# chapters

path: 11312211211121111
author_id: seuzz
title: Post-Swap Hangover
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>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.<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
Take what happened yesterday, for instance.<br/>
<br/>
<i>"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."<br/>
<br/>
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."<br/>
<br/>
"That's okay," Michelle said tonelessly. "Just show me so I can learn how to do it."<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
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.</i><br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
"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."<br/>
<br/>
"You were there for hours!" The cherries in Cindy's normally cherries-and-cream complexion look more like a rash this morning.<br/>
<br/>
"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. <i>Did Chelsea really think she could get Yumi to like her with all that butter she was spreading?</i> "I finally told her I had homework to do, and she tried getting me to stay to do it with her—"<br/>
<br/>
"You don't have any classes with her," Cindy points out.<br/>
<br/>
"Don't I know it. I just said I had to go, and I got out of there as fast as possible."<br/>
<br/>
"So why didn't you text back? We could've gotten together again—"<br/>
<br/>
"I—" You glare at her boyfriend, who's been listening to this with a leering amusement. "This must be really boring for you, Seth."<br/>
<br/>
"No, I'm interested in what's going on with, you know." He kisses the side of Cindy's face.<br/>
<br/>
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."<br/>
<br/>
"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.<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
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 <i>love</i> 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.<br/>
<br/>
"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?"<br/>
<br/>
"I was helping someone else with <i>his</i> romantic troubles," you improvise. "I wound up having coffee with Will. Will Prescott. You know?" You watch closely for her reaction.<br/>
<br/>
"I know who he is," she says blandly.<br/>
<br/>
"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—"<br/>
<br/>
"So why did you turn your phone off? You know we were waiting to hear from you."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Fuck you, Cindy, for being so totally uninterested in me.</i> "It was the polite thing to do," you tell her, "so I could give him all my attention." Cindy only snorts softly. "Anyway, if <i>you're</i> so interested in hearing that nothing happened at Chelsea's, I guess I better go tell Eva and Jessica too."<br/>
<br/>
Cindy grabs you by the wrist. "Look, you know how she's going to be today, after you blew her off."<br/>
<br/>
"How?"<br/>
<br/>
"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.<br/>
<br/>
"So why was she being so sugary with you yesterday?"<br/>
<br/>
"So I'll think she's changed and won't try calling a vote against her."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, what does that have to do with how she's going to be with me today?"<br/>
<br/>
"Like I said, she knows you blew her off yesterday." Cindy frowns. "She's going to have it in for you."<br/>
<br/>
"She always does."<br/>
<br/>
"She's going to be extra horrible," Cindy says. "Be careful today."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
Those she saves for Cindy. And you notice Cindy giving you the stink eye over it.<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
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 <i>totally nothing suspicious</i> 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.<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
"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.<br/>
<br/>
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.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, Will," he cries, and he puts out his arms. "Thank God! You have to help me!"<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111
author_id: seuzz
title: A Brain Block and a Brain Wave
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>A shirtless Gary Chen has to be one of the most terrifying things you've ever seen.<br/>
<br/>
Oh, there's nothing aesthetically wrong with it. Chen isn't ripped, exactly, but his trim stomach shows abs, and he has well defined pecs and shoulders and biceps.<br/>
<br/>
But it's Gary Chen, one of the nastiest motherfuckers at Westside, and shirtless he <i>exactly</i> looks like what you'd bet he is: a violent sexual assault waiting to explode.<br/>
<br/>
Except for his face. His lower lip is quivering, and his eyes roll with fear. He snuffles. "Will!"<br/>
<br/>
Still, you step back into the hallway. "Don't try anything," you hiss at him.<br/>
<br/>
"Will! It's me! Chelsea!" He gulps.<br/>
<br/>
Something catches in the back of your throat, and the scene before you, without altering in any actual detail, completely reorients itself. "Chelsea?" you gasp.<br/>
<br/>
She nods. Or, rather, Chen nods. But while still looking exactly like Chen, the person in front of you now also looks exactly like Chelsea Cooper.<br/>
<br/>
"You've got to help me," Chen moans. "You've got to get this—" He grabs his face pulls at the cheekbones. "Get it off!"<br/>
<br/>
"What are you even doing in it?" You jump into the loft and slam the door behind you. "Why did you—?"<br/>
<br/>
You do a double-take at the third and fourth figures in the loft. Both of them look like Gordon Black. But one is a petrified statue laying on his back, while the other stands over the original with a glower on his face.<br/>
<br/>
"I was trying to surprise you," Chen says with a gulp, and a tear runs down his cheek. "But it's not working!"<br/>
<br/>
"What were you trying to do?" you ask, and as Yumi's motherly instincts kick in you catch Chen's flapping hands and press them between your own. "Why did you put on Chen's mask?" You glance over at Gordon, which is surely the real Chen with Gordon's mask slapped atop him.<br/>
<br/>
"To surprise you! I told you!" Chen gulps again, and in a low quivering voice proceeds to explain.<br/>
<br/>
"I was thinking last night about what you told me, about how we're not friends and how it would look funny if we started hanging out together. I decided you were right, but since we need to hang out, on account of—" He swallows thickly. "I thought Chen would be a good spot for me to be. It wouldn't look funny that way if we, you know, were seen around together." He pulls his hands free of yours and wipes the tears away with the back of his hand.<br/>
<br/>
This makes less than no sense. "Why in the hell would it not look funny?"<br/>
<br/>
His expression turns puzzled. "On account of, you know." He tugs at the corners of his eyelids, making them even narrower and slantier.<br/>
<br/>
You suppress the sudden, overpowering urge to slap him.<br/>
<br/>
But then it somehow gets even worse. "I figured we could start going out together," he says. "If we were going out, it wouldn't look at all funny if people saw us together."<br/>
<br/>
"Going out?" you yell. "You mean me and— I mean, Yumi and Gary Chen?" He nods. "Boyfriend and girlfriend?" Your shriek is sounding more and more like a steam whistle. "Are you out of your <i>fucking mind?"</i><br/>
<br/>
"What's wrong with it?" he asks, sounding wounded. "Wouldn't it make sense for Yumi to be going out with him? They're both—"<br/>
<br/>
"First of all," you yell, and start ticking off fingers. "Gary Chen is the biggest asshole in the school, and I'm not forgetting Gordon when I say that. Second, he's a fucking criminal. You know he deals drugs inside the school, don't you?"<br/>
<br/>
"Just marijuana, right?" Chen says. "I mean, I'm <i>totally</i> against that, don't get me wrong, but it's not like—"<br/>
<br/>
"And he's the kind of guy who breaks teeth and arms and faces and kneecaps just for fun," you continue. "That's for third. And fourth—" You have to pause to catch your breath. "Just because him and me— Him and Yumi, I mean, are both of Asian descent does <i>not</i> mean it makes sense we'd go out together. He's Chinese and I'm— Yumi is Japanese, for a start. Not that I—Yumi—minds, but Chen's a fucking bigot about it! So it would be totally out of character for us to be— for him and Yumi to be—"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I didn't know all that," Chen shouts back. He's started to turn purple under his dark skin. (He's almost as brown as the average Hispanic.) "That's the other thing, and it's how come you need to get me out of this thing!" He grabs his face again. "It's not working! I'm not getting the memories or anything!"<br/>
<br/>
That shuts you up. "You mean you don't have his—?"<br/>
<br/>
"That's what I said!"<br/>
<br/>
"How much do you have?"<br/>
<br/>
"None of it! I don't know where he lives or who his parents are or who his friends are! If he has a job or anything like that!" He pushes and pulls at his face. "I don't even know what class he's skipping right now!"<br/>
<br/>
"Here, let me do that." You grab his hands, and after a moment's tussle he relaxes enough to let you pull them down to his sides. "If you lay down I'll— Well, wait. Hang on."<br/>
<br/>
"What?"<br/>
<br/>
It takes you a moment to reply, and you pull at your lip furiously. "This doesn't make sense."<br/>
<br/>
"I don't care what—"<br/>
<br/>
"Gordon." You wheel on Chelsea's boyfriend, who has been watching all this with sour amusement. "What class do you have this period?"<br/>
<br/>
"CAD-Technology."<br/>
<br/>
"What are you parents' names? What's your phone number? Email address? Birthday?" Effortlessly he rattles them off even as he rolls his eyes.<br/>
<br/>
"Why are you asking him that?" Chen asks. "I'm the one who—"<br/>
<br/>
"It's inside the mask. All that information is inside the mask," you tell her. "See? That's how come he can answer those questions. The mask contains all his memories."<br/>
<br/>
"So what? This mask is the one that isn't working!"<br/>
<br/>
"But it does! It has to!" you reply. "When we put it back on Chen yesterday it went around acting like him, didn't he? Just like, er, Gordon over there is acting like Gordon. Chen's  mask <i>has</i> to have the memories inside it, same as Gordon's does!"<br/>
<br/>
"But it doesn't! Or at least," he adds doubtfully, "I'm not getting them."<br/>
<br/>
"Have you tried concentrating? Or relaxing?"<br/>
<br/>
"Make up your mind, which one do you want?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm just wondering if maybe you're panicking or something, and freezing up."<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, like you did last period," he says peevishly, "when you tried doing that backflip off Michelle onto Lin, and you—"<br/>
<br/>
"Yes, like that," you snap back. "Just sit down. Calm down. Take a deep breath, and—"<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
For twenty minutes you work with her, trying to get her into some kind of mental state so that whatever kind of a block it is (for you're sure it's a mental issue) can fall away and let her get into Chen's mind. But nothing you try, from meditation to concentration, manages to connect her to Chen's memories.<br/>
<br/>
With fifteen minutes to go before the end of class, you give up and return things to the way they were before. The restored Chen is as angry as a wet wild cat, and he seethes all the time he is getting dressed again, and it takes some sharp words from Chelsea to get him to stop calling you every filthy name he can under his breath. "You really want me to be boyfriends with that?" you ask her.<br/>
<br/>
Her own face is very red. "It would have been <i>me</i>," she says, "and I wouldn't act like that with you!"<br/>
<br/>
You have your doubts—you're acting more and more like Yumi with her—but you don't argue until she adds, "We have to do something about it, though. Can you make another mask of him? One that works?"<br/>
<br/>
"That one <i>does</i> work," you insist.<br/>
<br/>
"Not for me it doesn't! So if you won't make a new mask of him so I can use it, we'll have to find another person I can be so we can hang out together."<br/>
<br/>
You'd like to know why you have to hang out with her more than you already do, but instead you ask her how that would work. She asks what you mean by that.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, you've got Chen over there." You point at him, and he glares back. "If you're not, uh, body swapping with him, who are you body swapping with?"<br/>
<br/>
"With whoever it is that we get," Chelsea says. "Dur."<br/>
<br/>
You blink. "So you'd be body swapped with this other person, and Chen over there would still be like he is now?"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure. Why not?" She blinks at you.<br/>
<br/>
Now that she's asked it, you realize that <i>Why not?</i> is a question that you haven't got an answer to.<br/>
<br/>
And while you're pondering that, Chelsea comes up with a brain wave. "In fact," she says, "we should do that anyway, even if you get me a mask of Chen that works. Swap me with one of Yumi's friends. Jessica or Eva, maybe. No!" Her eyes go wide, and she grabs your wrist. "Cindy!"<br/>
<br/>
Your blood runs cold.<br/>
<br/>
Luckily, the bell rings just then. "I'll have to think about it," you tell her as you pry her icy claw off your forearm.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
And you do. All through third-period Chemistry. It's a good thing you don't get called on during class. Even better that you're not called on to do lab work, or there would have been explosion at your table.<br/>
<br/>
It would make a lot more sense for Yumi and Cindy to be hanging out than for Yumi and Gary Chen to be hanging out. But Chelsea's brainwave scares you for lots of reasons. The main one is that it reinforces your suspicion that she has reasons of her own for making these body swaps—and you're getting a pretty good idea of what those reasons are.<br/>
<br/>
But you're also scared of another direction it points you in. If you can make two Chen-like slaves with masks, why not three? Or three hundred? Or three million?<br/>
<br/>
What if Chelsea gets the idea she could use these things to take over the world? </span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112
author_id: seuzz
title: It's a Good Compromise That Makes Everyone Unhappy
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>During the break between third and fourth periods you send Chelsea a text, asking to meet back in the loft during fifth period. Her reply doesn't come until the next class break, which is when you'd be wanting to meet her anyway.<br/>
<br/>
"Did you talk to Cindy?" she asks with steely cheerfulness when you're back in the loft again. "Did you set it up for us to—?"<br/>
<br/>
Yes, you shared Chemistry with Cindy third period, but she only gave you a frosty glance when you came into the classroom. <br/>
<br/>
"I'm not going to do that," you tell Chelsea, and her eyes narrow. "I'll get the Chen mask working for you, but that's all."<br/>
<br/>
"I want Cindy," Chelsea growls, and her eyes flash.<br/>
<br/>
"I don't think that's a good idea. I was thinking—"<br/>
<br/>
"You seem to be doing a lot of thinking since I swapped you with Yumi," Chelsea says.<br/>
<br/>
You return her glower with one of your own. "I would have been thinking about this anyway," you snarl back at her. "It has to do with these masks. I'm worried about fucking things up."<br/>
<br/>
"We already tried it out with Gary," Chelsea says impatiently, "and with Yumi, so we know it works! Will!"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm talking about something else. <i>Will you shut up and let me explain?</i>"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea actually takes a step back, and her jaw drops a little.<br/>
<br/>
"Now look," you continue more calmly. "We made that stuff, and we put it inside that mask of Gary, right? And now he's your slave. And we put some more that stuff inside Gordon's mask, and now he's your slave. Now you want to put some more inside Cindy's mask?"<br/>
<br/>
"No. I want to—" Her expression turns disgusted. <br/>
<br/>
Then it turns thoughtful. "Actually, I was thinking I'd do a swap thing with her, like you and Yumi did. But now that I think about it, having her just be my—" She titters.<br/>
<br/>
You shiver. "How many more people do you want to do this to?" you ask, and your voice is hoarse with horror. "Who else besides Cindy?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, no one." Chelsea frowns.<br/>
<br/>
"Are you sure? You can't think of anyone else?"<br/>
<br/>
"No." Her eyes narrow. "Why? I mean, I guess we could do it with the Garners, but if Cindy is—"<br/>
<br/>
"What about anyone who <i>isn't</i> on the cheerleader squad? Kelsey Blankenship, maybe?"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea sets her jaw. "Why are you asking me this?"<br/>
<br/>
"Because where does it stop, Chelsea?" you ask. "How many is enough?"<br/>
<br/>
Her brow darkens. "So we'll stop with Cindy," she says. "Unless—"<br/>
<br/>
"Look, my point is that there's got to be a place where it stops. I mean, that book has got to be hundreds of years old. It looks like it's that old, and it's all in Latin. Now, if someone could just keep churning out masks of people, and turning them into slaves, don't you think someone would have used it by now to conquer the world? Don't you think we'd be living in a world where <i>everyone</i> was like Gary, just some kind of magical robot that had to obey the guy who owned the book and made the masks?"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea continues to look puzzled. "I don't get what you're trying to say."<br/>
<br/>
You sigh and rub your eyes. You really hoped she's see the problem, but it looks like she doesn't.<br/>
<br/>
"There's got to be something that stops people from making millions and millions and masks and using them to take over the world. Because it hasn't happened yet. So there's got to be an upper limit to how far you can go. Right?<br/>
<br/>
"I guess." But she sounds dubious. Maybe she doesn't even understand what you said.<br/>
<br/>
"So what's that upper limit? How many is too many? And what happens if we go over it?"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea puts her hands on her hips. "So we worry about it when it happens," she says. "Just make me another mask so we can do a thing with Cindy—"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm not going to do that," you retort. "I'll try to get Gary working for you, but—"<br/>
<br/>
"You're <i>not</i> going to do what I tell you?" Chelsea turns red and steps up to put her nose to yours.<br/>
