The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

The Matchmakers

Previously: "Yumi Saito, Agent of Janus" 

It cheers you for awhile, the idea of using a mask to escape the "engagement" to Gary Chen that you promised Chelsea, and you spend a happy and productive hour working on the metal bands while the placeholding "Will Prescott" polishes up masks on the other side of the elementary school basement.

But as evening darkens around you, so does your mood as problems occur to you. To wit:

If you make yourself a "fake" boyfriend, the way Chelsea has Gordon as "fake" boyfriend, who is going to have control of him? You made Chelsea promise that she wouldn't make any more masks for herself. But then this "fake" can't be a boyfriend that she can use to keep in touch with you. And if you let her use this "fake" as your boyfriend, as your contact point with her, you will be breaking down that limit that you forced on her.

Back and forth and back and forth you go, wrestling with what to do. At times you are ready to surrender to Chelsea and her plan for Chen, in order to keep your scruples intact. Then you swing hard in the other direction, and decide that she can have herself another mask if that's what it takes to rescue you from pretending to be Chen's girlfriend. But when you imagine Chelsea using that as an excuse to make even more masks, you swing back toward a middle position: You'll tell that the mask she offered you will be your boyfriend instead of Chen. But when you imagine the explosion that will provoke, you resign yourself anew to going along with Chelsea's original plan.

Your work slows down, so that you have only finished one of the masks when you go home for the night, for you still have schoolwork to do.

* * * * *

"I'm going to give that mask one more chance," Chelsea tells you early the next morning when you meet her, as arranged, at Starbucks. It's a safe place for a rendezvous, since your meeting, if it spotted, can be put down to coincidence. Just to be sure, though, you conduct it while standing in a corner near the door so that you won't look too intimate.

"It would be great if you got it to work," you reply. Your eyes are heavy from a lack of sleep, for you went to bed very late in order to finish up your schoolwork. (Yumi is taking a ridiculously heavy load of challenging classes.) "That way I can use that one on someone else." You stifle a yawn as you point to Chelsea's schoolbag, which is where she has stashed the mask you made last night, as well as some sealant and a container of goop.

She smiles secretly. "You figure out another alias for yourself, Will?"

The sound of your real name gives you a little jolt. You're in a sloppy but feminine set of clothes--long stockings under athletic shorts, and a colorful pullover sweatshirt, and flats--and you're feeling even more "Yumi" this morning that you were yesterday. You are feeling so "Yumi" that you screeched like a girl at the college-age brother (who refuses to move in with friends or into a dorm at Keyserling College) when he stole your freshly made cup of coffee this morning.

"I don't know," you reply. And you must be tired so that your defenses are down and you actually confide in Chelsea. "Do I have to start dating Gary?"

She frowns. "That was the plan. You promised!"

"I know. I'll keep it." With those three words you resign yourself to Chelsea's will. "It's just that Yumi and Gary aren't a match. If it was anyone else— No, never mind."

"What's bothering you, Will?" Chelsea sinks against the wall and raises her coffee to her lips. Her eyes gleam. After studying her face a moment, you relent.

"I know you want a way we can talk, so we don't have to keep doing it like this." You look around, suddenly conscious again of where you're standing and who with. "But Gary doesn't seem like the one."

"You want a different one." Her grin curls up manically. "Who does Yumi have a crush on?"

No, you're not going to give her that. "It doesn't have to be one of her crushes. But— Oh, I don't know." You kick at the floor. "What if it was a friend of Gary's? A friend that he and I had in common? Or a girl who could be his girlfriend, and she could be a friend of Yumi's?"

"Who would be wearing this mask?" Chelsea asks quietly.

"It would have to be me. That's the limit we set, right? Two for you and—" You pont to yourself. "One, two for me."

"So, I wouldn't be talking to you. I'd be talking to this other person, who'd carry messages to me?"

"Maybe sometimes it would be me," you allow.

She sighs. "It would just be easiest if it was you and me, as Gary and Yumi."

You agree that it would be, and give up all hope.

But Chelsea has a surprise for you later.

