Chapter #19Journey Into Gloria by: rugal b.   "Yeah, yeah," you nod in agreement. "Yeah, call him up."
It's not long before Justin's able to make it out and you're soon holding a blank mask in your hand. A mask that will, hopefully, contain the image of Gloria Rea in it by this time tomorrow. There's a bit of hanging around and you eat the food you weren't able to at lunch. Afterwards, Caleb reaches in and digs the book back out once more so he can go over the pages and see if there's something that was missed about a timeframe for the spell. Justin gives him a line about insanity and repeating the same actions and expecting different results but Caleb ignores him.
"So, this girl you're trying to get... she hot," Justin asks.
"Yeah, definitely," you state. You pull out your phone and do a bit of digging around Facebook and from there Instagram until you find some selfies at a recent pool party of a girl with lightly dusky skin, long, dark red hair, strong arms and legs and a stomach with visible abs, all of it topped by two large, perfect breasts.
You show Justin and he lets out a whistle. "Yeah, I can see why you'd want her. So how'd you get her in the band anyway," he asks.
"I wasn't paying attention to where I was going," you begin relaying the story. "My hand must've accidentally pushed the band into her as we were coming down."
"So your klutziness saved the day," he replies jokingly.
You just shake your head, "I was supposed to get Mansfield so I fucked up there."
"One door closes," he shrugs. "Anyway, it's not like you can't go after him again later if you want to get with your girlfriend."
"So what about you," you ask. "Why haven't you gotten anyone in that mask? You waiting for someone special?"
Justin just gives another small shrug. "I was wanting to use it on a barista that works at the coffee shop near campus," he replies. "Nice-looking girl. Cool as fuck."
You feel it's your turn to needle him. "You got a thing for her," you tease.
"Maybe, maybe not. What's it matter," he replies, "we're not ten anymore."
Still, you decide to press on a little bit. "Well, I showed you mine so maybe show me yours," you say with an immature snicker, "Do you even have any pictures?"
"Yeah, sure, hold up," he states and rummages through his phone. He hands it to you. You see him in a selfie with a girl with a short bleached faux hawk, gauges in her ears, lots of eye shadow and other makeup surround piercing blue eyes and you think you can see tattoos peeking out on whatever you can see of her arms. You can see that she's a nice-looking girl but she's not your type at all. "Yeah, not bad," you reply diplomatically while handing the phone back to him.
You chit-chat for a little while longer and then you notice the fire on the pile go out. The three of you get excited until Caleb attempts to be re-light and, to your disappointment, it does. So that really is how it's going to be you sigh. You wish the book would give you a more specific timeframe. Still, with business concluded for the day, you figure now's as good a time as any time to say your goodbyes and head home so you can get acquainted with the mind of Gloria Rea. Before you go, Justin hands you a mask that he informs you is Connor's who wants you to hang onto it if you change your mind about switching.
* * * * *
At home you go through the usual late afternoon/early evening routine. A couple of chores around the house at your mother's insistence, having to deal with your brother trying to make your chores that much tougher by bothering you, dinner and then homework. Unluckily as well, you don't get the benefit of skipping a lecture by your father about responsibility, maturity and how you're no longer a kid anymore. All of it yet another thinly disguised attempt to persuade you into taking a job that you don't want where he works.
Once you're finished with your homework you make sure to lock the door to your room, sit down on your bed and fish the band out of your pocket. You stare once more at it to make sure you haven't been imagining things.
GLORIA EMILY RAE
The name floats on the band much as it had been when you checked a few hours earlier. Taking a deep breath, you put the band to your head and can feel yourself falling backwards as you black out.
You wake up an indeterminate amount of time later with a shock. You take a look at your room and immediately your brain is buzzing. Where are you? This bed, the sheets, the walls, everything. Nothing in it belongs to you. This isn't your room. You notice an odd sensation as well as you look down at yourself and gasp. Breasts! Where are they?! And down at your crotch is that... you place a hand down and immediately pull back. It is!
"Oh god," you main and do another double take. That's not your voice. You're Gloria Rea and it's not your voice. It's the voice of a boy.
