Chapter #18The Not So Great Brain Robbery by: rugal b.   It's a tempting offer, a very tempting one. Seeing how college works from the perspective of a guy who, you have to almost begrudgingly admit, you think of as kind of cool in a way would definitely be neat. It was nice having his mind to guide you through everything yesterday and it'd be a great way to make sure the masks and bands work in concert as advertised. But then you realize that Connor might just be using it as a way to get out of work for the day and you're not sure you want to be stuck slinging coffee around all day. Besides, you've got that mind band on your desk.
Oh sure, Connor can slap it on Mansfield if he's you but there's a large part of you that wants to do it both to personally fuck with Mansfield and to show to the others that you can do things like this yourself.
Still, the temptation is there so tell Connor that you'll try getting back to him in the next
Once the call has ended, you finish getting ready for school. You have to rush through it the entire process, getting dressed and your breakfast--much to your mother's consternation--and the like as Connor's phone call has put you behind schedule... at least the schedule you're keeping for the next little while. You thankfully miss one of your dad's lectures about taking a job at Salopek and you're in your truck and out the door.
You're up and leaving earlier than normal due to wanting to first stop by the school to check on the pile of dirt. You were wary about leaving it overnight but as Caleb, Justin and yourself had found surprisingly found out the purple flames that dance on top of the dirt don't emit any heat. In fact you had been able to pass your hand directly through it to no effect, almost as if they were ghost flames. You'd been able to dig the book out from under the pile to see how long you would need it to burn and sadly didn't get much of a time table, merely to re-light it until it no longer re-lights. You head in and after verifying that it's still burning you decide to check back later.
You arrive at school early so are there before most of the crowd and you can feel the anxiousness to use the band on Mansfield come back up as you wait around for a bit and scope out the parking lot. You decide to call up Connor while you wait and tell him that you're going to decline his offer. The call ends and you go back to looking for Mansfield in the parking lot. However you don't see anything as it fills and eventually you resign yourself to having missed him as you gather your things and head into school.
* * * * *
As you had gone into the school the thought had crossed your mind that maybe Mansfield was absent today but those are quickly put to rest when you trudge into Walberg's class and see Mansfield there with Brooke Galloway, Kelsey Blankenship and the rest of the snooty AP crew. Lisa is there too, naturally, and like usual that puts you in a funk for the rest of the period. You obviously don't have a chance to get him here and really you're worried about how earlier might have been your only chance to do it. Caleb shares a few classes with him but obviously since you have the last free band for the moment he'd have no way of getting him.
The bell rings so you go through the rest of the morning in a rather despondent mood due to feeling like you've blown your chance. However by the time lunch rolls around your spirits pick up a little bit as you see Lisa but her boyfriend is nowhere in sight. You ask her what's up and she says that there's some stuff he needed to take care of so he'd be running late to lunch. Thinking you might have a chance if you can find him before he gets back to lunch. You say your goodbyes and head out to find him. You make a beeline for Mrs. Kohl's room as you know from Lisa that's who he has right before lunch. However peeking through the window on the door you see nothing but an empty classroom.
You then begin a search around the rest of E-wing to no results. You're not sure where Mansfield's locker is so you try to check the various wings of the school to no effect. By the time you reach B-wing you realize you haven't gone to the bathroom at all today and your bladder's starting to kill you so head into the rest rooms between B and D-wings and make sure to take care of that. After washing your hands you remove the metal band from your pocket and stare at it with a bit of disappointment. Your quest to get it on Mansfield has so far been a bust. Maybe you should just switch off with Connor tomorrow and let him handle it, he'd probably be a lot better at making sure he got it.
Still looking at it, you begin absentmindedly walking out of the bathroom and you take approximately two steps out when you feel something crash into you and you go tumbling to the ground. As you pull yourself up you realize that it's not something that crashed into you but someone and your heart begins beating through your chest when you realize who it is: Gloria Rea, one of Chelsea Cooper's chief minions.
"Oh shit, I-I'm sorry! I..." you stop yourself however when it looks like she's not moving. Your eyes go wide with fear as you timidly reach down and roll her over. She's still breathing, thank god, but she's completely out. She gives no response as you roll her over and try to call out to her. You shake her a bit but still, no luck and it's then that something else hits you: the band. It's not in your hand.
Desperately you look around for it in the area where you fell but you can't find it. Gathering up some courage, you decide to gingerly move Gloria and prop her up against the wall both because you don't think it's a good idea for her to lay on the floor and because you want to see if she fell on it but again there's nothing. But you're hit by a thought as you look back at Gloria. When she crashed into you and the two of you went tumbling maybe your hand went against her head. If that's the case then that would mean that the band isn't anywhere you can see, it's in Gloria!
Against your better judgment, you decide to see if that's the case and wait around for a couple minutes. You're thankful that the halls are more or less empty; everyone is either in class, at lunch or hanging around the portables if they're cutting class. So you're able to have relative quiet until, not to your surprise, the band emerges from Gloria's head. You quickly grab it up and shove it into your pocket. You're about to leave but notice Gloria's still out. You can't leave her here so you decide to wake her up again. You call out to her a bit and tell her to wake up and after a moment or two she finally comes too.
"Ugh, what..." she groans before her eyes flutter open and she gets a face full of you. "Oh god, what the fuck?!" she exclaims and tries to back up before realizing she's against the wall. "What the fuck are you doing, you creep?"
You're taken aback and decide to back off a little. "I'm sorry, it's my fault," you apologize... and plead. "I was coming out of the bathroom, I guess we didn't see each other and... you went down pretty hard. You were out for a couple of minutes and I didn't want to leave you just laying here."
She eyes you with suspicion but you think you see her eyes soften a bit as she tries to take stock of the situation.
"Listen, uh, I don't know if you have a concussion or anything. You should probably get to the nurse's. I can... I can take you over there to make sure you get there alright."
She continues to eye you and doesn't say anything. After a moment her eyes narrow again and she just pulls herself up. "I can get there myself, asshole," she finally says.
"Uh, I mean it. I'm sorry," you apologize again, "Please don't have Chelsea send Gordon after me."
She gives a smirk and lets out something of a snort laugh before her expression her harden against. "You're not worth the effort. Just fuck off and don't bother me again," she states as she marches off.
* * * * *
"Gloria Rea," Caleb states out loud as he hands the band back to you. You've met up with him in the elementary school basement after school to check on the still burning dirt pile.
You take another look at it, the name GLORIA EMILY REA floats on it. "Yeah, her. Sorry, it was a mistake," you reply.
"Gloria freakin' Rea," He exclaims.
"I know," you state, "Sorry I missed out on Mansfield."
"Dude, who cares about Mansfield," Caleb asks like it's a stupid thought to have. "You've got Gloria Rea's mind. Think of what you can do with it!"
"Such as?"
"God, you're dense," he shoots back, "You have her mind. That means you put that band on and you've got her schedule available to you. You know where she's going after school. You have all that, you can get to her at a time where she's alone and slap a mask on her."
"So we've got the mask and band of Gloria," you state.
"Right. We wanted some girls, we can get some through her even easier than we could with Mansfield."
"But do we have a mask," you ask.
"I texted Justin about it earlier, he hasn't used that free one they have," he replies. Connor or Justin must have talked to him as well this morning. "I'll tell him to bring the mask. Put on that band later, try and take in as much of Gloria's schedule as possible and get the mask on her tomorrow."
Having a Gloria Rea that you could be close to at any time is definitely tempting as is using her to get other girls, especially the cheerleaders. But you still really want to get Mansfield's brain as well because as fun as Gloria or other girls might be, they won't be Lisa.  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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