The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

A Stationary Stone Gathers Some Gossip

Previously: "Detention Deficit Disorder" 

"Who are you staring at?"

Caleb's voice startles you out of your reverie, and you sit up. The sounds of pre-class first period come rushing back in. "Huh?"

"Huh," Caleb mockingly echoes. "You were staring at Kelsey."

"Who says?"

"I say. I saw you. Not that she isn't easy on the eyes." He cranes to stare at Kelsey, who you were staring at. "But if she catches you—"

You make a face.

It's true that Kelsey Blankenship is quite good-looking, if caught from certain angles. (There are certain other angles, though, where her nose is a little too sharp, and her chin a shade too jutting.) She dresses up nice too, in an expensive, Southwestern-bohemian motif of designer jeans or jean-skirts, sun-faded blouses, turquoise-and-silver jewelry, and either sandals or boots. But she's a conceited bitch, hyper-conscious of her status and the status of her family (her father owns a chain of car dealerships), and more than once she's snarled at some plebe who she's caught looking too long in her direction.

"Let's eat with Carson and them today," you tell Caleb.

"Didn't you have breakfast? What are you thinking about lunch for already?"

"I just want to talk to them."

"I thought you were mad at them." In a near undertone he adds, "I'd be mad at 'em if they talked to me like they talked to you yesterday."

"That's just the way they talk. But they hear things, and— Well, I wanna talk to Jenny, too."

Caleb sucks thoughtfully on a tooth, then leans over to murmur, "If there's anything you want to know about Kelsey, Mindy McAdams is the one to talk to."

"I don't know Mindy that well."

"I'm just saying."

"How does Mindy know—?"

The bell rings, and Caleb just says, "Mindy is obsessed with Kelsey."

He doesn't clarify, but you don't pursue it either. You're not sure what you really want to know, and are pretty sure that Jenny Ashton and her friends will be able to clear up the mystery of that conversation you heard in the restroom after school yesterday.

And if they can't, well, it's not such a big deal.

* * * * *

Steven Buckner and Andy Tackett are in deep conference when you get to second period, but Steven looks up with a start when he catches sight of you. "Oh hey, man," he says. "I heard you got busted last week for breaking into a teacher's desk."

"Yeah."

"That's too bad. Kind of cool, though." He grins. "Didn't know you had it in you."

You'd let it drop, but Tackett says, "Jesus, what'dju do a stupid thing like that for?"

"I wanted to get something out."

"What?"

You shoot Steven a sidelong glance. "I traded some guy something for a"—you mime taking a hit off a joint—"and I wanted to get it back."

Tackett blinks. "The teacher took it from you?"

"It's complicated." You shoot Buckner another glare. "I hope you're having fun with the thing I traded you."

"What thing? Oh!" He grins, hard. "Oh yeah."

Something in his tone catches your ear. "Did you figure it out?"

"Yeah, I—"

But at that point Tilley comes in and slaps you on the back of your head, and after you get through saying, "Hey" and "Fuck you" and "Nothing, that's what I did yesterday, I'm grounded, asshole" to him, Steven and Andy are back in rapt conversation.

But it makes you wonder how (and how far) news of your detention has spread. You never got the impression that you were a subject of conversation, even behind your back.

* * * * *

"It's the Donna Motor Courts," Carson informs you at lunchtime. "You did say 'Kim', didn't you?" You nod. "Yeah, then it's the Donna."

"Of course it's the Donna," James says. "If they were talking about Kelsey."

"Oh, Jesus, you guys are like a couple of old hens," Jenny interrupts. "What's it matter?"

"Facts matter, Ashton," Carson coldly replies. "Without facts there'd be no science, and without science, you wouldn't have that cell phone that so obsesses you."

Jenny makes a face and hunches defensively over her phone. "What's Kelsey and Kim and the Donna got to do with technology?" she retorts.

"What else is there to talk about on that cell phone," Carson ripostes, "except things like Kelsey and Kim and the Donna? I doubt you're reading an abstract on the latest developments in quantum physics."

"Ohhh!" Jenny turns her back on the lunchtime group and dips back into her cell.

It's a clear, warm day, as it has been all week, and you're all lounging on the grass in front of the school, as Carson and his friends always do at lunchtime. Keith isn't with you today, though, for he heard a rumor that Cindy Vredenburg might be joining them, and where Cindy goes, her vicious boyfriend usually goes too. And Seth Javits has long made the abuse of Keith his special hobby.

