The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

Rain Delay

Previously: "A Hard, Fast Pitch" 

The movie isn't awful, but it isn't very good either, being a cheap, pumped-up spinoff of a TV show about a trio of teenagers who investigate paranormal activity. And the last time you glimpsed an episode of Beyond the Bell was in middle school, back when the main characters looked like they were sixteen and didn't all have scuzzy beards, piercings, and facial tattoos.

"Of course, Will!" Sydney says with a laugh afterward, as you're standing outside the auditorium, waiting for the other two to finish in the restrooms. "Those guys are at least thirty years old now! They were in their mid-twenties back when I was twelve and still watching their show." That's in reply to your observation about how much older Ryker and Roman Samuels (and their friend, Mark Coles) look since "graduating high school."

"They weren't in their twenties!"

"Uh huh. How old do you think Aaron is?"

"Which one was Aaron?"

She gives you a look. "The guy with Autumn. The guy I asked if you wanted to—"

"Oh, him! I dunno," you confess. "Sixteen?"

"He's eighteen."

"No! I'm not even eighteen!"

"But you look it. He's eighteen, but he doesn't. It's natural variation, Will. Those guys in the movie always looked young for their age. Also," she adds, "it's the way they dressed them up, did their hair. Look them up! I did, back when I had a crush on Mark Coles. It helped me get over it when I found out he was twenty-six."

"But Aaron, he's not— Oh hey!" you call as he comes sauntering out of the restroom. "How old are you?"

"Eighteen," he replies without hesitation. "Wanna see my driver's license?" he asks.

"Why does Will want to see your driver's license?" asks Autumn, who has just herself come out of the restroom.

"I dunno. Like he doesn't believe me when I say I'm eighteen."

"No, I believe you. It's just, um—" You can't think of a way to finish that sentence, so you shrug.

"Are we going to go do something together?" Autumn asks a minute later, as you're walking for the exit.

Sydney nudges you, and gives you a sidelong glance. You shake your head.

"I think Will and I are going to go do something," she says. "I'll talk to you later. It was nice meeting you, Aaron."

"Yeah, the same!" he excitedly replies. Again, half-unconsciously, you edge up to Sydney and grasp her hand. It might be your imagination, but you think you see Autumn sneaking you sidelong looks all the way outside.

* * * * *

As you drove to the theater separately, you will have to drive off separately, but Sydney pulls you over to her car before she'll let you go. "And what was wrong with Aaron?" she asks.

"I dunno. He just seemed kind of dorky. But, I mean, if they're going together, you can change my mind."

"They're not going together."

"I thought you said—"

"I said they could be. The way it was explained to me, Aaron and Autumn have been friends since tenth grade, Aaron wants to be going out with her but she's never said 'yes'. That could change, though, if you were him."

You mull this, then dismiss it. "There's a lot of guys she could go out with," you observe.

"Sure, and she's got a crush of her own. A guy on the baseball team, named Luke."

"You sure know a lot about her."

"We got together last night. I told you we were going to."

"You told me you were going to try. Wait." A shiver runs down your back. "Did you get a mask on her?"

"Of course. What else was I getting together with her for?"

You stare at Sydney, then look off in the direction that Aaron and Autumn went. You chew your lip.

"So, um, did you just put a mask on her? Turn her into a pediwhatsits?"

"I put a mask on her." Sydney edges up close enough that her body touches yours.

"You just copied her?"

Sydney sighs. "It would be a lot easier if you asked me a direct question, Will."

That shiver is rippling quietly under your skin now, like a very soft earthquake. Sydney is looking at you with plumped lips, under arched eyebrows.

"What did you do after you copied her into a mask?" you ask.

"Oh, that's easy to answer. I sealed it all up, and I put it on her, and then we had a nice long talk about her life. Her family and where she lives. What time she had to be home and where she was going to go and how long she was going to be out for. What her parents would say when she got home and what kind of thing she'd say back to them. That kind of thing."

"And that's all?"

"While we were talking."

That shiver, which had died back, returns. "And after that?"

"I let her go. She was going dancing with some friends, and I'd kept her too long."

"Okay." You let out a sigh of relief.

"What were you getting yourself so worked up over, Will?" Sydney asks. She puts her arm around your waist and pulls herself close. "I was afraid you weren't going to want to go off and fool around with me a little."

Like you wouldn't want to do that. You ask her where she wants to go.

"How about the basement?"

You swallow. "Okay. You want to do some more work?"

"I want to do something."

* * * * *

You don't do anything, if not doing anything means laying on the old conference table with Sydney, kissing slowly and deeply and wetly while gently squeezing her breasts as she presses her palms up and down your chest and stomach. You really, really want to go further than that, but you are mindful that's she'd made that a line she won't cross, so you don't push it, even though a couple of times she gets a look on her face that you would swear is the look of a girl who wants to go down on a guy. When the pressure gets to be too much, you cut it off, telling her that she's pushing you too far, and that you've got work to do. She tells you that's fair, and says she'll help you make the two more masks you will need if you're going to do your own swap.

She gets a text and has to leave before she has finished polishing the second mask (you are doing the rune work), but in the meantime she has told you a little more about Autumn, including showing you pictures of the girl's crush. There's not much to say about him. He has a tanned face and short dark hair with strong but even features; and his name is Luke Martins.

But, she repeats, she doesn't want to prejudice you.

You're not sure why you're so shy about assuming one of the identities that is being offered to you, and you turn the matter over in your head after you get home and resume work on the runes. Either Aaron or Luke would be a plausible boyfriend for Autumn, which would put you back together with Sydney once she has moved under Autumn's mask. Is it because you don't know either of these guys, and you're wary of taking on an alias with problems you're not prepared to deal with? Probably, although you're not sure how their problems could be worse than yours—and Aaron, for one, doesn't look or act like a kid with a care in the world. And, anyway, it's not like you would be stuck in his life permanently. After you and Sydney have recruited your brotherhood, you would have a choice of five identities, at least, and could even shuttle between them, you suppose.

Still, that doesn't mean that you need to jump into someone's life without looking at it from a distance first. But how would you get that look?

The answer comes to you later that night, when you're in bed. The core of your Brotherhood, you and Sydney decided, is to be the softball team: five girls drawn from it. Some of these girls, presumably, would come with boyfriends already. And even if they don't, the girls you pick would have the best idea of which guys would fit them, and who would fit inside the Brotherhood. At the moment you are relying on Sydney for information, who is relying on Autumn; and anything you learn from her will be second-hand even after she has assumed Autumn's identity. No, the best way to pick some identities for yourself is from inside one of the softball girls. As one of them, you could scope out all the possibilities. Not only could you and Sydney together pick out the girls who will be in your cult, you could together pick out the boys that would go with them.

But are you really prepared to turn yourself into a girl?

If she's hot enough, you decide after you've dug your phone out again and started looking over the choices.

Top of the recruitment list would have to be Maggie Crenshaw, not because she is the prettiest girl on the team (she isn't, at least in your opinion) but because she is the captain of the team, and because you know she's pretty popular at school. But for those reasons, her body should probably go to Sydney. It's close to a three-way tie for second place: a junior girl named Shea Lovett, and two senior girls, Mandy Tiller and Jenna Burr. You are intrigued by the idea of becoming one of the two black girls on the team, but put the idea aside.

In fact, after thinking about it, you put aside the idea of requesting particular identities from Sydney until after she has become Autumn. And maybe you should make the leap to a guy anyway—one whom you know and who could be put with one of the softball girls. (Maybe Sydney would have some ideas.) Or you could just bite the bullet and become this guy that Autumn already has a crush on.

Next: "Substitute Hitter" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"