Chapter #18Set a spy on Lucy. by: Seuzz  
Later that afternoon, at Blackwell's, you decide that there is more to be gained by not switching with Cindy. You are trying to find a way to lift the curse that is destroying Will Prescott's social life, but a serendipitous coincidence involving the lesson of the day shows you that it wouldn't be that hard to put a spy onto Lucy. Doing that would also free you to continue aiming toward switching with an alpha player while also breaking the curse.
"I want to go to school as myself tomorrow," you tell Blackwell that evening.
He looks at you in surprise. "Your girl is very fetching. Don't tell me the excitement has palled."
"No, I'm just missing my old friends and want a day with them. And didn't you say it was a good idea not to get lost inside a mask?"
"Yes, but you're only spending a few hours a day inside the lovely Ms. Saito. Still, you know your business. I suppose that means you'll be wanting to borrow my spare golem, or is Ms. Saito going to skip school?"
You snicker. "It's funny to ask, isn't it? Like asking dad to borrow the car."
* * * * *
And so the next morning Yumi doesn't stop by the house on the way school; Will Prescott does. You remove your twin's mask long enough to absorb many memories from the past few days—it is appalling to see how unpopular you have become; people even hiss at you in the hallways—and then you pop it back onto the sleeping Yumi. At Blackwell's request, you order your restored doppelganger to work on polishing up masks. He groans, but complies.
The day is hard and unpleasant. People glare at you, pull away from you, bark at you when you pass. Not all of them, you are sure, came in contact with the contaminated bills; many are just taking their cues from the vehement ones. And not everyone is mean to you. Kim Walsh is a little pale when you come near, but she is friendly and asks how you are holding up; she commiserates with you and assures you that you'll get through it, whatever it is. Cassie Harper treats you no different than she did before, chattering at you in Mr. Kowalski's math class and insisting on sitting with you at lunch. You'd like to think that her presence is why Caleb and Keith swerve and disappear when they see you seated in the usual spot, but you're sure it's not. You can't let them get away, so you run after them. Luck would seem to be against you when, in reaction to your shouts, they split up and hurry in different directions. But that actually plays to your advantage.
"Yo, Caleb! Wait, dude!" You sprint after and leap onto his back playfully. He quickly tosses you off and looks at you with distaste. You ignore him. "Check out this tattoo!" You roll up the sleeve on your left arm, exposing your skinny bicep and the intricate design on it. It took you almost two hours last night, using special ink and a small mirror, to trace it on.
"Yeah, that's great," Caleb says.
"You're not even looking at it. Okay, it's not really a tattoo. It's a design for one. My brother helped me put it on, 'cos I can't reach all the way. See, it's a friendship ring. You put the names of your friends inside."
"That's clever. Um, you haven't got any friends."
You blink. "Oh, you mean there aren't any names inside it yet! Yeah, because that's for the friends to write in. So it's their handwriting. I'll have the tattoo artist trace over them." You grin. "So, whaddaya say? I want you to be the first."
He looks pained. "Dude, this is kind of—"
"Please!"
"Doesn't this seem kind of, well, gay to you?"
You groan. "We've been friends forever. Come on!"
"It just seems—"
"Caleb. Buddy. It would mean a lot to me." He gives a deep sigh and nods. "Excellent! Here, the tattoo guy said you should use this pen!" You hand him one of Blackwell's specials.
Caleb scrawls his name inside the ring, not being very careful about it. When he finishes he blinks and cocks his head. He shakes himself.
"So, Cassie's waiting for me back there. Finish lunch with us?"
"Yeah, sounds fun," he smiles, and he seems to mean it.
* * * * *
The counterspell isn't hard, it's just tricky to pull off. You have a special kind of guardian floating about you, and its presence disturbs those who have touched Blackwell's poisoned banknotes. The counter-sigil makes it invisible again to those who sign within the circle. But since the sigil has to be upon your body, it's tough to get anyone to get right with you. Luckily, Caleb, all unwittingly, is able to talk Keith and a few more acquaintances (including Lisa) into signing it too. The atmosphere for you lightens appreciably as the day progresses.
Even the Yumi-golem seems to warm to you. In sixth period she finds you at your locker. "Did you break your arm or something? I hear people are signing you."
"I'm a work of art," you grin. You flex the bicep and she studies it carefully as you explain the tattoo idea. She is silent for a moment afterward and asks if she can add her name. You agree but let her provide her own pen; a golem's signature means nothing in a spell. "That's very clever," she says thoughtfully as she signs. "You're very clever, Will."
That completes the curse bit; you can even wash the ink off now if you want. But you concentrate instead on your other plan: putting a guardian on Lucy. Fortunately, you know what you want and need and are able to cheaply score two light, silver bracelets and a small pewter sculpture of a bird. You then stop at a Starbucks to make the guardian you've designed. Carefully you trace the earth-guardian sigil around the base of the statue on a sheet of paper, inscribe it with the wanted conditions, and then arrange one of the bracelets over it. You press another sheet of paper over the bracelet, sketch an "inscribe" sigil, and the trick is done. Both sheets of paper are now blank, and the guardian sigil has been inscribed onto the bracelet. Anyone who wears it will have a harmless invisible bird floating overhead, observing their every move. You test it by slipping it onto your own wrist and grasping the sculpture while closing your eyes. You mutter a few words, and instantly you are watching yourself from a position high in the corner of the room, and are able to dart and wheel around to see yourself from any position. The same will be true of Lucy when she is wearing it.
The next day, at school, you catch Cindy at her locker and hand her two small boxes. "This one is for you," you tell her, "and this one is for Lucy."
She gives a little gasp of delight when she opens her box. "It's lovely, Yumi! What's the occasion?"
"Just a little, I guess, friendship bracelet. Emotions on the squad can get really out of control, you know, and I wanted you to remember that you do have friends and not just teammates."
"Oh, you are so sweet," Cindy says, and gives you a big hug.
"I got the other one for Lucy because she was kind of a big sister to me when she was a senior." You sniffle a little.
Jenny Ashton, who has been watching nearby, rolls her eyes when you're done. "So how come you never give me things like that?"
"Because I know you're not a snake that needs to be fed," you mutter in her ear.
* * * * *
You have the house to yourself that afternoon, evening, night, and afterward. Blackwell told you that morning that he had been called out of town on a sudden appointment and wouldn't be back until Monday. He gave you detailed instructions on the Guardian, with the observation that you should be an expert by now. You assume he's referring to the studies you made over the past few days, but it sounds like it has an ulterior meaning.
At any rate, you're feeling good that night as you chow down on Chinese takeout and decide to do a little spying on Lucy. It's Friday night, and she should be having fun at a club or something. You smile and feel a stirring in your shorts as you grasp the sculpture, close your eyes, and concentrate. You hope she hasn't left the bracelet in the box, though you picked out very nice bracelets so she wouldn't.
The scene unfolds in a diner. You frown. There's Cindy, but where's Lucy? She's sitting with Seth Javits, her boyfriend. This is odd. Did Cindy get the bracelets mixed up? You swoop in for a closer look and—
Seth is wearing the bracelet! His cunt-faced girlfriend took the bracelet for Lucy and repurposed it as a romantic gift for him!
Well, you can fix that, and fix her into the bargain. You'll switch with her at the party tomorrow night, make a horrific scene, break up with Seth, snatch the bracelet from him and give it to Lucy ... lovely revenge.
No, wait. You'll switch with Seth, give the bracelet to Lucy, which will cause a horrific breakup, all while giving you a body that's an easy hop into one of the true alphas. | Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
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