Just before the bell rings, ending your study hall, you DM Chelsea: What class u have now? You don't want to go to your last class of the day, and if you have a chance to talk to Chelsea again, you'd like it.
Her answer comes a minute later. (Bless her, she must be dutifully checking her DMs at most every class break, to be sure of catching a message from you.) Sudy hall in library, she tells you, with kendra and gloria.
And just as you're reading it, you look up in time to see Kendra come striding in. She gives you the briefest of glances as she passes, as though you're bug.
Kendra and Gloria are cheerleaders, and two of Chelsea's key sycophants. Kendra is a light-skinned black (her ancestors came from Kenya, she is always reminding people) with the physique of a track runner. Her hair is dyed a light crimson and falls in ringlets past her shoulders. Gloria is a lot plusher and more buxom, with thick, dark hair and pouting lips.
Either of them, being close to Chelsea, would be easy to get to, and you'd have no problems then talking and texting with her from behind their faces. But Chelsea mentioned neither of them as a possible replacement, and you can understand why: they are already "servants" of Chelsea, and replacing them with magical clones would be redundant.
Besides, you're leaning in another direction. Though her DMs told you that she has only a very cold relationship with Kelsey Blankenship and Amanda Ferguson, you figure that you've a fair chance of getting one of those two alone if an invitation came from Chelsea. She is, after all, at their level of the social pecking order, whereas Kelsey has never done anything but sneer derisively in your direction, and Amanda to your knowledge has never even acknowledged your existence.
But then, as you're composing the DM in your head, Chelsea herself comes swinging into the library. She gives you a long look out of the corner of her eye as she passes you, then turns away when she reaches the table where Kendra is waiting. "Gloria's going to be late again, isn't she?" she sighs as she drops her backpack onto the table.
"She usually is," Kendra says.
"And it's not like her locker's on the other side of the school!"
"It's disrespect, Chelsea."
Chelsea clucks her tongue again . "Don't try to stir up shit, Kendra," she sneers. "Or if you're gonna try, at least try not to be so flipping obvious about it." She tosses her hair as she settles into her seat, and lifts up her phone to peer down her nose at it.
You've seen enough, and you don't want to tempt Chelsea into acting "in character" with you. So you scoop up your stuff and (against your earlier intuition) scamper off to class. The delay gives you time to give more time to consider some alternatives to Kelsey and Amanda.
You passed Marc Garner in the hallway as you ran for Astronomy, and that reminded you that he's been a recurrent candidate for replacement. He's handsome, smart, popular, is the captain of the soccer squad, and isn't the least bit stuck up so he'd be easy to approach and maybe even get alone. And he's not the only candidate who is a "Garner"; are his two sisters, Eva and Jessica, who are cheerleaders. In fact, through Chelsea it would certainly be easier to get to Eva or Jessica than to Marc, and you could probably get to them this afternoon, whereas Kelsey and Amanda are less certain.
Also less certain than Eva or Jessica, but maybe even more attractive, is Catherine Muskov. She's on the track team, and is a soft and beautiful girl with a long, strong legs and a great bust. The attraction there, Chelsea reminded you, is that she's famous for the lazy, low-impact after-school parties that she has every day—kids spend most of the afternoons and evenings drifting in and out of her house, doing homework and lounging on social media. Whether she is an early replacement or not, she is definitely on your list of people to replace with a friendly and obedient doppelganger.
And if you didn't want to rely on Chelsea's help, you're sure you could get Geoff Mansfield by himself, to replace with a magical clone.
You hardly pay attention in your last class of the day as you go round and round, over and over these choices, imagining how you could get to them. At the end, though, you settle on:
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