* * * * *

First, though, you get through the day. True to her word, during first period practice Chelsea tears into you, criticizing everything you do and threatening several times to get Coach Tesla to kick you off the squad. You're in tears by the end—and they're not even pretend tears—and Lin and Eva and Cindy huddle around you when practice is over to comfort and pet you. Even Kendra Saunders, one of Chelsea's enforcers, looks aghast and shoots you guilty looks from the other side of the locker room.

Cindy further comforts you during third period Chemistry II, and the stories she shares with Anne Starkey and Ellie Kemp, who are also in that class, get them to express shock and outrage at Chelsea's behavior. Even Seth, also in that class, looks sober, and confides in you that he always thought Chelsea was "a real cunt."

Jessica, in fourth period AP German IV, isn't able to get Amanda Ferguson to express the same level of sympathy, though. That icy AP bitch only looks coldly down at you and says that you knew what you were getting into when you tried out for the cheerleading squad. That causes Jessica to tear into her.

You get less attention from Jenny and Jessica at lunch, though, and endure the banter of Carson and James—and the puppy-eyed attentions of Paul—while quietly eating a pasta salad. You're actually in a bit of a daze by that point, and your pretended anger at Chelsea is at the point of hardening into real anger when you get a text from your secret collaborator: meet in loft at 445. That cools you down, and you affect a more normal demeanor through the rest of your classes.

When the time comes, after parting from Cindy and Seth again in front of the gym, you go inside and mount the steps on the other side of the empty basketball court. You're far from surprised to find a shirtless Gary Chen waiting for you in the loft. He's alone this time, though, and he's a lot less panicked.

"I spent just about all freaking day in this mask," he says.

"You went to his classes?" you gasp.

"No." He clucks his tongue. "I knew better than to—" He hops to his feet and prances effeminately around the loft. His movements are so girlish he makes the arch-gay Charles Hartlein look like Gordon. "I took one look at myself in the mirror and thought, No!" He blows a bang out of his eye. "But I got him up here second period and talked to him about what classes he could skip. Then I switched places with him and hung out here, second through fifth."

"Where's he? The real Gary?" You glance around.

"Off being me. Doing a much better job being me than I'm being him," he grumbles. "I went ahead and used that mask you gave me to copy myself."

You groan. "So I have to make up another mask?"

"Do you mind so much?" He puts out an arm, at the end of which dangles a hand and a limp wrist. With it, he catches you and pulls you close. He smells like body wash, which is a pleasant surprise, and his bare skin is warm and supple with hard muscles beneath it. "I could do it for you. You've been so patient with me, Will." He kisses the side of your head.

"No, I can finish it up. I'm almost done with another one anyway."

He kisses you again. "But maybe you won't have to. I spent most of the day in the mask, I was going to say, and I got right back into it after last period. And you know what? I think I'm starting to get some of the memories."

You look up sharply. "Really?"

"I really think so! I asked Gary a ton of questions about himself before I switched, like, about his friends and family and growing up, and maybe that helped. If I concentrate on the things he told me, I'm starting to get pictures and stuff."

That sounds hopeful. And when Chelsea says that Gary doesn't have to work that night at the country club, and that she's going to go home as him and spend the night, you don't argue.

"Oh, and I asked him about some people you and he might have in common, who you could both hang out with together and it wouldn't look funny," he says, and arches his eyebrows gleefully as he ticks off his fingers. "So. Lin Pol?"

"No. She hates him."

"Really? He told me she's totally into him."

There's gossip you could share with Chelsea on that score, but you just shake your head.

"Okay. Sienna Goldman?"

"I'll think about it."

"Kristina Townes?"

"I thought she was going out with Parker Stott."

"Tch! You know, it might be easier if you just listed the girls you hang out with that might go out with him."

There aren't any. "What about his friends? Guys he hangs out with that I might, um ... "

"I didn't ask about those."

"Then let's meet at Starbucks again tomorrow," you sigh, "and we'll see."

Man, who knew that finding a match for Yumi would be harder than finding one for you?

* To continue: "Plots Have I Laid, Inductions Dangerous" 

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 3)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)"