The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Catching Christine

Previously: "Marching to Zion" 

"Let's wait to see what Christine wants to do," you tell Mr. Hagerman. Then you grin. "Though I bet I can guess."

He grins back at you. It would be a really creepy grin he's giving you—high-school pedo teacher—if you didn't know who was really grinning at you from behind it.

Oh, hell. It's a creepy grin anyway. But it excites you.

* * * * *

You have a good chunk of time to kill before you can fetch Christine back for Sydney, so you wait it out by giving her a preview of the girl she'll soon be. Christine Miles, you tell her, comes from a well-to-do family—her dad's an attorney, and her mom is the executive assistant for a firm of architects—and she plays on the school tennis team. She's a bit of a show off, but she's bright and funny has lots of friends. Sydney nods along—Mr. Hagerman has her for one of his English classes, and so he has some idea of the personality to expect. "She gets into mischief, doesn't she?"

"Well—" You writhe in place, then turn it into a shimmy and dance (Zion loves to go dancing). "Her and me try."

Eventually it comes time for tennis practice to end, and you jog out to the tennis courts. Christine and her friend Marianne are putting their things away and chatting with the other players. You nod at Cody Schaefer, one of the seniors that Zion is friendly with, as you run up and twine your fingers into the chain link fence.

"Hey," you call to Marianna, "who's your sexy friend with the sexy overbite?" Christine is very pretty, but there's no denying that she looks a little like a chipmunk from one angle, and a gopher from another. Luckily, she wears it well, and Zion loves it when she nibbles at him.

Christine blushes and grins at you, her cheeks folding into deep dimples. "My name's Christine," she calls back. "What's yours?"

"Murray. Murray Teitelbaum. The Third."

"Well, Murray Teitelbaum the Third." Christine comes over to lean against the chain links, and covers your fingers with hers. "What are you doing after school?"

"Looking for a little girl to molest."

"Eww!" She laughs. "Well, I'm not that kind of girl. Although—" Her grin sharpens. "Would you like to try ... talking me into it?"

Your cock is now poking through the the fence at her. "Girl," you sigh, "you give me twenty minutes of your time and I'll have you eating ... " You trail off before you can say anything dangerously disgusting, and put your mouth to the fence. She puts her mouth to yours, and you kiss through the links, running your tongues over each other's teeth. "Am I gonna need some wire cutters to come in and get you?" you ask, "or can I trust you to come out on your own?"

She giggles. "You could try climbing over."

"Girl," you admonish her, "you did not just give me a dare, did you?" Quickly you scramble halfway up the rattling wall of links, then pause to gauge her reaction. When she laughs and looks up at you with shining eyes, you climb the rest of the way to the top.

But there's no bar across the top—only the tops of the links—and the whole thing sways as you pause to gauge if you can safely throw a leg over.

"Don't you try it, you idiot!" a voice calls, and you look down to see Coach Acuna shading her eyes as she glares up at you. You only grin and inch higher up the fence. The ground—fifteen feet below or so—looks a lot farther away than it actually is.

This is dumb and you're going to kill yourself, two voices warn you. One is your own, and the other is Zion Barber's. But there's a third voice—also Zion's—urging you to make the leap. You tense all over, steel your gut, then throw one leg over the top while swinging your torso over. The fence sways and bends, and for a moment you feel yourself falling. Your other leg swings over the fence, catching on the top and tearing the fabric of your sweat pants. Someone below shouts in Spanish.

But your fingers have a death grip on the links at the top, and your feet find support. With a haggard, breathless, giddy sense of accomplishment, you scuttle down the other side to the ground, jumping off and dropping the last three feet to hit the court with a jar.

Coach Acuna slaps the back of your head and jabbers at you in Spanish. You grin past her at Christine, who has gone white as chalk but is smiling broadly.

"Who the fuck you think you are there, Barber?" Sean Wilcox calls out to you. "Spider-Man?" "Fuckin' dumbass," someone else says.

