You wince. "Take over the school? Sounds like a great dream. But, uh, it makes me think of the dog that caught the car. What are you going to do with it after you have it?"
"We could clean it up for a start," Caleb-being-Jessica says.
"You mean get a job as the janitor?" you sarcastically press.
"You know exactly what I'm talking about," she retorts.
"And I know exactly who you're talking about, too, dude," you reply. "I'm asking what you mean by 'cleaning up the school.' And will you take that thing off? Jessica looks really scary with that expression on her face."
She ignores you. "I'm talking about making it a better place. Westside sucks if you're not one of the power people." She flashes a sloppy grin. "Or maybe I'm just talking about having fun running the place after becoming one of the power people."
"Taking over the world, one school at a time," you mutter.
"Well," she goes on, ignoring you, "even if 'cleaning up the school' doesn't make sense right now, ideas will come after we get all our chess pieces in place."
"Chess pieces?"
"The key people. Duplicate and replace them with our pawns. Jesus, stop pretending to be so dense."
You give up and lean back with arms folded, to see where this is going.
"Chelsea Cooper is the one who really runs things," Jessica says thoughtfully. "Gordon and his guys are just her enforcers." She starts to pace. "Replace Chelsea for a start. Or maybe her lieutenants. They're the ones who feed her information. We'll need spies of our own. Spread our own espionage net. Kim Walsh should be a priority. Hartlein, too."
"Should we be making up new golems?"
"What for? We don't need to, not with the new spell." She gestures at the masks. "We get copies of, say, Chelsea and Kim, slather that new paint on the inside, and put the Chelsea mask on Kim and the Kim mask on Chelsea. If it works the way you say it works, then we'd have a Chelsea-slave and a Kim-slave."
"And where will we be?"
"I dunno. Maybe it doesn't matter. Maybe we actually stay ourselves. Wouldn't it be a kick if we secretly ran things from down at the bottom?" She snickers. "Or from some other hiding place. After we make some replacements we'll have a better idea of where we should sit and pull the strings."
"Gonna be a hell of a trick getting people to come out here so we can jump them," you observe. Chelsea just grunts and her gaze grows distant. "Think we should bring Keith in on it?"
"Maybe later," Jessica says dismissively. "We can get Javits off his back, though," she adds. "That'll be a good deed."
"If you call what you're suggesting a 'good deed'," you grumble, but she has gone back to ignoring you.
Instead, she grabs up a nearby mask and slaps it on the golem. A second later, Jeremy appears. He blinks, and then leans around Jessica to nod a curt greeting at you. "Hey," he mumbles. "Nice to be back," he growls down at Jessica.
"Have you ever been up in the fuck room?" she asks him.
"The what room?" His brow furrows briefly, then clearly. "Oh, that place. Heh." A lop-sided grin appears on his face. "Nah, that's like VIP only."
"What's the 'fuck room'," you ask.
"It's like a supply loft above the gym," Jessica says. "I've' Jessica's only been up there once, with Patterson." She makes a face. "He and Gordon have a key to it. I think the coach lets them have the run of it. It's their version of our clubhouse here. Except they have girls."
"We got a girl here," Jeremy says lasciviously. He paws at Jessica's arm. She slaps him away.
"It'd be the perfect headquarters for us," she goes on. "Right there on school property. We get control of the guys who have that room, we can just crook our fingers and people will flock up there. Patterson and them use it to hand out favors. Like, if you've been their good little bitch, they'll let you inside for a private session." She mimes a provocative pose. "Welcome to my parlor, said the spider to the fly. Once inside'" She mimes slapping a mask onto your face. "Now go back down and send your friend up so we can add him to the collective too."
You feel a chill. But whether it's more from anticipation or horror you're not sure. "So, who would we need to nab?"
"Patterson or Black," she says. "I'm pretty sure Lynch also has access. Chelsea can get in there, naturally. But it's a boys thing."
"That's striking pretty high," you caution him.
"We're almost there already," she says. "We've already got Eva and Jessica and Jeremy. Well, technically, we still have to do the switch-offs. But that's two cheerleaders and a basketball player we already control."
You swallow and look at Jeremy. Okay, it's a copy of him. But he was once your friend.
"Okay, let's say I'm on board with doing this stuff to Black and them," you say, and your stomach does a little flip-flop. "I guess I can live with that."
"I'm sure you'd be fine with living as them too," she hoots.
"But I dunno about using Jeremy. Sure, he's turned into one of the douchebags, but ..."
"Okay, Jeremy," she says, turning to the golem. "If you weren't our slave, what would you do to us? Right now."
"Ask what you want me to do," he says sullenly.
"If you weren't our slave," she says impatiently. "God, even the copy is as dumb as the original."
He flushes. "I'd haul your asses to the top of a tall building and push you off."
Jessica turns to you with a triumphant look. "That's just the golem talking," you retort. "He's pissed because we've been working him so hard." You lock eyes with him. "How does Jeremy feel about us?"
The golem's eyes fall. He shrugs and rubs his bicep uncertainly. "Not much, I guess. I mean, I'" He makes a face. "I think the original kind of misses hanging out with you guys. But, you know, he has to be part of the group, do what they expect ..." He trails off.
"See, he's not bad," you say to Jessica. "It's those guys who are making him act like an asshole."
"I wonder who makes Chelsea do the awful things she does."
"That's a good point," you say.
But Jessica waves you off. "I knew her in grade school. Or, Jessica did. She was a pushy little bitch even back when she was seven."
"Okay, so Chelsea deserves what's coming to her." I guess that's been decided, you reflect. "But Jeremy? Even Jessica and Eva aren't awful."
"Alright, so we deal with the people who deserve it," Jessica says. "We make their replacements start acting like better people. Let Jeremy hang out with us, or our clones, so he's happy again." She shrugs. "Maybe we can even bring him into our little group, later on, with Tilley."
"So how do we get ahold of Chelsea and Black?"
She throws up her hands in exasperation. "That's why we need to replace someone else. Someone who can get us close to them."
You think a bit, and Jessica lets you, watching as you pace with your hands clasped behind your head. "We could use our friend here to lure Javits into a trap," you say slowly. "He's as big a jerk as the others."
"And with Javits we could get one of the big three," she admits.
"Or we could use Eva to get Chelsea."
"No, use her to get Maria. She's Chelsea's best friend."
"I'll take your word for it. Right now," you add, locking your eyes on your friend's bosom, "you look like someone who knows what she's talking about."
"Of course I do," she snaps. "And that's why we shouldn't fuck around with these extra steps. Don't waste these copies we've already got. Put them in for the originals."
You sigh and rub your eyes.
"Will," she says softly, and grasps your arms. You flinch a little, but your eyes go up to hers. They are soft and beautiful and very persuasive, damn it. "Will, we have to do this together, as a team, so I'll go along with whatever you decide." She rubs your arms. "You pick the first step. I'm sure it'll be alright once we get started. You'll see."
Her lips part, and her breath is shallow. Knowing full well that you're being manipulated, but unable to resist, you lean down and kiss your best friend full on the mouth.
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