The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)

The Boys to Come

Previously: "Ella on the Loose" 

What are you going to do about tonight? Sydney asked you. She was patient in waiting for your reply.

Having reached a sudden decision, though, you are impatient to get started on it.

"Let's make a new Brother, tonight," you tell her as you shove away the trash from your lunch. "I'll help you work on the mask and stuff. If we can get it on someone before the concert, I can switch with them, send Ella out, then you and I could—" You give her a wicked grin.

"Oooh!" Autumn squeals. "I almost want to skip practice to get started!"

* * * * *

You do have the rest of the day to get through. You have a bunch of friends in sixth period English, including Cameron and Jenna, and you talk to them about putting a study group together for Thursday. They're both up for that, though Jenna says she'll have to talk to Nathan first.

But then she creates a slightly awkward moment when she turns to Maggie and asks if she'd be interested in coming out "if Reece Palendech" shows up too.

Maggie glances askance at her, and then at you, and says, "I'll come out, and you can have Reece out there too, or whoever, that's fine." Jenna nods, and gives you a knowing grin.

The upshot is that, as you are leaving English, Maggie slides up next to you and quietly holds you back. "What was that about me and Reece?" she demands. "What Jenna said about him and me?" she replies more tartly when you ask what she's talking about.

"I didn't know she meant anything," you reply with as innocent a look as you can muster.

Maggie glances around, then pulls you out of the jostling hallway and into a quiet little space just outside the girls' restroom, where she can talk to you without being overheard.

"Why did Jenna ask me that?" Maggie demands. "Why did she ask me that way?"

"What way? I don't know!" you insist. She returns you a corrosively skeptical look.

Then she growls back, through frozen lips, "I don't need people spreading rumors about who I'm in to!"

You blink at that. Then the light breaks.

"Oh my God!" you gasp, and grasp at her. "You—! Who are—? Have you got someone—?"

Maggie twists from your grip. "I'm not saying anything!"

"But you've got to!"

"I don't have t—!" "Maggie!" "It's none of your business!" "If you've got someone—!" "Just forget—!" "I can help set you up!"

Maggie freezes at that, and eyes you warily.

"The study party!" you plead. "Tomorrow! I can invite them out, whoever, if you're coming, and— Do I know them?"

She glances around, then says, "You're all into the LAX guys."

"I am not!"

"You and Jenna."

"Well, who?" You grab her and squeeze.

Maggie twists on her feet.

"It's nothing!" she protests. "Nothing's gonna happen, there's no point—"

"Not with that attitude!"

She rolls her eyes, then gives you a dark look. "Don't you dare freaking laugh!"

"I won't!"

Her eyes dart, and she takes a deep breath before replying, "If you could get Luke Richardson," she says in a very tight voice.

For a moment you think she's talking about Luke Martins—the guy that Autumn has a crush on—before the last name registers. Luke Richardson is a hunky Irishman (despite his surname) with a tangly mop of red hair and a wickedly bright grin. He's on the baseball team, where he's a back-up player. You don't know him that well—because Maggie is right, Ella tends to hang out more with the lacrosse players—but he is incredibly cute, and you're not surprised that Maggie might have a crush on him.

Certainly better him than Jason Lynch, the baseball team captain and pitcher, who is an utter, psychopathic bully.

"Really?" you squeal.

"It's not like that!" she hisses, and slaps at your hand as you try grasping her again.

"Well, what is it—?"

"Just forget I said anything!"

Maggie jumps back into the crowd. You've got your own class to get to, so you let her go. But at least you've got another candidate for your list of potential Brothers, and you didn't even have to get a mask onto Maggie in order to find out!

* * * * *

In Animal Science, poor Chuck asks for details on the evening's plans, like what time to pick you up, how late you'll be out, and what he should wear. Seven-thirty, nine-thirty (maybe? it depends), and slacks and a nice dress shirt, are your answers. You eyeball him sidelong a couple of times in class, trying to decide whether or not to make him tonight's recruit. After all, he will be picking you up so he'll be vulnerable to a mask; and after you've turned him into a brother you can skip the concert. But you don't know him that well—hardly at all—so you're not sure you want him to be one of your Brothers.

And that squarely raises the question of who you should be trying to trap.

