The Book of Masks (Vol. 4)

Other Kinds of Replacement

Previously: "Michael Duncan's Day" 

You parry Hannah's question with one of your own. "Have you been thinking about where to put the other guys? I mean, I figure I can kind of fit in wherever the rest of them are going to end up."

"Yeah, we been thinking about it." Marc's hands disappear under the table as he slides down in his seat. His expression tightens as he struggles down there with Hannah. "Got ... ideas," he gasps, and wrenches her hands up onto the table, where he pins them down. She snickers.

"Yeah?"

"Uh huh. Andy ... I think Austin would be a good place for him. Austin Dougherty, you know?" Not really, you don't, so you shrug. "He's on the soccer team, one of Marc's friends."

Hannah says, "I still say we give him Marcos."

"Oh God. Like he could handle Marcos."

"Like you handle Marc," she retorts with a giggle.

"'S'what I mean. I can barely fucking handle you, wench, how ya think Andy could handle Marcos an' his—"

You start to tune out. As embarrassed (and disgusted) as you are by the extreme PDA in the booth across from you, you are getting a sympathetic arousal, like one tuning fork picking up the vibrations from another. So the rest of what they have to say about guys with names like Austin and Marcos and Chris, and Jeremy and Nathan and Cole; Laurent and Brownie and Ethan and Devin; and others— It all just sort of washes past as your concentration starts to go. Not until Evie's name pops up again do you pull yourself from a distracted reverie.

But they have hardly anything to say about her, except that it's going to hard figuring out an identity for her. But neither has much to say when you ask why that is.

* * * * *

There were two names they mentioned in passing, though, that also briefly caught your ear. Joe and Frank Durras.

In one way, it's very lucky that you switched over into Michael's mask. He's a geek and an AP nerd, but he also pays attention to the Westside sports scene, so you're now in a much better spot to understand who they are and where they came from, and why it's so weird that they are now at Westside.

They were students at Eastman, members of your crosstown rival's basketball squad, who last week transferred over to Westside. It's a big story, if you're into high school sports, for both brothers had been bright spots on the Eastman roster—Joe showing an almost uncanny speed and dexterity, and Frank a brutal power and ability to nail baskets from far down court. They were two of the most potent threats on the Eastman team, so it is a real coup to have them switch schools.

Of more interest to you than to Michael, though, is the story behind them. There weren't just new to Westside, they were also new to Eastman, having entered that school just this year and having entered it late—at the start of September, as a matter of fact.

In other words: Not long before you found that grimoire at Arnholm's.

What that means, exactly, of course you can't say. Yet it's hard to shake the suspicion that they're interested in more than just "Gordon's" wacky stories about being body-swapped. Would they have gone out to Dane's, to ask if he was really Gordon, if they didn't take stories about body-swapping seriously? And if they showed up in town around about the same time that you found that grimoire, might they know a lot more about the kind of thing that's going on? Maybe they have some connection to it?

Maybe it was theirs, and they lost it somehow, and they want it back?

You watched all day for a text from Dane, to hear if the Durrases had gone back out to see him, but you never got one. And you're reluctant to send him one yourself, for fear that they might see it and trace things back to you. (Maybe the golem had the same idea too, which is why it didn't contact you.) For the same reason you're reluctant to drive out to Dane's trailer, in case they are there or are watching it.

So when you happen to get a text from Luke Bryant, you shoot back a quick reply: Hear anything about where new basketball players might be today? Like parties n stuff? Luke—who tried out for but failed to make the JV basketball squad this year—is even more into the WHS sports scene than Michael.

He doesn't know anything, but with his help you cobble together a group of kids who will know more about what's going on with the new guys than you will be able to find out on your own.

* * * * *

"I just don't get it," Bridget Atwater snorts. She plays with the straw of her soda. "Just because they had to replace Gordon, doesn't mean they had to have tryouts all over again!"

"But they had two new guys joining the team," Jared Cochrane retorts. "So they had to get rid of somebody else in order to— I mean, unless you just wanted to—"

"So just add both of them! Seriously, I don't get how come there can only be, what is it—?" She turns to the rest of the table. "Thirteen guys on the team? It's bad luck anyway!" She shoves the straw in her mouth and sucks long and hard at her shake.

