This choice: You'll stick to being Yumi Saito for now • Go Back...Chapter #32Bad Influences on Good People by: rugal b.   You're finishing up breakfast the next morning when your phone dings. You wonder who it could be this early and thrill a little when you see the name and the message: i'm here, is all that it says. However it's from Chen so you text him back that you'll be out in a minute. You finish up what little food remains and after cleaning your plate practically fly out the door and into the passenger seat of Chen's waiting Jeep. For once he doesn't need to be the one to initiate anything as you lean over the center and plant a quick smooch on him.
"The fuck was that for?" he asks as he pulls out, though his tone and look don't show any sort of annoyance.
"Can't I be happy to see my boyfriend?" you ask in return. Your tone though does convey some annoyance albeit a playful annoyance but nothing is said after that as both of you go silent.
In actuality it's not like you're happy to see Chen specifically; Chelsea could show up in any number of guises and you suspect you'd feel the same. She could show up as herself and you'd want to plant a kiss on her despite Yumi's own loathing of Chelsea and leaning far away from anything sapphic. Because it's not Gary Chen that's getting your heart to flutter but the person wearing his face.
In a way it's frustrating. All the stories about Chelsea Cooper being manipulative, vindictive and self-interested? Those are certainly true. After all she's gotten you to go along in a scheme that's resulted in her gaining virtually incontestable control of the cheerleading squad. She's certainly helped herself but she's also helped you as well. Even if you wound up here because it would benefit her you like being Yumi. You like being attractive and popular, smart and talented.
You like being in on a secret that only you and Chelsea share.
You like Chelsea.
Through all of this, Chelsea has been very gracious towards you, far more than she would've needed to be. She could've browbeat you into going along with her, threatened and blackmailed you; but she never did. Sure you were going along with her whims but you were doing it of your own volition because deep down, you realize, it was fun. Deceiving Yumi's friends, being the manipulative schemer, playing a part in Kelsey's downfall and seeing her dreams crushed... it's fun and it's thrilling. That you could be on the same wavelength as Chelsea, that you could form this kind of bond with her, is something you never thought would've been a possibility before.
"You good over there?"
Chen's voice brings you back to reality. "Huh?" you ask as you look over at him. "Sorry I was just thinking," you tell him.
"About what?"
"How nuts this is," you state. "Not just the book but I mean that two people as opposite as us would be working so close."
"Us as in me and you? Or Chen and Yumi?" he asks.
That gives you a second of pause. "Both I guess," you answer and that sends something firing in your brain. "It does make me wonder though if we always have to hang out together like this?"
"You mean you want to hang out as Chelsea and Will?"
You shake your head. "Not as Will, no. Not if I can help it anyway."
"You like being Yumi that much?" Chen asks and laughs a little.
"It's better than what I had," you admit. "But no I was thinking about Yumi and Chelsea hanging out together."
That produces only an inquisitive noise from your partner.
"Yumi's the one who helped pin everything on Kelsey and cleared Chelsea of any suspicion. So maybe," you stop to think for a second, "maybe Yumi starts talking to Chelsea, you know to sort of smooth things over right? Because this has been a trying ordeal for the whole squad and she wants to place peacemaker."
"And from there Chelsea and Yumi start being seen in each other's company more; they start becoming friendly," he finishes. Chen's staring at the road but you can still see the smile that's crept onto his face. "Having you, or Yumi I guess, at my side over Kendra... yeah that'd be a lot better. A whole lot better. I'll need to work on something to take her down too though if that's what we want to do."
"Take her down?"
"Sure, because I trust Kendra as far as I can throw her," he replies and you muse that, as Chen, that would be pretty far. "If we got closer then she'd start feeling threatened which means she goes to Lin and Cindy for real. Even if she's head of the JV squad, if we get it of course, then she'll try to work them into her own little club."
"So we set her up like we did Kelsey," you add. "She gets booted, then Yumi gets made head of the JV squad and since she's in good with you..."
Chen lets out a particularly girlish noise, something that is very Chelsea. "I didn't know you had it in you!" he exclaims; the Yumi part of you doesn't want to admit that thought was all her. "But then won't her friends get suspicious? You said they're already talking because of our relationship. Worried that Yumi's taking in the wrong influences no doubt, becoming a bad girl."
"Screw what they think," you say bitterly. "I'm reaching a point where I don't care about that. If they want to think I'm some kind of bad girl then let them think that. The only girl whose opinion Yumi Saito really, truly cares about is Jenny Ashton's."
"Is that who you want as a second then?" asks Chen with amusement. "She tried out for the squad before didn't she? If you can convince her to try out again she'll have a spot lined up for her. Then you won't have to worry about what she thinks."
"Jenny as a second mask?" you ask yourself more than your partner. "That's something I'd definitely have to consider. That might reflect good on you too wouldn't it?"
"How do you figure?"
"It'd make you look magnanimous," you explain. "Jenny's not necessarily top of the ladder socially but she's not someone wholly uncool like Michelle either. It might look good to have someone like her on the squad for that reason."
* * * * *
Nothing is said for a little while once more. Eventually Chen pulls into the parking lot and it's not until he finds a space and kills the engine that he speaks again. "Putting it like you did," he starts, "there's another benefit I can think of to putting Jenny on the squad too; if she's your second of course. It'd probably throw off Cindy and Lin."
"That's true," you say. "Likely they'd think along what I reasoned and likely think it's bullshit. But if Jenny's there then they might also think that's something they can take advantage of to keep me in line by trying to bring her into their orbit, probably thinking I'd go with her."
"But it would all be pointless of course, we'd just be stringing them along," he grins. "I didn't know Yumi had this in her."
You grab his hands but it's he who pulls you in close. You let your head nestle against his chest. "What can I say?" you coo, "You bring out sides of me I didn't even know I had. Yumi never imagined that she'd care so much for protecting Chelsea's position. That does bring someone else to mind too."
"Yeah?"
"Victoria Rodriguez."
"For the squad?" he asks.
You simply shrug. "I mean in general. If you're thinking of that second tier of girls below the cheerleaders she's definitely at the top," you explain. "She's got a lot of friends, a star athlete boyfriend, a lot of guys want her."
"I don't think I've ever seen her do so much as a tumble."
"She doesn't have to be part of the squad," you tell him. "I'm just saying if I was running her then that cuts off another threat to you socially. But saying all that though I don't think I'd be her or Jenny more than when I need to be." You look up at him and give him a contented smile. "I'm fine right where I am."
"You're really not in any hurry to go back to Prescott's life are you?"
You can't say that you are. What does being Will offer you over being Yumi? You didn't have any many friends and if you had Jenny then that fixes that problem because you'd be able to see them again with little issue. There's your family... and that does cause you to pause. Whether as Yumi or Jenny or Victoria you'd really not have a way to see them again, especially not your brother since he attends Schuyler. As soon as you think that a lightbulb goes off in your head.
"Chiho," you say quietly. "Yumi's got a sister, Chiho, who goes to Schuyler. I could use a mask on her."
"I don't see what benefit that provides you or me," he says plainly.
"I don't have any way to see my family," you explain. "I could just be me again but... I don't want to; I want to be Yumi. But I've got a brother who goes to Schuyler too. I want to help you out so I'm fine with Jenny or Victoria but..."
"I get you," Chen says as he leans down to kiss you on the forehead. "I'd prefer it if you used your two masks on Jenny and Victoria but if you want a way to stay in touch with your family without having to go back to being yourself then I guess I don't see the issue."   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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