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A high school student finds a grimoire that shows how to make magical disguises. |
Previously: "Challenge of the Girl-Bosses"  Though Gordon is setting up the after-school date, leaving you with nothing to do, you are nervous all day at school, which the Caleb-golem picks up on. At lunch, which you take with him and Keith in your usual spot behind the school, he asks what you've got to be so fidgety about. "I'm doing something with Gordon tonight," you tell him. "We're going out to Balducci's, I think." "Oh, fuck you," Keith snorts. "You're going to Balducci's with Gordon Black and his cheerleader girlfriend, and you're shitting yourself over it." "Gordon and Chelsea broke up," you retort. "Don't you pay attention?" Keith blinks, then sneers. "Maybe it's 'cos I'm not gay." "Shut up. Anyway, that's what's happening tonight—" "Am I going?" Caleb frowns. "I guess you could—" "Can I go too?" Keith raises his chin at you. "Hang out on top of Mount Everest or wherever it is you're hanging out nowadays?" "Mount Everest?" Caleb asks him. "Isn't that where the gods and stuff hang out?" "I don't think so." Caleb glances in puzzlement at you. "Hindu gods?" he asks Keith. "Tilley doesn't know shit about anything he thinks he's talking about," you say. Keith reddens. "Well, Gordon's all tall and shit, so it fits anyway." "Jesus. But sure, you can go too if—" "Mount Olympus," Caleb says. "That's what you're thinking of, dipshit." "Fuck you, whatever. But what time we be meetin' up there?" Keith asks you, his voice dripping with a kind of angry contempt. "I'll have to ask Gordon. It depends on what time Seth and Cindy wanna get there." Keith's face falls. "What?" "Yeah. It's Gordon and me, and Seth and Cindy." Keith looks between you and Caleb, whose face assumes a careful neutrality. "The fuck kind of double date is that?" Keith finally asks with a sneer. "It's not a double date. We're just all hanging out." Keith stares. "Yeah," he drawls after a lengthy silence. "I think I'll just stay home and ... I 'unno. Give myself a double root canal." He rolls his eyes. * * * * * The Caleb-golem also decides to skip dinner, and only asks where you'll want the flowers sent in care of your corpse. You tell him it's not going to be like that, but you're really not sure. Because even though Jason Lynch and Steve Patterson have been pretty decent to you since you started hanging out with Gordon, you've not seen Seth Javits save for a few fast glimpses in the school hallways. You're not even sure if he knows that you're traveling in Gordon's circle these days. Still, it's bound to be awkward sitting at a table with him, even with Gordon to act as a buffer. Seth doesn't hassle you nearly as much as he hassles Keith. But Seth is also one of the few school assholes to hassle you when he runs into you off school grounds. So it's with more than a hiccup of dread that you read the text Gordon sends you a little after five, telling you he'll pick you up at your house at 6:15. You've already warned your mother that you'll be eating out with friends, but as you'll need to pay for both yourself and Gordon (all of his money is going to gas and to rent), you hit your dad up for some cash when he gets home from work. He only stares at you, until you mention that the captain of the school basketball team asked you to come eat at Balducci's with him and some of the other players. Then, apparently impressed by the company you are keeping, he comes across with two twenties, which is a small fortune to have pried out of him. Gordon is dressed in a blue jeans and a basketball jersey when he picks you up in his orange VW Bug, and makes no comment on your own khaki slacks and button-down shirt, and only asks you what he'll have to do at the restaurant. Nothing, you tell him, except keep Seth distracted. Cindy's the one I gotta to talk to. He nods, and says that'll suit him fine. Then, after a silent mile of driving, you scoop up all the courage you can muster to broach the other thing you've spent the day dreading. "So I've been thinking about Chelsea," you tell him, "and how you say she won't leave you alone. If you and Jenny do get together, she's not going to like that. Is she?" "Prob'ly won't," Gordon grunts. "Well, she's going to try doing something about it, isn't she?" "Prob'ly will." "Well—" Again you have dip into reserves of bravery you didn't know you had. "It would help, wouldn't it, if we, um, had some idea of what she's thinking. What she's up to." "I guess." "But, it's not like she's going to tell you. Or like her friends are going to tell you." "Are you going someplace with this, Prescott?" "Well, who are her friends? I mean, the ones she'd, um, talk to and maybe get to help her out with ... things?" Gordon gives you a glance that could be sullen and searching, or could just be hooded. He makes a quick face before answering. "There's Kendra and Gloria," he says. "Maria Vasquez. Why?" he adds in a heavy voice. Almost you scramble off the limb you've crawled out so far onto. But instead you scoot out a little farther. "I'm just thinking— The shit we've been making. It could be, um, real useful at keeping tabs on Chelsea." "Like how?" The challenge in his voice is blunt. There seems nothing to do but to lay your whole idea out to him. If he tells you no, then that will be the end of it. "Look, you told me you'd help me get a mask of someone who could be Chelsea's boyfriend, to help keep her off you. To do like Caleb did with Kirkham." "Uh huh." "I'll take you up on that. If, you know, you're still offering, if you'd still let me, um, do that." "I don't ever take back anything, Prescott." You draw a deep breath. "Well, I'll take you up on it," you repeat. "But I'm thinking I can help you out some more with Chelsea first. 'Cos it's gonna be tough, you say, dealing with her. And the way we could deal with her—" You swallow the bolus that has formed in your chest and is forcing its way up your throat. "I could switch places with one of her friends, like Caleb did with Kirkham," you say in a hurry. "Then I'd know what everything is she's up to. And I could even help, like, sabotage her." Gordon does such a hard double-take at you that the car wobbles. He turns a little pale, and the muscles of his face work. You study him anxiously. "That's a, uh, big favor to give, Prescott," he finally says. "I don't want you doing something like that just on my account." "Well, I'm also worried she's going to come after me," you confess. "So it could help both of us. Caleb too, if she's mad at him because you're living with him and his mom now. And Jenny too, once she finds out that you're interested in her." Gordon is silent all the rest of the way out to the restaurant, and you can see the thoughts working behind his normally blank and impassive face. Even after he has parked the car, he remains sitting behind the wheel, staring intently at nothing. Finally, he says, "We'll talk about it later," and opens his car door. But then he catches you by the shoulder before you can get out. "No, we won't talk about it," he says. "This is your idea and your deal. You do whatever you think. Or don't do it. I don't even want to know. Set it up with Johansson, if you do anything and need help." He doesn't say anything else as you walk into the restaurant, and he doesn't even look at you. At the table, he loses himself in the ball game that's playing on the flatscreen TV mounted on the wall. * * * * * Seth and Cindy arrive ten minutes later. She's in blue jeans and a sleeveless black blouse; he's in jeans and a button-down shirt, but wearing his letterman jacket. Neither of them seem surprised to see you with Gordon, and though neither of them act very friendly, they are polite. Seth and Gordon fall to talking about the team—Gordon has been hammering some of the players hard, and Seth wants him to ease up a little—and Cindy joins in with observations of her own, gleaned (apparently) from watching pre- and post-class practices. When you are tired of being silently ignored, you try asking her about the sixth-period Calculus you share, but are warned off by a fast, fiery glance from Seth. By the time the pizza arrives, the others have gone from ignoring you to being seemingly unaware of your presence. At one point Cindy even does a double-take at you, as though she has forgotten you were even seated next to her at the table. Your whole plan—such as it was—had been to talk to her alone, and the moment finally comes when she excuses herself. After she has departed, you also get up with the more explicit excuse that you need to take a piss. Seth doesn't even glance at you. You have to loiter near the restrooms for a few moments before Cindy emerges, and you catch her with a quick "Hey." She does another double-take, but listens with a blank intensity as you outline the situation to her. "Oh my God," she exclaims after you're finished. "Jenny Ashton? And Gordon?" "He's pretty keen." She looks vexed. "I don't see Jenny going for him, though." "And she says she won't. But if you talked to her—" "Me?" "And some of her other friends? If you told her to at least give him a chance?" "I don't think so," Cindy says, and turns to leave. "Chelsea's not giving up on Gordon," you call after her. "And he says he'll probably go back to her, if things don't work out with Jenny." That gets her attention. For a long moment she is very quiet. "I'll text you later," she says. Next: "Kendrafication" |
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