The Book of Masks (Vol. 2)

Suspicious Sightings

Previously: "A Text-Based Game" 

All eyes at the table swing toward Melanie, who smugly drinks in the attention. "Rebecca and Chelsea?" Brianna asks. Melanie nods. Kristin says, "Rebecca Sykes and Chelsea Cooper?"

"That's right." Melanie squirms with suppressed excitement. "I was heading toward class and I saw Rebecca coming the other way toward me. I was going to pass on by, but right there in front of me she suddenly swung over to where Chelsea was, at her locker, and— Oh, and Chelsea was in her cheerleader uniform. Anyone else notice that?"

"I haven't seen Chelsea today," Wendy says.

"What about the other cheerleaders, are they—?"

"What did she do to Chelsea?" Brianna demands.

"I told you. She must'a had her hairbrush out already or something, because suddenly she just started whanging on Chelsea and screaming at her. Hitting her on the head and shoulders and everything." Melanie gloats. "Then Chelsea started screaming—"

"Oh my God!" Kristina puts a hand to her mouth. "What did everyone else do?"

"Well, it wasn't crowded, but everyone gave them room to fight. I think some of the guys wanted to jump in. You know." Her lips curls into a leer. "So they could grope Chelsea while pretending to—"

"Did a teacher break it up?"

"No. Chelsea got away and started running. Rebecca took off after her. Calling her a fucking witch and a lot of other things."

"Wow!" Wide-eyed glances are exchanged around the table.

Even if you hadn't blamed Chelsea for your predicament—and you still sort-of do, despite what Jack reasoned out yesterday—you are still sort of glad to hear that someone actually went off and slugged her.

And if anyone was to do that, Rebecca Sykes might be in your top ten list of candidates. Rebecca is a party girl and a bit of a skank, and not one of your—well, Jack's—favorite people because she loves innuendo and gossip, particularly gossip about who is doing it with who, and how they're doing it; and she's an outrageous flirt. You never heard of her and Chelsea getting crossways with each other, and it's a little hard to imagine, because Rebecca seems like the kind of girl that Chelsea would ignore. You can only guess, as you try to fit the pieces together, that Chelsea said something nasty about Rebecca online, and that Rebecca decided to go nuclear.

That's what you say when Wendy asks what you think. From there the gossip flowers, mostly about Rebecca because none of you know Chelsea all that well. Much but not all of it is new to you. So, for instance, you know—from Jack's memories—that Melanie bears a sharp grudge against Rebecca because she helped cause the break up between her and her ex-boyfriend, but you didn't know that she'd had a fling with Darrell Parson, or that Charles Hartlein had banned her from rehearsals of the school play for causing "problems" between the cast. What any of this has to do with Chelsea, you can't fathom.

Talk about Rebecca and Chelsea at least briefly deflects Brianna, but as fourth period is wrapping up she pokes you in the shoulder and reminds you to talk to Laura. You promise to text her.

* * * * *

You yourself aren't interested enough in the Rebecca-Chelsea spat to follow it up. But Wendy and Kristina are. They, with you and Parker, share seventh-period Dance with Chelsea, and you can tell they are watching her closely all during class. (Just as you can tell that Chelsea has noticed and is pointedly ignoring them.) At least they have the sense not to say anything to her directly. But when the bell rings, they don't follow Chelsea immediately to the changing rooms but corner Christian Padilla instead, asking if he heard about Chelsea and Rebecca, and asking if he knows what it was all about.

Christian is a friend of Rebecca's, but he's also one of Charles Hartlein's friends—a gay Hispanic who likes to dress in floral-print shirts and shell necklaces like he lives on a beach in Hawaii—and he gives you an amused look up and down before turning to Wendy and Kristina. "Oh my God," he laughs. "So you were dying all through class, too, huh?" Kristina demands again to know what happened.

"I dunno," he admits, "I haven't talked to Rebecca since Sunday night." He has to digress to describe the louche and very elite gathering of musical and theatrical talent that descended on Andrea Varnsworth's place that night, and starts laughingly to tell a story about a lovers' spat between Charles and Adrian Semple, before he is pushed back on topic by Wendy. But it doesn't do her much good. Christian can only confess that he hasn't really seen Rebecca since that night, but everyone else has been complaining that she has been a bitch on wheels since coming in to school on Monday. He then excuses himself by saying that he has to get cleaned up. And he ends the conversation, before shimmering off for the boys' changing room, by giving you another very long and knowing look. Wendy prods you in the back, telling you to find out more from him.