But Cindy didn't show up, which is good if it means Seth doesn't show up, but which is bad because Cindy probably knows even more about what you've been asking Carson and James about. But they do seem to know enough.

The Donna Motor Courts, they inform you, is a rundown motel on the south end of town. That much you knew. What you didn't know is that the Donna caters specially to a clientele that pays by the hour, for an afternoon or evening of private fun. It is also owned by the family of the very prim student council president, Kim Walsh. (That fact—or rather the fact that they have shared it with you—seems to be what has Jenny so riled up.) As for Kelsey and her relationship to the Donna:

"Her and her boyfriend are banging each other stupid out there every weekend," James informs you. "Now you can do the math."

"What math?"

"Two plus two and four. Kelsey and Karl Hennepin, the Donna, doing something that Kelsey doesn't want the world to know about, and—"

"Karl Hennepin!" you exclaim. "Him and Kelsey are—?"

"Didn't you know?"

"No!"

James and Carson exchange a look, and shrug. "Well, they are," James says.

"Shit! Kelsey and Karl? I—"

"Keep it under your hat, Prescott," Carson growls. "Same as Kelsey and Karl are keeping it under his hat. No one's supposed to know. I mean, I guess everyone knows, now that you do." He squints at you. "You really didn't know?" You shake your head. "What about you, Johansson?"

"I heard rumors."

James snorts. "Bullshit."

"Well, everyone knows, but Kelsey doesn't know that everyone knows. She thinks it's a big secret, and everyone's too embarrassed to tell her that everyone from Kookaburra to Cancun knows about it. So keep it to yourself."

"Why?"

Carson gives you a look. "Do you want Kelsey thinking you're the one that blew her big secret, that she's taking Karl in past the tonsils every chance she gets? Exactly," he says when he sees your face fall. "If you think Chelsea Cooper is vicious—" He glances at Jenny's back, but she's too absorbed in typing into her cell.

"Okay, Prescott," says James, "it's your turn to give. You said you heard some guys talking about all this in a bathroom yesterday. What else did you hear?"

You confess that that's all, except for something about "petting with a teacher," at the Donna, and you had the impression it was a student they were talking about.

Carson and James exchange a long look. Then: "Mr. Hagerman." "Ms. Simeon." "Ms. Willet." "Coach Schell." "Coach Richards." "Coach Whitney." "Coach Nathan." "Mrs. Oliver." "Mr. Hummel." "Mr. Cant." "Mr. Fernandez." "Bleaaaghhh!" "Could be." "No it couldn't!"

"Oh my God!" you cry. "Are you guys serious? Those teachers? At the Donna? With—?"

"Could be," says James.

"Don't be naive, Prescott," says Carson. "How do you think some of the AP students around here keep their grades up?"

"You're taking AP classes," Caleb points out, but Carson ignores him.

"You know, that's a thought I didn't have," he tells James with a nudge. "What if the whole Kelsey and Karl thing is a blind? What if Kelsey started that rumor herself to cover up the fact that it's Walberg and Henderson she's blowing?"

Before you can throw up, Jenny turns around to glare murder at him.

"Don't pay any attention to what they say, Will," she says. "It's all just a figment of their sick imaginations. I mean, listen to them! One of them is fantasizing about blow jobs from Mr. Fernandez!"

* * * * *

It's your third day of detention, but after yesterday (and your talk with Carson and James) you find yourself paying a lot more attention to the noises out in the halls, and the sight of students walking past the windows outside, than to your homework. You can't see into the hallways, because Walberg has you sitting in the back of the room, but there seems to be an inordinate amount of running, and once there's a very loud shout and the shrill shriek of someone whistling through their teeth. (Right after that, you see Marc Garner galloping past your window toward the music wing.) There's some activity off at the portables, too, with Steven Buckner jogging between them and the school a couple of times, to the apparent amusement of—

"Do you have some homework you can be doing, Mr. Prescott?" Mr. Walberg growls. That's when you realize you are half out of your desk, craning to see who it is squatting by the portables as Buckner goes running past. You sink back into your seat and bend over your math. It's forty minutes before you come up for air, when Mr. Walberg gruffly announces that your detention is over. Dane, who was uncharacteristically quiet all period, is already packed up, and practically bolts from the room.

It's as you're packing that you glance out the window and confirm (to your own satisfaction, at least) that it was Justin Roth and Mindy McAdams who were sitting outside the portables, for they are approaching the school now.

Mindy McAdams. Caleb said she's "obsessed" with Kelsey. Maybe you can catch and talk to her on your way out.

Next: "Noses Out of Joint" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 2)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)"