Chapter #33When Worlds (and Anatomies) Collide by: rugal b.   You're finishing up breakfast the next morning when your phone dings. You wonder who it could be this early and thrill a little when you see the name and the message: i'm here, is all that it says. However it's from Chen so you text him back that you'll be out in a minute. You finish up what little food remains and after cleaning your plate practically fly out the door and into the passenger seat of Chen's waiting Jeep. For once he doesn't need to be the one to initiate anything as you lean over the center and plant a quick smooch on him.
"The fuck was that for?" he asks as he pulls out, though his tone and look don't show any sort of annoyance.
"Can't I be happy to see my boyfriend?" you ask in return. Your tone though does convey some annoyance albeit a playful annoyance but nothing is said after that as both of you go silent.
In actuality it's not like you're happy to see Chen specifically; Chelsea could show up in any number of guises and you suspect you'd feel the same. She could show up as herself and you'd want to plant a kiss on her despite Yumi's own loathing of Chelsea and leaning far away from anything sapphic. Because it's not Gary Chen that's getting your heart to flutter but the person wearing his face.
In a way it's frustrating. All the stories about Chelsea Cooper being manipulative, vindictive and self-interested? Those are certainly true. After all she's gotten you to go along in a scheme that's resulted in her gaining virtually incontestable control of the cheerleading squad. She's certainly helped herself but she's also helped you as well. Even if you wound up here because it would benefit her you like being Yumi. You like being attractive and popular, smart and talented.
You like being in on a secret that only you and Chelsea share.
You like Chelsea.
Through all of this, Chelsea has been very gracious towards you, far more than she would've needed to be. She could've browbeat you into going along with her, threatened and blackmailed you; but she never did. Sure you were going along with her whims but you were doing it of your own volition because deep down, you realize, it was fun. Deceiving Yumi's friends, being the manipulative schemer, playing a part in Kelsey's downfall and seeing her dreams crushed... it's fun and it's thrilling. That you could be on the same wavelength as Chelsea, that you could form this kind of bond with her, is something you never thought would've been a possibility before.
"You good over there?"
Chen's voice brings you back to reality. "Huh?" you ask as you look over at him. "Sorry I was just thinking," you tell him.
"About what?"
"How nuts this is," you state. "Not just the book but I mean that two people as opposite as us would be working so close."
"Us as in me and you? Or Chen and Yumi?" he asks.
That gives you a second of pause. "Both I guess," you answer and that sends something firing in your brain. "It does make me wonder though if we always have to hang out together like this?"
"You mean you want to hang out as Chelsea and Will?"
You shake your head. "Not as Will, no. Not if I can help it anyway."
"You like being Yumi that much?" Chen asks and laughs a little.
"It's better than what I had," you admit. "But no I was thinking about Yumi and Chelsea hanging out together."
That produces only an inquisitive noise from your partner.
"Yumi's the one who helped pin everything on Kelsey and cleared Chelsea of any suspicion. So maybe," you stop to think for a second, "maybe Yumi starts talking to Chelsea, you know to sort of smooth things over right? Because this has been a trying ordeal for the whole squad and she wants to place peacemaker."
"And from there Chelsea and Yumi start being seen in each other's company more; they start becoming friendly," he finishes. Chen's staring at the road but you can still see the smile that's crept onto his face. "Having you, or Yumi I guess, at my side over Kendra... yeah that'd be a lot better. A whole lot better. I'll need to work on something to take her down too though if that's what we want to do."
"Take her down?"
"Sure, because I trust Kendra as far as I can throw her," he replies and you muse that, as Chen, that would be pretty far. "If we got closer then she'd start feeling threatened which means she goes to Lin and Cindy for real. Even if she's head of the JV squad, if we get it of course, then she'll try to work them into her own little club."
"So we set her up like we did Kelsey," you add. "She gets booted, then Yumi gets made head of the JV squad and since she's in good with you..."
Chen lets out a particularly girlish noise, something that is very Chelsea. "I didn't know you had it in you!" he exclaims; the Yumi part of you doesn't want to admit that thought was all her. "But then won't her friends get suspicious? You said they're already talking because of our relationship. Worried that Yumi's taking in the wrong influences no doubt, becoming a bad girl."
"Screw what they think," you say bitterly. "I'm reaching a point where I don't care about that. If they want to think I'm some kind of bad girl then let them think that. The only girl whose opinion Yumi Saito really, truly cares about is Jenny Ashton's."
"Is that who you want as a second then?" asks Chen with amusement. "She tried out for the squad before didn't she? If you can convince her to try out again she'll have a spot lined up for her. Then you won't have to worry about what she thinks."
But you shake your head. "If you want to add her to the squad that's fine but I'm not taking her as another face," you tell him. "I'd been thinking about who to go with though and going over some of the names you'd been bringing up over the last few days. I kept coming back to one though and with all this talk about bad girls..."
You pause for a moment trying to gauge his reaction but you don't see one so you keep going as he pulls into the school parking lot. "I want Sienna Goldman," you tell him.
Nothing's said until he parks but when he does he looks at you and there's a giant grin on his face.
* * * * *
It's a bit of a fun idea that Chelsea had presented to you as you sat there in Chen's Jeep. While her talk of bad girls got you thinking, the mention of opposites that led to that conversation had gotten her thinking and when Sienna's name came up, well, it instantly fell into place. Will and Chelsea teaming up to tackle the book, Yumi and Chen in a relationship, Yumi and Chelsea becoming chummy; it's like a massive case of opposites attracting so why not carry that over?
As Chen she can get you Sienna with relatively little difficulty. After all Chen deals weed to one of her more distant friends (or at least friendly acquaintance) Nancy Trent and because of it Sienna's come to him when she wants some as well. It's not a regular thing as Sienna's the only one of her core group who smokes and she much prefers beer but still if Chen approached her it wouldn't be anything weird.
But from there who would your third be? Well that's where the real fun comes in. The obvious answer would be another of Sienna's friends but that's boring she'd said. You mentioned you'd been thinking of making one of her regular fuck buddies her steady boyfriend but Chelsea dismissed that too. It's mostly guys like Roth, those in a similar strata as her. No if you wanted to do something really fun, really shocking and really playing into the idea of opposites attract, hook her up with someone she might never get with normally.
A jock would be a good one she'd told you and she seemed to take a lot of delight in the idea of seeing Sienna paired up with someone like Steve Patterson. Or if you wanted to really get crazy why not look at one of the rich kids? The AP and orchestra snobs and such; the type who populate the country club? It's not like Gary Chen would have an issue getting someone like Gardinhire after all.
And while all of that is intriguing you can't help but be a bit put off at the idea of doing anything with another guy because at heart that's still what you are. Oh Chen has kissed you and canoodled and you've even slept together but that's easy to rationalize: it's not Chen you were sleeping with but Chelsea and for something like that you're willing to look the other way. Of course you say none of that to her, those thoughts are kept to yourself.
But you do counter with another idea that seems to bring a light to her borrowed eyes. What if Sienna got a girlfriend? You (that is Yumi and Chen) have never heard any rumors to say she's secretly gay or bisexual or has even just experimented with another girl but if you're running her does that even matter? All you have to say is that the promiscuity was a result of denying who she really is. Besides, if you wanted to make a splash then it'd be hard to top giving the notorious Sienna Goldman not just a steady partner but a steady girlfriend.   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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