Chapter #14One Girl, Two Places by: rugal b.   "The fuck is that supposed to mean? Seth wants to see us after school? Why?" Your tone is incredulous and for good reason because you can't imagine that he'd ever want to actually talk to you, so if he wants to see you then it can't be for anything good. Looking at Keith, who looks like got hauled off and had his head dunked in a toilet, you can only imagine a scenario in which a swirly would be the best outcome.
"I got no fuckin' idea, man! He jus' grabbed me as he was comin' outta morning practice an' then said he wanted to see us an' we better fuckin' be there."
"Did he even say where?" you ask.
Keith shrugs. "I'unno, prolly by the gym though so he sees us as he's comin' out of afternoon practice."
"Shit," you glumly mutter. "He's gonna kick our asses."
"Then we jus' ain't gotta show up," says Keith.
"He'll kick our asses even harder, then," you say.
"And who's fault is that, huh!?" demands Caleb as he looks at Keith. "If you had any brains then we wouldn't be in this situation! I wouldn't have had to try and fight off an angry fake Jenny and I could've gotten a mask!"
"Wait, you didn't get anything?" you ask him. In all of the excitement and confusion yesterday, you'd never actually bothered to get an update from Caleb on how things went for him.
"Thanks to this dickwad," he states. "I was at the tennis court just sort of scoping things out, seeing if I had a chance at anything, and then I hear this fucking valkyrie war cry and next thing I know Keith is running by me and Jenny's giving chase."
"But probably not doing a very good job on account of being in Seth's clothes," you observe.
"Bad enough that I could keep up with them when I decided to see what the hell was going on and maybe try and calm them down." He winces. "You know, Jenny might not be as strong as a boy but it still fucking hurts when she hits you."
"So you chased them to the portables and that's when you texted me?"
"Right, which means I missed my chance." He stares daggers at Keith. "So thanks a lot, dipshit."
"The fuck was I supposed to do!?" Keith whines. "I had'ta protect myself an' I just kinda reacted!"
"You could have just lured Jenny away, said you needed to talk to her or something like how you go the mask," you say. "You didn't need to just... fuck!"
"Yeah, an' you're one to talk, right?" he counters. "Least I had'ta fight off Javits. I wasn't gettin' outplayed by fuckin' girls. Freshman girls."
You wince because he has a point, but at the same time he's now pissing you off as well because at least you got something. He couldn't even be bothered to do the thing he set out to do which is, admittedly, your fault. But even still, you're definitely annoyed now. "Yeah, whatever," you respond. "By the way, you still got that band that you were going to use on Jenny?" You ask. He says he does. "Lemme see it real quick."
He takes it out and hands it over to you, then watches as you pocket it. "The fuck was that for!?" he asks in shock.
"I may have messed up with those girls but at least my screw up still got us another mask and didn't get Javits about to pound us into dust," you tell him. "So I'll figure out how to get this onto Jenny myself."
"Aw c'mon, man! That ain't fair!" he whines.
"No, I agree with him," Caleb states. "Although maybe I should be the one to do it instead since I didn't mess anything up."
"It's fine, I'll get it," you say through gritted teeth.
"Man, whatever. Screw both 'a ya," Keith says as he stomps off.
That makes you feel just a little bad and that maybe the stress of what Javits has planned for you is just making you more on edge and angrier. But Caleb tells you that the both of you have every right to be mad at Keith and that he's probably just going to blow off some steam before coming around again. "After all," he states, "we're the ones with everything."
* * * * *
Keith doesn't say anything to you in the second period class that the two of you share, nor does he join you and Caleb for lunch so the two of you instead go and sit down with James and his crew. Yumi, to your pleasure and surprise, is there too but does't greet you because she seems to be busy trying to calm down an upset Jenny.
"You guys picked a great time to come over," Carson sarcastically observes.
"What's wrong?" you ask.
Jenny, though, seems to notice you. Her expression is tight and her eyes, already narrowed, narrow even more. "Where the fuck is Tilley?" she asks. "Isn't he always with you two clowns?"
"Whoa whoa! The hell did we do?" asks Caleb.
"Nothing, unless you're hiding that shithead!" she exclaims. "So where is he?"
"No idea, we haven't seen him since this morning on account of the fact he caused some problems for us yesterday."
