Chapter #19A Plan Comes Together by: rugal b.   Yeah, the temptation of it all, of being involved in something like this and of possibly helping to topple Chelsea, is just way too strong. But just to give yourself one last out you send a text.
u want my help? cuz ur askin me & all, you send.
yeah. i wouldn't as you if i didn't, comes the reply.
then ill help u.
great! meet us at milagro this evening?
ok but why so late?
still working out the details. anyway i'll text you when we're ready. seeya!
It's around ten in the morning so you have some time to kill before meeting them (and isn't that a nice thought) and decide to message Caleb to ask if he'd be willing to meet at the basement so you can give him an update on what's going on. It's not immediate but he does get back to you and say that he was going to suggest the same thing himself. You decide to get ready and realizing that you can't continue to go out as her, you remove the mask of Jenny.
But it's with great reluctance that you do and once you're back to yourself in both body and mind, you can't help but feel anxious. Maybe it's because you've just been pretending to be her off and on for close to the last twenty-four hours but you feel an odd sense of disappointment at no longer having Jenny's body to mess around with or her personality—much more assertive and confident—to reinforce you. Maybe it's just how amazing and unbelievable it all is, being able to turn into an exact copy of another person using these objects. But being yourself again feels almost odd and you quickly want an excuse to put the mask on once more.
It almost feels as if you're becoming addicted to the feeling of it all; of having another body and another identity. But whatever's going on, you try to push everything aside as you get dressed in Will Prescott's clothes while shoving the mask inside of a bag. You head out to the community center and meet Caleb at the entrance of the basement. "This thing is pretty convenient," you say as you put the bag containing the mask onto the table. "You know, not having to put a band and a mask on separately at all."
"No duh, I think that's the point," he says, "although I wonder if there's a way to make it even more convenient."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, we had to capture a face and then a brain separate right? If we can just glue the band to the mask beforehand, then it'd be a two birds with one stone situation."
"Oh, right, yeah that makes sense," you reply. "We've got another blank mask and a band—uh, were able to finish inscribing that one?" He tells you that he did. "Okay, well we've got blanks ready to go so why not try it out? I have a feeling I'm going to need to use them soon, anyway."
"Why's that?" he asks as he looks around and places everything onto the table.
"Yumi texted me a little bit ago, saying that she and Cindy were thinking of dealing with Chelsea."
"How?"
"Dunno," you admit, "but they wanted my help so I'm guessing it has to involving using the masks right?"
"Makes as much sense as anything else, I guess, though why they'd want your help..."
"Do you want to come with me?" you ask him. "I'm supposed to be meeting them for lunch soon so we can talk about it."
He gives it some thought as he uses the paste. "Well hot damn, there you go!" you states as he looks at the combined mask and band. "Anyway, I'll think about it. We should be getting this thing done first."
You both take a look at the book in order to read up on the next spell and what you can translate is grim. You have to dump all of the material, including the hundreds of pounds of dirt, directly onto the sigil, pour the gasoline on top of it and light it on fire. Then relight it when the fire goes out and keep relighting it until it no longer relights and unfortunately the book isn't specific on how long that would be. Which means that for an inordinate amount of time you'd be without use of the book or the ability to do any of the spells. That's a real bummer and you both wonder if there's a way around it when you suddenly get an idea.
"Hey, do you have a couple of bucks I can borrow?" you ask.
"I really don't want to lend you lunch money," Caleb scowls.
"No, I was just thinking... the spells require the sigils right? But once we start this spell then we won't have access to the book until it's finished. So how about if I just go out and grab something like a sketchbook and some pencils and just copied the sigils down? I mean, if we need them to do the spells then that should be good enough, right? The book doesn't say anything about needing it to work."
Caleb looks at you in surprise and then slowly nods. "Actually yeah, that's not a bad idea," he says as he fishes some bills out of his pocket.
You take them and run over to the nearest store, coming back a short time later. He's working on another mind band when you return the change. "What's this for?" you ask.
"I still haven't had a chance to use my blank mask, you know," he answers. "So I figure I might as well have a band to go for whoever I grab since we still had some material left. Also gives me something to do while you're copying those whatzits."
