Chapter #49Lifestyles of the Rich and Locally Famous by: rugal b.   You make your way out of the unit and step into the thin hallway that connects the rest of them.
It's quiet and this late at night it feels a little eerie to you. Well not so much to you as to the girl whose mind your own is safely cocooned in because Kristy Carlson rarely ever ventures south of the university. This area, on the southeaster outskirts of town, is... older would be the charitable word you'd use. Storage facilities, dumpy motels and greasy spoons dominate the area, a reminder of a time when this was just a sleepy little university town used mainly by people on road trips.
A time before your grandfather -- Kristy's grandfather -- moved back into town with a successful real estate company he grew out on the east coast and a plan to transform Saratoga Falls from a transient rest stop into a stable destination community. Oh it was growing to be sure but slowly; Phillip Carlson Sr. just sped up the process. Then he retired and your dad -- Kristy's dad -- sped it up even more mainly by transforming the quaint area across from Keyserling into a bustling downtown filled with all kinds of shopping, clubs, bars and eateries for the younger, hipper set.
There's hardly an area of Saratoga Falls or its outlying community, Acheson, that hasn't been touched in some way by either of the Phillip Carlsons, senior or junior. This small area at the edge of town is one of the few.
So it's an area unfamiliar to Kristy and so she and thus you can't help but look around the hallway with a sense of trepidation. You had expected to be greeted by the other members of this group you've found yourself in but they're nowhere to be found. Only a unit next door with the door open just a crack. You wonder if they're in there so you open it but to your surprise find only Maria.
"Where's everyone else?" you ask as you step in.
"Mike and Carlos left to get started on getting their second betas. Your own beta went home. Keith did as well."
It's the type of matter of fact manner from Maria that Kristy isn't used to. Oh Kristy and Maria aren't best friends or anything but when both of their parents are big shots around town the fact they know one another is certainly not surprising. So it's not to say that they're total strangers either and Kristy likes Maria plenty. Enough that when Maria contacted her about wanting to catch up and show her the video stuff that she'd been thinking of getting involved in, Kristy didn't really hesitate to agree to meet up with her.
"They're getting started on that already?"
"No time like the present," Maria replies. "They're going to get Kendra first for Mike and are going to use her to ensnare Marcos Rivera." You have, through Kristy, a vague notion of a "Marcos" that plays for Westside's soccer team. "You should think of who your second is going to be as well."
"Already?" you ask with a bit of surprise. "I've only been Kristy for fifteen minutes."
"You don't need to change tonight or anything," she states. "You don't need to switch into another mask if you don't want to either. But we are trying to see what this changes so even if you're staying as Kristy you should give it a day or two of thought."
"I'll keep it in mind," you say as you begin to turn around.
"Where are you going?"
You'd taken two or three steps but instantly stop and turn back to Maria. "Home," you state simply, "I just figured it'd be good to check in with you before I left."
"That's not a good idea, Will," she states. "It usually takes a day or a night's sleep for the memories and personality to come in full. I was going to say that I should keep you company until as late as you can stay."
Does it take that long? Seems like you got everything immediately near as you can tell. So you're not really about to listen to that. Besides it's late. "Well Kristy doesn't have a curfew but she likes to be in bed before midnight. It's already ten-thirty so..."
You let the thought hang there and Maria seems to grab at it though not in the way you'd thought. "Hmm, well I suppose some stuff comes in bits and pieces, especially important information like that," she muses more to herself than you. "Do you know where she lives?"
"Sure, it's there if I focus on it," you answer.
Maria regards you thoughtfully for a moment before she relents. "Alright then, but if Kristy goes to bed before midnight then I'd suggest doing that as soon as you get to her house," she explains. "That way you can get sleep and get all of the memories while keeping risk of messing up low."
"I'll keep it in mind," you tell her, "and the beta thing too. Plus we've got the goal of using Kristy to help my Will Prescott's popularity. I'll keep all of it in mind."
With that you give Maria a curt goodbye and leave, heading out of the building and to your car. On the drive to your new home a part of you, the part that's actually Kristy, can't help but be a bit perturbed by how off her friend seemed to be. It emphasizes to you that you can't make any mistakes. So long as you're around even a single person Kristy knows you'll have to let the butterfly emerge from her cocoon.
* * * * *
"Welcome home, Christine," greets a blonde woman with a warm smile once you're near the stairs. "Your visit with your friend went well?"
"Sure, for a bit," you say, "but something came up and she was needed back at home."
"Ah, a shame I am sure," the woman says sympathetically.
But you can only return a happy expression to her. "For now but we realized we needed to keep in touch," you tell her, "so we're going to be in more regular contact."
"That is wonderful to hear then," she states as you begin to walk up the stairs. However you stop yourself and turn back to her.
"Hey Mila, speaking of irregular contact are mom and dad here?"
"Your father is in his room and your mother in her office, I believe," she answers. "Do you need them?"
"Oh, no, I was just wondering since I hadn't seen them today. Oh! I haven't seen Patrick either. He's here right?"
"Relaxing in his room."
"Gotcha," you reply. "Anyway I'm going to turn in for the night."
"Understood. Good night Christine."
"'Night Mila," you say as you head up the stairs.
Mila, originally from Ukraine, came into the Carlson home in her early twenties as an au pair for the toddler Kristy. However she proved to be so good with Kristy that her parents helped get her permanent residency and she's been taking care of the Carlson children and indeed largely running the domestic help ever since.
And it hits you, as you reach the top of the stairs, that while having domestic help is as natural to Kristy as breathing it's completely alien to you. Kristy herself is a humble girl, something she attributes to her closeness with Mila who grew up, she'd said, quite poor. So though Kristy may have money, she's keenly aware that others do not and so tries not to take what she has for granted or rub it in the faces of others. Yet it's still an inescapable part of who she is and thus an inescapable part of who you now are. So it's something, you realize, you'll have to get used to.
Just like this house... no, this mansion. It's bigger than anything you've ever seen and you feel like your own house could fit in here a hundred times over and there'd still be plenty of room left over. Domestic servants, a fancy kitchen, a lovely and heated indoor pool with an accompanying hot tub and sauna. A garage that itself could fit the Prescott home inside of it. Lots of acreage and thus lovely natural scenery all around. Kristy could live as a hermit in this place and never want for anything.
Well except her friends. Kristy has been very careful in cultivating her friendships. For obvious reasons she's always had to be mindful about who acts friendly because they like her and who acts friendly because they like her money and she's glad that she's been able to find those who fall into the former category. Amy Rhodes, Susie Maitland, Kerri McKenna and Susanna Stillwell are thus people she places a great amount of value in, as much as she does anything she owns. There are other friends of course, most that she's still in the "watchful" stage of but there's also Diana Lord, the friend that she values more than anything she owns who's been with her since the fourth grade.
Yes, if Kristy Carlson has cultivated these friendships then they must be very valuable indeed. It makes you realize, then, that introducing one of them -- well not Susie as she's spoken for -- to Will Prescott would be a massive boon in your old identity's popularity. Fairfax had also wanted you to look for a second beta for yourself and one of them -- Susie included this time -- might make for a good one.
But you haven't even settled fully into being Kristy Carlson yet. It's probably too early to be thinking about betas.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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