The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)

Show and Tell for Two

Previously: "The Court of the Basketball Kings" 

It's like the gym is undergoing gravitational collapse.

(That's a concept you learned about while working with Scott on that research project for Astronomy: put enough loose matter in one place, and it all falls in on itself and kaboom you've got a star or a planet where once there was only a lot of empty space and floaty stuff.

Yes, weird metaphors come to you when you're feeling stressed.)

So one minute you're crouching on a bleacher with Scott, the next there's half a dozen people crowding around.

"Fuck, man," Ryan Shuler barks as he falls onto the bleachers. "Some'n needs to kill Gordon and Steve b'fore they kill us."

Shawn Sax grabs his package and growls, "Yo, Steve, I got yer fucking hustle right here, asshole" while Brendan mutters, "It's gonna get worse before it gets better."

"Fuck," Ryan groans again. He sprawls back, spreading his arms across the bleachers. "Hey babe," he calls to the golden-haired girl who is approaching. "Come sit on my face, make a shitty day all better for me. Better for you too."

The girl smiles tightly as she squeezes between you and Scott, giving you a faceful of blonde hair as she does so. She says something to Scott about "hanging out," but the rest of her words are lost as Shawn croons, "Jamie, Jamie, Jamie."

Across the court, Gordon Black and Steve Patterson exit the changing rooms and hook a right onto the narrow staircase that will take them up into the loft where the school's top jocks keep a kind of private clubhouse. You look away, before either of them can glance over and see you with their teammates.

Why am I still here? you wonder as Ryan cusses Matt Nichols out, Matt cusses him back, and Shawn knees Brendan Tummler in the hip. They're going to notice you in a moment, the way a pack of wolves will eventually notice the rabbit hunkered down in the grass in the middle of the pack, and then you'll be sorry you ever had the crazy idea of talking to Scott.

But Brendan is studying you, so you don't dare move—it would only call attention to your retreat. And though you're sure they won't follow you or do anything to stop you, you fear that running away will only make them remember you.

So you shrink down, trying to make yourself inconspicuous while staring across the gym at the entrance to the changing rooms. When Jeremy comes back out, you tamp down the urge to run across to talk to him; and it's just as well, for a moment later, while he's still studying his cell phone, Seth comes out, claps him on the shoulder, and the two of them exit together.

* * * * *

The pile of basketball players has stabilized around you: Scott, Ryan, Shawn, Brendan and Matt, plus this girl squeezed between you and Frazier. Talk is fragmented and allusive, with references to Gordon and Steve and the shit that goes down in practice sessions; mutual friends; trash talk about reproductive organs; and other stuff that isn't actually much different from the shit that you and your friends sling around but which is somehow harsher. There's also a lot more physical jostling.

But it's not long before things begin to break up. The girl is the first to leave, and it's only a minute after that Matt drifts off away as well. Brendan and Shawn leave together a few minutes after that, leaving you alone with Scott and Ryan. Shuler has draped himself over the bleachers as though crucified on them, but after Scott growls at him to "get a fucking move on," he lifts himself up with a long groan. "You owe me a beer," he says.

"Fucker, you owe me a case by now," Scott retorts.

"Owe me one and I'll owe you two back," Ryan says. He rubs his face, then stretches and flexes all over; and though he's shorter than you he has the build of a wrestler so that his muscles bunch up in big knots.

Scott gives you a sidelong look from under lowered brows; it takes you a moment to realize that he's checking to see if you're staying, going with him, or going your own way. You run your tongue over your lower lip and murmur, "You still interested in looking at that thing?" He shrugs, then lifts himself to his feet. You scramble up as well, and follow along behind him and Ryan.

"Hold up for me, will ya?" Scott mutters as you near the doors, and he ducks back into the changing room. Ryan lets his eyes slide over you—they are drooping now with exhaustion—then shoves the door open and exits, leaving you alone. When Scott returns, he doesn't ask where Ryan has gone, and doesn't even glance at you as he walks out. You hustle after, almost catching the heavy metal door in the side of your hip as it swings shut.