So the two of you get to work, Caleb working on the band while you do the sigils. You're actually surprised because despite how complicated they appear, you find that copying them is not hard at all. In fact it feels natural, almost relaxing, and you find yourself getting absorbed in it. Once you've finished the first spell you get a second idea and use another page to start writing out ingredients and steps for each spell. This work goes for most of the day, though Caleb takes a break to grab you both some lunch (you're too absorbed in sketching the sigils to want to leave) at one point.
Eventually your sketching and his inscribing are done and not a moment too soon either for your phone goes off around five-thirty. It's Yumi and she's informing you that they're ready and also that they want you to bring a mask and one of the bands.
"Alright, I'm definitely going because now I want to see just what the hell they're planning," says Caleb when you show him Yumi's texts. So you ask if it's alright if Caleb comes too since he's involved in all of this mask stuff as well and you get a reply saying that it's fine. "Hey, should I glue the things together real quick?" he asks as you gather your stuff. But there's no time, you tell him, because you don't want to keep two cheerleaders waiting.
* * * * *
Milagro Beanfield Warehouse is a fancy little cafe located out by the university and it's clientele is largely young, hip urbanites with a decor and staff to match. You and Caleb immediately feel out of place as you step inside and even Yumi and Cindy waving you over does little to help. That's only reinforced when they greet you and tell you that you just missed Kelsey Blankenship and Amanda Ferguson because if fancy AP snobs like them come here, then this isn't really your kind of place.
They also insist on the two of you getting something, saying it would be their treat.
"Thanks for coming," Yumi says once you have your coffees and sandwiches.
"Yeah it's, uh, no problem," you reply. "You guys wanted to talk though? About this plan to take down Chelsea?"
"I'd like to hear it myself," Caleb mutters which Yumi ignores but earns him a glare from Cindy.
"The plan," she emphasizes while looking at him, "is pretty simple. Chelsea does what she wants because she knows that nobody can really do anything about her."
"Basically she knows that if we tried holding a vote of no confidence against her, then we'd lose," Yumi explains. "Or rather, it'd be a draw which would still be a defacto loss. Technically we outnumber her but the reality is different."
"It's Michelle," Cindy states. "A no confidence vote needs a majority, so if there's one then she'll pressure Michelle into voting with her to deadlock things."
"So what happens then? Do you guys, like, get kicked off the squad?" you ask.
"Not exactly," Yumi answers, "but Chelsea would make things so unbearable for us that we'd have no choice but to eventually quit and I'll be damned if I'm going to let that happen."
"So what's the plan, then?" asks Caleb.
"We rig it," states Cindy. "We get someone on the inside and then later in the week we'll call for a no confidence vote. Chelsea will think she's got us beat but then our mole will switch sides and vote with us and then," she smirks, "that's it for Chelsea"
"It doesn't mean that she's kicked off the squad or anything," adds Yumi, "just removed as captain. But I don't think that she'd be able to handle not being captain so she'd probably quit."
"Okay, so then who'd be your mole?" asks Caleb.
The two girls look at each other but it's Cindy who speaks. "Why do you think we asked Will out here?" she says as she looks directly at you with a slight sneer. "You know, because he did such a great job pretending to be Jenny and all."
"Basically we copy someone into a mask and then your face into another mask and swap the two of you," Yumi explains.
"Without one of those brain things on your mask," adds Cindy, "because we don't want them to know what we're doing. That'd be bad for all of us."
"So then who am I supposed to, uh, switching with?" you ask.
"We thought about that; who from Chelsea's side would make the most sense. But there's problems with almost all of them," states Yumi. "Kendra is a snake who'd probably backstab Chelsea but only if she thinks it'd benefit her and right now, Chelsea's position is strong. Maria's too emptyheaded so I doubt she even has a real opinion and Gloria is total yes-woman. So any of them moving to our side on their own would be strange."
"Right, but you know who could believably switch sides?" Cindy asks with a smile. "Michelle Estrich. How does that sound?"  You have the following choice: 1. Continue |
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