There are three candidates you can put down as definite maybes: Chuck, Nathan, and Cameron. Chuck, because he is convenient; Nathan because you could probably get to him and he is one of your choices anyway; and Cameron because he is also convenient to grab and is a friend of those people you've already decided to convert. You doubt you could get at Luke Richardson tonight, and you've no very strong intuitions about anyone else (save for Maggie herself, and Jenna) that you'd be adding. Maybe Sydney (who needs a boyfriend for Autumn) would have some additional ideas, you decide.

And indeed she does.

* * * * *

"I figure we should make the switch out at the old school," Autumn explains as you and she are driving away from school after practice. As time is so short, you didn't even shower or change but left straight off the field, in your workout shorts and shirts. You are sweaty and tired and feel far from fresh, but the stinky earthiness you feel rippling off your neck and shoulders and legs excites you regardless. "We can do it like we did with Nicholas. Pretend my car doesn't start, and call someone out to help us jump it. Then," she adds with a grin, "we jump them!"

That plan quashes another idea you'd had—that you make a switch with Maggie or Jenna—because it would make more sense to call a guy out to deal with car trouble. Chuck and Nathan and Cameron would also be obvious ones to call in an emergency like that, and they would be sure to show up. You mention all this to Autumn, then ask if she has ideas for who else to call. Like, someone that Autumn would want for a boyfriend.

"Well," she says with a sly smile, "I already told you that this girl has a crush on Luke."

"Luke Martins?" you clarify.

"Yeah."

"Because Maggie told me today that she's got a crush on Luke Richardson."

Autumn thinks a moment as she places the name, then practically screams. "Red?" she shrieks.

"If 'Red' is Luke Richardson," you say, wincing hard as her voice echoes in the cabin.

"Oh my God!" she shrieks again.

"Why? What's the deal with ... Red?"

"That's incredible! Maggie has a crush on—?"

"She didn't say she had a crush. She just said— Well—" Briefly you relate the talk about Reece Palendech—who, Sydney interrupts to insist, would also make a great Brother—and Maggie, and how Maggie pulled you aside to mutter something about Luke Richardson, and got all flustered about it.

"Oh, is that why Maggie was giving you the stink eye all during practice," Autumn says when you're done. "But Red, I guess, makes sense. He'd fit with her."

"What's he like?"

"You know him. Don't you? Well," she continues when you admit you don't, "he's on the baseball team, and he's got some brains—at least, I think he's taking some hard classes, or he's getting good grades, or something. And his family's got money. I mean, they're not stinking rich, but they do have a pool—"

"How do you know all this?"

"Well, some of it's from Autumn, because she hangs out with some of the baseball guys. Like Luke Martins," she slyly adds. "But I know a little bit about him, because Reagan and some of them know him. I've been out to his house once or twice. He's a good guy, Will. Perfect for us," she adds in a darker purr.

"Could we get him out to the basement?" you ask.

"Maybe," she says after a moment's thought. "We could always try, then go with a back up if we can't. Oh! You know who else we could try for!" she exclaims. "Pedro Delao. He's the shortstop."

It takes you a moment to place him. He's a short—a very short, almost runty—Hispanic kid with large, waif-like eyes and a fuzzy mustache. You ask Sydney why he'd be good. "Because he'd pair well with Autumn," she says. "Jalapenos and tamales."

* * * * *

It's five o'clock by the time you get into the basement and start making another disguise. Sydney casts and polishes the mask, and she is done by six. But you've got a lot of work to do making the memory strip, and by six-thirty you have to concede that you have no hope of getting it done before nine o'clock at the earliest. Which means that you'll have to get your new Brother out to the basement and into Ella's mask, while you stay behind to finish making the gear for the new Brother. But which Brother will it be?

You talked with Sydney as you worked, and though lots of names came up, you came back time and again to the main ones you'd discussed: Chuck Johnson, Nathan Elliot, Cameron McCarthy, and Luke Martins. You're inclined to pick from this quartet, but Sydney thinks that it's still worth trying to snag Luke Richardson. In fact, she seems fixated on him.

At the same time, she also off-handedly observed that if you're going to pick five girls from a single team (the softball team), maybe you should pick five guys from a single team. That would point to the lacrosse team (as Nathan is on it), or the baseball team (if you decide to forgo Nathan and Jenna as recruits).

Vote on how to continue the story: "BoM Poll: The Boys to Come" 

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"Table of Contents (Vol. 5)" 
"The Book of Masks (Vol. 5)"