In the changing room, though, you ignore Christian, who wouldn't be one of your favorite people even if he wasn't one of Charles's minions. But Christian doesn't ignore you. Changed into his pants but still bare-chested he slides in next to your locker. "So it must be pretty rich," he says.

"What is?"

"Whatever the reason is Rebecca started beating on Chelsea for."

"I'm not really interested."

"But it must be rich if you're letting Wendy and Kristina dangle like that."

You do a double-take at him. His smile is smug and knowing. "I don't know what you mean," you tell him.

"Come on, man. What did Rebecca want to talk to you about?"

"When?"

"Sunday night."

You try to recollect where you were Sunday night, and if you could possibly have talked to Brianna Gould. It doesn't ring any bells, but your social life has been bewilderingly complex since you got turned into Jack.

"Fine," Christian smirks. "I guess I'll just have to tell Wendy and Parker and Kristina about—"

* * * * *

It's Jack's nimble instincts that get you temporarily out of trouble with Christian, by bluffing him with the news that (a) there's nothing going on between you and Preston Spinks, and that (b) he's welcome to tell your friends all about your Monday-night coffee date with Preston. Inwardly, of course, you are bewildered and frightened, for despite what Christian says about seeing you at The Flying Saucer with Preston, you know you weren't there. And also, after a little more thought, you are clear in your own head that you never saw Rebecca Sykes on Sunday night, let alone talked to her. Using one of the dummy accounts that Jack set up, you quickly DM your two cohorts in misfortune, telling them that you want to meet out at that highway intersection again after school.

This time you're the first to arrive, and you kill ten minutes or so parrying texts from Kristina and Wendy asking about Preston. (Which tells you that Christian has called your bluff.) So the matter is foremost in your mind when Will Prescott shows up.

Well, he looks like your old self, and you have to assume it's the transformed Steve Patterson. He is driving your truck, and you recognize the clothes. But from now on you will have to wonder if it really is him. And if it really is Jack-as-Steve.

"Okay," you say when both have joined you. Now that it's come to the moment, you are reluctant to say anything, because you know you will be inspiring in them the same paranoia that you are starting to feel. "I got it confirmed today that, uh, Clover Mystery is a, um—" You gesture at Steve. "That Jack was right. She or he can—"

It's so hard to say, because it still sounds screwy even after everything that's happened to you and the other guys. "Disguise themself as other people," you lamely conclude. When the other two only stare, you add, "Because some people saw, um, Jack Li at a couple of places on Sunday and Monday nights where I wasn't."

"Where?" Will instantly demands.

"Down at the river apparently. A bunch of people saw, um, me, there. And they saw ... me go off and have a private talk with Rebecca Sykes."

Your eyes dart between them to gauge their reactions. Both they only continue to stare at you hard.

"That was Sunday. And on Monday—" This is the tough one, and you dodge their faces as you speak. "Monday night Christian Padilla and Ceres Kesey saw me at The Flying Saucer. Um, Preston Spinks saw me there too, because apparently we were having coffee together." You can't help reddening.

They stare at you a little longer, then exchange sidelong glances. Are they worried about you specifically? Or has it just occurred to them to be worried about each other?

At last, Will mutters, "We're gonna have to get tattoos. To tell the real us from the—" He grimaces instead of finishing the sentence.

"Passwords, at least," Steve agrees. "At least we all know we're us. Here."

"We do?" Will's stare turns truculent as he looks between you and Steve.

"Sure. We're here because Will DMed us, and he'd need the password to get into—"

"Yeah, alright. But fuck! It means this ... Clover person ... could pop up anywhere, be anyone—"

"Probably not at school," Steve says. "Too much chance of getting caught. Or at home, either." He casts a shrewd glance at you. "I wonder how they knew you wouldn't be at the river or at the Flying Saucer."

"They must'a heard where I was."

"And where was that?"

"What I wanna know," Will busts in, "is why they wanted to talk to Rebecca and to Spinks. And how come they wanted to be you when they did it."

Next: "Views Askew and Interviews" 

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