Chapter #18A Girl Full of Possibilities by: rugal b.   It's not too long after Chelsea makes your post-school plans for you and slips back into Kendra's mask that the bell for the end of fifth period rings. The two of you slip out of the fuck room and Chelsea's quick about beating it out of the gym completely. But for the next two periods Samantha's got basketball practice which means you don't really have any reason to leave the gym. Instead you make your way over to the girl's locker room and begin changing.
It's as you're throwing a jersey on that the rest of the team -- all but Corale coming from lunch -- filters in.
"You're here early," says Kristy Suffolk as she walks up next to you, her own locker being close to Samantha's. "You weren't eating with Catherine and them?"
"Nuh uh," you shake your head. "I had some business I had to take care of here." You hope that's enough to dissuade any further questions as Kristy's thankfully not generally one to prod people for gossip. But this seems to be one of the times where she's tossing that quality aside so you're finally forced to respond to her little hints. "Remember yesterday?" you ask.
It takes her a minute but Kristy's face shows that she's finally got it. "So this was about Chelsea?" she asks. "What'd she even want yesterday?"
"Something about throwing the support of the cheerleaders behind the team," you explain. "I thought it would be about that, like working everything out, but I think she was just bullshitting me."
Kristy can only sigh. "She was probably just looking for a gossip pipeline,"she says.
"Well she picked the wrong person."
"Yeah, no kidding," she replies with a small laugh. "But it's not like she'd know that or really anything about us."
"You think that's it?" you ask.
"Mmm, yeah definitely," she answers. "I mean she's easy to read; I don't think she's ever heard the word subtlety before."
"So why would she suddenly have interest in the team?"
"No idea." You watch as Kristy throws her own locker open and begins to pull out her own clothes. "Maybe she's heard about everything that's going on with... you know. She'll probably start grilling some people from the soccer team too. God, that means I probably have to be on the look as well."
You can feel your heart sink at that. Out of anyone on the team Samantha's always gotten along the best with Kristy, a girl who's far less intense than one would expect when taking a quick look at her. Kristy, being mindful of Samantha's own inclinations, has always kept drama talk to a minimum. Yet as of late she's started hanging around more and more with Stephanie and Almida and the others and getting mixed up with them.
It's something that's caused Samantha at least a mild bit of distress.
"Well I don't want to think about what her reasons are," you say wiping away any possibility of further discussion about that piece of business. "All I know is that she said she was thinking about doing it and then nothing came of it. I don't really have any reason to concern myself with it beyond that."
Kristy just shrugs at that and while she changes the conversation is a little more strained between the two of you. Is Samantha losing one of her friends to all of this crap she's begun to wonder? Even more reason to hate it then. If she could do something about it, get the whole entire silly affair to stop, she'd do it in a heartbeat. She wants to enjoy being on the team again, she wants to make sure that there's no real straining of her and Kristy's bond.
But she can't just snap her fingers and fix it. Not just because solutions that easy don't exist (or do they...) but because of one very specific person.
* * * * *
"C'mon Nell, work harder! You're our center, you can't be allowing me or anyone to just blow by you like that!"
"Sorry," replies Nell Hammond with a level of contrition that seems to be at odds with her appearance. Dark-skinned, tall and brawny, she's the team's starting center and an intimidating sight for most people.
"Sorry doesn't mean shit, Nell! That was just Meghan, imagine if it was Chamberlain or Choi; you'd be flat on your ass!"
Stephanie Wyatt, however, is not "most people". You knew her back in elementary school. Well, perhaps knew isn't the correct word. Rather you were in the same class a few times back then and even now, through middle school and your senior year of high school the both of you wind up in a class or two together every so often. But in all that time she's never really talked much to you. She knows your name and that's about where your interactions really begin and end.
Usually if she is acknowledging you it's in the form of a hard glare. Stephanie's a pretty girl, certainly among the better looking of this bunch, but that quiet intensity and the way it intimidates you does her no favors.
