Chapter #18Taking a Flyer by: Seuzz   Cindys not quiting squad, Kendra-you texts Chelsea later that evening.
Her reply isn't long in coming: who says?
Cindys telling everyboy n al her frends teling evboy too.
"God damn it," Chelsea fumes.
Maria-you looks up from your phone. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Chelsea blows a bang out of her face and crunches herself back over her own phone. "How's the math coming?" she murmurs at you as her thumbs fly over the screen.
"Math is hard," Maria-you sighs, and you and Kendra-you both go back to studying the latest tweets in your stream.
cindys still after seth, Chelsea texts Gloria-you. if u want him ned to hury.
Gloria-you lays the phone back down on the table and looks up to smile at Seth and his friend Jeremy Richards, another basketball player. The three of you are sitting at La Cocina, a Mexican restaurant, where the wall-mounted TVs are showing a sports show and the loudspeakers are blaring mariachi music. The grim-faced boys are entranced by the TVs, but Seth glances down long enough to chuck his chin at you and ask, "Who was that?"
"Text from my mom, telling me it's okay to stay out all night. When're heading over to the club?" You tuck a thick strand of hair behind your ear.
"Waiting for Shuler and them to show," Seth says, staring at the TV behind you. You press your foot to his, and he jumps a little.
"There i'nt anybody you want to come too?" Jeremy asks you. His expression is anxious, whether on account of the game he's watching or your answer, you're not sure.
"I could text Eva Garner," Gloria-you replies. Jeremy's eyes flutter just a fraction. "Would you like that?" Jeremy and Eva were circling each other earlier in the year; Gloria and Kendra, for their own independent but similarly spiteful reasons, did their best to scotch things for them with a lot of malicious background ridicule.
"Yeah, ask Eva out," Seth says, his eyes still locked on the TV.
"I thought you didn't like Eva," Jeremy tells you.
"Whatever. I think Eva would be great for you, Jer. She's so sweet. And undemanding. And quiet."
Jeremy winces.
"Not like me," Gloria-you continues, staring at Seth. "I'd make you crazy." Again you press Seth in the foot. This time he visibly flinches and draws back, but he gives you a long, pained look as he does so. A look that could mean either Stop coming on to me or God, I don't know if I can keep my hands off you much longer. You shake loose that strand of hair so you can tuck it back behind your ear again.
But it's not Eva-you or Jessica-you who comes into the restaurant a little later. It's Marc-you, with your hand on Hannah Westrick's waist. "Hey kids," Marc-you greets the trio already seated. "Goin' out to the Warehouse later?" The Warehouse is the most happening—and the most dangerous—party spot in town.
"Legends," Seth says.
"Sounds good," Marc-you agrees.
"Where's your sisters?" Jeremy asks with the same anxious expression he was wearing earlier.
"I 'unno. Hangin' out with some girlfriends. Lin and them?" Marc-you shrug.
"They going to the Warehouse later?"
"I dunno, I didn't ask. The less I know the better I feel." You rub your palm over Hannah's backside. "Wanna go to Legends instead of the Warehouse."
"I don't care," she says. "Long as—" She turns so she can rub herself against you.
"Your waiter's waiting for you over at your table," Gloria-you snaps. Not once have you turned to look at the interlopers.
"We'll catch up to you later. Nice seeing you, Gloria," Marc-you sourly adds.
"What's going on back there?" Hannah murmurs to Marc-you as you slide into a booth, both on the same side.
"Flippin' Gloria working her charms on Seth is my guess," Marc-you growls back. "He just broke up with his girlfriend."
"Was she a cheerleader?"
"Yeah, and now Gloria's moving in on him. Fuck." Then Marc-you shrugs. "But fuck 'em. I don't even like any of them."
"So why do you pay attention?"
"I don't, but my sisters don't know how to keep their voices down when bitching about them." You steal a smooch off her.
Eva-you mutters, "I can't believe the shit Marc says about us behind our back" while bent over your phone.
"It isn't any worse than the shit we say about him," Jessica-you retorts without looking up from your other phone. "But what I can't believe is how Seth isn't picking up on Gloria's signals."
"Oh, he's picking up on them, he's just not interested. I don't blame him. She's so slimy."
