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A high school student finds a grimoire that shows how to make magical disguises. |
Previously: "Hanging with Mrs. Cooper"  Kelly Cooper endlessly promotes and supports Chelsea's cheerleading career, but it wouldn't be wrong to say that she competes with her daughter, too. So the more you think about it, the more you like the idea of switching the two of them, like in a classic body-swap situation. In fact, you like it so much that Rob—who is snuggled up close as you together watch a dour, rain-soaked British police procedural about a serial killer—asks why you're giggling. "Oh, just something I was thinking about," you tell him. "You're not paying attention to the show?" "No, I'm paying attention. I just ... had a stray thought is all." Again you titter. Among the stray thoughts giving you a laughing fit is the anticipation of the expression on your replacement's face when you tell him he'll need to polish two new blank masks for you. * * * * * The next few days pass very quickly. On Sunday you leave the family at home while pretending to go to church alone; instead, you dash over to Blackwell's villa long enough to cast two new masks, and downtown to surreptitiously meet Will Prescott at a coffee shop long enough to give him the masks and an order to spend every free moment he can on polishing them up. He cusses long and hard under his breath at that. Monday afternoon Blackwell summons you out to his villa. He is startled by your appearance and asks (in an incredulous tone) if you really mean to impersonate a mother and a housewife while trying to continue your magical education. You assure him that it's just temporary—"I accidentally made this mask and I wanted to have some fun with it," you explain—and he reluctantly agrees to let you continue as Mrs. Cooper for a few more days until you finish making a new mask for a different, permanent impersonation. That evening, at the grocery store, an exhausted-looking Will passes a polished mask along to you; and that night, in its deepest and deadest depths, you rise from Kelly Cooper's marital bed, fetch the mask from the hallway closet where you'd secreted it, and creep on bare feet into Chelsea's bedroom. Her breathing is very soft as you drop the mask onto her face; after a brief, firefly-like glow, it vanishes into her. When it reappears, you carefully lift it, tuck it into your nightgown, and creep back out to place back in the closet behind the spare blankets and quilts. Tuesday night you meet with Will again, this time in the dark corner of a strip center parking lot. You pull his face off, revealing Mrs. Cooper long enough for you to copy her form into the new mask that your doppelganger brought you. * * * * * Wednesday afternoon. Chelsea is waiting for you in front of the high school, and she doesn't look terribly happy. Instead of getting into the car, she leans in through the passenger-side window with small pout pursing her lips. "Gordon and me were talking about hanging out," she says in a hopeful tone. "Is that okay?" "Well, if you really want, sweetheart," you chirp back. "But I wanted to pick you up because I was planning to take you over to Larsen's to look at that outfit you were telling me about." Chelsea's eyes blaze with sudden cupidity, and she hesitates. After glancing back over her shoulder at the school, she leans farther into the car. "I'd really like for you to see it," she says. She told you about it Saturday afternoon, when she got back from her shopping trip, but she had been a good girl and not bought it. You smile. "Well, how about you tell Gordon to meet us there. Then you can show it to me and him both. After that, you and him can go off and hang out if you like." Chelsea's expression explodes with delight. "But first, honey, was Yumi here today? Is she still around?" "Huh? Oh yeah. I think she's still her." "Can you call her or text her and ask her to meet me in the gym? There's something I want to look at in there." Chelsea frowns in a puzzled way, but takes out her cell phone; you pull into an empty parking space as she makes the call. The meeting is set up by the time you get out, and you ask Chelsea to wait for you in the car as you "won't be a minute." Inside the gym, you note Will Prescott perched alone at the top of some bleachers, with his chin cupped in both hands and his elbows resting on his knees. He sags and tilts to one side, like he's about to topple over, and even at this great distance you can tell that he's got great, black bags under his eyes. You only spare him a quick salute before ducking into the girls' changing room to check that the coast is clear. You step back out onto the court—which is filled up with girls in