But those are your own thoughts. What of the girl who you're now impersonating? Who, as her teammate over the last few years, should have a much better picture of her than you?
Samantha's own feelings about Stephanie are... mixed. She doesn't hate her, not really. Only someone with reputations for shit-stirring, treachery and discord truly earn her ire. On the one hand as a teammate Samantha holds a great deal of respect for Stephanie. Stephanie's been playing the longest, she's the most athletic and far and away the team's best player. She works hard and plays with an intense determination.
However it's that same intensity that does not endear Stephanie to Samantha as it clashes with the girl's own mild temperament. Stephanie expects people to rise to her level and can get frustrated when she feels that's not the case. She's bossy and forceful and though officially Almida Jones is the team's captain, in practice it's Stephanie who's the clear leader.
Even off the court she's not much different. Samantha's hung out with her plenty, usually along with other teammates, and even in a casual situation this aspect of her personality manifests itself. Whether or not Stephanie does it consciously Samantha doesn't really know. All that she does know is that it makes Stephanie an exhausting person to deal with. Even beyond that though Stephanie never comes off as the most pleasant person for Samantha to deal with.
For Samantha, Stephanie Wyatt is a very prickly individual.
* * * * *
Practice continues over the next two hours as you run drills, play scrimmages and practice on various aspects of the game; Samantha, for instance, is a pretty accurate shooter so you make sure to spend time practicing shots. Once practice does break you're quick to shower off and change and, to your surprise, decide not to linger or ogle at the various girls. Not to say that there's not attractive ones: Stephanie of course and Kristy and even in their own ways Katy Conlee and Meghan Velasquez.
However you just do not feel that level of desire. Maybe it's Samantha's own instincts overriding yours? Because Samantha is aggressively straight. She she has no boyfriend now but she'd like one. It would just need to be someone clean cut, someone willing to take things slow and steady.
As you're lost in your own thoughts however that doesn't mean you're tuning out the world completely and you wind up overhearing something that catches your interest. Kristy and Stephanie are talking and you guess Kristy asks her what she's doing after school because you more clearly make out Stephanie saying that she's going to be getting together with Eva and Jessica which makes sense. Some times during get togethers the Garners would be around because, after all, they're good friends with Stephanie.
And Stephanie's good friends with the Garners.
It's there that you begin tossing the possibilities around in your head. As you finish dressing, say your goodbyes and head to the last period of the day and as you sit in Mr. Santiago's AP American government class you think of what Chelsea tasked you with if you chose to stay as Samantha. By the time the final bell rings you think you've hit upon that angle she wanted.
Quite simply, use a mask on Stephanie. If you could do the same trick to the mask that you did to your own that would mean you could put a treated mask of Stephanie onto her and you'd suddenly have the de facto leader of the girl's basketball team under your control. From there you can have her put pressure on the Garners for whatever reason Chelsea would need.
But there's another possibility as well: use a mask on Stephanie and then switch over to her. You can treat Samantha's mask and put it on, then take over as Stephanie Wyatt. This would in effect give you control over the team, a place to watch and possibly manipulate the soccer team drama and an easy way to apply pressure or keep tabs on the Garners for Chelsea. Hell, maybe even use your position as Stephanie to grab masks of the Garners as well.
But that might not be such a good idea. Chelsea said that so far she's trusted you and though you have no intention of betraying that trust she might see things differently. With Stephanie under control or you under her mask Chelsea might see you as trying to build up your own power base and possibly challenge her. You really don't need, or want, to deal with a suddenly paranoid Chelsea Cooper.
She'd already been annoyed you rejected becoming Yumi or Cindy. Now she's pushing Kendra on you. Clearly she wants you helping her with the squad as one of its members, probably because she trusts you and probably so she can keep an eye on you. In that respect, because that's what would obviously make her the happiest it might well be the safest option to go with.  | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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