The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

The Misplaced Girlfriend

Previously: "Trading Confidences" 

help us w deanna today, reads the text from Jessica. Is that a request or a command?

u rly need me? you text back as you kick the sheets off, letting the morning air drape cool your bare legs. think i shld chek on yumi, you add before hopping out of bed and scrambling into the shower.

Jenny never takes long in the shower, and your instinct this Saturday morning as on school mornings is to be brusque and business-like with the ablutions. But it is a weekend, and now you've got this body, so you slow up to enjoy it some. You drench a washcloth in scented suds and rub it all over your body with special attention to the valley between your legs and the folds beneath your breasts. Jenny hasn't got the biggest bosom in school—you give it a slight grimace when you examine it in the mirror on exiting the shower—with breasts that look more like oddly shaped pectoral muscles than milk-giving mammaries, but they are more than you had as a teenage guy had. After toweling yourself dry all over you bundle your hair up in one towel, wrap yourself in another, and return to your bedroom.

You contemplate the reply from Jessica while pulling some clothes: ok u mk ur plans n we mk ours keep s update

will do, you text back, then finish dressing in track pants, a t-shirt, and ratty sneakers. You rub dry your hair and pull it back into a business-like ponytail before texting Yumi to see what her plans for the day are.

And your own plans are nearly derailed when Mr. and Mrs. Ashton surprise you at the breakfast table with a stack of pancakes with a candle in the middle of them. "Happy birthday!" they exclaim.

Shit.

* * * * *

In all the chaos and excitement of the body swap, you had completely forgotten that today was Jenny's birthday. What a complication! For you've not only got her family to juggle, you've also got that "party" that James wanted to throw for you tonight.

Funny that he didn't mention it yesterday at Panera. In fact, you haven't heard anything about it since he dropped the idea on you in the school library a couple of days ago. Maybe he's forgotten about it?

But you neatly turn it to your advantage. When Mr. Ashton asks where you want to go for dinner, you rush to tell him that your friends have already made plans for the night, and talk him into taking you out for a nice lunch instead. His smile is a little tight, but suggests Ristorante Locarno—the most expensive place in town. "That'll be great," you chirp. "And it being lunch, it'll be cheaper too, won't it?" He tells you that really doesn't matter.

* * * * *

So you're dressed up in nicer clothes—slacks and a blouse—when you finally meet up with Yumi at around two o'clock. You'd texted her to keep her afternoon clear for you because you wanted to see her. just stuff, you replied when she asked what you wanted to see her about. not abt Will, you'd added lest she think you were going to badger her more about that.

Yumi replied that she wanted to meet you up at Westside, which left you wondering.

"So it's my birthday," you announce as you clamber out of your car to join her in the student parking lot. "Have you been waiting long?" you add. She is lounging against her car with folded arms and a slight frown.

"Waiting long for your birthday?" she asks.

"No, for me to show up. What did you want to meet up here for?"

"I don't know, Jenny," she says. "You're the one who wanted to meet."

"I mean, why did you want to meet up here instead of—?"

You break off at her frown. Her eyes are veiled by her sunglasses, but you get the impression she's glaring. "What's wrong?" When she doesn't answer, you look back over your shoulder to see what else she might be staring at. But all you see is the school—the gym—with some cars parked next to it.

"Oh, nothing," she sighs. "I just woke up in a weird mood this morning. I just feel all out of sorts or something."

"Yeah?"

"Uh huh. So what's this about your birthday?" She asks as though it will be a burden to listen to the answer.

"It just surprised me, that's all. Kind of snuck up on me. I'm eighteen today. Kinda scary, right?"

"How could it surprise you?" She sounds disgusted. "Didn't you know it was coming?"

"Well, yeah. I'm just embarrassed, I guess. James wants to do something for me tonight. A party. Did I tell you about that?"

"Maybe."

"Well, that's what's got me embarrassed. You'll come along, right? Like I came along with you and Will yesterday?"

She sighs again, and her expression tightens.

"Look, Jenny," she says, "speaking of Will, can you do me a favor with him? Can you tell him I'm not that interested in him?"

You swallow the tickle of disappointment you feel in your throat. "Are you also telling me you're not interested in him?"

