This choice: An AP girl or an athlete • Go Back...Chapter #43Brains and Brawn by: rugal b.   You decide to spend the day going over the girls you've narrowed things down to, hoping you're able to catch sight of them to give you a little bit of a clearer picture about just who they are. After all, social media can only tell you so much.
The first person name you're able to come across is actually the easiest. You'd met with Reagan Hackett and Kayla Shea before first period even started yesterday and though you'd certainly liked both on a physical level, it was Reagan that came to dominate most of the time you'd spent with them. She was more outgoing, more personable and far, far more flirty. More than you'd care to admit she seemed to know what buttons to push to make you want to feel like you were the only person she'd give this sort of attention to.
So you'd made sure to send her a text practically the second you'd arrived at school asking her what was up. Was it rude to text someone this early in the morning? Well you'd hope not, especially as she'd sent you her own text late last night. A simple "hope to see you tomorrow" with assorted appropriate emojis and emoticons but it was enough to shoot her high up on your list. And if it's rude her response doesn't indicate as such.
just about to leave. u?
just got to school. hoping we can hang out like yesterday, you reply back. Quickly you add something to make it, you hope, more enticing. just us, is all you say.
oh! kay, she replies. i'll meet u by the baseball field.
That's the end of the text conversation but you don't head over to the diamond immediately. Instead you loiter around a bit, giving yourself around fifteen or twenty minutes thinking that'll be plenty of time. After all, you worry that if you're standing around there when she arrives it'll make you look desperate and if you've picked up on anything from this entire experiment so far it's that you don't want to come off as desperate.
Though why should you care if you do come off like that? Probably because it might ruin the image the others have helped cultivate for you and you'd hate to shit all over their work like that.
"Well hey there!" Reagan greets you enthusiastically as you approach her near the bleachers. "Glad to see I left an impression on you."
"As much of one as I left on you," you reply trying to sound confident. Is that good flirting? You don't know but Reagan smiles and laughs a little in response.
"Hey, can you follow me?" she asks as she walks past you and towards the direction of the agricultural annex, naturally you oblige.
"Baseball your thing?" you ask.
"Not particularly," she replies, "but Kerri's boyfriend is on the team and the two of them are just... you know."
You actually don't know but you laugh anyway as you feel that's the response she's expecting. "I don't really know as much about the volleyball team as I should," you state but continue trying to play it smooth, "but I'd definitely like to."
As you're by the annex, relatively quiet this early in the morning, Reagan stops and turns back to you with a sly smile on her face, "Not a lot of people do but they're learning I hope," she says. "Kind of like you. I know you, for sure."
"Do you?" you ask. "We only just met."
"You're transparent Will," she states. "It's obvious, to me anyway, that this kind of thing is new to you right? Nobody's ever heard of you and overnight you're this big shot hanging around with the Garners and partying at the Warehouse."
"What can I say? I decided it was time to break out." Though your words sound confident, you're nerves are betraying you. What is she getting at?
She laughs a bit at that but it doesn't sound mean spirited. "You're definitely a geek, Will. A geek trying hard to look and act cooler than you are." She inches forward, that same sly smile turned right at you. "But I like it. You're not all that great at it yet but you're trying. It's cute and it reminds me of us, the volleyball team." She inches forward some more and brushes your chest. "I'd be happy to help you Will, in any way I can."
"Yeah?" is all you can say, your heart racing.
"Definitely," she says with a wink. Then to your shock she leans in and gives you a quick peck on the cheek. "Get in touch after school," she says as she walks by. "I'd love to get to know you."
* * * * *
Well instantly Reagan's shot to the top of your list... or has she plummeted to the bottom? You don't mean that negatively either. Your mind is racing the rest of the day from that brief encounter before first period. She saw right through you but she's still interested anyway? You start to wonder, what could someone like her do with the masks? If she really wanted to help you? More importantly than that though... does this mean you'd have a chance with her?
You'd certainly like that. Reagan is certainly a good looking girl after all, full-figured but in the kind of pleasant way that reminds you of Victoria Rodriguez. Someone who looks nice and soft who you'd love to grab and hold.
You try to put her out of your mind though for first period as you see another name that you put onto your list. One that you felt almost obligated to put as soon as you entertained the possibility of an AP girl: Lisa. Her motives are still a mystery to you and in a way she's been the fuel for everything, or maybe her actions are what gave you the push to set in motion this entire daft series of events that's led you to where you are now.
Where you are now being contemplating turning her into a beta using magic masks from a magic book. You'd love to know what she thinks, what she thought. More importantly you'd love to steal her away from that smug asshole boyfriend of her's. With her as your beta what could he actually do? You could not only end their relationship but have it go up in flames spectacularly leaving nothing but a smoldering, ruined husk in its place. Besides, if you managed to "win back" Lisa from Mansfield that would undoubtedly be a boon to your popularity.
Fourth period brings another name from your list. She's one you hadn't really known but browsing her social media allowed her to stand out. Mandy Tiller's a softball player who's part of the crowd of athletically inclined girls that surrounds the magnetic Catherine Muskov both in your English class and in general. Of the others, Meghan Velasquez isn't quite to your tastes and while Samantha Carpenter is pretty, her social media presence is surprisingly small and what's there isn't terribly interesting.
But Mandy seems to not only be a regular at Catherine's parties, there are also lots and lots of pictures of them together suggesting a tightness between them. You find the idea of having Catherine as a beta, or of being Catherine, intimidating but someone who could influence her into helping you sounds much more reasonable. Somewhat helping her is that your other choice from this class, her friend Kelly Rinaldi, is absent today.
Of the last name you'd had on your list you're only able to catch glimpses of her during lunch but you don't need careful observation to know that Sophia Van den Berg is practically a no-brainer. She's on the tennis team which is largely the dumping ground for the rich AP snobs. And Sophia is certainly not lacking in the wealth department. Her family, in fact, is very old money and -- as the story goes -- have been involved heavily in Saratoga Falls since the town's earliest days. Their mansion, old and gothic and imposing, sits right outside of the university.
The advantages offered by someone like her are immeasurable.
* * * * *
You allow yourelf to think about this when a text comes in from, to your surprise, Reagan after sixth. This time it's not much of a suggestion like it was this morning. She's outright telling you that she wants to get together after school. Where, though? Well she says that as the guy she'll leave that up to you. Your heart is certainly beating now because it's starting to seem like she is definitely interested in you and that you might have a chance with her.
That would mean that you wouldn't even need the help of the others to get her out to the studio for all of the others' magic whatsits to do their thing. But if you have a chance with her then you can't help but think that you'd want her and not some weird magical slave robot thing that'd have to follow your every order. Would that really be a girlfriend at that point?
Besides it's not as if any of the others on your list are awful choices. So you make a decision, first sending a reply back to Reagan but following it up with a text to the rest of the group with the name of the person that you want as your bet.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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