Chapter #37The Voice by: imaj   It’s Tina’s voice that makes your decision. For all her hotness, Maria’s voice can sound a little vapid and whiny. You hope adding a little bit of Tina will sort that out.
“So let’s talk business,” says Maddy, watching as Tina leaves the room. You watch too – you need to get away from Maddy if you want to catch Tina. “I could use a contact at Westside.” You suppress Kendra’s instinct to snort. You have the feeling Maddy would get far less out of such a deal than Kendra would.
“And I could use a reliable contact at Eastman,” you reply, stressing the word reliable ever so slightly. “And I could use a contact that no one else knows about.” You smile. Maddy takes a moment to think about it before letting out a small ‘ah’ sound. “Exactly, I wouldn’t arrange anything where anyone at Eastman could overhear it. Give me your phone number Maddy. I’ll be in touch.”
“Certainly not,” says Maddy with mock outrage. She pulls a small notebook out her purse and starts writing in it. “I mean Westside is totally the enemy and I’d never consort with you.” She rips the page out and hands it to you with a wink. There’s a cell number on it, of course.
You, personally, don’t need a source at Eastman, but it might prove useful at some point in the future. Maddy might even be able to unwittingly help you get masks from there. So long as she thinks she’s dealing with ‘Kendra’, and so long as you have Kendra’s instincts and personality to help you, she should be manageable.
“I guess we have nothing more to say to each other,” you reply, placing the paper into your own purse with a smile. You stand up and nod at your new ally and make for the exit, hoping that Tina hasn’t disappeared.
Luckily Tina hasn’t wandered to far from you, just round the corner and into an empty guest bedroom. She’s sitting on the bed playing with her cell phone, facing away from the door, so you pull the Maria / Andrea mask. A quick check confirms it’s the right one, the last thing you want is having to explain any mishaps to Patterson.
Tina is so engrossed in whatever she’s texting she doesn’t notice you move quietly up behind her. She tries to get as you slip the mask around in front of her, but all she does it make it easier for you to push it on her face. Her motion abruptly halts and she slips back onto the bed, her cell phone clattering to the floor as her grasp slackens.
First things first, you close the bedroom door to avoid any unwelcome interruptions from passers by. Tina is out cold and lying awkwardly half on, half off the bed. You haul her up by the arms and put her on her side on top of the covers before retrieving her phone.
The text seems to be a message to Alyssa telling her that Maddy’s talking to Kendra and needs rescued. It’s tempting to interfere somehow, and Kendra’s personality certainly wants to, but you’d rather just let Tina think she blacked out for a minute. Altering the message will leave evidence someone else was in the room with her. Instead you place the phone back in her grasp and wait patiently for the mask to re-surface from Tina’s face.
After a few minutes the mask appears and you quickly grab it and stuff it in your purse. Then you step outside the room and close the door behind you before Tina can stir from your slumber. Nobody is in the hall outside and with any luck Tina will put the brief appearance of the mask in front of her face down to her imagination or something.
That’s the second of your three tasks finished – only the ‘official’ one of grabbing an Eastman basketball player remains. You’ve got an idea of exactly who to talk to as well.
*****
You catch up with Ian Carpenter again downstairs, just by the door that leads out to the swimming pool. He’s standing chatting with another guy that you vaguely recognise from the Eastman basketball team. He’s tall, of course they all are, and blond with an evidently expensive taste in clothes. Kendra’s persona picked up that last bit, you would never have noticed.
You’ve got a plan to get Ian by himself…
It’s not a great plan. At least, it’s not one you are happy with. It owes more to Kendra’s approach than to your own. You’ve been running her personality since you got to the party, content to let it loose and enjoy itself. This last idea, well, Kendra will enjoy it much more than you will.
You steel yourself and sink further into her persona. “Hi Ian,” you say, placing one of Kendra’s delicate hands on Ian’s stomach. You can feel his muscles through the shirt he’s wearing. Kendra’s persona insists you shiver a little in anticipation and you comply. “Did you catch up with Alyssa?” In fact, you can see the Eastman head cheerleader out by the pool, talking to Summer.
“Eventually,” he smiles back at you. He looks at your hand, but doesn’t remove it, or back away. “But she had to talk to Summer, and I wanted to have a word with Jon anyway.” The other basketball player waves his hand. Kendra’s mind whirls and identifies the other player as Jonathan Straussler – his family makes the Carlsons look like paupers.
“I saw how you were looking at her earlier,” you say quietly, barely loudly enough for Ian to hear. You walk your fingers up his chest before leaning in closely to whisper. “You’re interested in her, aren’t you?”
He looks at Alyssa as you lean back. Straussler is staring very carefully at his drink. “Is it obvious,” he asks in a quiet, distant voice. Obvious enough for Kendra to make an educated guess. In the distance, Alyssa laughs. She hasn’t noticed you or Ian yet.
“I can help,” you say.
“You can,” he asks, turning to face you again.
“I can,” you confirm with a lazy smile. “Just follow my lead and don’t turn round and look at her.”
“Why?”
“It’s important that she doesn’t see you looking at her,” you explain. “Otherwise she’ll think you’re just doing it because she’s looking at you. When I see her looking at you I’ll do it.”
“Do what?”
“This,” you say, pulling him down and kissing him on the lips. On instinct Ian kisses back, clumsily meeting your tongue with his own. It takes him a few moments to realise what’s happening and stop. “She was looking at you,” you explain. “Don’t look, but she was totally looking at you. She still is and she is so jealous right now,” you lie. In fact Alyssa is walking away to talk to someone else.
“Oh, I get it,” he smiles slowly. “The old ‘make her jealous’ routine. Think it’ll work,” he asks Straussler.
“It always works,” he replies, glancing past Carpenter to where Alyssa is disappearing from sight. He gives you a funny look, which you ignore.
“You know what will work even better,” you whisper in his ear. He looks at you expectantly. You grab hold of his hand. “Come with me and find out.”  | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author