<br/>
"No."<br/>
<br/>
Flame shows in Chelsea's eyes. "So I have to do it myself?"<br/>
<br/>
"You mean you would?"<br/>
<br/>
For a moment your glances blaze back and forth.<br/>
<br/>
Then, to your bewilderment, she bursts into tears. "You're so ungrateful!" she sobs, and you only gape at her. "I got you—! I helped you do the thing with Yumi, to help you with that girl that you're so in love with!" She snuffles. "You wanted my help, and I gave it to you, and now you—!"<br/>
<br/>
"The whole thing with Lisa is pointless!" you hear yourself blurting back at her. "It's hopeless! She was never in love with me!"<br/>
<br/>
Your face is burning after saying it, but at least your exclamation shuts up Chelsea. She stares back at you with streaming eyes and a quivering lip. "Will," she says, sounding very wounded. "What are you saying?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm saying she was never in love with me." You hug yourself and turn away, for you can't bear to meet Chelsea's gaze as you make this humiliating confession. "As soon as I was— As soon as I knew what Yumi knew. Soon as I had her memories." <br/>
<br/>
You gulp down sudden, hot tears of shame as you open yourself to the memories that you've been tamping back. The sight of the scrawny, sophomoric, scarecrow-like Will Prescott draping himself awkwardly around Lisa Yarborough, to the embarrassment of her friends. "I was all wrong for her. She was totally not my type. Actually, I wasn't <i>her</i> type. Everyone knew it except me."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Puppy love.</i> That's what you had for Lisa, and she indulged it over the summer, when it didn't matter. And when school started again, she put an end to it before you could humiliate yourself with her in front of the entire school.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, Will," says Chelsea, and goose bumps go up all over your body as she pulls you into a sisterly hug. "I'm so sorry. I can't even believe it!"<br/>
<br/>
<i>Sure you could,</i> you think bitterly. <i>If you'd actually paid enough attention to me and Lisa to even notice us.</i> "So I'm ready to stop being Yumi now," you mutter.<br/>
<br/>
You feel Chelsea's limbs freeze around you. "Are you sure?" she asks. Her voice is muffled because she's got her face in your hair.<br/>
<br/>
"There's no point now."<br/>
<br/>
There's a long silence, during which she continues to hold you. Then she says, "What about you and Yumi? Maybe the two of you could—"<br/>
<br/>
You stiffen. "She doesn't like me any more than Lisa does."<br/>
<br/>
"But if you stayed <i>being</i> Yumi. Or if we put some of that stuff in Yumi's mask, like we did in Gary's and Gordon's ..."<br/>
<br/>
You get chilly all over. <i>Turn Yumi into a kind of zombie, just so you'd have a girlfriend?</i> It's not an appealing idea, to say the least. Beyond that: "It would look funny," you murmur. "Even funnier than if Yumi went out with—"<br/>
<br/>
You break off at a sudden thought. It takes you a moment to get used to it, and then it takes you a little longer to work up the nerve to even broach it. But it has to be broached, because you've only distracted Chelsea with this confession, and you're sure she still wants you to do that thing to Cindy.<br/>
<br/>
"This morning you were talking about Gary and Yumi going out," you remind  her. "Why?"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea loosens her hold on you. "Well, so you and I could hang out together without it looking funny. If you were being Yumi and I swapped with Gary—"<br/>
<br/>
"Why do you want me to be Yumi, Chelsea?" You pull back so that Chelsea's hands drop from you. "You <i>wanted</i> me to be Yumi, and it's not so I can get things right with Lisa. What's in it for you?"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea winces, and looks furtive. Then her shoulders slump.<br/>
<br/>
"Alright, if you've got all of Yumi's memories and things," she says, "you can probably guess or figure it out yourself. She and Cindy and them are all plotting against me. They want to make Cindy head cheerleader. Right?"<br/>
<br/>
Now it's your turn to wince. But you nod.<br/>
<br/>
"So, I was hoping, Will, that if you and Yumi, you know, swapped—" She brushes your arm. "You could tell me what they were planning. Maybe ... maybe mess things up a little for them? For me?"<br/>
<br/>
Yeah, that's what you figured. But now that it's all out in the open, maybe you can strike a compromise.<br/>
<br/>
"If I stay as Yumi," you tell her, "and I help you out—secretly—" You shiver at the gleam that comes into Chelsea's eye. "Will you forget about Cindy? About doing the same thing to her? We stop making masks, we stop right here, with these people. If we stop here" —you take a deep breath— "then I'll help you out with the cheerleader squad stuff."<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea's expression brightens. "Okay," she says in a squeak. "You have to be undercover for me, though. You have to pretend that you're still Cindy's friend and everything!"<br/>
<br/>
You nod, and try not to show the glum emotions you're feeling.<br/>
<br/>
"Of course," Chelsea continues thoughtfully, "that means we still wouldn't be able to hang out together."<br/>
<br/>
You take a deep breath and make the final concession. "Then I'll start going out with Gary. We'll use him to get together and talk."<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea catches her breath with another squeak. Then she leaps at you and sweeps you into a hug.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
That leaves you having to figure out what if anything is wrong with his mask, though. And you'll have to make another mask, so that Chelsea can switch between her face and his.<br/>
<br/>
But Chelsea is happy enough with your offer to make you a generous suggestion.<br/>
<br/>
"I have masks of Gary and Gordon," she points out. "So that's two for me. You've only got Yumi. Maybe you should have an extra one, so we'll be even?"</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122
author_id: seuzz
title: Yumi Saito, Agent of Janus
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span><i>Make another mask? Make another slave?</i> That's totally the opposite of the promise you just got out of Chelsea.<br/>
<br/>
But it's tempting enough that you don't reject it out of hand. "We'll see," you say, and wince at the mom-like expression. "For now—" You think through your schedule for the rest of the day, but it looks clear. "Can you get Gary up here after school so we can look at his mask again?"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure. It'll have to be around after four-thirty," Chelsea cautions you, "on account of basketball practice." You tell her that will work.<br/>
<br/>
After she gives you an excited squeeze of the hand, you return downstairs.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You've always done your best not to pay attention to Gary Chen, and Yumi has done her best as well. But you're very conscious of him the rest of the day. You have sixth period Statistics with him (now that you're Yumi), and all the hairs go up on your body when he brushes by your desk to drop down next to his friend and fellow thug, David Kirkham. Worse is eighth period, when you have him for Orchestra, because you and he both play the viola and sit next to each other. <br/>
<br/>
But he proves less of a problem than another viola player. You jump a little when Eva Garner nudges you while you're tuning up. "So what did Chelsea want with you this morning?"<br/>
<br/>
Her face is an expressionless mask, and she doesn't look at you as she asks the question.<br/>
<br/>
"Nothing. She's just stirring up trouble," you mutter back. "And you're helping her."<br/>
<br/>
Her jaw tightens. "How?"<br/>
<br/>
"She's trying to split us apart. Trying to get us mad at each other. And it looks like it's working."<br/>
<br/>
That earns you a hot glare, but there is a little bit of doubt in her eyes.<br/>
<br/>
"I mean, you saw what she was doing to Cindy this morning," you continue. "God!" You shudder at the memory of the haymakers Chelsea hurled at her archrival. "And then she comes up to me and is talking like we're friends so that Cindy will get jealous. Well, it's not going to work unless you guys let it!"<br/>
<br/>
You lean over to hiss some more at Eva. "<i>I'm</i> the one who tried stopping Chelsea, back when we could've stopped her! I told you we had to vote for Cindy! We could've deadlocked back at the start of the semester! You and Jessica were the ones who— Sorry." You catch yourself as angry tears spring into your friend's eyes. "You didn't know what Chelsea was like until it was too late. The point is, I've <i>always</i> been on Cindy's side, and I always will, because Chelsea's <i>always</i> been a—" Mrs. Heinz is nearby, so you catch yourself again before you can let loose a really bad word. "So stop treating me like I'm going over to the Dark Side or something. She's just trying to make me <i>look</i> bad so <i>you guys</i> will start treating me like—" And again you cut yourself off.<br/>
<br/>
Eva looks away, and blinks back some tears. She lowers her head.<br/>
<br/>
"I just know what it looks like," she mutters. "But I think you're—" She swallows. "Chelsea's really good at it, isn't she?" She looks over at you. "Getting other people to think what she wants them to think?"<br/>
<br/>
<i>She's even better at it than you know, Eva,</i> you think as Gary Chen comes swaggering in with his viola case under his arm. <i>She's got </i>him<i> dancing to her music now.<br/>
<br/>
And me, too.</i><br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
At Eva's suggestion, you and she and Jessica and Cindy and Lin gather in the library for a talk when classes are over. It gives you a bit of a funny turn when you arrive. It's like the opposite of <i>deja vu.</i> Just a few days ago you walked into the library, then walked out again because you didn't belong at a table with most of these girls.<br/>
<br/>
Now you are one of them, and make yourself right at home between Cindy and Lin.<br/>
<br/>
Still, you don't feel exactly welcome. The atmosphere is acrid, even after you insist all over again to them that Chelsea is just trying to stir up paranoia and bitterness by treating you differently than she treats the others. Lin and Eva are at least inclined to forgive you for the way Chelsea's been acting with you; Cindy and Jessica say they believe you, but their manner continues to be cool. You're going to have to tell Chelsea that she needs to start treating you real nasty if they're going to believe that you're not being "seduced" to her side.<br/>
<br/>
That takes up most of the late afternoon. Lin leaves early, and then the Garner girls go off. You and Cindy take a slow, lazy walk down the breezeway to the gym, so she can meet Seth on his way out from practice. The gym doors are already open, and a few players are already trooping out. You notice that although they do look you up and down, they're careful not to ogle Cindy.<br/>
<br/>
"She's not going to give up until I quit the squad," Cindy says mournfully.<br/>
<br/>
You're rubbing her back sympathetically—and enjoying the feel tremendously—as Seth comes out. His eyes light up when he sees you and Cindy. "Sexy!" he exclaims, and the gleam in his eye causes you to drop your hand from his girlfriend's shoulder. "Could we make it a threesome?"<br/>
<br/>
Cindy ignores the gibe. "Go get coffee or something with us?" she asks you.<br/>
<br/>
"I'm going back to the library to study some more," you reply.<br/>
<br/>
"I suppose we could hang out with you there," she says.<br/>
<br/>
"I think you want better company than me," you tell her, and pull her into a tight, sisterly embrace. "We'll talk tomorrow."<br/>
<br/>
Cindy snuffles a little, then gives you a brave smile and tucks herself under Seth's arm. He winks at you over his shoulder as he and Cindy walk slowly toward the student parking lot.<br/>
<br/>
You return to the main building, but loiter near the doors by the cafeteria until you receive the all-clear signal from Chelsea.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"That's easy to do," she declares after you tell her she needs to start treating Yumi real rough. "But what about that?"<br/>
<br/>
She's pointing at the mask of Gary Chen, which you're holding in your hands. Chen himself is once again trapped under Gordon's mask, and Chelsea's boyfriend is once again laid out on the floor of the loft in a petrified state.<br/>
<br/>
And you find yourself stymied on account of that goop that you spread inside of it. You tried testing the mask on yourself, to see if you could get the memories inside it, but awoke again outside of a mask. Chelsea, looking rather white in the face, told you that you "weren't you" while inside Chen's mask. "It was just him, like when he came up here earlier," she told you.<br/>
<br/>
That answers at least one question: When you put the mask on someone, they don't know what's happening to them, and they don't remember what happened to them while they were wearing it after it comes off. <br/>
<br/>
It answers another question: When Chelsea put Chen's mask on, she was still herself and still in control of it.. The difference appears to be in the hair that that got used in that goop. Apparently the goop doesn't black out the person who controls the mask, only anyone else who puts it on.<br/>
<br/>
But you still haven't figured out the main question: Why can't Chelsea get Chen's memories when she puts it on? Is it because there's something wrong with the mask, or is there something wrong with her?<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know how to get this stuff out," you say after scratching hard at the inside of the mask with a fingernail. "It feels like it's totally bonded to the surface." You grimace. "I think I'm going to have to make a new mask of him." You brush the metal band with your fingertips. "Or I'll have to make another one of these," you add, for it occurs to you that maybe you can test one of those bands out separately.<br/>
<br/>
"Can I do anything to help?"<br/>
<br/>
You're grateful for the offer, but shake your head. "I just have to make up a new mask. Two of them," you add after a moment's thought. "Because if we get one of Chen that works, we'll need one of you, so you can switch back and forth between them."<br/>
<br/>
"If it's two masks, can't two people work on them?"<br/>
<br/>
"We have to stay away from each other," you remind her, "so Cindy and them won't get suspicious."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
After leaving the loft, though, you do arrange to get some help for the evening's work: You call "Will Prescott" and have him meet you at the elementary school near his house, where you are still keeping the supplies. <br/>
<br/>
"So you weren't at lunch with Jenny and them today," he snickers when you hand him one of the two masks you've just cast. (He'll be in charge of polishing them.) "They missed you."<br/>
<br/>
"Did Jenny have something he wanted to talk to me about?" You flip through the book to the spell that makes those metal bands.<br/>
<br/>
"No, but Paul did. He <i>likes</i> you." He laughs as you tense.<br/>
<br/>
It's one of the more awkward parts of Yumi's life: the really obvious crush that Paul Davis has on her. He's always leaving little presents for her around, and trying to hang out. Paul isn't bad looking, but he's so <i>wet</i> about it.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, he's going to have to control himself," you mutter. "Apparently, I'm getting a boyfriend."<br/>
<br/>
Your doppelganger drops the mask with a clatter, and turns staring eyes on you.<br/>
<br/>
But you don't amplify. Instead, you're thinking about another possibility.<br/>
<br/>
Why does <i>Gary Chen</i> have to be your "boyfriend"? There are lots of eligible guys at school. It's only because Chelsea has a Chen mask that you're thinking of subjecting yourself to <i>that</i> asshole.<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111222
author_id: rugal
title: Finding Mr. Right
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Your mind goes back and forth over the events of the day and truthfully, you're not all that enthused about what Chelsea proposed. The idea of Yumi hooking up with Gary Chen would seem bizarre and unnatural if you were just looking at it from the perspective of an outside observer. As an active participant, however, the thought of it is even worse. You imagine Gary Chen -- one of the worst bullies and most vile pieces of scum probably in the entire county -- sidling up next to you every day. He crudely tries to sweet talk you, puts an arm around you and drags you close, jamming his mouth against yours and his tongue down your throat.<br/>
<br/>
Oh lord, does it make you want to puke. Even if you weren't Yumi, if you saw her hanging around and getting cozy with Chen then you'd think she'd have gone insane. Jenny and Cindy and all of her friends would probably tear their hair out. You know that to go back on using Chen would mean going back on the rules you'd laid out earlier... but if you have to be a hypocrite, then so be it. Because no way in hell are you going to "date" Gary Chen.<br/>
<br/>
You're not keen on dating a guy in general, despite Yumi's own inclinations, but Chelsea <i>is</i> right in that a boyfriend is probably the easiest way for the two of you to get together. So the question, then, is what kind of a boy does Yumi like? And who would you be most willing to swallow your pride, bury yourself in Yumi's persona, and get with?<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
It's early the next morning -- at least a good hour before you'd need to be at school for practice -- and you're at a Starbucks. You're meeting Chelsea here but you're also sitting at a table in the far back corner. Neither you nor her want anyone you know (that would mean the other cheerleaders) to see the two of you together and if you do, you want to at least claim that you only ran into each other by complete coincidence. The story you'd give anyone, you'd said, is that Chelsea had insisted herself upon you for a little squad-related chat.<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea had scoffed a bit at that but ultimately agreed to go along with it but only if she told people that "you were being completely unreasonable and were totally not listening". You can really only agree to it and hope that nobody from the squad does catch the two of you together.<br/>
<br/>
"I was thinking about what we'd talked about yesterday," you tell her as your hand loosely grips the top of your iced coffee. "You know, about making Chen into Yumi's boyfriend."<br/>
