The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Girl Troubles

Previously: "The New Girl in Your Life" 

Cindy doesn't explain why she might want to meet up with you again, but you don't press her and you don't argue about wearing the mask either. You feel a little embarrassed—there's just a trace of a sneer in her voice when she says that you seemed to have "fun" dressing up—but you're too abashed to say anything.

So you discuss various names possibilities on the drive back to your truck. As this girl is a blend of Jenny Ashton, Yumi Saito, and Catherine Muskov, you decide the name should be a blend as well. The name "Yeni" suggests itself after Cindy rejects the more obvious "Yanni," and when you look it up online to see if it might resemble a real name, you are delighted to find that it is a genuine Turkish word meaning "new" or "fresh." Cindy brightly agrees that it is a happy choice, not just on account the serendipitous meaning, but because there is something faintly Turkish about the girl's features. A search on Turkish surnames beginning with an "M" (in a nod to "Muskov") turns up "Mojdeh," which means "good news for females"—another serendipity.

So there she is: Yeni Mojdeh. Together, you and Cindy concoct a quick-and-dirty backstory for her: daughter of Turkish immigrants, who is home schooled (hence why no one at school has met her), and who met Cindy at a coffee shop where they hit it off. You press for more detail, but Cindy is content with that. "I don't want to make it complicated," she says.

You part, but you're still buzzed, so instead of changing back into your own face and clothes, you return to the Crystal Cave and camp out in a back table to your homework. But after sending your mom a text telling her you won't be home for supper, you go online and start searching out social media sites. You are still in the mask and have Catherine's brain inside with you, and she's got a major presence online. You can't bring yourself to hack into her accounts—what would be the point?—but you fall eagerly onto the sites themselves, setting yourself up an email account that you then use to register at every site you can find around the web. Within an hour, "Yeni Mojdeh" has presences on Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, x2z, and others. Through the latter you are able to find Cindy (Catherine's memories give you Cindy's x2z handle) and through it you send her a DM announcing Yeni's accession to social media and gushing with delight at having met her at the Crystal Cave. You also send her a quick selfie of yourself (still inside Yeni's face) toasting her with a cup of coffee. Her reply, when it comes half an hour later, is more muted than you would have liked, but she does agree that Yeni's account will be the perfect way to keep in touch with you.

* * * * *

"You know, Prescott," Carson declares at lunch the next day, "I can't tell you how happy I am to hear that you're finally over Lisa." He wrenches a hard bite from the apple that he brought for dessert. "You had her in your head too long," he mumbles with a full mouth. "But fuck her, you know? Fuck all ex's."

You glare at him. You knew it was mistake coming out front to eat with him and James and Jenny again. But he caught you coming out of English— Well, he caught Caleb and cheerfully bullied him into coming out front, then as a seeming afterthought asked you along. Did he really want you along? Maybe not, because he and James completely ignored you during lunch. And now he wants to dig at that old wound? Your ex-girlfriend?

"Leave Will alone," James tells him. "Can't you see he's still got a thing for her?"

"You mean he's carrying his pain with stiff upper lip? Staggering along, heart-broken, but bravely putting a manly face on his crushing despair?" Carson turns to you. "Is that what you're doing, Prescott?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," you mumble.

"You should get it off your chest, whatever it is," Carson says. "Confront it, deal with it. You might learn something about yourself."

"If he hasn't learned anything by now," Caleb grumbles, "it isn't because he didn't talk about her enough."

"But you see, I don't think he did," Carson says, and James nods vigorously. "Now that I look at him, his whole demeanor, 'tis true, cries out with pain. 'Unrequited, unrequited!'" Carson thumps his chest in the manner of a bad, ham actor lamenting his romantic agonies. "'Why must my passion be forever unrequited by that flower so fair!'"

"Dude, is that a quote or something?" Keith asks in an awestruck voice.

Carson gestures broadly. "I read it off of Prescott's face."

"Fuck you guys," you snarl, and scramble to your feet. Lunch is almost over anyway, and you stalk off with your gear and your trash.

