers as members," a voice says behind you. Tilley freezes, for you don't have to turn to recognize it as Seth Javits'. His arm shoots out and he pulls Keith close. "It's been too long since we've hung out, Tilley," he continues, and then he grabs you. "You too, Prescott." He squeezes your neck in the crook of his elbow and hauls you, struggling, through the halls.
Your mind spins in a panic. Javits is Keith's special bully; he hardly ever pays attention to you. But after the past few days, with you pretending to be him— Your knees almost give out, for you have the horrible and unshakeable feeling that he has somehow found out what you've been doing.
The mass of students parts as Javits pushes through, until he comes to one of the boys' restrooms. "I need PRIVACY!" he bellows at the top of his lungs to the few students inside, and no one meets your eyes as they shuffle past and out the door. Javits releases you and Keith with a shove, then leans back against the door and smirks at the two of you.
"Message from the club presidents," he gloats. "You two fuckers need to get it in gear. Tilley, get your hands off your crotch and get Yumi. Prescott, you got a new assignment, and we want it done yesterday."
Your head swims. "You're—" Tilley croaks, finding a voice you can't. "You're part of the club?"
"You're mostly right, but only mostly," Seth grins. "Try guessing my real name."
Okay, that makes more sense, you decide. "Patterson."
"One wrong answer." Seth holds up a finger.
"Gordon?" Tilley asks.
"That's two."
"Lynch," you mutter.
"Three strikes, you're out." He crosses his arms, and his grin widens.
You stare, hardly believing it could be— "Caleb?" you whisper.
"Yeah!" He flexes a bicep. "Like my new look? Cindy did."
"Fuck!" you exclaim. "You can't walk around school with Javits' face! What if the real one—"
"Bzzt! Real one's taken care of. That's the main perk of being a senior member." He laughs as your jaw drops. "Yep. Finished my fifth job Saturday. The one you almost fucked up. So, I get to be Seth Javits, and Seth Javits gets put on ice, for as long as I want."
Keith's jaw drops. "What. The. Shit? How—?"
"That's classified, Tilley. But you gotta respect me, now, when I'm lookin' like this and when I ain't. Hell, Lynch's gotta respect me. Black and Patterson made that clear to the little—" He glowers. "And you guys need to get done, so you can get up to the senior level with me." He unzips his backpack. "Tilley needs to get Yumi. Will, your next job is to get Nurse Shaffer. You can do that today." He hands you a blank mask. "You'll walk into a door, get a bloody nose, and go to the nurse's office. Once there— Pop!" He mimes slapping a mask onto a face.
"Eww," Keith says, speaking for you as well.
"Nah, it's brilliant," Seth says. "You don't have to wear her face, unless you piss Patterson— or Black— or me— off. Just score a copy of her."
"I'll take your word for it it's brilliant," you say. "But what do you mean I'm going to 'walk into a door'?"
"Well, like this."
And then he punches you hard in the face.
* * * * *
"What do you mean you walked into a door?" Nurse Shaffer asks.
"I walked. Into. A door." You tilt your head back. "Uno dooro me vamanos entrada. Un belle doorette me valse avec. Ning-nong ching-chong ding-dong—"
"Cut the sarcasm, boyo, or I'll hit you in the face with a door of my own." The school nurse swabs at your lip. "That's what happened, isn't it? Someone swung a door at you? Who'd you lip off to?"
"Someone who deserved it." You flinch as she shoves a cotton roll up one nostril. "Is it broken?"
"No, and I'll tell you to your face you're a pussy for coming to see me." You glance down the bridge of your nose—which whatever she says seems tilted at a novel angle—and look at her. She's in her forties, faded and worn and not pretty—if she ever was—and what the hell is she doing using language like "pussy"? "If that hurts, you've led a sheltered life," she adds.
"What is this, an army hospital? You more used to tucking guys' guts back inside them?"
"Maybe you've just got a test you're trying to get out of," she says. "I'm not here to pass out baby aspirin to everyone with a tummy ache and a pop calculus quiz. If you want a medical excuse, we'll step into the next room and give you a full examination. Strip you down to and then out of your underwear."
"That's okay," you reply. "Can you sign me some kind of hall pass or something so I can get to class?"
She turns back toward her desk. Quickly you dart a hand into your open bag and hop off the table. Your head swims as you lower your face and approach her from behind, but she doesn't see or hear you before you've slipped the mask over her face from behind. She falls back into your arms, and you hold her awkwardly while using your feet to pull a chair out so you can drop her into it. That done, you close the and lock the office door, and fervently hope no one tries to get in.
Minutes pass. Voices approach and recede. Other voices approach, and your heart hammers in your chest, for these appear to stop right outside the door. Abruptly they break off, and silence descends. The clock on the wall ticks.
And then a clatter from the desk tells you the mask has reappeared. Gingerly, you pick it up and dash over to the door. Wooziness washes over you, and you pause with your hand on the knob to collect yourself, then open it.
Patterson turns in the doorway and stares down at you. You stifle a yelp.
He smiles thinly. "It's about time. I've been standing guard out here forever."
"Guh— Yeah." You hand him the mask, and he tucks it under his letterman jacket. "Thanks for keeping watch. Uh, you have another job for me?"
"Eager to get the last one done, huh? I thought sending Johansson around would light a fire under you guys." You shrug, not wanting to seem too keen. "Can you skip this period?"
"I'm already late, so I might as well."
He pushes you back into the nurse's office, then steps in and closes the door behind him.
"I'll give you a choice," he says. "First possibility: You step in for Nurse Shaffer. Become her. You'll run her office all this week." You gasp and a shudder runs through you. "That'll make it easy to get people," Patterson continues. "Anyone who comes in, you just put them on the examination table and drop a mask onto them. Totally normal for people to pass out in here. You collect everyone who comes in, all week, and on Friday you graduate to the senior level."
"What's the other possibility?" you ask, dreading that it will be even worse.
"You use Johnson's mask, the one you got Saturday, to get me fifteen Eastman students."
"Fifteen?"
"Fifteen Easties, or Nurse Diesel over there. Which one is it gonna be, Prescott?"
"How come Caleb got all the easy jobs?"
"Fifteen Easties, or Nurse Diesel," he repeats, and his expression hardens.  | Members who added to this interactive
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