<br/>
"What about it?" Chelsea replies. Her tone is neutral but it's the kind of neutral where she's gauging what her reaction should be. Which means you need to be careful with your words.<br/>
<br/>
"I agreed to it because as long as you stopped making masks, right?"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, right. You were all concerned about... I don't even know what," she says, seemingly confirming that either purposely or not, she totally didn't get what you were trying to tell her.<br/>
<br/>
You simply nod your head and continue. "Yeah, well, I thought about it and I'm going to be Yumi then I definitely do <i>not</i> want to be dating Gary Chen," you declare.<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea's eyes widen. "You don't want... but we..." She sputters the words and you can tell that irritation, and probably anger, is soon to overcome her so you're quick to try and mollify her.<br/>
<br/>
"I don't want to date Gary Chen but..." You pause for a second because you can see it start to build up on Chelsea's face. "But your reasoning for why makes sense. I mean, we're sitting in this corner in the hopes that nobody finds us, right? So if I'm Yumi, then you definitely need a second identity that's 'acceptable' for me to be see with, right? And a boyfriend is a smart idea."<br/>
<br/>
Her face remains hard but you don't see the pressure building up anymore. "But you don't want it to be Gary? How come--"<br/>
<br/>
"Because he's a low life!" you exclaim. "Everyone knows he's a bully! Everyone knows he's a dealer! If anyone saw me and him together, they'd think I'd gone completely bonkers!"<br/>
<br/>
"You?" Chelsea asks and there's an amused tone in her voice. "I guess that means Yumi doesn't really like Gary all that much, then, huh?"<br/>
<br/>
"No way!" you declare emphatically as you shake your head. "He's completely unacceptable!"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea leans forward, resting her elbow on the table and propping her head up. "Well then, <i>Yumi</i>," she says, "what kind of guy <i>is</i> acceptable to you?"<br/>
<br/>
You don't give a firm answer but you tell Chelsea that you'll let her make another mask and that this one can be your boyfriend. She seems thoroughly contented with that and whatever irritation you were sensing from her is long gone. "You know, though, that would mean I'd still have three masks and you'd just have the one," she points out. "Are you fine with that? Maybe I should let you have two more masks if we want to stay even."<br/>
<br/>
"It's fine," you it off. "Let's just find a spot for you first and then we'll worry about me."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
<i>What kind of a guy is acceptable to you?</i><br/>
<br/>
The question lingers in your head long after you leave Starbucks, with Chelsea saying that hopefully (hint hint) you find someone good by the end of the day. Of course, you don't have time to think about it after getting to school because you have cheerleading practice first thing in the morning and, true to her word, Chelsea really lets you have it. You wonder if she might be shooting some of that ammunition she'd stored because of your initial refusal earlier, for she unloads both barrels on you.<br/>
<br/>
Every little move is criticized and any mistake, no matter how minor, is pointed out and lambasted. In fact, it's bad enough that you actually feel tears start to come and all you can think is "stupid cunt" over and over as Cindy and Eva and the other members of Team Anti-Chelsea console you after practice.<br/>
<br/>
In fact, though the question lingers, you can't even really pay it any attention until you hit fourth period. You're still feeling the effects as you take your seat and Jessica -- as well as Kristin Yetter and Abigail Kane who are part of the orchestra with Yumi -- comforts you before class starts. "The hell's got you so down?" cuts in a voice.<br/>
<br/>
It's Cody Schaefer, a member of the tennis team. He is dark eyes look at you with slight concern but you say nothing. Instead, Kristin decides to jump in for you.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, at practice this morn--"<br/>
<br/>
"Kristin!" Jessica cuts her off.<br/>
<br/>
Cody's expression gets more serious and he nods his head. "Chelsea, huh? I gotcha. Cunts like that get theirs sooner rather than later," he says soberly before he continues on to take his seat. It's a brief exchange but it's enough to get your mind back on track.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You give Cody a simple thanks for earlier as he walks by you on his way out of the classroom. He simply shrugs it off and repeats his assertion of Chelsea's cunthood. But with your focus restored, you can now think of what kind of guy is acceptable to Yumi Saito and Cody Schaefer is definitely high on that list. He's not just one of the tennis team's stars, he's a smart guy taking a lot of AP classes. But he doesn't seem to possess the same snobbish ego that most of those types have and keeps himself out of the big AP cliques. He hangs around with his teammates, and with guys from the orchestra.<br/>
<br/>
It doesn't hurt that, in Yumi's eyes, he's not bad to look at either. He has dark eyes and dark hair, handsome features and a toned, athletic body with the slightest hint of a tan. But more than his looks, it's his unpretentious and strongwilled attitude that makes him attractive. That, you realize, is what Yumi likes in a guy. Someone who can be forceful-yet-gentle. The kind of guy who'd probably protect her but not shy away from a romantic gesture.<br/>
<br/>
Throughout the day you try to keep this in mind as you scope out possible partners -- Chelsea texts you during lunch to tell you to bring someone up to the loft after school -- and time and again you keep going back to Cody. It seems like Yumi herself is definitely attracted to him but would he go off with her if she approached him and asked him to? A much more likely possibility is found in eight period in Patrick Currier. He's an orchestra member and something of an associate to Kelsey's group. But they're cool to him and Patrick is also a nice enough guy.<br/>
<br/>
He projects a bit of rich boy swagger yet, Yumi's noticed, with a sensitive air behind it. She likes strongwilled types to be sure but the thought has crossed her mind more than once of taking the cute sensitive preppy boy and helping him to find the real confidence she sees bubbling below the affected one; to turn him into the kind of guy she'd like.<br/>
<br/>
But even as you think that you still feel odd and in fact a little disappointed. Guys like Cody or Patrick are probably popular picks for any girl... expected picks. It makes you feel self-conscious about yourself and this whole plan. Why does it have to be a romantic partner? If Chelsea wanted to hang out with "Yumi", then wouldn't it be just as easy to get a mask onto Jenny instead? Hell, she's friends with a lot of the anti-Chelsea cheerleaders so she'd even be a useful identity for Chelsea.<br/>
<br/>
But that small resentment you're feeling turns into another thought: why does it have to be a <i>boy</i>friend? Yumi might like the idea of being the girl of a guy like Cody but you're still a bit ambivalent. And while Yumi Saito might be straight as an arrow, you yourself are still plenty attracted to girls. Why have a boyfriend when you could aim for someone like, say, Andrea Varnsworth as a <i>girl</i>friend instead?<br/>
<br/>
Maybe it's just jealousy at the thought of Yumi hooking up with anyone in general though. You look at the likes of George Basham and Abigail, or David Scofeld and Kristin. Chelsea just wants Yumi as a fly in the ointment so why not put her under your control while you and Chelsea take over an established couple instead?<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112221
author_id: seuzz
title: Betrayals, Backstabs, and Possible Boyfriends
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Not long after you get home, you get a text from Cindy, asking you to meet up with her and some other cheerleaders at Panera for dinner. <br/>
<br/>
<i>That would be perfect,</i> you think. Last night, while working with Will, you were able to fully assemble one mask but you still need to finish the metal strip for the other one. So even though it's not yet four-thirty and Cindy wants to meet at around seven, you run to find Yumi's mother and tell her that you'll be pulling an all-night study-and-supper meeting with friends. You can tell by the vinegary face she pulls that she wants to argue, but she lets you go anyway.<br/>
<br/>
You're late getting to Panera, where the meeting is to be held, but you have the makings of two disguises in your backpack when you pull into the lot.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"Kendra's the one we should be looking at," Jessica Garner says. "She's the chink in Chelsea's chainmail."<br/>
<br/>
This suggestion comes after you and the other girls—you; Jessica and her sister, Eva; Cindy; and Lin Pol—have spent almost an hour bitching about Chelsea and her cunty ways, and moaning about how there's no way to get rid of her. But something in the way Jessica says "Kendra" makes you sit up alertly. It sounds like a turning point in the plot. "What do you mean?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"Kendra made a deal with Kelsey at the start of school," Jessica says. "She was totally about to backstab Chelsea."<br/>
<br/>
"What kind of a deal?" Lin asks.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, you remember the way the tryouts went. The way they picked the girls? Kendra was going to help Kelsey pack the squad with supporters who'd then vote for Kelsey." Jessica makes a face. "That's how me and Eva got picked. It's how you and Yumi got picked," she tells Lin. "That was Cindy doing the same thing."<br/>
<br/>
You flick a lance at Cindy. "Are you saying I didn't deserve to get a spot?"<br/>
<br/>
"No! I'm saying—! Look, there's <i>lots</i> of girls who are good enough for the squad, just as good as any of us, just as good as Chelsea—"<br/>
<br/>
"Better," you mutter under your breath. It's instinct, and it almost surprises you that you said it.<br/>
<br/>
"But yeah," Jessica is saying, "we're the lucky ones who got picked because of who we were supposed to vote for for squad captain."<br/>
<br/>
"Why would Kendra support Kelsey instead of Chelsea?" Cindy asks.<br/>
<br/>
"Blackmail," you suggest. "Kelsey had photos of Kendra sucking off a goat."<br/>
<br/>
<i>"What?"</i><br/>
<br/>
"They made a deal!" Jessica exclaims. "Kendra was going to be assistant captain, or something like that."<br/>
<br/>
"There's no 'assistant captain' position," Cindy says.<br/>
<br/>
"There would have been. Kelsey had a separate deal with Kim. She was supposed to get the squad rules changed, or something, so that Kendra would be in charge of a new JV cheerleader squad."<br/>
<br/>
"They were going to make a new <i>JV</i> squad?" you squeal.<br/>
<br/>
"Yep. But Chelsea got the rules for the tryouts changed so the plan wouldn't work, and Kendra went crawling back like a little whipped bitch. But," she continues, "what if we go to Kendra with a deal like that? She's already a snake, and she hates Chelsea—"<br/>
<br/>
"Everyone hates Chelsea," you mutter.<br/>
<br/>
"And everyone hates Kendra," adds Lin.<br/>
<br/>
"—and we promise Kendra that if she helps us throw Chelsea out and puts Cindy in, then we'll do what Kelsey planned." She glances at Eva. "Kendra gets to be assistant captain {i]and heads the new JV squad."<br/>
<br/>
"There'd have to be a JV squad," Cindy points out.<br/>
<br/>
"We can get Kim to make the bylaw changes." Jessica glances at her sister.<br/>
<br/>
"That's six votes," Eva says with guarded optimism. <br/>
<br/>
"Seven, if Kendra goes to Michelle and gets her to go along. Here!" Jessica claps her hands. "She can give Michelle some bullshit story about a 'compromise candidate' coming in so Michelle won't think that by voting Chelsea out she'll be voting Cindy in."<br/>
<br/>
"If we tip Gloria to what's going on, like, the night before the vote," Lin exclaims with shining eyes, "we can make it eight to two! Gloria hates Chelsea even more than Kendra does! Picture that! Just Chelsea and Maria voting for her! <i>She'll quit the squad!"</i><br/>
<br/>
"Then we can double-cross Kendra!" Jessica cries. "Five of us plus Gloria, we'd have the two-thirds we need to kick Kendra off!"<br/>
<br/>
A babble of voices breaks out. "Then we can dump Gloria!" "Bye-bye Maria!" "Bye-bye <i>Michelle!</i>" There's much laughter.<br/>
<br/>
Into the silence that descends, you say, "There's not going to be a better plan. I say we do it! All in favor?"<br/>
<br/>
Five, then eight, then ten hands shoot in the air, and everyone breaks out laughing.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Two hours later, a complete sketch of the rebel plot is on its way to Chelsea's phone from yours. You feel like a reptile, but you don't regret it. Chelsea already told you earlier how grateful she was for all your help. This should cement her gratitude, and make her easier to manage.<br/>
<br/>
You also send a text asking if Cody Schaefer is someone that can be seen talking to Chelsea Cooper. A few minutes later, your phone rings.<br/>
<br/>
"Cody Schaefer," Chelsea says in a guarded voice. "He's on the tennis team, right?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah. Tall. Dark hair." <i>Handsome,</i> you silently add.<br/>
<br/>
"And he's Yumi's type?"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure. Yes." You sigh. "Definitely."<br/>
<br/>
"Interesting. Yeah, I know who he is, he's in the East-West club. Except—Gawd!—I don't remember the last time I went to one of those meetings, and who the hell knows if he's still going too. What a useless waste! Anyway, yeah, he'd be a good link." She titters. "Do you think <i>he</i> likes <i>Yumi?</i>"<br/>
<br/>
You grit your teeth. <i>Don't be such a cute cunt,</i> you want to tell her. Instead, you just say, "He talks to her."<br/>
<br/>
"Does he talk to her, or does he <i>talk</i> to her? Or does he just, you know, say stuff at her when she happens to be around?"<br/>
<br/>
<i>Probably the last one,</i> you grumble to yourself, for Yumi and Cody, despite sharing two classes, haven't had much to do with each other. Aloud, you say, "Does it matter? If you're going to be pulling his wires— Well, we don't have to even <i>go out</i> if you, you know, put a mask on Cody." Your face is very hot, and you're aware that you're babbling, but you can't stop yourself. "We're friendly and if we just hang out, not even holding hands, then I could—"<br/>
<br/>
"Chill out, Will!" Chelsea gasps, clearly suppressing her laughter. "You and Cody can do whatever! And by the way, Will I won't think any less of you as a man if you wind up going all the way with Cody. I <i>love</i>, you know, and I would bet solid money that Yumi's a nympho at heart, and I'm sure you'd love it too if you just gave it a chance. So—"<br/>
<br/>
<i>"So how are you going to get to Cody?"</i><br/>
<br/>
"I won't have to," Chelsea replies. "He'll come to me."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
She doesn't explain how that will work, and only says—after warning you to wipe all traces of your conversations off your phone—to keep your Friday after-school schedule clear.<br/>
<br/>
Naturally, you're rattled and preoccupied all the next day, and you suffer a full-body spasm in fourth-period German when Cody comes swinging in. You bury your face in your phone and pretend not to have seen him, but you can't help watching him out of the corner of your eye as he falls into a desk beside Terry Colson and Eric Harlen. Kristin Yetter leans over to say something to him, and you feel a hard twinge of jealousy.<br/>
<br/>
Instead of taking lunch in the cafeteria that day, you take it out front on the grass with Jenny Ashton and her friends. "What do you think of Cody Schaefer?" you ask her as you munch on an apple.<br/>
<br/>
Carson Ioeger, who is stretched out on his side, barges in. "Cody Schaefer," he honks, "is a twat and a doorknob. Twice over."<br/>
<br/>
"I didn't ask you."<br/>
<br/>
"I'm telling you for your own good."<br/>
<br/>
"My own good?" You make a face at him, and pretend not to notice the pained expression that is creeping onto the face of Paul Davis. "What the fuck are you—?"<br/>
<br/>
"You're thinking of sucking his cock, aren't you? Well, for your own good—"<br/>
<br/>
You hurl the half-eaten apple at his face, and he yelps as it bounces off his skull. "Fuck you, Carson!"<br/>
<br/>
"Cody double-crossed Carson on a science project back in middle school," James says. "He's still got a grudge."<br/>
<br/>
"He didn't 'double cross' me, he fucked me out of a shot at—!"<br/>
<br/>
A babble of voices breaks out. After a minute of it, you leap to your feet and stalk off. Jenny catches up to you and catches your elbow.<br/>
<br/>
"Ignore them," she says. "What's this about Cody?"<br/>
<br/>
"I wanna suck his cock!" you snarl. "What do you think of that?"<br/>
<br/>
"I think Cody's a good guy," she primly replies. "If <i>that's</i> what you're really asking." She peers at you closely. "What <i>are</i> you asking?"<br/>
<br/>
"I dunno," you mutter. "What do you think of Preston Spinks?"<br/>
<br/>
Jenny gives you a sour look. Together you go off arm-in-arm, to stroll the school grounds while you vent about your lack of a guy in your life.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The text from Chelsea comes as you're leaving school. <i>I need help with cody is 5 ok? My place.</i><span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122211
author_id: seuzz
title: Code Name: Cody
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Five o'clock should be fine, though you do have to go home to make sure that Yumi's mother isn't going to need her during the hour or so that you will probably be at Chelsea's.<br/>
<br/>
"You never eat at home anymore," she chides you when you say you will be meeting a friend at five. She is already in the kitchen.<br/>
<br/>
"I didn't say I was going to eat with her!"<br/>
<br/>
"Then who are you eating with?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well ... you and dad and everyone else!"<br/>
<br/>
"How can you eat here when you're going to be somewhere else?"<br/>
<br/>
"What time are we going to eat?"<br/>
<br/>
"Whenever it's ready!"<br/>
<br/>
Mokichi comes sauntering in. "When will what be ready?" he asks.<br/>
<br/>
"Dinner." She smacks his hand with a spoon as he lifts the lid off a pot. "You'll ruin your appetite."<br/>
<br/>