But James comes and finds you at your locker a few minutes later. "You want us to lay off you, man?" he says, and jabs you in the shoulder with a hard, bony finger. "Then start honoring your side of our bargain, or you're gonna start hearing a lot more of the kind of shit you don't like to hear. You're running out of time."

So you log onto x2z to send Cindy a DM saying you want to meet up with her after school. You are startled to find that she has already sent you a DM suggesting the same thing.

But it's not you who is waiting for her outside the gym.

* * * * *

You had it half in mind anyway to do something as "Yeni" after school, so you brought the mask and clothes with you this morning. So after the final bell has rung you hustle out to your truck, where you hunker down in the footwell on the passenger side and put the mask to your face. You are stiff all over when you wake again, and you have that same ice cream headache, but it quickly clears up once you start moving. After poking your head up to look around, you duck back down again and—fighting for space inside the footwell—peel off your old clothes and pull on the ones you bought for Yeni. There's still a long line of cars trying to exit the parking lot when you clamber out from your truck, but the parking lot is well on its way to being cleared. Yet there are still knots of students drifting out of the school, and you feel the eyes of the boys on you as you return to take up station just inside the breezeway near the gym. You take out your phone to send Cindy a DM telling her where you're waiting.

You're still tapping it in when you hear a shout. You ignore it, but you start hard when a figure looms up and puts his face close to yours. You blink and stare.

It's Seth Javits.

He grins at you, and his short blonde hair bristles, like an excited dog's. "Hey," he says. "Are you new?" He puts his hand on the wall near your ear, and leans against it. "Need any help getting around, finding things?"

Behind him, two other figures press up close. You're too rattled to put names to them, but you recognize them as basketball players, and you curse silently to yourself. There's afterschool practice in the gym, and in your haste to meet Cindy you forgot that fact.

You're too shocked to reply. But before Seth (or one of the other goons) can make more of the situation, an even more alarming figure appears behind him. Coming in at a little over six-and-a-half feet, Steve Patterson swaggers up.

Like Moses parting the Red Sea, he shoves Seth's friends apart and steps between them. They glare at him, then hang their heads when they see who it is. Patterson puts one hand on Seth's shoulder, and with his other fist knocks Seth's hand off the wall. Seth spins with a snarl, but it dies on his lips.

"You're all late," Patterson coldly informs the trio. "Get inside."

"You're late too," one of the guys mutters as he turns toward the gym.

"I get to be late. You get to do extra laps."

You don't relax, though, as the others shuffle off, for Patterson remains behind, watching them. But then he turns to you. His eyes are the color of an Arctic fog bank. "He has a girlfriend," he tells you.

"Who?" you stammer.

"Seth. I wouldn't want to be Cindy's enemy."

You return him a tight smile. "I'm waiting for Cindy, actually. And I know she's Seth's girlfriend."

Patterson stares at you, and you're daunted despite yourself. "I don't remember seeing you around," he says. "You go to school here?"

"No, I'm—"

"Yeah, I think I would have remembered seeing you around." He gives you a long look up and down. If he likes what he sees, he doesn't show it, but you feel like you're being evaluated, graded, ranked, and categorized. "I gotta get inside for practice," he says. "You're friends with Cindy? Interesting." There is, perhaps, a glimmer of appreciation in his eyes as he gives you one last look before turning toward the gym. You have to catch your breath after he's gone.

* * * * *

"Of course he did," Cindy says when you tell her that Seth tried flirting with you. "Did you encourage him?"

"No! He just—"

"You didn't have to show up here looking like this." She sounds exasperated. "He wouldn't have flirted with you if you—"

"No, he would have just stolen my pants and thrown them onto the roof. If he caught me loitering outside the gym."

Cindy gives you a dirty look. "That's more Gordon's style. Why don't your friends try doing something to him for a change?"

Her words startle you. Carson and James want you to trick Cindy into helping them pull a nasty prank on Gordon and his friends. Though Seth is one of those friends, maybe instead of tricking Cindy, you could directly enlist her help by telling her the plan.

Next: "Unlikely Partnerships" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"