"Your boy's apparently causing problems for everything," states Carson.
"Seth caught him hanging around Jenny and Cindy yesterday," adds James, "and it pissed everyone off 'cause Jenny said that Seth went and hauled him off somewhere."
"Then Ashton got her licks in as well," Carson says with amusement.
"I already told you guys that I didn't!" Jenny protests.
"People saw you chasing him though," states James, "and they were the ones who told us."
"And I'm telling you that I didn't!" she responds. "Everyone's going to think I'm some kind of violent fucking lunatic!"
"Well I mean, sometimes..."
But Yumi gives Carson a look that shuts him up before he finishes that statement. "She couldn't have been doing whatever you say she is because she was with us," Yumi says. "After Seth hauled Keith off she and Cindy left and met up with me and Eva and Jessica. She wasn't even at school."
You and Caleb exchange glances and now you're feeling even more irritated with Keith.
"What do you guys think?" James asks you and Caleb. "You guys are Keith's buddies so do you know anything about what happened?"
"Uh, no not really," you shake your head. "We were going to meet up with him and then he, uh, flaked and I guess getting his ass beat by Seth is why."
"Only now Seth wants to beat our asses," grumbles Keith.
"Seth wants to—!? Why?" Yumi asks.
"I don't fucking know," you tell her. "I guess because we're his friends so he wants to make an example of us too or something?"
"Did he tell you that he was going to, um, fight you?" she responds.
"No, but Keith was messed up this morning and said that Seth wanted to see us after school."
Yumi looks concerned when you say that. "Maybe he just wants to warn you to stay away from Keith for a while," she says glumly.
"You better fucking stay away from him for a long time," Jenny adds. "Or if you don't, tell me where to find him so I can castrate him for all the shit he's causing me."
* * * * *
The bell rings to signal the end of lunch and it's as you and Caleb are leaving that you're taken by surprise as find yourself accosted by someone only to find that it's Brittany, the girl whose face you'd copied yesterday. "Oh, uh, hey," you say. "Uh, sorry about yesterday and all but—"
"Oh, whatever," she says dismissively. "I was just wondering what we were doing with it today."
"What we... huh?"
"We're not doing anything," Caleb states with mild annoyance.
"Hmm, that's too bad because you'd said you still had a mask and one of those brain gadgets that you hadn't used, right?"
"What about it?" he asks.
"Oh, nothing, except I've got a really great idea that'll let you guys get something."
"Yeah? And what's that?"
"You use that mask of me!" she says with excitement. "One of you puts it on and then you can be me at practice today and you can just use that stuff to get someone backstage."
"We can't do that!" Caleb exclaims. "We wouldn't know the first thing about being you. We don't even know you."
"You'd be fine, most people don't notice all the small details," she says. "But you could always use that band on me and copy my mind if it worries you so much."
"Wait, what? And you're just fine with that!?" you ask.
"It's not like I have anything about myself to hide," she states. "And I want to see how good these disguises are. Anyway if you think that's good," she says and then rattles off a bunch of numbers. "My phone number," she states when you ask what that is. "Just message me and we can meet up."
At your request she rattle it off again and then, just as quickly as she arrived, Brittany is gone leaving the two of you mystified. She's like a tiny bulldozer or something, just coming in and knocking everything over. The only thing you either of you can parse is that, given what her friend said yesterday, she's probably just using this as an excuse to get out of doing something she doesn't want to do and foisting it onto one of you instead.
But still, it's at least something that would allow you to be able to fill that blank mask and it gives you something to do until that "meeting" with Seth. Hell, it might even give you an out because maybe you'd get caught up in stuff that Brittany had to do and then wouldn't be able to make it. It'd certainly save you an ass kicking if that did happen. You more and more consider it as time ticks away and then the final bell rings. You make your way through the halls and head towards the doors that'll take you outside and to the parking lot when you're stopped by someone calling out to you from behind.
"Hey," Yumi states as she catches up to you. "Is it alright if I come out with you to meet Seth?"
"Huh? Why?"
"Because Jenny's really upset about all of this but Carson and James aren't liars, either, so I want the whole story because wires got crossed somehow." She then gives you a friendly smile. "Plus if I'm there, then maybe I can talk to Seth and stop him from kicking your ass."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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