Scott is talking to Brendan when you emerge into the afternoon light. "Just as fuck go home," he's saying.

"You need to watch your back with Nichols," Brendan says.

"He's not gonna fuck anything up." Scott catches you looking at him, and he jerks his chin at you. "Where's this thing you wanna show me?"

"Uh, back in the library."

Scott grunts. "Catch you later," he tells Brendan, and pokes him in the side.

Finally! you gasp to yourself as you lead Scott back into the school. And just watch, you then ruefully anticipate. He'll look at it and tell me to go fuck myself. Again, you find yourself wondering why you're trying to trouble Scott with this weird book you've found when you're not even friends with him.

But things take an even more complicated turn than you could have possibly guessed.

* * * * *

Scott has his head in his hands and is staring down into that crazy-ass book when the library door bangs open and Brendan—who you thought you'd shaken off ten minutes ago—comes in. He doesn't even look at you before pulling out a chair and dropping down next to his teammate. "Didn't know this place was open this late."

Scott raises his head. "What happened to Kyler?"

"Got caught at work. What's this?"

"Something Will's showing me. Some old arts and crafts book. Lookit this." He slides the book over to Brendan.

It's the faces on the end papers that he points to: the four faces at the bottom of the page that shift and change age, gender and aspect as you stare at them. After telling Scott that you'd found this old book at Arnolm's, you'd shoved it under his face and shown them to him—it seemed like a good introduction to the weirdness. They mesmerized him. Even as he listened to your story about finding the book, he kept glancing back down at them.

"Whoa, that's kind of cool," Brendan mutters.

"You see it?" Scott points. "They way they keep, uh, changing?"

"Yeah. What is this?" Brendan tries flipping to the middle of the book, and grimaces when the pages remain fast shut.

"Will found it. Yeah, it's weird. Lookit this." He thumbs at the book. "You can't turn the pages."

"They glued shut?"

"Dunno. But check this out."

He sets the book on its spine and lets the two covers fall apart. Then he points to the gilded edges of the pages "See how the pages flex?" He shuts the book, runs a finger along the edges, then lets it fall open again. "See? When you close it, all the page edges line up flat, all together. But when you open it, they spread out in a slope."

"So?"

"So they wouldn't do that if they were glued together, or if the book was, like, a solid block." Scott looks at you. "How'd you say you got that one page to turn?"

You flinch a little, partly from the keen glance that Brendan is giving you, and partly from dismay at Scott's observation. You hadn't noticed the thing with the pages—that the book isn't stiff and unyielding, like it should be if it was a fake, but bends and flops about like a real book—and your engineer dad hadn't either. It makes the book look even weirder.

"It was these pages." You lean across the open book. "When I found it, it was stuck shut here. But after I bought it, this page turned loose—" You flip it. "Then after I, uh, did something else, this page here turned loose." You flip the last loose page.

"He fed it some blood, bro," Scott tells Brendan. He flips back to the sigil where you pressed a bloody thumbprint. "It told him it wanted blood, so he gave it some."

"Whoa," Brendan says, but he's still studying the book. "So what is this? Like something out of Harry Potter? What's it say?" He points to a paragraph. "What is this, Latin?"

"It says it'll show you how to make, um, masks and disguises," you reply. Scott as well as Brendan returns you a steady look. "I got no idea what that means, exactly. But this, um, looks like it's the first spell in the book."

"A spell?" Scott echoes.

You shrug. "It seems like something out of Harry Potter, right? Anyway, it lists a bunch of ingredients. Directions. A thing you need to use to actually perform it." You slide your finger down the page. "I haven't tried it out, so I don't know what it actually does, but—"

Brendan interrupts you with a snicker.

"Masks," he mutters at Scott. "We should totally get Kyler in on this."

Next: "Scream for Ice Cream" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 1)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 1)"