The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)

Post-Swap Hangover

Previously: "Yumi Explains Things to a Lot of People" 

The next morning is a bit of a nightmare, as you have to fight both a middle-school-aged sister and a college-aged brother for control of the bathroom, and even though Yumi is used to it she never enjoys it.

You also have the dread of cheerleader practice (and the second-period meeting with Chelsea after that) to deal with. The anticipation sits on your heart like a leaden weight, and not even the thought of getting into the girls' locker room with a bunch of cheerleaders while they disrobe is enough to dispel it. That dread is by now habitual with Yumi, because Chelsea makes cheerleader practice such a horror.

It's not just that the head cheerleader is mean and snarky in her comments, or that she is always looking for faults in the nine other cheerleaders. Nor is it that her two goonish hangers-on, Kendra Saunders and Gloria Rea, join her in belittling you and your friends. It's that Chelsea somehow manages to set all the girls against each other, even the ones who are supposed to be friends, or who should at least be united by their loathing of her.

Take what happened yesterday, for instance.

"Gosh, Yumi, that was a really good tumble, you gave it so much flair! Did you notice what she did, Michelle? You need to pay attention, you'll learn something. And how do you think it makes Yumi feel, when she does something really good and no one is paying attention? We need to support each other, people! Yumi, take Michelle over there and show it to her again. Show her how you're doing it, and how to do it."

So you—well, it was still actually Yumi then, but it sure feels like it was you—took Michelle Estrich over to the far side of the gym. "You know, I'm not doing anything special here," you said, meaning to reassure her, then realized it had come out wrong, sounding like you were belittling her for not being able to do something that is "nothing special." "I mean, I don't see why Chelsea thinks what I did is so good, I'm just doing like I always do, and she never liked it before."

"That's okay," Michelle said tonelessly. "Just show me so I can learn how to do it."

With a burning face you'd practiced with her, but then when you took her back to the main group, Chelsea just wrinkled her nose at Michelle's efforts and upbraided her for not showing you enough "respect" by actually learning from you.

You were so embarrassed that you tried taking Michelle aside to make apologies, but she just brushed you off. Which pissed you off, even though you know you'd be just as humiliated if the tables had been turned.

So that's the kind of thing that Chelsea does, and the kind of thing that makes Yumi hate cheerleading practice. But yesterday there was something special about the way that Chelsea favored Yumi and Cindy. It was especially weird the way she'd cooed over and praised Cindy, who is her chief rival on the squad, which is why the two of them had gotten together at lunch to compare notes with Jenny.

* * * * *

It's also surely why Cindy has sent you a text, asking to meet you by the theater wing before classes start. She's already there when you arrive, with the arm of her thuggish boyfriend, Seth, draped over her shoulders. He jerks his chin at you as you approach. "So I hear you're Chelsea's new best friend," he says.

"I don't know what her problem is," you retort. To Cindy: "You got my text last night, but I don't have anything more to say. Nothing happened up at her place."

"You were there for hours!" The cherries in Cindy's normally cherries-and-cream complexion look more like a rash this morning.

"Actually, I was only there for about ten, fifteen minutes. She just wanted to hang out or something. Creepy." You shudder elaborately. "All laying on the flattery and stuff." That's exactly the way Chelsea had started things with Yumi, and you remember the girl's horrified embarrassment at it. Did Chelsea really think she could get Yumi to like her with all that butter she was spreading? "I finally told her I had homework to do, and she tried getting me to stay to do it with her—"

"You don't have any classes with her," Cindy points out.

"Don't I know it. I just said I had to go, and I got out of there as fast as possible."

"So why didn't you text back? We could've gotten together again—"

"I—" You glare at her boyfriend, who's been listening to this with a leering amusement. "This must be really boring for you, Seth."

"No, I'm interested in what's going on with, you know." He kisses the side of Cindy's face.

She winces, and shrugs out from under his arm. "It's nothing but girl talk, Seth. You can go hang out with Jeremy or Gordon or whoever."

