You hold the possibilities in your mind, mentally juggling them as you wait. Go through with your plan an essentially betray Chelsea or trust her? If you do double cross her, then what do you do? How do you use her, and everything else, to your benefit? In a way, wouldn't that make you no better than Chelsea, doing the same thing that you were so worried about her doing? As the mask emerges from her face you snatch it up and quickly seal it, then you stop to take a look at it. Chelsea will begin to stir soon so if you're going to put her under your control, then you need to do it now.
The doubts and second thoughts, however, are too much and instead you simply lower yourself int the chair you'd been sitting in, mask in hand, as you take the hairs she'd give you and place them into a small ziplock bag and place them and the paste into your backpack. Eventually, she begins to make a bit of noise and begins to stir and you watch as she squirms and moans and her eyes slowly lift themselves open.
"You alright?" you ask as she straightens herself.
"Wha--? Am I--" she stops as she shakes her head and turns to face you. "So it worked?"
"Yeah... well, the mask is sealed at least," you say as you hand it to her for her to look at. "I still have to make that new paste, though, since I don't have any of the stuff here."
She studies the mask for a moment, turning it over and looking at it from every angle, before eventually handing it back to you. "You'll have to make another mask as well, won't you?" she asks. You gradually watch as her expression turns from serious to amused. "You know, Will, you probably could have brought that gunk with you and used it on my mask, right?"
You gulp and nearly piss yourself at that.
"Like, just use it while I was out and put the mask on me and then I could've been your slave." Her eyes light up as she continues and her grin widens. "Or maybe you could've made a mask of yourself and put that on me and then put my mask on yourself. It's not like I could've done anything about it, right?"
"I..." you start and then pause. What are you going to do; admit that you were going to do exactly what she said? No, of course not. You can't do that. So you shake your head and vigorously deny it. "I never thought anything like that. You've been really good to me so far, you know? You're, uh, way nicer than people think... um... that is--"
Chelsea raises up a hand to silence you. "Oh jeez, come on Will! You don't have to lie, you know? I know you thought about it, anybody would've."
Despite what she's saying, though, you can detect no anger in her voice and in fact she gives you a smile that makes you want to melt. "But you've been helping me out without, like, acting like you're expecting anything." She then leans over and places a hand on top of your own and you damn near do. "You seem like a decent guy so I thought it was safe to trust you."
"It's nice to know that somebody sees that," you blurt out to your own surprise.
Chelsea's too, as she pulls back and her eyes open just a little bit wider. "Somebody... oh!" she exclaims. "You were with that one girl, hmm, what's her name again? Kelsey's friend..."
"Lisa," you mutter simply. "I'm surprised you'd even know about that."
"Right, Lisa Yarborough!" she exclaims. "And of course I'd know about it. Like, gosh, Deanna was just telling anyone who'd listen about all the shit that Kelsey was talking behind Lisa's back." However, she tempers the excitement, looking more serious and leaning forward. "That wasn't fair, it? What Lisa did to you?"
"Well... no, it still makes me a little upset," you admit, although trying to downplay it.
"Of course it did, why wouldn't it?" she asks. "You know, everything that Kelsey was saying might have filtered back to Lisa and maybe she was thinking... oh, but I'm just spitballing so don't mind me."
You can't help but wince at that. "I don't think that Lisa would be that petty," you respond weakly.
"Maybe, maybe not. It's not like you or I know her all that well," Chelsea states. "But Lisa's friendly with a couple of girls on the squad, right? Eva and Yumi and them. And those girls... did they ever tell you how Lisa did or didn't feel?"
"Did they--" you stop yourself and sigh. "No, they didn't. Whenever I try to ask them, too, they just try to avoid it and brush me off."
"Mhm, that's not surprising," Chelsea coos. "Girls can be very sensitive about this kind of stuff, you see. But maybe there's people Yumi and Lisa would be more willing to talk to, if not you, right?"
That gives you pause. "You mean like Jenny Ashton?" you ask, throwing out the name of Yumi's best friend. You're not sure how well she actually knows Lisa, though.
"Her or one of the Garners. Lin. Others, too, I'm sure."
Yeah, of course she'd go right for the other cheerleaders. Chelsea's been awfully nice to you so far but at the end of the day, she's still Chelsea Cooper and still concerned largely with further securing her own position as the unquestioned captain of the Westside cheerleading squad. "So what you're saying, then, is that you want to use the mask on someone close to Yumi," you state.
"Isn't that what you suggested?" she asks with a knowing grin. "I do like your suggestion of Jenny, too. That's a good one."
"Jenny? Really!?" you exclaim. "I was just throwing names out there. Isn't she a little, you know, different from you? And not a cheerleader?"
"Who better to keep an eye on Yumi and Cindy and all of them than their closest friend? The person they'd least suspect of being a spy?" Chelsea responds. "Besides, people -- most of all them -- might look side-eyed if I was hanging out with you as myself. But would anyone find it suspicious if Jenny was?"
That's true and a fair point. Jenny's not necessarily one of your best friends but you've always gotten along with her and though you've never hung out with her without James and Carson and others present, you don't think it'd be too odd if you did either.
"And as for that cheerleader thing, well," Chelsea's face twists into a smirk, "perhaps she'd consider trying out if a space opened up, hmm?"
That almost makes you fall out of your chair. Jenny Ashton, a cheerleader? Jenny Ashton wearing that sporty top with the school logo emblazoned on the front, her hair tied back in a ponytail, waving pompoms as her skirt sweeps left and right... well, actually, it's a site that's as welcome as it is ridiculous now that you think about it.
"I'd have to be the one to get her, though," you say. "I don't think she'd go off with you in a hundred years. That might be hard too because I'd have to pry her away from James and everyone."
"James.. that's the boy she's always with, right?" Chelsea asks. "I guess that could cause problems too if he, like, likes her and suddenly you and 'her' are spending time together."
"Um, well, I wasn't thinking of that--"
"Okay, well, then just give me that mask we made and then bring me another tomorrow before school and I'll just grab someone myself. It can't really be that hard, right?"
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author