It's six of you at the McDonalds, supposedly getting together to do homework, but the topic is the basketball squad. You and Luke and Jared are just fans, as is the tomboyish Bridget. James Randolph and Darrell Jackson, though, are on the JV squad.

So it's James who shrugs and replies, "There's thirteen guys and there's always just thirteen guys."

"There's sixteen on the JV squad!"

"It's supposed to make you hungry," Darrell says. He leans back and pulls his hood up farther up over his shaggy brown hair. "More players than places."

"Bridget's just ticked," Jared says with a grin, "'cos they got rid of Jeremy Richards. She had a crush on him. Ow!" He springs back in his seat from the scowling Bridget with a laugh.

Yes, you haven't learned much about Joe and Frank Durras, but there's been some informative and surprising news anyway. In addition to replacing Gordon with one of the transfer students, the squad used the opportunity to hold tryouts all over again, with the result that three other players got cut and replaced.

No one at the table is much shocked that Jeremy Richards got bounced, for all of them, including Michael Duncan, had grumbled that Richards was one of the weakest of the players at the practices they'd watched, and it made sense that the coach would want to replace him with one of the Eastman transfers.

There's a little more surprise at Darren Green and Dylan Lloyd being cut, for they were solid if not spectacular players. The real shock is who they were replaced by.

"Roman and Scott say Dortch was really good when he was in JV a few years ago," James assures you all. That would be Adam Dortch, a guy neither you nor Michael ever heard of.

"So why'd he quit?" Luke asks.

"Go ask him. But it'll be okay. I mean, Roman says that Steve Patterson is the world's biggest asshole, but he wouldn't cut, uh—" He gives Bridget the quickest glance. "Uh, Dylan Lloyd for Dortch if he didn't think Dortch was better."

"And this Prescott doof?" Bridget says. "I mean, come on!"

"That's the one I don't get," James admits. "No one I talked to's even heard of him."

"Yeah, sounds pretty random," you reply with a forced laugh. When what you want to say is, Fuck you, Randolph, I never heard you either until I turned myself into this nobody.

* * * * *

No word comes from Dane all evening, or from anyone else for that matter. The next day is, for Michael Duncan, a regular school day, though you pass most of it in the jumpy expectation that at any moment a hand will be laid on your shoulder and you will be wheeled around to confront ... Somebody. (It could be anyone, there are so many possibilities.) But the "hand" doesn't clutch you until you're home from school, and even then it comes in the form of a text from Marc.

"Sorry to get you involved like this," he apologizes again after picking you up in a minivan. "We told Evie we could take care of it with just us, but she said she wanted an expert along." He checks his mirror and blind side, then smoothly changes lanes. "I mean," he snorts, "it's not like we didn't take care of Chelsea last night."

"Wait, you what?" This is the first you've heard of this.

"Chelsea," he repeats. "And Grant. Didn't Paulina tell you, text you?" You shake your head. "Frick. Well, we got her out to, uh, Hannah's place and got her and Grant switched." He shifts in his seat. "Grant says she thought she was gonna be hooking up with me, but I think he was just fucking with me. I mean, we were over at Hannah's, right?"

It sounds to you like Bhodi was more than half-hoping that Grant was telling the truth, but you only nod. "But what about Evie?" You're trying to play it cool, but you're dying of curiosity to know who she's chosen for her alias.

"Oh, yeah, we're doing that out at Hannah's, too. On account of—pff!—I got sisters now, all of a sudden."

"Makes sense."

But Marc doesn't reply. At last, you can't stand it anymore. Your own decision is in suspense until you know where Evie is going to wind up. "So who, uh, is Evie going to be?" Your heart is hammering as you ask it.

"Huh? Oh, we picked out Jack Li for her."

It's like a punch to the side of the head. Evie is going to be a guy?

That doesn't at all fit in with the plans you had for you and her.

Plans that, only now in this moment of shock, you suddenly realize had been swirling around in your head.

Next: "The Old Special Friend Ploy" 

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