The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

What Laura Had to Say

Previously: "Enter Acting" 

Oh, it's nothing.

That's probably what you should say. Instead, you pull out your phone.

"I got these DMs yesterday," you tell Laura, and feel a momentary touch of vertigo as you call the guy who got them "I". "And I went out to the storeroom." You bring up the message from "LauraMacG" and show it to her. "I got another one from Elle."

She frowns at it, and with her fingertip she scrolls up and down. "I didn't send this," she says.

"Yeah, you told me."

"I didn't send this," she repeats. She touches the screen at a few places, then in a sharp tone exclaims, "This isn't me!"

"Well, if you didn't send it—"

"I mean, this isn't my account! See?" She turns the screen to you. "It came from 'Laura MacG'. I'm 'Laura Lorraine Sheldon' now. And the account name is wrong. Where's the one from Elle?" You find it for her on the phone. "Yeah, that's not Elle, either," she says. "Meryl Elle? Even Elle wouldn't—"

She catches herself, and gasps deeply as her eyes pop. You ask, "What is it?"

"Ohhh!" she cries. "Those shits!"

She wheels for the door and yanks it open so hard she bangs herself in the nose. She clutches her face, and makes little whistling whines and snorts as she nurses it.

You reach out to touch her, but she slaps you off.

"Oh, go away!" she shrieks. "Go to class! I—! No, hang on!" Tears are dribbling from the corners of her eyes, but you can't tell if it is pain, anger, or some other emotion causing them. She sniffs a couple of times and touches her nose.

"After rehearsal," she says, "let's go out to Terry's."

"Terry Colson?" you ask, bewildered.

"Ye-es, Terry Colson!" You back off a step, lest she hit you. "I need to talk to—! And I want you there!"

"Okay. But—"

"Oh, go away, go to class!" She tries pushing you toward the door. "Tell Mr. Wilkes I kidnapped you 'cos I was having a crisis over my part! Ohhh!" She puts her back to you, and resumes gingerly touching her nose.

"Laura," you say, and put a gentle hand on her shoulder, but she shrugs it off. "Okay," you say, "I'll see you in English." But she doesn't reply.

You ignore the mirthful expressions of the others as you pass them on the way back to the school. All of them are grinning, save for Roth, who appears to have passed out with a burning cigarette between his fingers.

* * * * *

Mr. Wilkes glowers when you appear in class, and very grumpily dismisses your excuse that Laura wanted to practice a scene, but you don't otherwise suffer. In seventh period you get Elle aside and show her those texts, to see how she will react. She is just as bewildered as Laura but doesn't go to pieces. When you ask if it could have anything to do with Terry Colson, and the people who hang out with him, she gets kind of a guarded look and says, "I don't think so." And in Creative Writing, the last class of the day, Laura just dismisses your tender queries by saying that she'll talk to you all about it later.

Roth, you notice, has deigned to show up for last period, and though he relaxes in a corner with his arms crossed, you can't help suspecting that he is watching you and Laura from under heavy lids.

* * * * *

You don't have much to do at rehearsal: Charles, who is playing the title role of The Man Who Came to Dinner, devotes the day to working with Elle, who is playing the female lead. For once, he keeps his snide, gay sarcasm in check, so that they get a lot done, and you actually see Elle's delivery improving. You do get the distracted Charles aside at one moment to ask if he is going to need anything fetched from the storeroom at Eastman after class. He only returns you a disdainful look, and loftily replies that if you'd rather work for a moving company than a theatrical troupe, he won't try talking you out of a career change.

That gives you plenty of time to conference backstage with Laura. You are both watching the action on stage, and the bitchy Kaufman-and-Hart dialogue comes drifting through as you talk in low voices.

"It was those guys at the portables," she says. She doesn't look at you, but concentrates on the action on stage. "Spencer and them. I bet they're the ones that sent those DMs."

"What makes you say that?"

She doesn't answer right away, not even when you repeat the question.

"Okay," she says, "do you remember a week or two back, a school time capsule got dug up?"

That was when all this crazy stuff started, so you nod.

"Well, the day after it happened, a whole bunch of us happened to bump into each other. We were all out at the old quarry—"

"Who's 'we'?"

"Me and Adam and Catherine— And Ell—"

"Adam Dortch?" you ask. She nods, so "Catherine" would be Catherine Greathouse, his girlfriend. "Where was I?"

