Chapter #86More Catches by: Seuzz   The episode with Amanda, though fortuitous, shows how hard it will be to get mind-bands onto people, for you'll have to get them alone. You wrack your brain for possibilities even while dutifully paying attention in Kim's classes and taking notes in her neat handwriting. There aren't that many girls with attractive personalities of the sort you'd like to wrap yourself with. Amanda's personality certainly isn't attractive, and you'd grabbed her only because she has a spiky independence that you think would serve you well.
But it needs leavening, and you see the leaven approaching the cafeteria from a different direction as you're walking there for lunch in the company of Brooke Galloway. "There's Lin," you say. "I'll catch up to you later, I want to talk to her."
Lin Pol is walking along with that serenely confidant gait of hers. She's one of the cheerleaders, so she's very graceful, and she's also very solid. She smiles toothily at you as you call her, and her long, black hair swings behind her shoulders as she turns. "If Chelsea can spare your company, can we eat together," you ask her.
"Sure. Chelsea can sit on a tack if she wants," Lin replies. You dimple, even as a little ire stirs within you.
"What did you do Friday night?" you ask, taking her arm in yours and steering her off toward one of the wings. "I didn't see you at Jamie's party."
"I wound up at a party some Eastman guys were throwing," she says. "I heard it got a little wild at Jamie's."
"Nothing worth talking about," you lie. "Actually, I wanted to ask you about Cindy." You pull her onto the grass, sitting cross-legged, and lean forward with your most sincerely concerned face firmly composed for Lin's benefit. "How is she doing?"
A shadow crosses Lin's face. "Not great," she says. "If you have to ask, I guess you haven't seen or talked to her."
"She doesn't talk to anyone that I can tell. I know she dropped from the squad, Lin, but you guys were kind of close, I thought."
Lin looks over your shoulder for a long time, and looks deeply into your eyes for even longer before replying. She leans in close. "She's seeing a therapist," she says softly.
Chelsea springs up alertly inside you, but you don't twitch a muscle. "That's good," you say. "Counseling is good."
"Don't tell anyone," Lin hisses. You shake your head gently. Of course Kim won't tell anyone. But Chelsea can!
"Does she talk to you at all? Or Yumi or--? She needs friends, not just a counselor."
"Just to tell us she's getting therapy."
"What about Seth? How's he handling it? It's got to be tough for him to--"
Lin sighs weakly and looks away. "He's kind of freaked. I don't know. Yumi would--" She catches herself and looks at you sharply. "I know they've been talking."
"Well, I've been thinking about Cindy lately, of course," you say. "I've wanted to talk to her, but I don't want to just barge in on her."
"You don't barge in on people, Kim," Lin says. "And Cindy's not hard to approach. I think she'd like to know that people are thinking about her."
"Maybe I could go along the next time you're going to see her," you suggest. "Or with Yumi." You decide to dip a toe into the unquiet waters that have Chelsea so excited. "I saw Yumi at Jamie's on Friday, and Seth too. But I didn't see Cindy, so that got me wondering."
"About what?" Lin asks quietly.
That's enough to confirm for you that there's something darker going on, but you affect blank incomprehension. "About Cindy. I guess she doesn't feel like going to parties, but I missed her." You pat Lin's hand. "I missed you there too. It was fun, but it would have been more fun with you." Lin smiles.
You change the subject and take out your lunches and eat. You keep eyeing her, though, and when you're done and she's leaning against the side of the building you slip a mind-band from your bag. "Are you feeling okay, Lin?" you ask. "You look a little--"
"I feel fine."
"You look a little pale." You reach up to feel her forehead, and Lin's eyes close gently as the mind-band goes into her. You huddle up close to her, to shield her as best you can from passing eyes. As with Amanda, you pretend to be finishing a conversation when Lin's eyes flutter open again: "I sometimes wish I could party hardy like other people."
"Hmm?" Lin asks drowsily.
"Oh, nothing. I wish lunchtime lasted longer." You look around. "I've got a feeling the bell--"
And sure enough, it rings just then. You help haul Lin--who complains of suddenly feeling drowsy--to her feet, and help support her back to the main doors.