"God, that was dumb of you," Christine breathlessly agrees after the coach has stormed off. She squeezes your arm. "I should get you out of here before you do anything else that dumb."

"Meet you on the other side?" you suggest, and grab the fence. But Christine yanks you away with a gasp. In truth, you're shaking all over, and are glad she won't let you make a repeat performance.

You take Christine's hand as you head out. "Listen, I forgot my stuff in Mr. Hagerman's room when I came out to find you," you tell her. "Mind if we stop by there before we go?" Zion rides the school bus in the mornings because he hasn't got the use of a car, and typically gets a ride with Christine home.

"I have to stop by my locker anyway," she says, then turns to wave at Kelsey Blankenship. "Have a great weekend, Kelsey!" she calls. "God, she was a bitch today," you murmurs to you as you too wave at Kelsey, who waves back.

"You played each other?"

"No, she just tried coaching me from the other court."

You smile vacantly while nodding at some of the other players. The politician in Zion likes to keep on familiar terms with girls like Kelsey and with guys like Cody.

Inside the school, you ask Christine to come find you in Mr. Hagerman's room after she's got her things. "We were talking about forming up a new school club, and he might have a few more things to say to me," you explain. Christine tells you she won't be long.

Inside Mr. Hagerman's room, you wink at the teacher, and hold up a single finger. He leers back.

Christine isn't long in joining you. "You ready to go?" she asks from the doorway.

"Almost. C'mere." You pull her into the room when she resists. "Mr. Hagerman wants us to be co-presidents of the new club," you murmur at her, your face right up against hers.

"Oh yeah?"

"Uh huh. Whole thing was his idea for us." You kiss her nose, then step around and behind her. It's awkward catching her from behind with her backpack hiked up on her shoulders, but you manage to get your hands on her elbows. "He thinks you and me look great together, and he wants us to—"

From around the side of her head, you see Mr. Hagerman advancing on Christine. The next thing you know, she is falling sideways, and he is helping you support her. "Close the door, Will," he says.

* * * * *

"Mm, this is kind of weird," Christine says as she examines herself using her phone. She fluffs out her hair, which is a sexy tangle of loose brown curls that tumble to the top of her shoulders. She tries out a grin, clamping a wide row of bright white teeth over her lower lip.

"I thought you said you were getting the memories."

"I am," she says. "That's what makes it weird. It's like—" She turns a keen glance on you. "It wasn't like that with you? Getting the ones from the old mask mixed up with the new ones?"

"Well, yeah, that happened to me."

"Good, 'cos it's doing that with me." She goes back to examining herself, holding the phone up with one hand while plucking her skirt and blouse with the other. "I still got some of Mr. Hagerman floating around in here with me, and he's, like—"

Like what? you wonder when she breaks off. Turned on by seeing a seventeen-year-old girl when he turns the phone's camera on himself?

Christine wheels on you again, eyes glinting madly. "Bite me, Zi," she says. "Bite me like you love me."

"Mm, is that Mr. Hagerman talking?" You put your arms around her, and gently squeeze her lower lip between your teeth.

She smooches you back, then pulls away. "No," she sighs. "That was me trying to—" She wriggles inside your arms. "Ohhhh! Gawwwwd! I can't wait to get you alone!"

You glance over her shoulder, where the pedisequos of Mr. Hagerman is watching you with an expression of dog-like patience.

"Come on, we should get out of here," you murmur. "Marianne and them are gonna be wondering what happened to us."

"Let 'em wonder." She pulls you close and breathes in your face. "Let's go over to Mr. Hagerman's."

"What for?"

"Why are you asking a silly question like that? What have you and me been doing, Will? What would Zi and Christine love to do, now that they got someplace to do it at?" She nips your cheek.

Okay, yes, you'd love to. But you can't forget that Zion Barber's mom is expecting him home, and that he and Christine already have plans to hang out at Kian Benefield's house tonight with a bunch of their friends.

Next: "Breaking Bad" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 4)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)"