"I dunno," she snaps. "Prob'ly off with some other girl. But we were all hanging out and Adam wanted to go out to the quarry 'cos he hadn't been in forever. And we ran into those guys out there."

"What guys?"

"Spencer and Jamie ... I don't remember who else. But they—Spencer and Jamie—had this video they'd shot, and they were all giggling over it. They'd been hanging out near the school the night before, and they saw these guys digging up the capsule, and they filmed it."

"Why?"

"I dunno. But they were all talking about how they could get those guys in trouble. Which wasn't cool, but they were talking about it."

Knowing Spencer and Jamie, you can imagine.

"Anyway," she continues, "they were talking about going back out to dig up whatever those other guys had dug up—it was the school time capsule, but I think they didn't know it—and how they could post that video online so people would think it was those guys in the video who did it. Oh, and—" She snaps her fingers. "Justin was there too, 'cos he told them he'd kick their asses if they did, said he'd even go to the administration and tell them it was them, if they did. But Adam told me later—"

"Are those rats in the walls?" a cruelly snide voice exclaims from the stage, and you glance up to see Charles glaring at you. "Or is it possible that another, even more scintillating conversation is being conducted elsewhere in this dismal abode?"

Laura flushes and makes a face at him, but tugs you father back offstage, where you are less likely to be overheard.



"Adam said," she says in a near whisper, "that Jamie and Spencer were talking about making some fake identities online to get Justin in trouble, if he tried to get them in trouble. 'Cos you can do that on x2z."

"What's this got to do with those DMs I got?"

"Well ... I dunno, maybe nothing. But they're fakes, and Jamie and Spencer were talking about making some fake online IDs."

"But why make up fake x2z accounts for you and Elle?"

"Well, we were also telling them that they shouldn't get those guys in trouble. And that they shouldn't dig up anything up and get those other guys in trouble."

"Who were those guys? Who were doing the digging?" You're not sure why you ask, unless it's to see what Laura has to say about you.

She looks uncomfortable.

"Caleb Johansson and Will Prescott," she says. "You know them?"

"I know who they are."

"Well, whatever. Anyway, I bet it's Jamie and Spencer. Making up fake IDs and going online to screw with people."

"Why would they want to get me to go to the storeroom?"

"I don't know. Did they show up there?"

"No. Leah did." Then, with a beating heart, you ask, "Do you know anyone who posts under the name 'Clover Mystery'?"

Laura stares, puzzled. "No. I don't think so. Did you get a DM from them?"

"Well, it's something else. Maybe connected, but I dunno."

"Well, I don't try to get mixed up in all the shit that goes on on x2z." She turns back toward the stage. "Except I wanna talk to Spencer and Jamie, find out if they—"

"No, you don't wanna wind them up," you tell her. "Those are the kind of guys, if you tell them not to do something, they'll do it just for shits and giggles."

Laura makes a face.

Then she snaps her fingers.

"Oh, I know where I know that name from!" she says. "Clover Mystery! Yeah, it's—"

"You two just can't keep your hands off each other," a lazy, insolent voice interrupts. From behind the bundled curtain steps Christian Padilla. "You know, 'Bert'," he says, "it's Maggie out there who's supposed to be your true love." He turns to smirk at the brightly lit stage, where Charles and Elle are arguing. (Whether in character or as themselves, you can't tell.)

"But don't let me interrupt," he continues. "I just came to tell you, Chris, that your groupie is back."

Your heart skips. He must be talking about Maria Vasquez, who has been haunting the theater since rehearsals began. Unconsciously, you take a step toward the curtain.

Laura whirls and stalks off. You freeze. Christian laughs, nastily. Fucking homo, you can't help seething silently at him.

Did he read your mind? For he asks, "Oh, hey, you ever hear from Mike Henderson any more? Or, did you finally drop him after he posted about his new girlfriend on Insta—?"

You shove him away and charge toward the doorway that leads into the auditorium. Only after you are through do you realize that Laura went in quite a different direction.

I should find her, you think, hear what she has to say about 'Clover Mystery', maybe go out with her to Terry Colson's. But you also promised Chris that you'd meet him after rehearsal.

And part of you yearns to talk to Maria, to find out what her interest is in Will Prescott.

That's all for now.

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