This choice: Bring in Sarah and Joanna • Go Back...Chapter #42Three Stooges by: imaj   You let Carrie organise picking up the new recruits. That leaves you free to spend the following day at Eastman goofing off, wasting time and generally revelling Joe’s masquerade of stupidity. After school, you send Frank off to pick up more mask supplies. You’d had him skip school for the day and polish up some masks for you. It turns out you can do it very quickly with the aid of a power tool and he managed to use up most of you stock. That leaves you alone at the Durras house when Carrie shows up with her reluctant acquaintances.
Reluctant certainly seems to be the word. You can see it etched on their faces as you open the door. One of her companions, a slightly built Asian girl, seems a little shocked to see you. The other, a cute girl next door type, wears her disdain openly. You can see why they drifted apart from Carrie, as neither has that same, almost artificial, look that Carrie somehow achieves.
“Hi Joe,” says Carrie winsomely.
“Girls,” you smile a dazzlingly bright Joe Durras smile at them. The Asian girl smiles faintly back, but her eyes stay firmly fixed on your feet. There is something familiar about her that you can’t quite place. The other girl’s expression does not so much as flicker. “Come on in.”
You lead the three through to the sitting room and settle yourself into one of the sofas. Carrie sits next to you. The Asian girl chooses a single seat but the other girl seems to prefer to remain standing.
“So which of you is Sarah and which of you is Joanna,” you ask, smile still fixed on your face.
“I’m Sarah,” says the Asian girl nervously.
“And I’m not in the mood for this,” says the other girl, Joanna presumably. She folds her arms defiantly. “Ok Carrie, you’ve shown off your new boyfriend. Can we go now?”
“Boyfriend,” you say, turning to Carrie and raising an eyebrow. She smiles, but it doesn’t touch her eyes – instead you see a trace of panic there. “I thought these were your friends?”
“I didn’t say you were my boyfriend,” says Carrie quickly.
“Friends,” snorts Joanna. “Maybe before she discovered boys. And makeup.”
“Ok, Ok,” you say. “Why don’t you sit down Joanna?” She looks at you angrily, but you simply smile back. Her cheeks flush a little and backs into the other sofa. “Just what did Carrie tell you?”
“Just that we really had to come with her,” says Sarah, looking directly at you for the first time.
“You used to be friends, right,” you ask. The girls all nod. “Wouldn’t you like to be again?”
“Carrie wants us to be like her,” says Joanna sceptically. “Why are you so interested anyway?”
“What can I say,” you reply, favouring her with another winning smile. “I’m a nice guy. I’d like to help you all out, and ‘being like Carrie’ isn’t going to be a problem. Carrie’s happy to change.” You get up and fetch the mask of Maddy from where you left it. You throw it gently to Carrie. “Aren’t you Carrie?”
She looks at the mask, biting her lip. Carrie brings the mask up to her face, toppling forward as it vanishes. Luckily, you’re quick enough to catch her, laying her gently back on the sofa. Sarah shrieks as you sit back down.
“What did you do to her” asks Joanna, standing bolt upright. She edges over to her friend who is still screaming.
“Nothing,” you say holding up your hands. Sarah stops screaming, but only to take a breath. “She’ll wake up in a moment and tell you herself.” You get up and gently take Sarah by the shoulders before she has a chance to open her mouth again. “I need you to be quiet and listen to her,” you say, looking Sarah directly in the eye. “Can you do that?” Sarah nods mutely. You back away slowly and help Carrie sit back up.
“Carrie,” asks Joanna as the changed girl rubs her eyes. “Is that you?”
“Yes,” replies Carrie. “But I’m also Maddy now. Totally, like I could pretend to be her and her own family wouldn’t notice,” giggles Carrie.
“I think people would notice if you disappeared,” snorts Joanna.
Carrie’s adopted face falls. “I hadn’t thought of that,” she admits. “What about that, Joe?”
“Maddy will fill in for you Carrie,” you explain. “Only, she’ll be asleep and won’t remember anything afterwards.” You turn to Joanna. “What do you think? You could be one of Maddy’s friends: Tina, Mandy, Natalie? Imagine the fun you could have being a senior.”
“This is…” Joanna stutters. “… wrong. I don’t think I want anything to do with this.”
“I want to be Dana,” says Sarah quietly.
Joanna turns to look at her friend. “You what?”
“I want to be Dana,” repeats Sarah, more firmly this time.
“Why,” the confusion is obvious in Joanna’s voice.
“She’s just so much more confident,” says Sarah. She stares at the floor for a moment. “And David likes her,” she adds quietly.
“What’s my brother got to do with this,” asks Joanna incredulously.
“He’s cute,” Sarah responds eventually, blushing brightly. “But he’s never noticed me. He’d notice if I was Dana.”
“Your own sister,” shouts Joanna.
“But it wouldn’t be permanent, would it,” Sarah says looking at you imploringly. “We could swap back later and Dana would be ok?”
“Of course,” you reply.
“Please Jo,” says Sarah, looking at her friend again. “I need this.”
Joanna stares at Sarah, then at you. She opens her mouth several times. “No one gets hurt,” she eventually asks.
“They can come back any time,” you assure her.
“I’m only doing this to make sure Sarah’s ok,” she says, pointing her finger at you. “If you… fuck around with her… If you fuck around with either of us… You’ll regret it.”
“Trust me,” you say. “I only want to help you.”
That seems to mollify Joanna and she sits back down on the sofa. Carrie leans and whispers in your ear. “Dana isn’t one of Maddy’s friends.”
“She will be, you say out of the side of your mouth. “She will be.”
*****
You admire your three new masks. Once Joanna and Sarah were on board it was easy enough to persuade the three girls to make masks for you. Carrie practically snatched her blank off you. So now you have a Carrie Carmichael mask, a Sarah Pak mask and a Joanna Johnson mask. They still need to be golemized. Even though you got a strand of hair from each of the girls you think you’ll be using your own instead. After all, if you tell the golems to follow the girls instruction they’ll never know the difference.
You can get that sorted before you turn in for the night. Then you can start swapping the girls about tomorrow. Who to start with though? Carrie will doubtless want to be swapped first, and doing so will keep her from whining at you. Sarah’s swap will be much easier to complete though. All you need to do is show up at her house and make the switch.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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