"Yeah, I'm here." you mutter in response. You're not sure how to approach the topic so you just decide you'll take the straight approach. "No, I didn't have any luck finding them." you tell him.
Caleb shakes his head, "That sucks man, I'm sorry. They would've been really useful."
"They would've, yeah." you say and then turn to him, "So what about you? You wouldn't happen to know where they are would you?"
Caleb eyes you, "Um, no? Remember?" he answers.
"Yeah but I'm asking you again: you have any idea where they are?"
"What the fuck, I already told you--"
You cutting him off. "Caleb don't bullshit me. I know where they were and my mom said she was never in my room." you state trying to remain calm.
"Well maybe your brother took them." Caleb protests.
Your voice becomes a little more desperate, "Come on, don't take me for an idiot here Caleb."
Caleb shakes his head, "Will, I don't know what the fuck you're getting at but--"
"But what, huh? God stop trying to play dumb, you know exactly what I'm getting at." You glare at him; a rough and accusatory glare, "You took them Caleb. I went to the bathroom and you rummaged through my shit and pocketed them."
Caleb seems taken aback by this. "You think I took them? What the hell man, what reason would I have to take them?"
"You tell me." you challenge him. You know you're letting your emotions get the better of you know but you feel like you're on autopilot right now. You're upset, you can feel your heart beating faster. "I told you all that shit in confidence because you're my best friend and this... this..." your breathing is coming faster now, "How'd they get to you? Did they offer you Laurent or someone like that? Or maybe you've been replaced."
"Jesus Will, do you hear yourself? You sound like a lunatic. Getting involved was a mistake, I'm out of here." Caleb tries to leave but you clasp onto his shoulder.
"Caleb, just tell me..." you say to him.
"I TOLD you..."
"I want the truth." you reply.
"Will..."
"Just tell me the truth."
"Will..."
"That's all I want! Just tell me the truth!" you exclaim in a desperate manner.
"Will, get the fuck off of me!" Caleb exclaims and then shoves you backwards.
You're stunned. Did he just shove you? Did HE just shove YOU? He actually put his hands on you! Well fuck him! Fuck him! And with that you lose control and take a swing catching, more like clipping really, Caleb in the back of the head. He stumbles forward and turns back towards you with a look of disbelief on his face. At this time a crowd's gathered and Caleb too seems to lose control and swings at you in return catching you in the jaw. That does it; you charge at him ready to tackle him.
"Hey, what's going on out here?!" Walberg's voice booms as he steps out of the classroom.
Walberg's appearance distracts you and you wind up clumsily tripping over your own feet and falling. And as you fall your head slams into the end of a row of lockers... hard. You can hear a few gasps, a few worried murmurs, and more than a few laughs. You hear Walberg's voice telling Caleb and another student to help bring you to the nurse's office where he'll talk to Caleb about what happened and then you. And then as the world goes black you hear nothing.
* * * * *
You wake up... well you're not sure how much later it is. It could be five minutes or it could be five hours. "God, what the hell happened?" you ask as you rub your head and that's when you notice there's no pain. And more than that you notice your arm: it's thinner and a little paler. That's also when you notice the wavy, shoulder-length light brown hair hanging in your face. And the... breasts... 32B, god I wish they were bigger you think and you're surprised at that. But not at surprised at the lack of a cock between your legs. Or the fact you're...
"Why am I naked?" you ask groggily taken aback at how girly your voice sounds; and there's something familiar about it too. "And a girl?"
"So sleeping beauty finally awakens, huh?"
You instantly recognize the familiar raspy voice. "Dane?!" you exclaim in surprise and notice another person standing by him. "And Patterson, what the fuck?!" You instinctively cover yourself up, a fact not lost on Dane.
"Your clothes are right there you know." he replies with a smirk, "Unless she's an exhibitionist and I didn't know it."
You look in the direction of the chair he's pointing at and see a pile of clothes. You head over and grab a pair of white and blue striped panties... fuck, what's going on? All you know is you're a girl, you're standing in the nude, and in addition to the two guys leering at you it's also kind of cold in this office. So with no real choice you put on the underwear and a pair of jeans. You fumble when it comes to the bra however.