You retreat to your bedroom to fetch the items you need for Chelsea, and stop in the kitchen again just long enough to promise that you'll be home as soon as you can for dinner. "I won't be able to help it if it's cold!" your mom warns you.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
So it's only four-thirty or so when you get to Chelsea's. Mrs. Cooper, a short bouncy woman who probably looked a lot like Chelsea twenty years ago, lets you in. "Are you all meeting up to go somewhere?" she asks. "Chelsea says there's a boy coming over in a bit, and it's not Gordon." She winks. "I hope he's for you. Is it a double date?"<br/>
<br/>
"Something like that. Maybe. More like a blind date? Um, I have to talk to Chelsea before he gets here."<br/>
<br/>
"You go right on ahead. Top of the stairs, first door you come to," she says, as though you have not been out here before.<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea is sitting up on her bed, and she does a double-take at you when you look in at her. "You got the stuff?" she asks as she bounces off the bed. She is in a much more sober mood than the last time you talked.<br/>
<br/>
"Of course, I've got it," you retort as you set the bag on the foot of the bed. "You don't think I'm a moron, do you?"<br/>
<br/>
"So how are we going to do this?" Chelsea tips the bag upside down, dumping all the contents out.<br/>
<br/>
"I'm assuming we work it like with Gary. We copy him, put the stuff into the mask, turn him into a zombie. Then him and me, we— Uh, we start hanging out, and anytime I need to send you a message, it gets to you through him."<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea nibbles on a thumbnail.<br/>
<br/>
"I guess that works," she mutters. "I've been looking at his social media."<br/>
<br/>
"And?" you prod when she falls silent.<br/>
<br/>
"And nothing, I guess." She shakes herself free of whatever thoughts have been preoccupying her, and turns a bright smile on you. "I hope you like him!"<br/>
<br/>
Instantly you're on your guard. "Why? What did you find out on his social media?"<br/>
<br/>
"Nothing!"<br/>
<br/>
"Then why did you—?"<br/>
<br/>
"I was just trying to get an idea of what's in store for you, is all."<br/>
<br/>
"And what did you find out?"<br/>
<br/>
"Nothing!"<br/>
<br/>
<i>Bullshit,</i> you think, but Chelsea is unshakeable on the point. All that she will allow is that he's on the tennis team. "So what is this stuff," she asks, turning to the supplies spread out on her bed.<br/>
<br/>
"The stuff for him. A mask, stuff to seal it up with, the stuff we have to put inside it to make him a, you know, zombie—"<br/>
<br/>
"Whose zombie?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well ... Yours, I thought."<br/>
<br/>
"Mine?"<br/>
<br/>
"Isn't that the plan? Isn't that what I said? I date Cody instead of Gary, and when—"<br/>
<br/>
"But the point is that he passes the messages along to me," Chelsea says. "He doesn't have to be <i>my</i> zombie. He could be yours, couldn't he?"<br/>
<br/>
You feel a headache coming on. It was like when you were arguing with your mother, except without the snippiness and the yelling. But Chelsea, like Mrs. Saito, seems determined to misunderstand what you're saying.<br/>
<br/>
"If he's my zombie," you patiently remind her, "then you can't wear the mask."<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea's eyes widen. "Who says I want to wear the mask? Who says I want to be—?" She rolls her eyes and clucks her tongue. "Cody Schaefer!"<br/>
<br/>
"Wasn't that the plan? We said that, right? You'd be Cody and you'd be—" You have to grit your teeth. "My boyfriend?"<br/>
<br/>
"Did we say that?" Chelsea sounds surprised, though she's not such a good actress that it doesn't sound fake. "Well, I guess that would work too."<br/>
<br/>
"I thought that was the plan!"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, Will!" Chelsea dimples at you. "I know you were talking like that, but I didn't take you <i>seriously!</i> But if that's the way you want to do it," she grandly declares, "I'll go along with it!"<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The conversation has left you wanting to scream, and you do scream, but you tell Chelsea you have to use her toilet, and behind the locked door you jam a fluffy hand towel into your mouth and scream through that. Then after flushing the toilet and dabbing your face with cold water, you rejoin her.<br/>
<br/>
She's looking at the rest of the stuff you brought, and particularly wants to know about the metal strip. "It's the thing that's supposed to copy memories," you tell her. "See?" You pick up the other mask, and show her the strip that you glued into the interior. "The memories go in there, like the, uh, body goes into the mask. That way you can copy and wear both at the same time."<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea flips over the other mask, which though polished hasn't got a metal strip in it. "So why doesn't this one have one?"<br/>
<br/>
You pluck the memory strip from her fingers. "This is the one that goes with that mask. I didn't attach them because—" You suck in a deep breath.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I was thinking about what happened with Gary. You tried the mask on and it didn't work, right? But it should have worked, because, dur, it copied everything about him. I mean, the guy who's running around now is acting just like him."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, so?" Chelsea frowns, like you're wasting her time.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I was going to glue these together, like in the other mask. But I thought maybe we should try them out separately. Like, we copy Cody's memories into this thing"—you brandish the metal strip—"and we see if it works on you by itself. If it does, we add the mask and see if that works."<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea's gaze goes distant.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh I see," she says. "Yeah, that's smart. I'll be honest with you, Will," she says, and touches your arm. "I was worried about that."<br/>
<br/>
There's a sound from outside, and Chelsea bounds over to the window. "It looks like him," she says as she peers out through the blinds. "Yeah, it's him. Just so you know, I told him I wanted to talk to him about the East-West Club. And I guess you're here because you're always underfoot." <br/>
<br/>
You stifle the urge to punch her in the back of the head.<br/>
<br/>
"Okay, we're all set," she says as she turns toward the door. "Let's not waste time, okay?" You should be the one to—" She slaps herself in the forehead. "It'll be less of a surprise coming from you. Coming from Yumi, I mean." She titters.<br/>
<br/>
You sink onto the edge of the bed as she runs from the room, and rub your face until most of the anger has drained away. <i>She can't help it,</i> you tell yourself. <i>No one can be that that mean and that tactless, so effortlessly and so often, and be doing it on purpose. She just must not have a filter.</i><br/>
<br/>
At the sound of footsteps in the hall, you slip the metal band into the palm of your hand—that piece is the smallest and easiest to hide—and saunter over to lean against the wall by the window. (It seems the most logical place to be "underfoot.") A moment later the door opens, and Chelsea comes in, followed by Cody. "Oh, and look who else is here," Chelsea exclaims. "But I already warned you, didn't I?"<br/>
<br/>
Cody nods at you, and here, in the intimacy of a bedroom, away from distractions and other kids, you're struck by how handsome he is. He's tall, with dark hair brushed straight back in a loose pompadour. His face is long without being horsey, with a straight, firm nose. His forehead is broad but clear, his eyes dark, and his mouth regular. He's dressed in a black polo shirt that drapes loosely over him, and his baggy white shorts hang to just above his knees. His calves are strong and downed lightly with hair. The only color on him is in the three plastic bracelets on his left-hand wrist—one a light green, another baby blue, and the third a citrusy orange—and on his tennis shoes, which are a bright blue with red tongues and yellow laces.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Country club with a touch of the bohemian,</i> you think. <i>Or like a Geoff Mansfield without being a douche.</i><br/>
<br/>
"Yumi was just leaving," Chelsea says, and her voice shakes you from a stupor you hadn't realized you'd fallen into.<br/>
<br/>
"Sure," you say, and detach yourself from the wall. "See you around, Cody? Oh hey," you interrupt before he can answer. "You got some schmutz on your—"<br/>
<br/>
You slap him in the forehead with the dingus. His face goes blank, and he topples sideways to bounce on the bed twice before coming to rest on his back. His jaw hangs open and he stares vacantly at the ceiling.<br/>
<br/>
"Just so you know, Will," Chelsea says after she's caught her breath. "It's okay with me if you want him for yourself. I owe you a mask anyway." Then she adds, with surprising force, "I'm <i>trying</i> to be nice!"<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111222112
author_id: seuzz
title: The Baffled Boyfriend
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Chelsea has left you staggered. <i>Doing me a favor?</i> you wonder. <i>What kind of favor?</i> And what's the favor: to give you Cody as an alias, or to accept it it for herself?<br/>
<br/>
"I don't want to <i>make</i> you do anything," you sputter at Chelsea. "It's up to you!"<br/>
<br/>
"Don't put this on me, Will!"<br/>
<br/>
"But I thought—!"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea wheels and marches over to sit in the chair by her study desk. With her hands on her knees, she smiles broadly at you.<br/>
<br/>
"Finish making the thing," she says. "And finish it however you want!"<br/>
<br/>
You facepalm. She isn't even going to explain herself!<br/>
<br/>
You get onto the bed, to kneel beside Cody. Though his face is slack and has lost all expression—he doesn't even look asleep, he looks dead; all the life has flowed out of him, leaving only fleshy slops behind—he remains handsome and healthy in appearance. So what is wrong with him that Chelsea is backing away from the original plan?<br/>
<br/>
At first you figure it must be that she doesn't want to exchange her trim and sexy cheerleader body, with its hefty boobs and bubble butt and shimmering cascades of golden hair, for a gross boy's body. But then you remember when you caught her in the loft a few days ago, trying to wear Gary Chen's mask. Chen is even more repulsive (surely!) than Cody, so it can't be that.<br/>
<br/>
Besides, according to the plan, Chelsea wouldn't even have to wear Cody's body, just control it. And it's like she doesn't even want to do that.<br/>
<br/>
You look over your shoulder at her. "And you don't want Cody for yourself because—?"<br/>
<br/>
Her smile is wide but humorless. "I told you, Will," she says, "it's completely up to you."<br/>
<br/>
You go back to studying Cody. The metal strip fades onto his forehead as you are still grappling with Chelsea's challenge, and you twitch it off and place the blank mask onto him. It sinks into his face as quickly and smoothly as a flat stone slipping beneath the surface of a pond, leaving not even a ripple.<br/>
<br/>
"He should be <i>your</i>, uh, zombie," you tell her, and scramble off the bed to hold the metal strip out to her. "That way—"<br/>
<br/>
"You don't have to explain, Will," Chelsea says as she takes it. There's no hesitation in her manner. "I <i>told</i> you, it's completely up to you!"<br/>
<br/>
She looks down at the strip. "Cody Michael Schaeffer," she muses. "This is going to be interesting. Do I just put it on?"<br/>
<br/>
"If you're going to, um, 'wear him home'," you reply. "But first," you hastily add, and grab her wrist before she can raise the strip to her forehead, "we should make a copy of you first. To put onto <i>him.</i>" You nod at Cody. "We have to get <i>him</i> out of the way. And someone needs to stay behind to be <i>you.</i>"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea titters. "You're so smart, Will!"<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The process is more than a little fraught. Chelsea lays on the bed beside Cody and you lower the second mask—the one with the memory strip attached—onto her face, where it vanishes. Not more than a minute later, Mrs. Cooper calls from downstairs, and you rush out to intercept her before she can come up and barge in on the crazy scene in her daughter's bedroom. (Turns out the family is ordering dinner from a restaurant online and she wants to know what Chelsea wants. After getting Mrs. Cooper to tell you some of Chelsea's preferred choices, you run back upstairs to "ask" Chelsea for her choice, then come downstairs again to give it to Mrs. Cooper.) And when you return to the bedroom, the mask is on Cody's face even as the other mask is still inside Chelsea.<br/>
<br/>
It's a delicate operation: You lift the mask off Cody and seal it up while watching him for signs of waking. He is still asleep when the mask appears on Chelsea, which you carefully lift off. That mask too you seal, and then into its inner surface you add some of the zombifying goop. Your heart is in your throat as you execute the last step: with a pair of scissors you quietly pull from her desk drawer, you snip off a little of Chelsea's hair, lay it inside the mask, and set fire to it. The interior of the mask briefly smokes, then turns a dull gray color. To your immense relief, Cody is still knocked out when you lean over him and set Chelsea's mask onto him.<br/>
<br/>
You weren't watching for the transformation, but you're still surprised by it, and by its speed. It's as if the mask evaporated from your grasp and, at the same instant, Chelsea—or a copy of her—was lying where Cody had been.<br/>
<br/>
And this Chelsea is fully awake.<br/>
<br/>
Her eyes snap open and lock onto you. For a moment she looks faintly puzzled, and she blinks a couple of times. When you hop back to give her room, she sits up. You hold your breath, wondering what's going to happen next.<br/>
<br/>
The new Chelsea stares at you, then glances around, and does a violent double-take when she sees the other Chelsea lying next to her. She gasps, and her hand goes to her chest, as though to stop her heart from popping out. A wild look comes into her eyes as she looks around, and she gasps again when she sees the way she is dressed: a floppy black polo shirt that almost falls off her shoulders; baggy shorts; and shoes that fall off when she kicks her feet.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh my God, Yumi! I mean, <i>Will!</i>" she squeals. "What did—? Oh!"<br/>
<br/>
"What's wrong?" you ask. This reaction alarms, and suddenly you're not sure that it's not Cody you're talking to. "Chelsea?"<br/>
<br/>
"You've got to get out of here. Get out of here!" she shouts, and she bounces and flops and swims her way violently off the bed. She pushes you back and runs for the bathroom, slamming the door in your astonished face.<br/>
<br/>
There's a groan behind you, and you turn around. Chelsea—the real Chelsea—is grimacing as she slowly sits up, and she puts a hand to her forehead. "The hell?" she mutters. "What—?"<br/>
<br/>
Her eyes wrench open and she peers nearsightedly at you. "Yumi?" she says. "What did—?" She looks around. "Where's—?"<br/>
<br/>
She catches sight of her own hand and frowns at it. She turns it this way and that, curling the fingers and examining the nails. Then her gaze falls past her hand to her bosom and the body beyond. She draws a deep, almost endless breath. "What ... the ... fuh-huh-huh-huh-huh?" Dazedly, she lowers her hand to touch, then cradle a bosom.<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea?"<br/>
<br/>
She doesn't respond. Her breath sounds raggedly as she squeezes a bosom, then slowly sits up. Tangled, golden hair falls into her face, which she pushes back. While still cupping her breast with one hand, she gingerly touches her face with the other.<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea?"<br/>
<br/>
She raises her head, staring at you with eyes and a mouth that are almost perfectly circular. For an endless moment you stare at each other.<br/>
<br/>
Then she shakes herself violently all over and screeches. <i>"Will?"</i><br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea! Are you okay?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm—! <i>Whoa!</i>" She bounces off the bed and runs for the bathroom, almost breaking her nose on the door when she bangs into it. "What's with the—? Who's in the—?" she demands, and bangs the flat of her hand against the door.<br/>
<br/>
"It's the other one," you gabble. "Cody. He's Chelsea now. I mean, I put the mask on him and he turned into—ulp!—you, and he—"<br/>
<br/>
"He turned into <i>me?</i>"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, that was the idea! Right? I put that stuff in your mask and—"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea, her face white and rigid with alarm, bangs on the door. "You! Open up! Open this—!"<br/>
<br/>
The door flies open and Chelsea falls inside. For the briefest moment you see a tangle of two Chelseas on the other side, then the door slams shut again.<br/>
<br/>
You fall onto the foot of the bed, staring. Your knees are like water.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
For five minutes ... ten minutes ... ten days ... ten years ... you sit on Chelsea's bed and wait. Your pulse pounds in your ears, and your hands feel numb. Something has gone colossally wrong, you feel, but you don't know what and you don't know how to fix it. You can only hope that you're able to catch it and stanch it before it spins completely out of control.<br/>
<br/>
From behind the door comes the sound of furtive movement and whispered voices. Finally, after a lengthy silence, the door opens, and Chelsea comes out. She quickly pulls the door shut behind her.<br/>
<br/>
She's dressed as she was before, in a blouse and jeans and snow-white sneakers. Her hair is artfully tousled. But her face is white and she won't meet your gaze.<br/>
<br/>
"Um, Will," she says. "Chelsea told me to tell you to go, and to wait for ... <i>her</i> ... at the shopping center on Twentieth."<br/>
<br/>
"Which shopping center? Wait. <i>Chelsea</i> said?"<br/>
<br/>
With a pinched look, Chelsea glances over her shoulder at the bathroom door. "Yeah. <i>Chelsea.</i>"<br/>
<br/>
<i>Oh.</i> So this is the fake you're talking to. The one that used to be ... Cody Schaeffer.<br/>
<br/>
She is very impatient, but she finally makes it clear she means the shopping center with the Dominos Pizza in it. And since she is so unpleasant, you beat it from the house and make the mile-drive to the Carriage Hills Shopping Center, where you park in front of the Dominos and wait.<br/>