"I don't mind!" he protests, but at the look she gives him he shrugs and turns away. He's taken only one step, though, before she grabs him by his jacket and pulls him back for a kiss. It's a quick thing, but then she pulls him back again for a longer kiss.

Then back a third time for a deep, melting kiss that probably puts the tips of their tongues at the back of each other's throats.

You turn away and hug yourself. You'd love to have Cindy's tongue in your mouth, and Yumi hungers for a guy's tongue.

A wet smacking tells you it's over, but there's a coda when you turn back, for Cindy has to slap Seth's tight, firm bottom as he swaggers away. He leers back at her over his shoulder. You grit your teeth.

Yumi doesn't like Seth especially, but she's happy for Cindy as long as Cindy is happy with him. You yourself wonder if there's a way of breaking them up, as you would love to screw with Seth. He's one of the worst assholes at school, and makes your life difficult enough. But he goes out of his way to make your friend Keith miserable, and you could do him a secret favor, maybe, as long as you're in this disguise.

"Sorry," Cindy murmurs at you. "But I don't want him to— But what were you doing if you were only at Chelsea's for a little while?"

"I was helping someone else with his romantic troubles," you improvise. "I wound up having coffee with Will. Will Prescott. You know?" You watch closely for her reaction.

"I know who he is," she says blandly.

"Well, you know how he followed us back from lunch yesterday, wanted to talk about Lisa Yarborough? I met up with him at Starbucks." Cindy shows no reaction. "So that's where I was. We really got kind of into it, because he wanted advice about—"

"So why did you turn your phone off? You know we were waiting to hear from you."

Fuck you, Cindy, for being so totally uninterested in me. "It was the polite thing to do," you tell her, "so I could give him all my attention." Cindy only snorts softly. "Anyway, if you're so interested in hearing that nothing happened at Chelsea's, I guess I better go tell Eva and Jessica too."

Cindy grabs you by the wrist. "Look, you know how she's going to be today, after you blew her off."

"How?"

"She's trying to get between us, Yumi. We've already got five people willing to call a vote against her, she knows that, so she's trying to get to you, trying to get you to, you know, not vote against her." Cindy's complexion curdles.

"So why was she being so sugary with you yesterday?"

"So I'll think she's changed and won't try calling a vote against her."

"Well, what does that have to do with how she's going to be with me today?"

"Like I said, she knows you blew her off yesterday." Cindy frowns. "She's going to have it in for you."

"She always does."

"She's going to be extra horrible," Cindy says. "Be careful today."

* * * * *

But she isn't. Chelsea isn't especially nice to you—she gets sniffy over a couple of your moves, and suggests you spend more time warming up tomorrow—but she doesn't deliver any haymakers either.

Those she saves for Cindy. And you notice Cindy giving you the stink eye over it.

The worst moment comes in the girls' locker room after practice. What should be a delightful ten minutes of furtively watching sexy girls stripping down turns rancid when Chelsea sidles up to you and quietly asks you to wait fifteen minutes before meeting her "you know where." You notice the stony way that Cindy and Jessica and Eva and Lin Pol ignore you after that.

Instead of going to Yumi's one blow-off class, you go out to your car after first period and spend fifteen minutes trying to figure out how to tell them that there's totally nothing suspicious about Chelsea wanting to talk to you, when you have no idea what she wants to talk to you about. The deadline comes and passes before you've found the words, so you wind up sending nothing. You'll have to improvise after meeting Chelsea.

Undergraduates are doing PE in the gym when you go back in, and you sense their stares as you cross over to the stairwell that takes you up to the loft. You knock on the door. "Chelsea?" you call. Your voice is tight. You knock again when there's no answer.

"Come in," someone calls from the other side of the door, but it doesn't sound like Chelsea. You push open the door and look in without entering.

Gary Chen, shirtless and with the tops of his boxers showing over the tops of his jeans, steps in from the side of the loft. Fear and bewilderment show on his face.

"Oh, Will," he cries, and he puts out his arms. "Thank God! You have to help me!"

* To continue: "A Brain Block and a Brain Wave" 

*
"Table of Contents (Vol. 3)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 3)"