Chapter #28The Three Musketeers, Plus Some Other Guys by: imaj   Patterson isn’t the sort of guy you want to antagonise. You wouldn’t want to upset him under normal circumstances. You definitely don’t want to antagonise him when he’s got a mask of your face. Cassie deflates a little when you make your excuses, but she’s still happy enough to be going out with you tomorrow night. She takes you down to her locker where she gives you a note of her phone number. You kiss her goodbye and set out to find Caleb and Keith.
You find your friends hanging about their lockers. Keith seems anxious to make a run for it, but you and Caleb eventually persuade – and downright threaten him – into going to the Fuck Room. The three of you eventually arrive some quarter of an hour after the last bell has rang. Late, but not late enough for Patterson to have sent someone to go looking for you.
That’s probably a good thing. As you enter the Fuck Room you spot your new team mates. Patterson is leaning against the refrigerator you spotted a couple of nights back, an open beer in his hand. Gordon Black sits cross-legged on the gym mat. He looks up darkly at the three of you from under lowered eyebrows, then looks back down into his magazine. A few feet away, Jason Lynch lets his malicious gaze flit across the three of you, then turns away to grin to himself. Having those three work themselves up into a mood trying to find you would have been… unpleasant. Especially when they finally caught up to you.
Patterson gives you a guarded smile as you enter. The frightening thing is, he’s probably the friendliest of the three. “We’re all here then,” Patterson say. “Five paid up members plus the new guy. They fill you in on what’s expected Tilley?” Keith nods his head so fast you fear it might shake itself off. “You up for that then?”
“I guess," he gulps nervously.
"Good man. Provisionally, you're in, which means we're all teammates. We don't fuck around, and we don't fuck with each other,” says Patterson. He’s talking to everyone present but he’s staring straight at you. You catch the hidden meaning and nod almost as violently as Keith did. “Right?"
Caleb mumbles his assent. You and Keith join in moments later. Black says nothing, he turns a page over in his magazine very deliberately and continues reading. Lynch sniggers for a moment, at least until Patterson grasps him by the hair and pulls his head up. His eyes go wide and roll in their sockets as Patterson bends over and whispers in his ear. He turns very red. "Yeah, sure," he says, and Patterson releases him. The smile has vanished from his face, and he won't look in your direction.
"So, now that you're in, you can have a set of these." Patterson says, and tosses some keys to you and Caleb each. "Show a little consideration for your teammates, though, and don't just bust in. Call me if you wanna reserve the place for some, uh, quality time. Don't hog it, though." You smile vaguely and nod your head. Your neck is going to get sore at this rate. You wonder what Cassie would say if you brought her up here.
"I'm need some fresh air," mutters Black unhappily, and gets to his feet. He throws his magazine to the floor uncaringly. "Lynch?" The smaller baseball player scrambles after him, shooting you a nasty glance as he barrels past. The door slams behind them.
“They seem real friendly,” mumbles Keith, using his talent for saying precisely the wrong thing at exactly the wrong time.
Yeah," Patterson sighs. "Don't try being friends with Gordon. He doesn’t know you, not like I do.” Patterson stresses the last word just enough to make you nervous. “Lynch is an asshole, but you already know that. He’s a junior member just like you so don't let him push you around. Me and Gordon are the senior members.”
You idly wonder if Lynch was forced to undergo an initiation like you and Caleb were. In a flash of insight you realise why Kendra behaved the way she did during Caleb’s initiation. “Lynch was playing Kendra’s part,” you mumble quietly to yourself.
Patterson’s eyes gleam when he hears you. “You’re cleverer than you look Prescott,” he replies. “Or sound. Yeah, that was Lynch’s initiation.” He turns to Keith, malice shining in his eyes. “I got one lined up for you too Tilley. I’ll fill you in once I’ve finished with your friends.” He looks at Caleb before continuing. “You got Jessica yet?”
“Finally got close enough this morning,” replies Caleb, his voice shaking only a little. He’s doing a good job of keeping a lid on his panic. He pulls his book bag off his shoulder and rummages around in it. “Here,” he says pulling out a couple of masks and throwing them to Patterson. “Eva and Jessica.”
“I’ll leave them here. You might need them for your next jobs,” replies Patterson. He reaches under a crate and tosses a blank mask to both you and Caleb each. “Johansson, your next job is to get a cheerleader from Eastman. I don’t mind which one.”
“What,” sputters Caleb. “How am I meant to do that? I don’t know anyone from Eastman.”
“You don’t,” says Patterson, his eyes narrowing dangerously at the interruption. Ne nods at the masks Caleb just gave him. “The girls do. I’m not gonna repeat myself again”
Caleb looks at his feet in silence.
“Good,” smiles Patterson unpleasantly. “Prescott, you’re gonna get me Lucy Vredenburg.” You nervously raise your hand. Patterson looks at you evenly. “Spit it out Prescott.”
“Don’t you mean Cindy,” you ask quickly, the words running together.
“Nah, Lucy,” says Patterson, his tone uncharacteristically wistful. “Cindy’s sister. You remember her?” You remember Lucy, of course. At least you remember some very specific parts of her. Patterson makes a vaguely suggestive motion with his hands. “I want a more… mature woman on hand up here.”
“I’ll get her,” you say tightly. “Eva and Jessica should help.”
“Yeah,” agrees Patterson. “And remember, three more masks from each of you and you get bumped up to senior members.” Patterson looks directly at you. “And get all the benefits of being a senior member.” You shiver nervously. “Now scram, I want to talk to Tilley alone.”
*****
Down on the empty gym floor, you and Caleb compare notes. "That went well, huh?" Caleb says. "I mean, we didn’t get the shit kicked out of us or anything."
“What he’s asking for is difficult though,” you reply.
“True,” concedes Caleb. “But I mean, he always said we don’t need to do it. We could just walk away and remain junior members. I wonder what senior members get that junior members don’t?” You blank Caleb’s question. You don’t want to think about what happened earlier and it’s probably rhetorical anyway. “Besides, he sort of hinted we could help each other anyway. Otherwise why offer both Eva and Jessica’s masks?”
“They must know some people at Eastman,” you muse. “And they’re friendly with Cindy. That could get us close to Lucy.” Caleb sighs at the mention of her name. He had a thing for her, back when she was the head cheerleader at Westside.
Your train of thought is interrupted as Keith enters the gym. His face is deathly pale. “Don’t ask,” he says. “I’m not supposed to tell you. Fuck, even if I was allowed to I wouldn’t.”
“That bad, huh,” mumbles Caleb.
Keith turns and walks towards the exit without a word. You notice he’s holding a mask loosely in his right hand. It’s impossible to see the reflection stored in it in detail. All you can see is a smudge, but it’s a dark smudge. Kendra perhaps? It would be just like Patterson to let Keith find out what people had been getting up to with his double.
“We going to help each other out then,” asks Caleb.
You think for a moment. “Sure.”
“Who do you want to get first, Lucy or a cheerleader from Eastman?”   indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
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