* * * * *
Lin, like Amanda, has a very independent spirit and doesn't let others dominate her; unlike Amanda, she isn't dramatic or emotional about it. You want a more positive kind of energy to go with them, though, and during fourth period study-hall try to maneuver Anita Nuevo, the captain of the girls' soccer team, into a compromising position so you can get a band on her, but don't succeed. You make a note to try again in the future, perhaps from some other vantage point, for you like her radiant, athletic confidence.
No one else seems likely to come within reach, so during fifth period you scrawl a brief note into your notebook for your current host's benefit: "Find Andrea." You settle back in your chair and release Chelsea.
You materialize after a brief hiatus in an English class you'd had earlier. Your legs are crossed and your arms folded over your bosom as you listen truculently to a very dull lecture on Chaucer. A light groan draws your attention, and you look over to find Luke Bennett, his head on his desk, staring at you with pained, puppy-dog eyes. You turn away and settle back for your first real review of Andrea-Aparijita.
The first thing you note is the haze of dark contempt that hangs about your mind. Pupae, the thought forms in your head. They're unformed pupae, all of them, all around you. Indistinct blobs of instinct and vague, gross ambition. The boys, wrapped up in thoughts of sex and head-butting, diddling away their days in this warehouse that teaches them nothing and prepares them for nothing. The girls, buzzing and climbing over each other for advantage. A hive of mating displays and blind, purposeless activity.
And yet--
Your nostrils flare as scented tendrils curl about you. There is so much laziness, but it's the laziness of undirected energy, a self-canceling chaos. Chelsea, the poor girl, can probably sense it as waves and currents, but can do nothing with it. For you, it's like a jungle--fetid and disgusting but also alive. Take Luke Bennett, for example. He's like a thick cocoon of jelly wrapped around a strongly vibrating erection. It doesn't do him or anyone any good. But thrust into the right, receptive mass--whether the earthy innards of a fertile girl, or an artistic or athletic project of high ambition--and some great or lasting creation might erupt, altering the landscape and numerous lives.
Maybe you should talk to Chelsea about Luke. But there are many you could talk to her about. You doubt she's aware of even a fraction of the places that could be reorganized.
Of course, you need to talk to her anyway. You've got--
Oh, cool, Andrea has been busy! She got her first mind-band onto Jelena Petrovic last night, even before she'd finished the other two, and this morning she got one of Bethany Lewis. And she's already set up a meeting with Gillian after school.
And you can do more than that. You can get Dane for Joe.
* * * * *
Chelsea follows up on your scrawled message to her: Kim Walsh appears at your locker after fifth. "Hey Andrea, have you seen Olivia Byrne around?"
"I think she's got--" You take out your cell phone. "I can message her for you."
"It's not important," she shrugs. But you're tapping furiously. "There's some homework that--" She takes out her own beeping phone as your message lands in her box.
"If it's only homework," you say as she studies and replies to your note. You trail off, to concentrate on your own phone.
In this way, you talk about nothing while exchanging plans through the ether. She departs a few minutes later, to do as you requested: get fake-Chelsea to fetch a blank mask from the loft and drop it off with Hagerman, where you can pick it up for use on Dane. From her replies you learn that she intends to get a mask for herself to use in capturing Kelsey Blankenship after school.
You bump into Kim again after class, when you both meet at Hagerman's; he's alone, as he was before school, and with a smile hands each of you a mask and few other containers. "I did some work of my own at lunch," he says. "That tub has golem goop with my essentia in it, all ready for Dane. You want me out there too?"
"I'll call you when I'm ready," you say. "I'll have Gillian to take care of, too."
"Do you need a mask for her?" Kim asks.
"I was going to wait and see. Give me a couple of your mind bands, though," you add after a moment's thought. "I can invite Anita over afterward."
"Aren't you the social butterfly," Kim says with a little trace of Chelsea's venom in her voice.
"I think she's interested in me. I think I'm interested in her." Eyebrows on the other two go up. "On Frank's behalf," you add after letting the tease string out. "Call Chelsea again for me, Kim," you say after a moment's thought. "I want a few more masks. Tell her to drop them off inside the natatorium, by the pool side, and I'll pick them up."
The afternoon promises to be busy for lots of people, but you can only be in one place at a time.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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