<br/>
It's nearly thirty minutes before a black Nissan Maxima pulls into the lot and parks in a spot a few slots down. You get out, but you wait by your car until the driver has gotten out too. Cody Schaeffer is perfectly coiffed. He jerks his chin at you as he saunters over.<br/>
<br/>
"Hey, Yumi," he says. "Thanks for waiting."<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea?" you ask in a small voice.<br/>
<br/>
He snickers. "Yeah. It was all kind of confusing back there. Sorry about that."<br/>
<br/>
He leans against your car. "So," he says. "Friday night. Where do you want to 'accidentally' meet? Dance club, or at a party?"<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112221121
author_id: seuzz
title: Flirt Till You Hurt
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>He looks just like Cody Schaeffer—tall, dark-haired, well-groomed, handsome—and he looks down at you with the grave and quiet confidence that you associate with Cody Schaeffer.<br/>
<br/>
So even though he answered to the name "Chelsea," you still have a hard time believing that it isn't Cody.<br/>
<br/>
"What as that all about back at your house?" you ask him.<br/>
<br/>
He shrugs. "Things were just kind of messed up. I didn't actually know who I was when I woke up." He looks away, and squints. "It was, um, <i>weird</i> to wake up with boobs."<br/>
<br/>
Yes, you can see how it could be, for you remember what it was like to wake up and find yourself transformed into Yumi Saito.<br/>
<br/>
"But I got it all sorted out," he says, and turns back to you. "So it's Friday night," he continues, "and I figure that if you and me are supposed to, you know." He points between your chest and his. "We meet up somewhere, pretend to run into each other. Hit it off." He shrugs. "And then we go from there."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Cody Schaeffer is going to be my boyfriend,</i> you think. And it must be with Yumi's portion of your shared brain that you think it, for it gives you a thrill.<br/>
<br/>
You grin. "So where do you want to, um, 'accidentally' meet up?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
It's nearly seven o'clock when you pull up in front of Catherine Muskov's house. There's a dozen or more cars parked along the street, and one of them is Cody's. Chelsea went on ahead to scout the scene, and you had to wait for a good quarter hour before you got a text from Cody's phone: <i>People still here u shld come on out.</i> And then you waited another ten minutes or so, continuing your search of Cody's social media postings, before following.<br/>
<br/>
<i>People still here,</i> Chelsea said. People are always at Catherine's, because people are always hanging out at her place after school, every weekday. They're not <i>parties</i> per se, and there's rarely more than fifteen kids around at any one time. People just drift in and drift out, bringing their own snacks and drinks, their own friends, their own make-work, whether it's cell phones or school assignments. <i>Wanna go hang out at Catherine's awhile?</i> is a common suggestion, and "hang out" never means "party." You might as well hang out at your own house as at hers, because it would be just about as exciting. But somehow it still feels like you're "doing something" when you go to Catherine's.<br/>
<br/>
But "hanging out" at Catherine's on a Friday or a Saturday never turns into a party either, because Catherine always goes out to someone else's party, or to a club, or to the Warehouse. Maybe it's the understanding she has with her parents, that the house can be a hangout but only if it's never a party spot. Maybe it's just Catherine. But when Chelsea texts you, Catherine hasn't begun to shoo her guests out yet.<br/>
<br/>
There's some band kids—Aaron Flood and Daniel Lujan—perched on the porch railing out front, and they call out to you as you approach. The two guys they are with turn to watch you. They are in Eastman varsity jackets, and Aaron and Daniel introduce them as Cooper and Joel. Catherine attended Eastman through her junior year, and her house has always attracted a mix of Eastman and Westside kids, though the proportion of the latter seems to have increased since she switched schools.<br/>
<br/>
There's more kids inside, sprawling over the sofas in the living room, and they look up and greet you. One of them could be Cody's cousin or even his brother—same coloring, same build, same well-groomed appearance, and he catches you staring at him. You shake your head to clear away the confusion, and ask where Catherine is. "Around," says a blonde girl who is sitting in the lap of a dorky-looking kid with long hair and glasses. You roll your eyes, and plunge deeper into the house in search of—<br/>
<br/>
You find him in the kitchen, leaning against the cooking island, in earnest conversation with a Korean-American guy. (Yumi's ability to tell the Chinese from the Japanese from the Koreans, and from the Vietnamese and the Mongolians is one of her "superpowers", though it's not one she brags openly about.) They're talking about an upcoming tennis meet, and you loiter just inside of Cody's eyeline until he breaks off to greet you. "Hey, Yumi," he says.<br/>
<br/>
"Hey." You feign nonchalance even though your heart is hammering. "You seen Catherine around?"<br/>
<br/>
"I think she's upstairs," says the Korean kid. His voice is hoarse and a little throaty. He checks his watch. "This is about the time she starts getting ready."<br/>
<br/>
"Okay. Whatever." You linger, and glance around.<br/>
<br/>
"This is Jacob," Cody tells you. "He's on the Eastman tennis team. Jacob, this is Yumi."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, hey," Jacob says. He jerks his chin at you. "You're a cheerleader, right?"<br/>
<br/>
"For the time being." You lean against the island and drum your fingernails on the countertop. "Where are you guys heading out after this?"<br/>
<br/>
"I dunno." Cody looks at Jacob. "There any parties going on you know of?"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh yeah! Lots. There's, um ... There's Legends, too. I know some guys going out there tonight." His eyes dart, and a dark flush creeps up into his flat, tanned cheeks.<br/>
<br/>
"I feel like going someplace quiet," you say. You don't like Jacob's stare—there's something haggard in it—and glance around everywhere but at his face.<br/>
<br/>
"You need to talk to Catherine about something?" Cody asks.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, no. It's just polite to say hi to someone when you crash their house."<br/>
<br/>
"I haven't seen Catherine since I got here." Cody looks at Jacob, who says, "I saw her, like, an hour ago, but I didn't talk to her."<br/>
<br/>
"Well ..." You trail off, hating how hard it is to make small talk, and wishing that Chelsea would <i>fucking do something</i> to make it less awkward. "So, did you understand any of that new stuff in Stat today?" you ask Cody.<br/>
<br/>
"Why, you need tutoring?"<br/>
<br/>
"No! I—"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm just teasing." Cody grins. "Jeez, Chelsea's got you all kinds of wound up."<br/>
<br/>
You gasp. "What makes you—? <i>Ohhhh!</i>" You growl with frustration.<br/>
<br/>
"You know who Chelsea Cooper is, don't you?" Cody asks Jacob. "The head cheerleader at Westside?"<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know who she is. I mean, I don't know which one—"<br/>
<br/>
"Blonde. Great bust. Really stacked. Does the best routines on the floor?" Cody's tone cools noticeably when Jacob shrugs. "Blonde hair, kind of curly, tousled—"<br/>
<br/>
"She's the one who's always at the top of the pyramid," you interrupt. "Because of course she has to be."<br/>
<br/>
Cody, sidelong, gives you a look. Jacob says, "Oh, okay, I know which one you're talking about now."<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea is Yumi's favorite topic of conversation," Cody says. He holds your eye. "She can never stop talking about what's wrong with Chelsea."<br/>
<br/>
"Because there's so much wrong with her!" you blurt out. If Chelsea is going to be this way, you decide, you might as well go all in.<br/>
<br/>
But Cody only laughs. "How about you tell Chelsea that the cheerleaders need to start showing up at the tennis meets. Do some of those gymnastic routines on the sidelines."<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, jeez!"<br/>
<br/>
"That'd be great," Jacob says. His voice burbles with excitement.<br/>
<br/>
"Then one of <i>you</i> pitch it to her."<br/>
<br/>
You're interrupted at that point by one of the guys from the living room—the one who looks kind of like Cody. "What's all the shouting about in here?" he asks.<br/>
<br/>
"We're talking about cheerleaders," says Cody.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh wow. Yeah, I'd shout too."<br/>
<br/>
"Yumi's a cheerleader."<br/>
<br/>
The guy does a double-take at you. "Oh hey," he says. "Yeah."<br/>
<br/>
"Wes is on the track team," says Cody.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh. Lemme guess. Eastman."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah!" Wes nods.<br/>
<br/>
An awkward silence descends, ending only when Wes asks where everyone is planning to head out to. "Hi-Hats are playing at the Warehouse," he says.<br/>
<br/>
"Yumi wants to hang out someplace quiet," Jacob says.<br/>
<br/>
"Legends?" Wes cocks his head at you. "You like dancing?"<br/>
<br/>
"I like it, but I don't think I'm that good."<br/>
<br/>
"You're a cheerleader," Cody says, "and you're no good at dancing? What about the gymnastic routines you have to learn?"<br/>
<br/>
"That's not the same."<br/>
<br/>
"I bet Chelsea dances good."<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea can stick her—! Why are you always talking about Chelsea?"<br/>
<br/>
"Because you get so fizzy when we talk about her." Cody grins.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The ultimate plan, which you arrive at after following Cody's lead, is to grab a bite to eat, then head over to the house of an Eastman student named Joshua Cheswick. "It's gonna be chill," Jacob promises you. "Totally chill." Cody knows how to get to Cheswick's but you don't, so he says he'll follow you back to your place so you can drop your car off, then take you out. He practically has to knee Jacob in the groin when the latter volunteers that he could chauffeur you instead.<br/>
<br/>
"Man, Jacob is <i>hot</i> for you," Cody laughs after picking you up. "You need to watch out, or he's gonna be all over you at Cheswick's."<br/>
<br/>
"I could tell," you retort.<br/>
<br/>
"Wes, too. Do you get that kind of attention back at Westside? I mean, does Yumi?"<br/>
<br/>
"No. I guess I'm spoiled fruit over there."<br/>
<br/>
Cody gives you a sly look. "You know, you could stand to play the field a little, Will. Nothing says you have to settle for Cody right away."<br/>
<br/>
"Are you calling me a slut?"<br/>
<br/>
"No, not unless you want to be."<br/>
<br/>
You feel almost spiteful enough to take Chelsea up on the suggestion.<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122211211
author_id: seuzz
title: A Chill in the Air
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Joshua Cheswick's house is on the northeast side of town. Cars are piled up in the street, so that you and Cody have to hoof it half a block to a modestly sized ranch-style house. He cautions you a little about what you're going to find: "You don't have a phobia about puppets, do you?"<br/>
<br/>
"No."<br/>
<br/>
"Marionettes? Like Pinocchio?"<br/>
<br/>
"I said no."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, some people do. They think they're creepy, like clowns."<br/>
<br/>
"I don't have a phobia about puppets, Chelsea."<br/>
<br/>
Cody laughs. "Well, you might develop one after being at Cheswick's."<br/>
<br/>
There's a couple of guys in Eastman varsity jackets out front, drinking from bottles and laughing hoarsely with each other, but the interior of the house is oddly empty until you reach the kitchen, where some girls are crowded near the sink. Cody greets them and they smile brightly back and chirp "Hi!" but their attention quickly settles on you. One in particular gives you a beady-eyed look. She has a narrow, hatchet-shaped face under a short blob of blonde hair. It takes you a moment to pair a name with her face: Lisa Rickover. It comes with bad associations.<br/>
<br/>
Cody leads you in back of the kitchen, into what looks like a closet, but is in fact the head of a very narrow staircase. Two guys are coming up, and they back out to let you and Cody down. One of them you recognize from back at Catherine's: the scrawny guy with the brown, shoulder-length hair and Harry Potter glasses.<br/>
<br/>
The staircase opens out into a basement that has been redecorated as a den. It's a big space, almost like a second, underground floor, with walls of knotty pine and a cement floor that's been softened (slightly) with cast-off scraps of office carpet. A long, dumpy brown sofa, looking like a dead bear, is pushed up against one wall, and beanbags are scattered around the floor.<br/>
<br/>
It's also decorated with puppets, as Cody had warned you. At least two dozen marionettes dangle by their strings from the low ceiling, drifting and clattering gently against each other as they are stirred by the air. And there is definitely something creepy about them, with their grinning, nutcracker teeth; their manic, wide-eyed stares; and the inhuman proportions of their hands and feet and heads. It doesn't help that the room is dark, illumined only by half-a-dozen lava lamps that bubble silently on wall-mounted shelves, and scores of rave sticks dangling by threads from the ceiling. Sitar music plays softly from hidden speakers, and the smell of pot hangs in the air.<br/>
<br/>
Also the faint, musty stink of forty or so high school teenagers crowded into the space.<br/>
<br/>
All the sofas and bean bags are occupied, so Cody pulls you through the crowd to a corner where a low countertop and bar separate a kitchenette from the rest of the den. There's a couple of free stools there, and you perch on them.<br/>
<br/>
Scarcely have you settled when the girl on the stool next to you spins around to peer at you. Her eyes pop. "Yumi!" she shrieks.<br/>
<br/>
It's Brianna Gould, from Westside, one of the slutty "party hearty" girls, and your heart sinks a little. "Oh wow," she gushes, "I didn't expect to see you here!"<br/>
<br/>
"I came with Cody."<br/>
<br/>
Brianna peers around you at Cody and squeals his name. "I thought you'd be at Wendy's!"<br/>
<br/>
"That's tomorrow night," he says. His expression tightens just the tiniest bit. "Who are you here with?"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, everyone!" Brianna sweeps her arm at the crowd, almost spilling the contents of the plastic tumbler she's nursing. There's an unlit cigarette between two of her fingers. "But I came with Andrew. <i>Ohhhh!</i>" She squirms on her stool and sidles up to you. "So you came with Cody!"<br/>
<br/>
"I bumped into him at Catherine's. And a couple of other guys. They all said they were coming out here, so I was, like—" You shrug.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, you'll have fun! This is such a chill place. You get you something to drink?" She leans over to murmur in a confiding voice, "There's some excellent, just <i>excellent,</i> brownies around here someplace."<br/>
<br/>
<i>I bet they're just excellent,</i> you think.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Jacob's not long in showing up, and Wes shows up shortly afterward as well, and both of them clearly come in search of you. Jacob has changed into an electric-blue t-shirt with a silvery stripe across the chest, like a sash, and blue jeans. Wes has also changed into blue jeans, but he wears a tight muscle shirt that shows off the tops of his pecs and some sinewy arms. Brianna, you are amused to note, strokes Wes's shoulder and flirts pretty openly with him when he squeezes in between you and her.<br/>
<br/>
"Whaddaya think of the party?" Jacob asks you. He's pushed his way in between you and Cody.<br/>
<br/>
"It's pretty chill," you tell him.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, pretty chill," he agrees. "Do you—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Who's party is it?"<br/>
<br/>
"Joshua's. He's the guy over—" Jacob points, and if you follow his finger correctly, he's pointing to a guy slouched in a bean bag next to a stereo system. His head is turned away from you, and it's very dim, so you can make out little except a sloppy mop of curly hair. "This is a great place to chill out," Jacob continues. "Just after school and everything."<br/>
<br/>
"Is it always, um—?" You wave your hand in front of your face.<br/>
<br/>
"Always what?"<br/>
<br/>
"So ... thick? In here?"<br/>
<br/>
Worry lines pop out on Jacob's forehead. Wes leans around to catch your attention. "We can go outside if you—"<br/>
<br/>
"I just don't wanna stink when I go home. Or get a contact buzz."<br/>
<br/>
So Wes plucks you by the arm and guides you off the stool. Cody and Jacob trail behind as Wes leads you back over to the staircase. When you glance behind, you see Brianna watching you with a speculative look.<br/>
<br/>
The back yard isn't nearly as crowded as the basement, but it's small, so it feels crowded. Many of the people out here are smoking, too, but by edging away you pull the other guys over to the plank fence at the back of the property. It's very dark.<br/>
<br/>
Wes asks you about possible mutual acquaintances, both at Westside and at Eastman, some of which you know and some of which you don't. You ask if he knows Dana Pak. "She's my cousin," you explain. "She goes to Eastman."<br/>
<br/>
"Your cousin?" Jacob's eyes pop. He's had a morose look about him since coming outside, but now he bubbles with excitement. "Yeah, I know Dana!"<br/>
<br/>
"Who knows Dana?" a sharp voice interjects. It's Lisa Rickover, who walks up to join you. She holds a lit cigarette by her side. "Hey Cody," she says. "I thought you'd be out at Wendy's tonight."<br/>
<br/>
There's an awkward silence before Cody says, "Nope. That's tomorrow night."<br/>
<br/>
"Wendy?" says Jacob. "Wendy Knox?"<br/>
<br/>
"Did you know that Dana Pak is Yumi's cousin?" Cody says.<br/>
<br/>
Lisa gives you an appraising look. "Yeah, I see the resemblance," she says. She takes a hit off the cigarette and adds, "God, I'm awful. How are you, Yumi?" Another hit off the cigarette. "I didn't expect to see <i>you</i> out here either."<br/>
<br/>
"I came with Cody. And Jacob and Wes. We were all at Catherine's."<br/>
<br/>