Well of course it is, you smack your cheeks with both hands to jostle yourself back into reality. You're Will Prescott, not Gloria Rea. No, you merely have a copy of her mind resting alongside your own. You have it so you can get a sense of her schedule, where she goes and what would be the most opportune time to slip a mask onto her face. So what is her schedule? You think, concentrate on it. "Gloria Rea's schedule," you think to yourself and within a second or two it's there. You make sure to grab a notepad and pen and begin writing things down.
Cheerleading first, no surprise there. A lot of the athletic teams practice first thing in the morning. Gladstone's reading class is next followed by Ms. Brice's parenting class and lunch. After that it's psychology with Hartford and Martinez for Spanish. After that it's dance and study hall and while most students' days would end there, Gloria stays an additional hour after school for gymnastics. You pick up some stray thoughts about how she'd enjoy the dance class more if it wasn't for certain elements.
You feel at a bit of a loss over all of that as it doesn't seem like there's a chance to get her. You decide to see what she does after school. It's not much, you come to realize. She works part time at Moda Boutique, a higher-end clothing and makeup store in the mall. Oh sure, some times she will go to parties with Kendra and Chelsea and the other cheerleaders but... well, you're kind of surprised really.
You're especially surprised that it triggers vague feelings in you. Feelings of resentment, anger, despair, hatred, loneliness. All negative thoughts. You don't want to be overwhelmed so you quickly take the band off and after coming to you stare at it for a good long while. You're hesitant to immediately put it on but you'll likely have to at some point. And while Caleb drools over her body you can't help but wonder when you'll get the nerve to put the band back on and find out just what's going on in her head.
* * * * *
You go through the next day checking schedule you made and keeping your eyes peeled for Gloria off on her own but to your dismay, much like with Mansfield yesterday, you have zero luck. So it's a definite shock to you when you're cornered off into a private area inbetween fifth and sixth periods by none other than Gloria herself. In a reverse of the previous day, it's now you inbetween Gloria and a wall. You can't help but feel exceedingly nervous.
"Do you have a study hall or anything for eighth," she asks in a rather hard, icy tone. It doesn't sound like much of a question.
"A--Astronomy," you stutter, "I, uh, I don't."
"Well you do no," she replies, her tone of voice unchanging. You're going to say something but your mouth won't move. "The weight room. Eighth period. Otherwise I will make sure you get a visit from Gordon."
She leaves and you nearly piss yourself. It's not just because Gloria is one of the most beautiful girls in school either. She's smaller than you height-wise but the way she carries herself causes you to feel intimidated all the same. So you nervously go through the rest of the day and though it takes you a minute or two, once eighth period comes you're able to remember where the weight room is. You're paranoid that when you get in there Gordon, Patterson and all of their buddies will be there to make sure you're eating through a straw and once more that feeling of wanting to piss yourself comes back.
You take care of that and then head over to the weight room and are mostly relieved to find only Gloria in the room. She's got a barbell across her shoulders as she squats and once she finishes a rep, it crashes to the ground as she wipes herself off with a towel.
"You're late, Asshole," she states in annoyance.
"I'm sorry," you mutter nervously, "I forgot where this place was. I don't really get much use out of it, you know." You laugh nervously but Gloria's hard gaze remains unchanging. "So, uh, what did you want," you ask.
"I want to know what's going on," she answers.
You're taken aback. "E-Excuse me," you stutter.
"I went to the nurse after our little accident and the weirdest thing happened," she states. Again, unchanging and cold. That feeling of intimidation comes back. "There was nothing wrong with me."
"There was nothing," you start. "Well, hey! That's great right? That you're not hurt?"
"I'm not an idiot so don't treat me like one," she shoots back. "I crashed hard into you. I was out for I don't even know how long but I was knocked out. But there was nothing the nurse could find. I don't have a knot, no concussion, no sign of trauma, nothing. Schaffer may be a useless drunk cunt but even she would know if my head was messed up."
She walks towards you. She gets close enough for you to back up but not too close for her comfort. All the time, her eyes don't come off of you.
"I got knocked out but there's nothing physical. So what I want from you, Asshole, is to tell me what the fuck is going on."  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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