She gives you a look over the top of her sunglasses, then sighs again.

"Look, I told you I'm all out of sorts. I'm sorry. And I think I'm going to skip tonight, whatever is going on."

"Oh, Yumi!" you cry. "You have to come along! It's my birthday!"

"I won't be good company. And if you need someone along to get between you and James, why can't you get—?"

"It'll be a bunch of us there. That's why you have to come, it'll look— You're one of my best friends!" you plead. "It's a party!"

Yumi's expression turns pinched, but she asks what the plan is. "I don't know," you confess. "James hasn't got back to me about it." She sighs at that.

Then she turns at the sound of a loud car motor. An orange VW Bug goes crawling by, sounding like a lawn mower. Through the window you can just make out the hulking silhouette of the driver: Gordon Black, the captain of the basketball team, and Chelsea Cooper's boyfriend. "Oh God," you groan. "What's he coming up here for? Hasn't he got a basketball hoop at home?"

"He's coming up here to meet Chelsea," Yumi says. Her voice coils with anger.

"Yeah? You think?"

"Of course. She's parked up there by the gym. Waiting for him."

A cold wash runs down your back. Chelsea and Yumi will have to meet each other eventually, but you were counting on it being Monday at least, at school, before that happened. It hadn't occurred to you that they might bump into each other before. Or that one might go in search of the other.

"So what are we hanging around here for?" you exclaim. "God, those are the last two people I want to run into."

Yumi grunts, and doesn't immediately detach herself from her car. But when she does, she pauses and turns sharply on you. "Did you say everyone was going to be out at your party tonight? Who's 'everyone'?"

"Oh, James and Carson and Paul. But, um, Lin probably. Jessica and Eva. Cindy, maybe."

Yumi sucks in one of her cheeks. Then her lips twitch into a small smile.

"Okay, in that case," she says, "I definitely will come out. Thanks."

* * * * *

That's the good news. The bad news is that she then takes off on her own, saying that she needs to find you a birthday present. You tell her you don't want one, but she insists.

But that does leave you free to meet up with your conspirators, to help with Josiah and Deanna. Except that when you text them you learn that they have already pulled off the switch.

"Yeah, we got her out here by saying we had some stuff in storage that we were going to put in a garage sale," Eva tells you when you meet her and Jessica up at the complex. She and her sister are both in skin-tight bicycle shorts, sports bras, and gleaming white tennis shoes, and they look impossibly fit and healthy as they stretches out atop the desk where the boys record their videos. "Wham, bam, and the trick, she was done. You should'a come out to help, Josiah let us suck on his new tits for a bit after he got them onto his chest."

"Oh God." You make a face.

"Wha'ssa matter?" Jessica asks, glancing up from her cell phone. "Wouldn't you like that?"

"I'll let you suck on one of my tits if you let me suck on one of yours," Eva offers with a snigger. She fondles one of her puppies.

"Jenny's not into that," you inform her. "Like, really not into that. Which makes it kind of, um—"

"Who's the boss, Will?" Eva snorts. "You or Jenny?"

"Nah, it makes sense," Jessica interrupts before you can muster a reply. "Kind of. Like, I love Hawaiian pizza, but Jessica totally gags on pineapple. So I can't even think of Hawaiian pizza without—"

"That's pineapple, sis," Eva snorts. "I'm talking tits!"

"So what do you hear about Chelsea?" you jump in. "From Philip? The new Chelsea. Everything okay with her?"

"As far as I heard, yes," Jessica says.

"Huh. Because I know for a fact—" You can't help breaking out in a grin. "That she was up at the school this afternoon with Gordon. Up in the gym. Upstairs in the gym, presumably." You give twin girls a knowing glance. "And Yumi, the new one, was down in the parking lot with me when we saw Gordon get there."

They stare, then break out in titters and snorts. "I bet Chelsea, the real one," Eva gasps, "I bet it was all she could do to not barge up there and start clawing the other girl's eyeballs out."

"Lucky you got there, Will," Jessica agrees. "But why aren't you off with her now, keeping an eye on her?"

So you have to explain about the birthday party, which puzzles them. "We haven't heard anything from anyone about that," Jessica tells you. "Are you sure it's still on?"

Next: "Is This a Gag?" 

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