"Mmm." Lisa takes another, longer drag on her cigarette. "How's Catherine these days? Gawd, it suddenly hits me, I haven't been out to her place in ages."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Probably because she'd throw you if you did show up,</i> you think, <i>and Catherine doesn't throw anyone out.</i> She's giving you the creeps with her sly, sarcastic insinuations. <br/>
<br/>
But that's her. Lisa Rickover has a reputation for being a sneak, a gossip, and more than a bit of a bully. There's a clutch of them at Eastman, or so Yumi has heard from Dana and Lin. They're not all as bad as Lisa, you've heard, but Lisa is at least as bad as all the rest of her gang put together.<br/>
<br/>
You're saved by the guys, who take turns talking about the afternoon at Catherine's, and who they saw there, and what they did. Though she listens with a cat-like intensity, Lisa's eyes rove over the group, from Jacob's face to Wes's face to Cody's face to yours, then back over them all again. You can practically see her doing the algebra in her head as she calculates which of the trio—if any—has the best chance of scoring with you. She says nothing, though, and gradually retreats as more guys and girls drift over to talk.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
It's a little past midnight when you leave. (Cody drives you, and again you have shake Jacob off when he offers you a ride back to your place.) On the drive back you talk vaguely about the evening. It was, relative to some parties Yumi has attended, "chill," but you got a lot more attention than Yumi usually gets at Westside, and pretty soon you notice that Chelsea is picking through the names of the guys who fawned on you longest or who (she hints) are the most eligible. As you're turning into your neighborhood, you call her on it. "Is there something you want to get off your chest about those guys?"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea pretends to be surprised, but after parking in front of your house and shutting off the engine, she says, "I'm just trying to figure out who would be a good match for you, Will."<br/>
<br/>
"Who says I want a match?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, it's pretty clear you don't want to hook up with Cody." The blank assertion sounds very strange coming from someone who looks and sounds exactly like Cody. "I thought we were getting you a boyfriend, so you could pass messages along to me."<br/>
 "Why would any of those guys pass along—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Because they'd be your boyfriend. After we got masks onto them."<br/>
<br/>
Your lip curls. "Are you saying Cody doesn't work for you, so you want—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Cody doesn't work for <i>you,</i> Will. I owe you two masks, remember. We could put one of them onto one of those guys for you. And then— Well—" Her manner turns coy. "Then Yumi could pass messages along to <i>you</i> ... her <i>boyfriend</i> ... and you could pass them along to me."<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112222
author_id: rugal
title: Prepping a Preppy
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>You realize right away that anything involving Andrea is beyond absurd. If you were worried about how Yumi and Chen would look, imagine what people would think if Yumi was suddenly into girls. Besides, Yumi shares no classes with Andrea, doesn't talk to her and doesn't talk to the people who are generally part of her social circle, so how on earth would you even get her? Going after another couple or Jenny is fraught with its own problems. Chelsea seemed annoyed when you'd initially rejected Chen as an option so trying to change it up on her even more might really set her off.<br/>
<br/>
So that leaves the two guys who made your list and of them, Patrick Currier is the easier get, seeing as he's right here in the orchestra room with you and all. So during a break in practice, you send a text off to Chelsea telling her of your decision. But you also tell her that you've got masks that need polishing. You were able to make up a couple -- as well as some bands -- while you and your double were working last night but unfortunately you lacked the time to polish them.<br/>
<br/>
<i>how long?</i> she asks.<br/>
<br/>
<i>idk maybe some time in evening,</i> you respond. <i>i also have to get patrick on board.</i><br/>
<br/>
She tells you instead to bring the masks by the loft after school and that she'll have Gordon do it while you "do your thing", whatever that is, and tell you when they're ready. You agree put your phone back as Eva grabs your attention.<br/>
<br/>
"Who was that?" she asks.<br/>
<br/>
You give her the stink eye. "It was my cousin who goes to Eastman, not Chelsea," you grumble.<br/>
<br/>
"Sorry, Yumi. I wasn't trying to imply--"<br/>
<br/>
But you simply cut her off with a frustrated sigh. "Yeah, I know, it's just... this whole business with Chelsea has me so mindfucked," you complain. "First she tries to be nice to me, then she's giving me the business."<br/>
<br/>
"Maybe she's bipolar," Eva dryly observers.<br/>
<br/>
"She's definitely crazy," you retort. "And maybe her bullshit the last couple of days has made <i>me</i> crazy, because I think I'm going to do something I don't think I would've done otherwise."<br/>
<br/>
"What are you talking about?" she asks.<br/>
<br/>
You simply give her a confident, knowing smile. "It's what I was trying to get some reassurance from Dana about," you tell her. "But I think I'll keep it a surprise for the end of class."<br/>
<br/>
Mrs. Heinz calls an end to practice about ten minutes before the bell in order to allow everyone to put away their instruments. Though as expected of a group of teenagers, even ones as relatively well behaved as the orchestra, the time is mostly used for chatting and mingling. You chit-chat with Eva as you put away your own viola and you notice Chen casting you lustful, and expectant, looks but you ignore him. Instead, you tell Eva that you'll be back but that she should watch you and make your way over to Patrick, who's talking with Brent Pruitt.<br/>
<br/>
Patrick Currier is a preppy country club guy who looks the part. He's clean cut with close cropped hair that he styles with gel and hairspray. He wears polos and slacks from brands that you yourself could never afford. His face, on one hand, has a smug quality to it yet it's (in Yumi's opinion) boyishly cute and that image it projects is betrayed by soft hazel eyes.<br/>
<br/>
It's those eyes that drew Yumi's attention and helped form the belief that there was a kind, sensitive man beneath the swaggering country club facade, reinforced by the few times the two of them have talked.<br/>
<br/>
"Patrick?" you call out and are surprised by how softly your voice comes out, like it's catching in your throat. Your palms feel clammy and when Patrick turns to face you, you feel your chest thumping, though you press on. "Can I talk to you for a minute?"<br/>
<br/>
Patrick and Brent exchange looks and Brent gives his companion a nod. "I'll catch up with you later," he says before walking off.<br/>
<br/>
"So, what'd you want?" asks Patrick.<br/>
<br/>
You pause for a moment which seems to catch his attention. "Sorry," you mutter, "things have just been weird for me the last couple of days."<br/>
<br/>
"Nathan said you were looking pretty bad in fourth," he states.<br/>
<br/>
"Ugh, yeah, I know. It's just..." Again, you pause and draw in a breath. "Do you want to get together this afternoon?"<br/>
<br/>
He cocks an eyebrow. "Just the two of us?"<br/>
<br/>
You nod. "Just something casual. Um, maybe Milagro?"<br/>
<br/>
You look at him with pleading-yet-hopeful eyes and that seems to quickly break him down. "Sure, that'd be nice," he says.<br/>
<br/>
"Thanks!" you exclaim and excitedly clasp his hand inbetween both of yours. "I really appreciate it! Oh, uh, but let me get your number first. I've got some errands I have to run but I can text you when I'm ready."<br/>
<br/>
You make your way back over to Eva who's looking at you in complete shock. With a smile, you plainly state to her, "I have a date."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You drop by the elementary school basement and grab the masks, as well as the bands you'd made last night, and any other material that's needed. You then stop back by the school and head up to the loft where Chelsea and Gordon are waiting.<br/>
<br/>
"Patrick Currier?" she asks as you hand the stuff to her.<br/>
<br/>
"He's a good choice, right?"<br/>
<br/>
"I think he's on the outs with Kelsey and her crew but," she pauses as she passes it along to Gordon and tells him to get to work. "I can work with that, though. But are you going to be able to keep him busy until we're done?"<br/>
<br/>
"I don't think it'll be too hard," you tell her. "Do you want me to bring him by here when you're ready?"<br/>
<br/>
"If you can think of a good enough reason. I'd like to get it done soon and this is probably the safest place for us to meet."<br/>
<br/>
"Then that's what I'll do," you assure her.<br/>
<br/>
"Great!" she exclaims. However, her expression soon turns mischievous. "So, is he the kind of guy that's acceptable to Yumi?"<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Patrick is, in fact, <i>very</i> acceptable to Yumi. She took an interest in him at the beginning of the year when his attitude seemed to change and since then, from their interactions, she's built up a version of him in her head that she likes. Someone whose confident swagger belies a sensitivity. <i>It's probably the eyes,</i> sighs a stray Yumi thought. Yumi generally never talks about her love life but she is certainly interest in guys. Cody Schaefer is easily at the top of that list but if he's 1a, then Patrick would be 1b.<br/>
<br/>
"So, is this a date?" asks Patrick. He takes a sip of his coffee and then gives you a small smirk that's both friendly and confident.<br/>
<br/>
"A date is a more formal thing. This is just a casual get together," you tell him.<br/>
<br/>
"Casual's good," he says. "You know a lot about dating?"<br/>
<br/>
"I've never even had a boyfriend," you answer. "What about you?"<br/>
<br/>
"I did for a little bit last year," he replies. "It ended right before summer."<br/>
<br/>
You cover your mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to dredge up bad memories!"<br/>
<br/>
But Patrick just smiles and shakes his head. "No, it's fine. It was months ago. Besides, it wasn't that serious,"just Brent setting me up with his cousin because he thought we'd be good together," he tells you. "Nice enough girl, but she's a swimmer over at Eastman so between her team and my orchestra stuff and the different schools it just didn't work out."<br/>
<br/>
"I have cousins who go to Eastman, maybe they know her," you say.<br/>
<br/>
"Probably but like I said, I'm over it," he says. You can't help but to thrill a bit as he reaches a hand over the table and gently takes yours in it. "I'm more interested in the girl sitting across from me <i>now</i>."<br/>
<br/>
Oh god! Yumi's emotions are in overdrive and so you want to melt at that when a text from Chelsea comes in telling you the stuff is ready. It's been about an hour and a half since you dropped off the stuff and an hour since you first arrived at Milagro. The flirting between the two of you has been frequent and heavy and more and more, her feelings are pushing you and prodding you and you find yourself being charmed by him.<br/>
<br/>
Which is maybe why you tell him that you've been given permission to use the loft up above the school gym for the evening and suggest that the two of you "step it up a bit".<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Chelsea and Gordon -- the duplicates of them at least -- are gone. It's just you and a sleeping, nude Patrick up in the loft. While not an athlete, he keeps himself in good shape and you can't help but to run slim fingers of a smooth body with just the nicest hints of muscle definition. You caress his chest and his stomach and you have to fight all the urges in your head to move your hands just a little bit lower. Instead, you sit back and watch him until his eyes flutter open.<br/>
<br/>
You watch as he groggily pushes himself up into a sitting position and shakes the cobwebs out. Then he turns those soft hazel eyes on you. Again, you feel the part of your head that's Yumi become giddy. Your heartbeat quickens. You reach out a hand and stroke his cheek.<br/>
<br/>
"Will?" he asks.<br/>
<br/>
But you don't answer. You give into the pressure being exuded on you, pull yourself in close, and kiss your partner.<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122221
author_id: rugal
title: The Preferences of Partners
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>You're not sure how long you're like that--it feels like minutes but it's probably only seconds--before your partner begins to squirm and you feel hands grasp your shoulders and push you back. You sit, stunned, as the person who looks like Patrick raises a hand and wipes his mouth with the back of it. "Oh Jesus, Will," he spits out, "what the <i>fuck</i> was that all about!?"<br/>
<br/>
At that you blink and it's like you're coming out of a trance. "Oh crap, I'm sorry Chelsea I just... I don't know what happened!" you exclaim as, red-faced and burning up, you turn away. "Uh, your clothes," you say as you point behind you. "They're on the ground next to you. Just... tell me when you're done."<br/>
<br/>
You sit there in awkward silence for a few minutes as you hear grunts and shuffling. When they stop you turn back, relieved to see him fully clothed. The atmosphere is odd and neither of you say anything for a minute. Finally, though, you break down and are the first to speak.<br/>
<br/>
"I'm sorry, I don't know what came over me," you apologize. "It's just... there's been this feeling all afternoon, urging me to do more and seeing, uh, you as you are now, I just--"<br/>
<br/>
But you're interrupted by a laugh from Chelsea. "Oh jeez, you were horny?" she asks with amusement. "Is this the kind of guy that Yumi likes?"<br/>
<br/>
"So what if it is!?" you retort indignantly. "Yes, Yumi likes Patrick Currier, and Cody Schaefer, and there's even a guy from Eastman's basketball team that--"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea cuts you off once more with an even louder laugh. "I didn't realize she was such a slut!" Chelsea exclaims like it's the funniest thing in the world.<br/>
<br/>
That actually causes you to get incensed and pushing yourself up, you move over to your partner and lean in. "How does that make her a slut?" you challenge.<br/>
<br/>
"Huh?"<br/>
<br/>
"So she likes a few guys, what's slutty about that?"<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know, I was just trying to make a joke, god!" Chelsea complains. "You know, she's just always so uptight that I thought she was, like... that thing where you don't even want to have sex. I was just surprised, what are you getting all mad for?"<br/>
<br/>
"So you don't like any other guys yourself? You don't find other guys besides Gordon attractive?" you continue pressing. Chelsea seems to have no response for that so you decide to leave it there. "Look, I'm sorry I overreacted. But as long as we're talking about who likes who... what <i>{does/i} Patrick think about Yumi?"<br/>
<br/>
"What does he think?" Chelsea asks. She pauses and looks as if she's trying to recall something. But the look on her face tells you that something's up. "I don't know."<br/>
<br/>
"What do you mean you don't know?"<br/>
<br/>
"Like I said, I don't <i>know</i> what he thinks!" she cries. "I'm trying to think about it but nothing's coming!"<br/>
<br/>
"That doesn't make any sense," you tell her, "I know that we copied his brain on the strip."<br/>
<br/>
"I know, duh, I watched you do it! But I don't have his memories or anything!" She frets and fidgets in a way that is so girly it instantly kills whatever bits of Yumi's sex drive you'd been getting. "How am I even supposed to go home or anything? I don't know where he lives!"<br/>
<br/>
"Calm down, it'll be fine!" you insist. "Check your pockets, he's probably got a wallet in one of them, right?" She does pull one out of his back pocket. "Okay and his ID with his address is probably in there, right?"<br/>
<br/>
She opens it and her face lights up. "Yeah, his license is here... oooh!"<br/>
<br/>
With a grin, Chelsea turns the wallet towards you. Behind the clear film is his license with his address: it's for 100 20th Street, a mid-rise building in the rapidly gentrifying downtown area. The bottom floor is composed of a handful of shops while the floors above are expensive luxury condos. It's also the building that houses Arnholm's Books, where you'd first encountered and purchased the book.<br/>
<br/>
"Are you going to go there right away, though?" you ask. "It'd probably be a good idea to hang out somewhere until night and then get to bed early."<br/>
<br/>
"You're not going to stay here with me?" asks Chelsea in return.<br/>
<br/>
"I can't," you say remorsefully. "Yumi's parents are going to want her home for dinner."<br/>
<br/>
That's a bit of a lie, however. The truth is, you're still reeling from what happened earlier and want to get as far away from anyone who looks like Patrick Currier for a little while.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
At school the next day, things seem to be back to normal. Chelsea -- or maybe it's her duplicate -- treats you much as she typically does Yumi, mixing indifference and snide comments, which is at least better than the way she unloaded on you yesterday. If nothing else, it seems to have, for the time being, dispelled any idea of you being lured over to Chelsea's side. That doesn't mean talk isn't still about you when lunch rolls around. Jessica pools the two of you, Lin and Jenny together, separate from the boys, and wastes no time jumping into her topic.<br/>
<br/>
"Did you really go on a date with Patrick Currier yesterday?" she asks. You nearly do a spit take. "That's what Eva told me."<br/>
<br/>
"It wasn't a date!" you protest. "We hung out but it was casual, that's it!"<br/>
<br/>
"She said that you said--"<br/>
<br/>
"I was joking, jeez!"<br/>
<br/>
"That's your type?" Jenny asks with what you think is a hint of derision.<br/>
<br/>
"He's pretty cute, though. I wouldn't turn him down," Lin jumps in.<br/>
<br/>
Jenny makes a face. "I guess if you like that douchey preppy look," she mutters.<br/>
<br/>
"Am I interrupting something?" comes a voice. You feel an arm drape over your shoulder and look up to see Patrick. He looks down at you and grins before turning back to the other girls. "Sorry, but I need to borrow Yumi for a bit." He seems to smile specifically at Jenny who winces and then makes a face in return.<br/>