"You have to open your mind up to the memories in that thing." Dane says, "Just relax and let them come."
"The memories, what the hell are you...?" you start but figure it's worthless. You try to relax like Dane said and you're suddenly assaulted by an onslaught of memories.
This morning sucked. Last night sucked too. Yumi I can't believe she... and because of those cheerleaders being angry at her? I guess I can understand having to lay low for a bit until things blow over but the way she did it so out of the blue like that. God that was so upsetting. It felt like I really was losing my best friend. I can't believe I spent all that time bawling like that, I literally cried myself to sleep! And then I woke up with that headache and just came straight here to the nurse's office when I got to school. A couple of students ran past me, Will Prescott and Caleb Johansson were getting ready to fight they said. I wondered why that'd happen but then... I don't remember. I blacked out.
You finish hooking the bra and then throw on the shirt, socks, and shoes. Then you turn to Dane who's grinning from ear to ear. "You look cute, Jenny!" he exclaims before nudging Patterson, "Doesn't she look cute?"
Patterson looks down a bit but then at you and sighs. "I guess." he says quietly in a decidedly un-Patterson manner.
"So what the fuck is going on?" you ask, a definite edge to your voice.
"Fierce, I like it." Dane says with a smile. You don't return it. "You got injured real bad in that fight with Johansson; cracked your head on a locker real good. You could've died maybe, we had to save you. Throwing you under that mask was the only idea we had. Well when I say 'we' I mean Patterson here." he replies as Patterson shifts a bit uncomfortably.
"Not what I meant but I guess that's a later question out of the way." you grumble, "No I mean what's going on? Who are you and what are you doing?"
"Ah ah, those questions are a little advanced for you I'm afraid." Dane smirks, "Well partly. Who are we? Think of us as... people who want change. People here have kind of shitty lives right? We want to help them. We've got these masks, they copy everything about a person. Throw it on someone and VWOOP! it takes their image; put it on and you become that person. Put a little bit of special sauce in it and whoever you put it on becomes like a perfect copy but under your control."
"Like robots." you say as you sit back down on the table.
"Sort of except less janky and rigid." states Dane. "So yeah we seek people out or suggest them, we approach them and ask them to join. They pick someone, an asshole like Patterson here--not this Patterson mind you--and they step in but only until the end of the school year, then everyone goes back."
"So why Jenny? Why am I Jenny?" you ask.
Dane hops up and walks over to you, "Don't think it's all assholes. We ask who they want to be, they pick, we make it happen. Someone wanted to be Jenny here but, well, you fell into their lap. They're gonna need a Plan B I guess." he shrugs.
You eye him suspiciously, "And what about Caleb?" you ask.
"What about Caleb?" he repeats.
"You saw me at the tennis court on Saturday. Did you think I knew anything? Is Caleb one of you and you set him on me? Did you replace him?"
"Whoa whoa, slow it down a bit." Dane replies motioning to slow down, "Yeah I saw you at the tennis court, so what? I didn't think anything of it. Is Caleb one of us? Nah. Did we replace him? We're not like that; we'd only replace him if someone wanted to be him, not to spy." With that the bell rings, "Shit, third period already? Well I gotta go, it's Old Lady Gibson's class and I've got a prime seat right behind Amanda Ferguson."
With that he dashes off and you're left with Patterson, or the person pretending to be him. You look at him and he looks at you as you catch one another's eye. "How many of you are there?" you ask him as you and him exit the nurse's office.
"As far as you're concerned? It's just me and Dane." he replies very matter-of-factly, "Give it some time and maybe you'll be let in a little more but for now... well, it's better that way. Sorry if we caused you any trouble, the paranoia and suspicion of your friend. We didn't mean for it to happen."
You watch as he turns a corner opposite of where you're going. You remember hitting your head but after that? Well it's a convenient story Dane had cooked up isn't it? It makes it all sound so benevolent and perfect. And sorry for the paranoia? They didn't mean for it? You're not sure if you totally buy it or what they said about Caleb. They were ready to replace Jenny... maybe to keep an eye on Carson? Well if they suspect him then you need to watch out for him yourself and being Jenny Ashton would make that easy. But... something about Patterson seemed sincere. Shit, maybe you are being overly paranoid.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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