You contemplate, for a second, bringing up the idea of having Brittany play the part of Jenny at that meeting but you dismiss it for, despite what she just said, you wonder if she's making some kind of exception for herself. The bluntness of what she said as well gives off the impression that she's not saying it for fun either; that she's upset about something. So you decide not to press your luck and when you come to that decision you see that she's already let and disappeared into the crowd. You do the same, going through the sea of students until you come to a bathroom which you duck into and then into an unused stall. Closing the door, you take a seat on the toilet and hold the band in your hand.
Jennifer Annette Ashton, that's what it says; Jenny's full name. Her entire brain is contained on this thin strip. It's sort of amazing when you think about it, as mind blowing as the fact that the phone in your pocket is filled with games and music and has access to pretty much the whole of human knowledge. This small band, though, only contains one person's mind but when you use this then you, theoretically, will know everything that Jenny does. Will it work? Will it allow you to pass yourself off as her? There's only one way to find out and so with a deep breath, you raise the band to your forehead and pass out.
You're not sure initially how long it is when you come to though check your phone and see that it's only been a few minutes. You don't feel any different, you think, so does that mean the band didn't work? But no, it did, because you feel something in your head. Another voice and another presence and when you try and grasp it...
You gasp. Holy shit, what the hell is going on? Where are you and why do you feel so weird? The "why" question is answered quickly when you get a look at yourself. You're skinny in a t-shirt and shorts, hair is on your arms and your legs and a—you feel—baseball cap is on your head. As for the "where," it looks like a bathroom stall. Slowly you raise yourself up and it takes a second to adjust to how weird and off you now feel. You open he door and head over to the sink so you can get a look at yourself and you gasp in shock when you do.
Will Prescott stares back at you. That's definitely him. Then, to your shock, he mirrors your movements. That's you! You've, somehow, turned into Will Prescott or wound up trapped inside of his body. But if you're in his body, then is he in yours? If he is, then is he behind this or was it someone else? Your head is spinning, you don't really know how to process this. Because you're Jenny Ashton and just a few minutes ago, you were yourself.
No, wait, that's not right. You weren't Jenny Ashton a few minutes ago, you were Will Prescott... and you still are! You place a hand to your forehead as you brace yourself against the sink. That was intense. For a second there, you actually believed that you were Jenny. That's rather frightening and you wonder if it would be possible to lose yourself in her identity completely, but then you have a second thought. You were worried about not being able to be Jenny but maybe your fears were unfounded. With this, you think, you definitely could be her, it's just a matter of figuring out the proper balance so you can access what you need to while retaining your sense of self.
* * * * *
You pull your truck into the driveway of an unassuming house in an unassuming neighborhood. It's Jenny's house and you know this because you've got her memories telling you as much. You'd decided to go back into the stall for a few minutes so you'd have privacy and peace and there worked on trying to draw upon aspects of your borrowed mind while not allowing yourself to fall into being her completely. It had been surprisingly easy. You'd think of your birthday for instance and you'd get two of them and then it was just a matter of "selecting" the one that you knew wasn't yours. Same with schedules and other such stuff.
With access to Jenny's memories you'd decided to enact the next step. You'd need clothes appropriate for her body but you don't really have the funds but, you'd realized, you wouldn't need them. It was still only around two so her parents would be at work and your eighth period class... well, you weren't concerned with it since you hardly take it seriously anyway. You instead left school and made the drive out to her home.
From her mind you're able to recall that her family hides an emergency key for the garage's side door inside of a birdhouse in the backyard so you head around and grab it, then make your way in. Once you're in the house proper you find it's both new and familiar.
While part of you would like to explore, you realize that while you have about an hour and a half before school ends, you still need to be quick. So using Jenny's brain, you make your way to her room—and it's her brain which doesn't cause you to stop and take it in—look for clothes. You don't need anything fancy so you just quickly grab some jeans, a simple gray and black shirt, underwear, socks and an extra pair of sneakers. Then you're out of the house, locking the side door behind you and putting back the key. You hop back into your truck and drive out to the community center.
Inside the basement is the mask of Jenny so you place her clothes on a table, strip out of your own, and then place the mask to your face. When you come to your body, much like her house, feels both alien and familiar. You go over to the clothes and take a look at your phone which also sits there. It's about three o'clock now. You still have time to kill and you need to figure out how to get into character. And you're here in this basement, in total privacy and hidden from the world and wearing the naked body of a girl who you are definitely attracted to.
There's a feeling that runs through you; a temptation you can't deny as you look down at yourself and especially at your crotch. If you want to really get into the role of Jenny and really understand her, you reason, then it only makes sense to get as intimate with her as possible.
* * * * *
"Hey," you greet as you casually plop down across from Cindy.
There's a thrill that runs through you a the thought that you're so casually able to do that as you begin to chat with her, because Cindy Vredenburg is a gorgeous goddess who holds herself aloof from Will Prescott. But with Jenny she's much more open, as are most of the cheerleaders in her "faction" (for the squad is in a simmering civil war between supporters of Cindy on one side and of Chelsea Cooper, the beautiful and bitchy head cheerleader, on the other). Jenny would likely not have much to do with them either if not for her friendship with Yumi but it's through that friendship that she's gotten to know, and become loyal to, them.
But where you, from the outside, simply see Cindy as being only a little less conceited than Chelsea, Jenny instead sees her as a girl who's both frustrated and sensitive, who feels stuck in the shadow of her older sister who had previously been the captain of Westside's cheerleaders. But—and Jenny is nothing if not honest and blunt in her assessments of others—Jenny finds her a bit too unwilling to actually move, more content than to complain than anything, and prone to dramatic histrionics. Of which, as the conversation has moved on, she's now beginning to engage in.
"—and that... that cunt!" she exclaims. "She's not just going after me, but she was going hard on Yumi and Lin and the Garners too. On all of us!"
"She's always hard on you guys, though," you counter.
"Harder than usual," Cindy mutters as she buries her face. "Chelsea wasn't just being a bitch, she was fucking demonic." She lifts her face back up. "Poor Eva was in tears by the end of the practice and we had to talk her out of quitting!" she wails.
"What set her off?" you ask. "Usually when she goes into overdrive like that it's because she's pissy about something."
"It's Seth," she states. "That whole thing from Wednesday was just... she said that cheerleaders don't need to be dating 'animals' like that and that I need to start putting the screws to him. So I just... I was going to be a little cool to him for a few days so he gets the point but now she's saying I should just break up with him!"
"She's what!?" you say in astonishment.
"And it's not just him she's throwing under the bus. She's doing it to you too," she adds. "Saying that do we really want to be friends with crazy girls like you? That you're going to make the whole school look bad and that if we associate with you, then the cheerleaders will get it worst of all."
"So she's trying to isolate all of you," you state. "Or give you all absurd demands hoping that one of you quits like Eva nearly did."
"Yeah, probably. Then she can just fill the slot with another Michelle or someone even more pliant and then—"
Cindy cuts herself off as her phone goes off. She looks at the screen and her eyes narrow, then she picks it up and opens it, intensely studying the thing as confusion appears on her face. Then she looks up from it back to you. "Hey, is something going on?" she asks you. You can only give your own confused response. "Well now that I think of it, you weren't wearing those clothes today. Also I saw what you pulled up in but I don't remember you driving a truck," she says. "Also, this."
She hands you her phone, opened to her texts and your eyes go wide because right there, plain as day, you see a message from Jenny that was just sent.
can't make it today, it says. srry for makin u wait.  You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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