"Maybe we should you in to seduce him."
"I've got a feeling we're saving me for Jeremy." Eva-you makes a face. "I can do better than with him. We can all do better than him."
"We could put Seth and Cindy back together again. After, you know."
"Cindy's on the rebound. We can use her to pick up, like, half a dozen guys when we're ready for that."
"Or maybe a couple of girls?" Jessica-you grins.
"You would think like that. Dyke."
Jessica-you squeals, then you let both girls fall silent, for you're in Yumi Saito's bedroom, and Lin-you is walking back from the kitchen with her.
It's a Friday night (finally) and normally the girls you've possessed would be out having fun. But Yumi has been having anxiety attacks over the recent cheerleader drama, and had the idea of getting her friends together to scheme out a way to fix things so that her favored candidate or candidates will be the ones to join. That means figuring out who you don't want joining the squad, and using scare tactics to convince them not to try out for it.
You're happy to play along, though you've already decided that the winning candidate will be Sydney McGlynn. You're not even that bothered that Yumi is only lukewarm on the idea.
"We don't know anything about her," she protests. "She's too new. Look what a disaster Michelle was."
"Michelle wasn't a disaster," Eva-you retorts. "She was just a big tub of nothing."
"We don't need another one," Yumi snaps.
"Sydney seems pretty popular," Jessica-you says. "She's got friends. Michelle didn't have any friends."
"Kelsey's got friends, and I'd almost prefer Chelsea to— No, I take that back," Yumi says. "Chelsea makes me vomit. But Kelsey makes my nose bleed."
"What makes you think she's anything like Chelsea?" Lin-you asks. You cross your arms and regard Yumi with impatient distaste. If it weren't for this drama, you'd be over at Eastman getting hot and bothered with some of the guys, and the lack of action is giving her body a furious itch.
"Just look at her! She looks like the kind of golden-hair bitch who'd— No offense," Yumi tells Jessica-you and Eva-you. "I just get a bad feeling."
"You don't know her, so don't judge her," Jessica-you says.
"You're judging her! Positively, but still—"
"I'm judging her by her friends," Jessia-you retorts. "The girls I've seen her with, Reagan Hackett and Maggie—"
Yumi rolls her eyes. "What can you tell about her based on her friends."
"What can we tell about you based on your friends?" Jessica-you asks.
Yumi turns pink. Lin-you takes some of the edge off by snarking, "What can you tell about Chelsea by her friends?"
Yumi relents somewhat—like it matters—and you call it a decision and use it as an excuse to end the night's conference. Jessica-you and Eva-you follow Yumi out into the living room while Lin-you pleads a need to use the bathroom. But you sneak her back into Yumi's bedroom, where you draw a long worm of blue goo out of your throat and hide it between the sheets at the foot of her bed. It nestles there in the dark, lying very still, until much later that night when a lot rustling vibrations tell you that a new body is positioned for the taking.
* * * * *
"What do you mean, you don't want to be a cheerleader?" Yumi-you exclaims.
Sydney McGlynn rolls her eyes. "I'm speaking English!"
"Listen, if that's supposed to be some kind of, I don't know, wisecrack about—"
Eva-you lays a hand on Yumi-you's shoulder; Yumi-you jerks away with a shiver. So sexy. "Yumi," Eva-you says. "Let Sydney explain herself."
"What's to explain?" the new girl says. "I don't want to join your squad. Nothing personal."
"Then what is it?" Yumi-you snarls. "You're too good for us?"
Sydney's expression freezes. "I decided I was done with that when we moved from Kansas City."
Yumi-you grabs up your purse. "I'll be outside," you snarl at your other bodies. "I told you she was too stuck up for us." You stalk from the coffee shop.
"Look, forget Yumi," Jessica-you tells Sydney. "She's just excited 'cause—"
"I hear everyone on the team is excited," Sydney says. "Another reason to stay far away." She sips from her mug and stares out the window.
A giggle from Reagan Hackett catches your attention. "You've something to say?" Lin-you asks her.
"I heard Chelsea was looking for juniors and sophomores anyway," she says.
"Who told you that?" Jessica-you asks after a shocked silence.
"I have my sources."
On the other side of town, Kendra-you picks up a phone to call Chelsea.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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