<br/>
"Don't let us stop you," Jessica says as she looks at you with amusement.<br/>
<br/>
"If you kiss, make sure you tell," Lin adds with a chuckle. You lament that she's on the other side of the table and too far away to thwap.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"I don't think Jenny approves of me," says Patrick once the two of you have found a secluded spot. "But you know, that's what makes her so hot. That judgey, don't fuck with me attitude. You know, Patrick's had a thing for her since last year."<br/>
<br/>
"Patrick... wait, Chelsea!?" He grins at you. "So it's working now?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah," he answers. "I thought I was getting a little bit last night but when I woke up this morning, it was all there. I knew his parents, his birthday, what girls he fantasizes about when he jerks off... all of it."<br/>
<br/>
"I didn't need to know that," you grumble but something stirs a curiosity within you. "Wait, who <i>does</i> he fantasize about?" you ask. <i>I hope I'm in them,</i> comes the Yumi part of your brain.<br/>
<br/>
"A lot, he's definitely as horny as any boy," he says with a decidedly girlish snicker. "But he's got it bad for Jenny and Danielle."<br/>
<br/>
"Davis?"<br/>
<br/>
"Mhm," he nods. "You know, one of them would probably make a good second mask for you," he says.<br/>
<br/>
"What do you mean?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm thinking of going after Eva and Jessica first. They seem like the easiest targets," he states. "Danielle and Jenny are friendly with them so, you know, get you under a mask of either of them..."<br/>
<br/>
"And I can undermine them from two spots," you finish her thought.<br/>
<br/>
"Right! Also, wouldn't Danielle and Jenny look nice in a cheerleading uniform?" He asks. "Plus if you were one of them, I could probably date <i>them</i>, you know?"<br/>
<br/>
"Is that who he thinks about? Danielle and Jenny?" you ask with disappointment.<br/>
<br/>
"He thinks a lot about that orchestra trip last year where he got a handjob from Sarah Bhatnagar, too."<br/>
<br/>
"Wait, Sarah!? What!?" Your eyes practically bulge out of your head. Sarah is an Indian-American girl who's part of the orchestra with her younger sister, a freshman. She's always come off as rather reserved and studious and while she's not unattractive, she's no great beauty either.<br/>
<br/>
"Ah, yeah, there was... hmm... a little bit of flirtation between them last year," he explains. "Patrick convinced her to sneak off during the trip and to fool around a little bit. You know, making out and some petting? She just kind of did <i>that</i> on her own though. But nothing came of it. She was kind of awkward about the whole thing, like it's not natural for her."<br/>
<br/>
He pauses for a moment and a look comes over him. "Maybe she'd be good, too. Because now that I'm Patrick," he gestures towards himself, "I want to fuck things up for that bitch Kelsey, too."<br/>
<br/>
"So you want to date Sarah, too?"<br/>
<br/>
"What? No!" he exclaims. "Sarah's parents are big deals though. You know her parents work at the hospital, right? Her mom has, like, some executive position in accounting and her dad is the freakin' director! If you can get a mask of her and I can get a mask of, hmm... Anthony Kirk, maybe, then I could really knock Kelsey on her ass if we hooked them up."<br/>
<br/>
That's probably not a bad idea and you can't say that you wouldn't want to see her taken down a peg or two yourself. But is it all maybe getting a little out of hand? The kind of thing you were trying to caution Chelsea about after she got stuck in Chen's mask? And besides, something inside of you is starting to feel very irritated.<br/>
<br/>
"What about me? About Yumi?" you demand.<br/>
<br/>
"Huh? What <i>about</i> Yumi?"<br/>
<br/>
"Patrick doesn't think about her? Does he not like her or, I don't know, would he not want to be see with her?"<br/>
<br/>
"No, he likes her plenty." He smiles at you hungrily. "Actually, he had a raging hard on when he thought you were taking him up to the loft to, well, you know."<br/>
<br/>
For some reason, you feel relieved at that.<br/>
<br/>
"I mean, if you want to stay as Yumi, too, then that's fine." He grabs your hands in his own and looks at you with a warm expression. It almost makes you forget that it's really Chelsea beneath that face. "I'd totally date you. Don't worry."<span class="O"></span></i></span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223
author_id: seuzz
title: The Matchmakers
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>It cheers you for awhile, the idea of using a mask to escape the "engagement" to Gary Chen that you promised Chelsea, and you spend a happy and productive hour working on the metal bands while the placeholding "Will Prescott" polishes up masks on the other side of the elementary school basement.<br/>
<br/>
But as evening darkens around you, so does your mood as problems occur to you. To wit:<br/>
<br/>
If you make yourself a "fake" boyfriend, the way Chelsea has Gordon as "fake" boyfriend, who is going to have control of him? You made Chelsea promise that she wouldn't make any more masks for herself. But then this "fake" can't be a boyfriend that she can use to keep in touch with you. And if you let her use this "fake" as your boyfriend, as your contact point with her, you will be breaking down that limit that you forced on her.<br/>
<br/>
Back and forth and back and forth you go, wrestling with what to do. At times you are ready to surrender to Chelsea and her plan for Chen, in order to keep your scruples intact. Then you swing hard in the other direction, and decide that she can have herself another mask if that's what it takes to rescue you from pretending to be Chen's girlfriend. But when you imagine Chelsea using that as an excuse to make even more masks, you swing back toward a middle position: You'll tell that the mask she offered you will be your boyfriend instead of Chen. But when you imagine the explosion that will provoke, you resign yourself anew to going along with Chelsea's original plan.<br/>
<br/>
Your work slows down, so that you have only finished one of the masks when you go home for the night, for you still have schoolwork to do.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"I'm going to give that mask one more chance," Chelsea tells you early the next morning when you meet her, as arranged, at Starbucks. It's a safe place for a rendezvous, since your meeting, if it spotted, can be put down to coincidence. Just to be sure, though, you conduct it while standing in a corner near the door so that you won't look too intimate.<br/>
<br/>
"It would be great if you got it to work," you reply. Your eyes are heavy from a lack of sleep, for you went to bed very late in order to finish up your schoolwork. (Yumi is taking a ridiculously heavy load of challenging classes.) "That way I can use that one on someone else." You stifle a yawn as you point to Chelsea's schoolbag, which is where she has stashed the mask you made last night, as well as some sealant and a container of goop.<br/>
<br/>
She smiles secretly. "You figure out another alias for yourself, Will?"<br/>
<br/>
The sound of your real name gives you a little jolt. You're in a sloppy but feminine set of clothes--long stockings under athletic shorts, and a colorful pullover sweatshirt, and flats--and you're feeling even more "Yumi" this morning that you were yesterday. You are feeling so "Yumi" that you screeched like a girl at the college-age brother (who refuses to move in with friends or into a dorm at Keyserling College) when he stole your freshly made cup of coffee this morning.<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know," you reply. And you must be tired so that your defenses are down and you actually confide in Chelsea. "Do I <i>have</i> to start dating Gary?"<br/>
<br/>
She frowns. "That was the plan. You promised!"<br/>
<br/>
"I know. I'll keep it." With those three words you resign yourself to Chelsea's will. "It's just that Yumi and Gary aren't a match. If it was anyone else— No, never mind."<br/>
<br/>
"What's bothering you, Will?" Chelsea sinks against the wall and raises her coffee to her lips. Her eyes gleam. After studying her face a moment, you relent.<br/>
<br/>
"I know you want a way we can talk, so we don't have to keep doing it like this." You look around, suddenly conscious again of where you're standing and who with. "But Gary doesn't seem like the one."<br/>
<br/>
"You want a different one." Her grin curls up manically. "Who does Yumi have a crush on?"<br/>
<br/>
No, you're not going to give her <i>that.</i> "It doesn't have to be one of her crushes. But— Oh, I don't know." You kick at the floor. "What if it was a friend of Gary's? A friend that he and I had in common? Or a girl who could be his girlfriend, and she could be a friend of Yumi's?"<br/>
<br/>
"Who would be wearing this mask?" Chelsea asks quietly.<br/>
<br/>
"It would have to be me. That's the limit we set, right? Two for you and—" You pont to yourself. "One, two for me."<br/>
<br/>
"So, I wouldn't be talking to <i>you.</i> I'd be talking to this other person, who'd carry messages to me?"<br/>
<br/>
"Maybe sometimes it would be me," you allow.<br/>
<br/>
She sighs. "It would just be easiest if it was you and me, as Gary and Yumi."<br/>
<br/>
You agree that it would be, and give up all hope.<br/>
<br/>
But Chelsea has a surprise for you later.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
First, though, you get through the day. True to her word, during first period practice Chelsea tears into you, criticizing everything you do and threatening several times to get Coach Tesla to kick you off the squad. You're in tears by the end—and they're not even pretend tears—and Lin and Eva and Cindy huddle around you when practice is over to comfort and pet you. Even Kendra Saunders, one of Chelsea's enforcers, looks aghast and shoots you guilty looks from the other side of the locker room.<br/>
<br/>
Cindy further comforts you during third period Chemistry II, and the stories she shares with Anne Starkey and Ellie Kemp, who are also in that class, get them to express shock and outrage at Chelsea's behavior. Even Seth, also in that class, looks sober, and confides in you that he always thought Chelsea was "a real cunt."<br/>
<br/>
Jessica, in fourth period AP German IV, isn't able to get Amanda Ferguson to express the same level of sympathy, though. That icy AP bitch only looks coldly down at you and says that you knew what you were getting into when you tried out for the cheerleading squad. That causes Jessica to tear into her.<br/>
<br/>
You get less attention from Jenny and Jessica at lunch, though, and endure the banter of Carson and James—and the puppy-eyed attentions of Paul—while quietly eating a pasta salad. You're actually in a bit of a daze by that point, and your pretended anger at Chelsea is at the point of hardening into real anger when you get a text from your secret collaborator: <i>meet in loft at 445.</i> That cools you down, and you affect a more normal demeanor through the rest of your classes.<br/>
<br/>
When the time comes, after parting from Cindy and Seth again in front of the gym, you go inside and mount the steps on the other side of the empty basketball court. You're far from surprised to find a shirtless Gary Chen waiting for you in the loft. He's alone this time, though, and he's a lot less panicked.<br/>
<br/>
"I spent just about all freaking day in this mask," he says.<br/>
<br/>
"You went to his classes?" you gasp.<br/>
<br/>
"No." He clucks his tongue. "I knew better than to—" He hops to his feet and prances effeminately around the loft. His movements are so girlish he makes the arch-gay Charles Hartlein look like Gordon. "I took one look at myself in the mirror and thought, No!" He blows a bang out of his eye. "But I got him up here second period and talked to him about what classes he could skip. Then I switched places with him and hung out here, second through fifth."<br/>
<br/>
"Where's he? The real Gary?" You glance around.<br/>
<br/>
"Off being me. Doing a much better job being me than I'm being him," he grumbles. "I went ahead and used that mask you gave me to copy myself."<br/>
<br/>
You groan. "So I have to make up <i>another</i> mask?"<br/>
<br/>
"Do you mind so much?" He puts out an arm, at the end of which dangles a hand and a limp wrist. With it, he catches you and pulls you close. He smells like body wash, which is a pleasant surprise, and his bare skin is warm and supple with hard muscles beneath it. "I could do it for you. You've been so patient with me, Will." He kisses the side of your head.<br/>
<br/>
"No, I can finish it up. I'm almost done with another one anyway."<br/>
<br/>
He kisses you again. "But maybe you won't have to. I spent most of the day in the mask, I was going to say, and I got right back into it after last period. And you know what? I <i>think</i> I'm starting to get some of the memories."<br/>
<br/>
You look up sharply. "Really?"<br/>
<br/>
"I really think so! I asked Gary a ton of questions about himself before I switched, like, about his friends and family and growing up, and maybe that helped. If I concentrate on the things he told me, I'm starting to get pictures and stuff."<br/>
<br/>
That sounds hopeful. And when Chelsea says that Gary doesn't have to work that night at the country club, and that she's going to go home as him and spend the night, you don't argue.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, and I asked him about some people you and he might have in common, who you could both hang out with together and it wouldn't look funny," he says, and arches his eyebrows gleefully as he ticks off his fingers. "So. Lin Pol?"<br/>
<br/>
"No. She hates him."<br/>
<br/>
"Really? He told me she's totally into him."<br/>
<br/>
There's gossip you could share with Chelsea on that score, but you just shake your head.<br/>
<br/>
"Okay. Sienna Goldman?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'll think about it."<br/>
<br/>
"Kristina Townes?"<br/>
<br/>
"I thought she was going out with Parker Stott."<br/>
<br/>
"Tch! You know, it might be easier if you just listed the girls you hang out with that might to out with him."<br/>
<br/>
There aren't any. "What about his friends? Guys he hangs out with that I might, um ... "<br/>
<br/>
"I didn't ask about those."<br/>
<br/>
"Then let's meet at Starbucks again tomorrow," you sigh, "and we'll see."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Man, who knew it would be harder finding Yumi a match than you?</i></span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231
author_id: seuzz
title: Plots Have I Laid, Inductions Dangerous
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Before you and Cindy parted for the afternoon, she suggested that you and the rest of the "Resistance" (as the Garners' <i>Star Wars</i>-addled brother Marc has dubbed you) meet someplace to plot strategy. You thought that was a good idea, and she said she'd arrange it with the others. Not long after you get home, you get a text from Cindy with plans for the meet up.<br/>
<br/>
Along about six you tell your mother that you'll be eating supper with friends. "What's wrong with eating with your family?" she demands. She's chopping vegetables for the Saitos' dinner.<br/>
<br/>
"Nothing! But this is the only time we can get together tonight!"<br/>
<br/>
"To study? Who's 'we'? What for?" Suspicion furrows her brow.<br/>
<br/>
You sigh. "Me, Lin, Cindy, and Eva and Jessica Garner."<br/>
<br/>
"Hm." Four of the girls meet with her approval. Cindy, for some reason, has always been a little iffy with Mrs. Saito. "What for?" she demands again.<br/>
<br/>
"To study," you tell her, and you hold up your book bag. "Cindy and I have Stat homework we need to do, and Jessica has German with me, and—"<br/>
<br/>
That gets her to relent, and after pecking her on the cheek you race through the living room to the front door.<br/>
<br/>
You're briefly detained by an insolent voice from the sofa. "She bought your shit, huh?"<br/>
<br/>
You glare at Mokichi, who has put on his stinky track pants and t-shirt again, even after showering, and is stretched out on the sofa and watching videos on his cell phone while smacking some gun. <i>The hell is it with idiot, college-age guys, like this one and the one you saw at Chelsea's? Aren't they supposed to be off with their friends, playing </i>Call of Duty<i> and drinking beer and talking about boobs?</i><br/>
<br/>
Way down beneath Yumi's frustration, you suddenly yearn to be a college-age guy, off playing <i>Call of Duty</i> while etc.<br/>
<br/>
You show him a very long middle finger, expressively mouth <i>Fuck. You</i> at him, and go out the front door.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"If you'd strike at the king, you'd better kill him," Lin observes as she stabs her fork into one of the three large bowls that the five of you are sharing.<br/>
<br/>
"Drown her in a toilet," you mutter, and jab angrily into another bowl. "Jam her sneakers down her throat. Twist her—"<br/>
<br/>
"I told you to watch out for her," Cindy says.<br/>
<br/>
"I <i>was</i> watching out for her, but—"<br/>
<br/>
"We need to peel off two votes," Lin says. "Us five and two more."<br/>
<br/>
"We only need a majority," Eva says.<br/>
<br/>
"Plus an extra for padding," Lin says. "Because if someone gets scared and backs out—"<br/>
<br/>
"Why would anyone get scared?" Jessica says. "It's going to be a secret ballot, isn't it?"<br/>
<br/>
"If it's a secret ballot, Chelsea will only get two votes," you fume. "Her own, and the extra one she stuffs the ballot box with."<br/>
<br/>
That doesn't get the laugh you expected it would. Lin only says, "We need seven votes if we're going to be sure."<br/>
<br/>
"Michelle doesn't like her," Eva says after a thoughtful, moody group silence.<br/>
<br/>
"Michelle doesn't like us, either," her sister says. "Michelle doesn't like anyone."<br/>
<br/>
"Because nobody likes Michelle," you say. You're cupping your chin in your hand as you say it. "Michelle would vote for Chelsea just to spit in our faces."<br/>
<br/>
"We could try being nicer to her," Eva starts to say, but you snort, "Like Chelsea was being nice to me?"<br/>
<br/>
There's some inarticulate murmuring from the others, and when you look up you see Jessica staring at the top of your head. Your blood runs cold when the horrible stray thought occurs that a seam in your disguise might be showing.<br/>
<br/>
But "Kendra," is what she says. "Kendra is Chelsea's weak point."<br/>
<br/>
"She hates Kendra," Lin says.<br/>
<br/>
"Because everyone hates Kendra," you snarl.<br/>
<br/>
"And Kendra hates Chelsea," Cindy observes.<br/>
<br/>
"Because everyone hates Chelsea."<br/>
