The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

Stormy Weather, Part 2

Previously: "Stormy Weather, Part 1" 

David Kirkham thinks you're special? Ewwww!

You manage to keep your composure, even though you feel like you see right through his shades and into that slimy cesspit where he keeps his rotten soul. He sees a chance to score with me! He thinks I'm 'easy' if I'm willing to do something with Steve!

"Thanks, David," you say with the best smile you can muster. "That's really sweet of you."

"I'm not being sweet, Kim." His cobra-like voice sinks to a near whisper. "I'm giving you my honest—"

His breath is warm on your cheek, and for a moment you think he's going to lean in and put his lips on your face. But he pulls back a little, and slips his toothpick back between cheek and gum.

"Just tell me you're going to look out for yourself, Kim," he says, and arches concerned eyebrows.

"I will, don't worry," you assure him through a frozen smile. "And don't believe everything you read online."

"That's good, and that's good advice," he says. He steps back and starts to turn away, but he catches himself. "If it's not true, who is it going around saying it is?"

"I don't know. No one. You know how rumors get started."

"If you ever find out, let me know." He shows you an admonitory finger. "I think someone's got it in for you, Kim, if they're spreading around filth like that. Come look for me anytime." He holds your eye as he takes a step back, then turns to swagger from the room.

You let out a breath of relief, and stagger over to your own work table.

But as you pass her, Mindy shoots daggers at you with her eyes.

* * * * *

You can hardly bear to bring yourself to go to lunch, to eat at the table with Kim's usual friends, none of whom you have seen yet. It might be your imagination, but you think you see a shiftiness in their eyes and faces as you join them, even though conversation circles nowhere near the topic of you and Steve.

Until Kelsey lunges in and drags it up, to throw it like a dead whale onto the table where you're all eating.

"Oh my God!" she nearly screams while checking her phone. "I can't fucking believe it! Kim!" She whirls to look at you with a face curdled with outrage and sympathy. "If you need me to kill Phoebe Beauchamp for you, I will! Did you see what she—? Here, I'll send you a link," she says as you and everyone else stare at her with open mouths. "No, just, here, take it." She thrusts the phone toward you, and you grasp it with numb fingers. "Second post from the top."

It's a thread on x2z, of course, about you and Steve. The reply in question says, of you two, Quick how to say I want fuck u blind in Spanish kim n steve want to know. The poster, of course, is anonymous.

You hand the phone back to Kelsey. "Thanks."

"She can't get away with it!"

"Who? Dragonsgirl276?"

"It was Phoebe, Kim," Kelsey scornfully informs you.

"Do you know that's her user name?"

Amanda says, "Don't pretend to be so freaking dense, Kim. She's the only other girl in that Spanish study group with you and Steve. The only one who saw what you were doing with each other in there."

Anthony flushes and glares at Amanda, but you only say, "I can't do anything about it."

"We can," Kelsey says. "We can—! Oh, but if you just want to let it go, Kim, that's up to you." She returns to studying her phone with her nose high in the air.

Afterward, as you're leaving the cafeteria, Anthony falls in beside you. "God, Kim," he says, "you are so freaking patient."

"What do you mean?"

"All that bullshit." He stops you and gives you a hard look. "How did things wind up yesterday, after you talked to Kelsey?"

It takes you a moment to recover the memory of the cover story you gave him for that visit. "F-fine," you stammer. "She's going to turn Chelsea down of course, but—" You shrug.

"You didn't piss her off, did you?"

"Who, Kelsey? Well, it got kind of ... hot ... for a bit."

Anthony groans. "Well, watch yourself."

"What do you mean?"

He studies you a moment, then says, "I'm pretty sure it wasn't Phoebe who posted that thing, whatever it was."

"Yeah, I don't know who DragongirlWhatever is."

"I don't mean that." He squints at you with concern. "But lots of people know you have that Spanish study group, and any of them could have posted that thing. Amanda knows you're in that group."

You can tell that he's all but accusing Amanda of making the post, probably at Kelsey's behest, but you pretend not to make the inference. "That's a point. Thanks, Anthony. I actually was feeling kind of mad at Phoebe."

He shifts from foot to foot, then says, "I'm really sorry about all this, Kim. You have no idea."

Later, at your locker, you send Number Four a DM at her secret "PrettyIvy" account at x2z: Who is Dragonsgirl? Amanda?

The reply, when it comes: Lol yes we made acct ths morning I told her what write. Awesome right boss?

Perfect. Do more, you tell her.

The harder she and Amanda work to humiliate Kim, the less likely Amanda is likely to anticipate the secret counterattack you'll hit her with from Number Four's direction.

* * * * *

Number One DMs you shortly after lunch, to warn that you are likely to be a topic of conversation eighth period with Kendra and Gloria, and asks how to handle it. You remind her that as a member of the East-West Club, she should be concentrating on that emergency. Gotcha, boss! she replies with a grinning emoji.

Last-period Student Congress is the final hurdle to get through, but at least it is preoccupied with gossip about the East-West crisis. More has come to light there. It appears to have been some kind of bizarre misunderstanding, with a freshman girl from Westside having gotten her wires crossed and made the banner as an innocent bit of would-be hazing. But Kelsey is still gleeful about the embarrassment it will have cause Chelsea Cooper.

Still, though you have managed to slough off most of the stress that Kim would carry on her shoulders, it is a relief to totter into the office after classes have ended, and to zone out over school work. Just as happened yesterday, the time seems to compress to mere minutes, and when you surface you have no good memory of evenhaving done the work.

Then comes the last order of the day: x2z DMs to the "Numbers," telling them to rendezvous back at the school at eight-thirty tonight for a conference. Personalities off when you arrive, you tell them, for you've had quite enough of some of them, thank you.

Numbers One and Three are parked by the gym when you arrive, and they are silent and almost motionless when you catch up to them in the dark and shadowy loft; you say nothing but only join them to wait for the last of your quartet to show. No one reacts except to turn and watch when, a quarter hour later, Number Four joins you. Someone's missing, you think, and it takes you a moment to realize you've forgotten Will Prescott, to the point of not even assigning him a number. But you dismiss the thought for the present.

"Excellent work today," you tell the doppelgangers. "Especially from Number Four." She flashes you the smallest smirk in acknowledgement. "I have no special instructions except to continue. You don't have to beat it to death, though. Let yourself be distracted. But we also need to concentrate on expanding our ranks, and that's why I want to talk to you. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Phoebe Beauchamp," Number Three says without hesitation. "She's popular and has lots of friends on the soccer squad. Also," he adds as a small murmur of assent comes from the girls, "Ms. Martinez is in and out of the classroom all the time, and the three of us could easily conference in there."

"That's a good point. Any others?"

Numbers One and Four have a number of suggestions, the most obvious being Deanna Showalter. But most of their suggestions, like Amanda Ferguson or Cindy Vredenburg, you privately dismiss as overlapping too much with the replacements you've already made. But Number Three makes one other suggestion that you give weight to: Mr. Hummel, the wood- and metal-working teacher, whose workshop could double as a meeting place if the loft is unavailable, and who, as a teacher, would be both above suspicion and able to isolate potential victims for duplication and replacement. This reminds you of your earlier idea for replacing teachers or administrators.

But it's when Number Three—whose suggestions are proving very shrewd, to your mind—suggests Gary Chen that you become aware of a gap in your thinking. With your present staff you have nicely covered the upper echelons of the school. What about the seamy underbelly? Don't you want to control it as well?

And Kim already has established relationships with two of the most powerful elements down there: Joshua Call and David Kirkham.

Next: "Music and the Savage Beast" 

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