basketball uniforms—in time to meet Yumi. She is looking just a little pale and uncertain—a lingering aftereffect of missing a whole week without anyone noticing, surely—but healthy. "I just wanted to look over the scene of the accident," you say after greeting her with a cheery smile and an excited chirp, "and since you were there I figured you could help me reconstruct what happened exactly." "Sure," Yumi says, and a little more color drains from her face. She clearly has no idea what you're talking about, but has been too well brought up to argue with an adult. "Now, let's see," you muse as you lead her back into the girls' changing room. "I was standing here, and you were standing there." She holds her tongue as you point to a far corner. "I was asking you about Cindy, and I remember you were standing with your back to the doorway because that's where—" Prescott silently appears behind her and reaches around to press a mask to Yumi's face, where it vanishes. The two of you catch her as she sinks toward the floor, and lift and carry her inside to the showers where you will not be seen. You remove her clothes while Will remove his. When the mask reappears on Yumi's face—it is the mask you made of her last week, and you've now charged it with her most recent memories—you tuck it and her clothes inside your capacious purse. There follows a quick set of transfers. You pry the Will Prescott mask off its wearer, revealing Mrs. Cooper, and place it onto Yumi's face; your old, scarecrow-like form appears where she was lying, and with a tired sigh he scrambles up to pull on the floppy, quick-change clothes he's lately gotten used to wearing. As he's doing that, you lay another mask—the one that copied Chelsea's face and body—onto Mrs. Cooper, and Chelsea appears. You and Will then run from the room, pausing only long enough to drop some of Chelsea's clothes—which you lifted from her closet just before coming out to the school—next to the transformed Kelly Cooper. She will need them, for now she has her daughter's body even as you are still wearing hers. The only things she's missing are Chelsea's memories, and Chelsea won't be getting her mother's memories either, for you've only copied their bodies, not their minds. You figure it will be a lot more fun—for you—if they have to grope their way blindly through the body swap. * * * * * The switch at the mall goes even more smoothly. Chelsea wants to wait for Gordon to show up, but you insist that she go ahead and change. A fraction of a minute after she vanishes into the dressing room, you follow and drop your things in a neighboring stall. You wait until it sounds like Chelsea has finished disrobing before knocking on her door. "Sweetheart," you call to her through the door, "I found an extra piece I think fell off." You're ready with the mask when the door unlocks, and rudely shove your way in to press it into her face before she can do so much as gasp. She slumps to the floor and changes into a copy of her mother. This time you strip off your own clothes, then hurry with Chelsea's own things back into your stall while leaving Mrs. Cooper's clothes, keys and purse for the new Mrs. Cooper's use. Once safely back in your own stall, you pull off the mask of Mrs. Cooper you've been wearing, and when you wake again you put on the mask and clothes of Yumi Saito. There's the sound of movement in the stall next door as you dress, and you peek out to check that the passage is empty before scampering back out onto the store. You drop off Chelsea's clothes and other belongings at the lost and found department; they will find their way back the new Chelsea eventually, but you want them to leave a less direct trail. After that, you take a bus back to school to pick up Yumi's car. And yet you're not sure whether you are going to continue to use Yumi as an alias. She is the most convenient for you, of course. You already have a copy of her body and mind, and Blackwell approves of her. And from Yumi's vantage point on the squad you would be able to see close up how Mrs. Cooper handles the cheerleaders. But Yumi and Chelsea aren't friends, so you would not get to look at her home life or (what you really want) to see Chelsea struggle with being her own mother. If you wanted to get close to Chelsea, you reflect on the bus ride back to the school, you should pick one of her friends to impersonate—probably Maria Vasquez. But if you wanted to watch the Coopers in their natural habitat, there is really only one good choice—Jordan Cooper, the college-age brother who still lives at home. And either of them, you are sure, would meet with Blackwell's approval. Next: "Prepping for a College Caper" |
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