<br/>
"You know Kendra was ready to backstab Chelsea at the start of school," Jessica says, and she gets a knowing expression on her face. "She made a deal with Kelsey."<br/>
<br/>
"What kind of a deal?" Lin asks. You and she exchange a sharp glance, for this is news to both of you.<br/>
<br/>
"She was going to help pack the squad with Kelsey's supporters. Me and Eva. Kim Walsh was supposed to get picked too. If there still wasn't enough, Kendra was supposed to be the sixth vote that would make Kelsey squad captain. Then Kendra would get to be assistant captain or something like that." <br/>
<br/>
"There is no 'assistant captain' position," Cindy says.<br/>
<br/>
"There would have been. That's why Kim had to help out. The bylaws for the squad go through the student council, and Kim would get the bylaws changed so Kendra could be Kelsey's number two, and she'd be in charge of the new JV cheerleader squad."<br/>
<br/>
Jessica smiles smugly at the consternation that runs around the table. Only Eva's face doesn't show shock.<br/>
<br/>
"They were going to make a new <i>JV</i> squad?" you squeal.<br/>
<br/>
"Yep. That was also part of the deal, so Kendra could have her own little empire." Jessica smiles over what might have been. <br/>
<br/>
Then she makes a face. "But Chelsea got the rules for the tryouts changed so the plan wouldn't work, and Kendra went crawling back."<br/>
<br/>
"This is all really interesting," Lin says, "but what does it have to do with—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, what if we went to Kendra with a deal like that?" Jessica says. "We promise Kendra that if she helps us put Chelsea out and Cindy in, then we'll do that plan." She glances at Eva. "We can get Kim to make the bylaw changes."<br/>
<br/>
"That's six votes," Eva says with guarded optimism. <br/>
<br/>
"Seven, if Kendra goes to Michelle and gets her to go along," Jessica says. She claps her hands. "I know! She can give Michelle some bullshit story about a 'compromise candidate' coming in so Michelle won't think that by voting Chelsea out she'll be voting Cindy in."<br/>
<br/>
"If we tip it to Gloria the night before the vote," Lin exclaims with shining eyes, "we can make it eight to two! Gloria hates Chelsea even more than Kendra does!"<br/>
<br/>
"So what if it's eight to two?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"It'll be totally humiliating! Just Chelsea and Maria voting for her! She'll quit the squad!"<br/>
<br/>
"Then we can double-cross Kendra!" Jessica cries. "Five of us plus Gloria, we'd have the two-thirds we need to kick Kendra off!"<br/>
<br/>
A babble of voices breaks out. "Then we can dump Gloria!" "Bye-bye Maria!" "Bye-bye <i>Michelle!</i>" There's much laughter.<br/>
<br/>
Into the silence that descends, you say, "There's not going to be a better plan. I say we do it! All in favor?"<br/>
<br/>
Five, then eight, then ten hands shoot in the air, and everyone breaks out laughing again.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Two hours later, a complete sketch of the rebel plot is on its way to Chelsea's phone from yours, with instructions to forward it to Gary Chen's phone if it's not Chelsea herself who is receiving it.<br/>
<br/>
You feel like a reptile that night when you go in to brush your teeth, and you flash those fangs at yourself. But you don't regret it. Chelsea already told you earlier how grateful she was for all your help. This should cement her gratitude, and make her easier for you to manage.<br/>
<br/>
You ignore the clanging klaxon in the back of Yumi's mind: <i>You can't trust Chelsea for anything.</i><br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
<i>Friday morning. Starbucks.</i> Gary Chen's Jeep roars up and shuts off with a growl right at your feet. "Babe," he says as he hops from the cab, and his dark eyes flash after he sweeps off his shades. "Thanks for the intelligence last night. Those sloppy cunts ain't gonna know what hit 'em."<br/>
<br/>
You feel your face crinkle up. "Uh ... Chelsea?"<br/>
<br/>
"Fuck yeah." He holds your eye.<br/>
<br/>
Then he breaks into a girlish titter. "Was that okay? I mean, believable?" He wrings his hands. "I think it was believable. Omigawd!" A certain mincing quality comes into his movements as he covers his nose with his hands, and his eyes twinkle. "I think I got it. I think I can do it."<br/>
<br/>
"You do?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, mostly. If I concentrate." The grin fades, and he shakes out his limbs. His expression goes taut, and his eyes harden. "Gotta remember who I fuckin' am, though, where I fuckin' been, what my fuckin' business is. Oh, fuck, that reminds me." He digs into the side pocket of his dark cargo pants and pulls out a folded sheaf of green. "Here's my appreciation for what you done, babe," he says as he presses it into your hand. "Buy yourself something nice."<br/>
<br/>
Your heart skips when you see it's a roll of twenty dollar bills. "Eep," you say.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, business is good." He rolls his shoulders. "Could be better, but I gotta kick a bunch of it back to—" He pauses, and his expression turns very grave.<br/>
<br/>
"Anyway," he resumes. "What about us? You can't send texts like last night's over to, uh, Chelsea or me. Don't put anything in writing, that's the first rule of— Well ... " His cheek twitches. "So who's it gonna be?" He ticks off his fingers. "Sienna? Katrina? Susie Leka-ooga!" He chortles. "You're right, Lin won't look at me. But don't tell me you want a guy to come between us."<br/>
<br/>
You dimple at him. "Give me some possibilities."<br/>
<br/>
He rolls his eyes. "Well, there's David Kirkham. Gary thinks that Justin Roth's okay—"<br/>
<br/>
"Gary?" you question. "What's with the third person, suddenly?"<br/>
<br/>
He blinks, then sighs. "Fine." His voice changes subtly. "Roth's pretty cool, I smoke and roll with him sometimes. Uh, Alex Massey?<br/>
<br/>
"Or maybe." He grabs you and pulls you close, and tweaks your butt. "It should just be us." He puts his mouth to your ear and growls. "Face to face and tongue to tongue."</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313
author_id: seuzz
title: Puppet Appeal
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Gary Chen has his hands on your ass. His fingers grip your butt cheeks.<br/>
<br/>
And the really bizarre thing is that you don't mind. <br/>
<br/>
You actually kind of like it.<br/>
<br/>
Chen is someone you have <i>never</i> wanted to be alone with, let alone close to, and that goes for both you and Yumi Saito. Your own opinion: Chen is a vicious, drug-dealing thug with a hair-trigger temper. Yumi: All of the above, plus worries about sexual assault.<br/>
<br/>
But this isn't Chen, not the real guy. This is someone disguised as Chen. It's Chelsea Cooper, to be specific, though that's not what makes the difference. The difference is that everything that makes Chen into <i>Chen</i> is still there, but it's under someone else's control. He's still a cocked and loaded pistol, but it's someone else's finger on the trigger.<br/>
<br/>
Someone who's on <i>your</i> side.<br/>
<br/>
And that's exciting. Your fear drops away, and in his mica-like eyes and taut, biting smile you see the charisma that lets Gary Chen dominate his clique.<br/>
<br/>
You don't have to say any of this, for Chelsea must have seen it in your eyes. "Yeah, you like it like this," Chen murmurs, and his fingers dig deeper into your ass.<br/>
<br/>
But you gently push him back. "Yeah, we'll do it like this," you gasp, for your breath has grown very short. "But how are we going to, um, set it up so we're, uh—?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen gently propels you toward his Jeep. You clamber into the driver's side, then over the gearshift to plop into the passenger seat as Chen follows you in. He pulls open his book bag and digs inside it.<br/>
<br/>
"We can figure out that part later," he says. "First I need you to do something for me. You know Eva and Jessica's gym lockers? Their locker numbers?"<br/>
<br/>
"Not their numbers. Just the general spot in the locker room."<br/>
<br/>
He jots on a scrap of paper and hands it to you. "Okay, these are their locker numbers and combinations. Some time today, after cheerleader practice—"<br/>
<br/>
"How'd you get their combinations?"<br/>
<br/>
"From Coach Tesla. She has all the combinations in her office." Chen grins. "And she never locks her door." He rummages deeper in his bag and pulls out two baggies. "Sometime after first period, I want you to put one of these in each of their lockers." <br/>
<br/>
The baggies are sealed so there's no odor, but the buds and leaves are self-identifying.<br/>
<br/>
You swallow. "This is a little hardcore, isn't it?"<br/>
<br/>
"There's not enough there to get them in legal trouble," he says. He taps his forehead. "Gary Chen knows all about the law on these things. The police won't even want to <i>know</i> about this, and the school won't care much either." His tone has been softening and softening, and now he sounds like a baritone version of Chelsea. "I don't want them <i>expelled,</i> Will. I don't even want them suspended." He sniffs. "I just want a scandal, something that will let me kick them off the squad." He rolls his eyes. "Finally!" <br/>
<br/>
"They're going to know it was you."<br/>
<br/>
"It doesn't matter. Except they won't. So if you can get that stuff into their lockers before lunch, I can get Mr. Sagansky in to find it before school's out, and then—" <br/>
<br/>
Suddenly he gasps and claps his hands, which puts him on the far side of Charles Hartlein again when it comes to being effeminate. "I know how we'll do it!" he squeals. "Listen! Get that stuff in their lockers before lunch. Then, when you hear about it all, make sure you get over to Eva and Jessica's, you know, so you can tell them how awful it is, and ask what you can do to help, and all that garbage. Be sure to hang out there until I show up."<br/>
<br/>
"<i>You</i> show up?" you echo.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah! Make sure you see me, you know, so we can make eye contact. That'll be the start of us—" He titters and grins.<br/>
<br/>
"How is that going to be the start  of us, uh—?"<br/>
<br/>
"You'll see. I'd tell you, but I might have to improvise, and I won't be able to tell you if I do. I mean, we can't talk, you know, or send texts, not until we're, uh—" He giggles nervously. "So, just keep in character today. Everything'll be fine, don't worry!"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure." You hesitate, for you don't much like being in the dark this way. But that seems to be all, so you turn to fumble at the door latch.<br/>
<br/>
You can't find it right away, though, and Chen shoots an arm across your chest to grasp it. "Here, let me—"<br/>
<br/>
He breaks off. Your skin prickles as his forearm rubs your breasts. You freeze, then look over at him.<br/>
<br/>
He's sweating, and the hair sticking out from under his ski cap looks lank and shiny. He swallows, and you can hear his breathing.<br/>
<br/>
"It's, uh, it's going to be nice, isn't it, Will?" he says softly. "When it's, uh—?" He swallows again. "You're okay with it being this way? With Yumi and ... Gary?"<br/>
<br/>
You nod slowly. Your own breathing is turning labored. "Are you okay with it?"<br/>
<br/>
His nostrils flare. "Yeah, I'm fine with it. I just wanted to make sure that you're ... Because ..."<br/>
<br/>
He closes his eyes and leans in on you. You close your eyes and prepare to receive the kiss.<br/>
<br/>
It doesn't come. Instead, there's a choking noise, and when you open your eyes again Chen, his face deeply flushed, is tucking his bangs back up under his ski cap. "We should hold off," he says. "You know, for when it's official. Or close to official. We can't let anyone see us, even accidentally."<br/>
<br/>
It bothers you that you're disappointed he didn't follow through on the obvious move. But there's nothing else to do but mutter, "Sure, that makes sense. I'll, uh, get this stuff into their lockers." You open the door, but Chen doesn't move. You get out. <br/>
<br/>
Before closing the door, though, you lean in. "Make sure you get back in character before you get to school, okay? And stay in character?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen sucks in a sharp breath, and nods. As you shut the door, he has closed his eyes and covered his nose and mouth with his hands.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The morning with Chelsea has left you dizzy and confused, and meeting "her" again during first period cheerleader practice almost capsizes you. You're pretty sure it is a fake Chelsea—something under a mask—for you can't imagine that she would have switched places right after mastering Chen's personality. But the standoffish way she treats you leaves you feeling fumblefooted all morning. She is waspish enough with you, though, that no one seems to think there's anything funny between you.<br/>
<br/>
You're distracted all during second period English by your feelings for ... Well, is it Chelsea or is it Chen? God! you hope it's Chelsea. But of course it wasn't the luscious "Chelsea Cooper" you were this close to making out with in front of Starbucks. You sure as hell don't think you're gay—you've never had any thoughts or feelings at all in that direction—so why did it feel so exciting to have his hands and arms touching you? That would have to be Yumi's feelings, right? But she's always been repulsed by Chen.<br/>
<br/>
And yet, while you try to convince yourself that it's all a puzzle, you also know what you felt around him. The excitement of being close to a dangerous animal while knowing that there's no danger to you, only others. You don't really want to acknowledge that this has got you—or is it Yumi?—aroused, so you probe deeper at your feelings, trying to find some other reason.<br/>
<br/>
You do come up with one alternative while you're paying no attention in Mrs. Goretsky's English class. It makes you flinch, though. Gary Chen is an odious creep—and there's something exciting about having an odious creep who frightens and horrifies you as a puppet, even if it is a puppet under someone else's control. It leaves you a little sick—the idea of secretly dominating someone who could so easily dominate you—but you have to admit it also stimulates you. Breaking, and saddling, and riding someone like that, even indirectly ...<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You have Chemistry third period, but you promised Chelsea you'd get the stuff planted in the Garners' lockers early, so you skip it and head to the gym instead. You loiter in the vestibule until the bell rings, then loiter some more until you're sure that the PE classes are well under way. Then you slip into the girls' locker room.<br/>
<br/>
It's empty, as you'd hoped, and with the numbers Chelsea provided you quickly get into Eva's and Jessica's lockers. They don't keep much inside them—just some spare, clean workout clothes—and you shove the baggies into some pockets. You have one bad moment when you think you hear someone coming, but it's just voices passing close by the entrance. It gives you the idea of getting into your own locker, though, and fussing with the change of clothes in there, so if someone does come in it will just look like you were minding your own business.<br/>
<br/>
On your way out you catch a glimpse of a figure turning onto the stairway that leads up into the loft. Chelsea, maybe? You scamper across the gym to the foot of the stairs and look up them.<br/>
<br/>
It's Steve Patterson, and you've just time to see him enter the loft.<br/>
<br/>
You're glad he didn't spot you. He's another creep, and one who likes to eye fuck the girls on the squad, and Yumi has been a victim. With a shudder, you turn and jog back over to the gym doors, and as you go out you have a brief, horrible fantasy of Patterson catching you from behind and wheeling you around. One of these days, unless "Gary Chen" has another hideout you can use, you and Chelsea are going to go up there and accidentally interrupt Patterson.<br/>
<br/>
Not until you're passing the cafeteria does the obvious idea occurs to you. Chelsea has offered you another mask. Why not make it Patterson? That would solve certain problems while giving you a badass puppet of your own to manage.<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132
author_id: seuzz
title: The Breaking Crisis
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Do unto Steve Patterson as Chelsea did unto Gary Chen? The idea has an undeniable attraction, but you don't have to decide anything right away. Besides, you've a hunch that Chelsea's plots will lead in other directions. If she thought Steve Patterson needed Chen-like handling, she'd have already suggested it to you.<br/>
<br/>
You detour outside on your way back to class, to the edge of the athletic fields, where the soccer team is practicing. You stand there, watching a scrimmage, until you're sure that Chen has noticed you. That, you hope, he'll see as your signal that you planted the stuff.<br/>
<br/>
Then you go off to Chemistry to collect a tardy.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The excitement starts during sixth period. One of the secretaries comes onto the intercom and asks Mr. Muniz to send Marc Garner to the main office. You don't think much about it until the start of next period, when you get a text from Lin telling you that Eva got pulled from sixth-period English. You're pondering that when Deanna Showalter comes up. "Did you hear that Eva got pulled out of English last period?" she asks with wide eyes.<br/>
<br/>
You shove your cell phone into your pocket. "Yeah, I just heard." <br/>
<br/>
"Is there anything going on?" Deanna is a notorious gossip.<br/>
<br/>
Yumi's protective instincts kick in, and you clam up, even though your mind is going a mile-a-minute. "Not that I know of. Maybe she lost an earring and someone turned it in to the lost and found."<br/>
<br/>
So you're tense when last period comes, and Eva isn't in the orchestra room. You tense even more when you get a text from Jenny Ashton asking if you've seen Jessica, for she wasn't in seventh-period English.<br/>
<br/>
Then Gary Chen swaggers in. You hold your tongue and continue tuning up as he drops into the seat next to you. He's got his own viola out and is scraping at it before he asks, without looking over at you, "The fuck happened to Garner in math?" He was in that class with you and Marc when Marc got called to the office.<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know," you snap back. "Maybe it was a family emergency."<br/>
<br/>
"Maybe," he says. "Thought you might know. You're plugged into that shit, aren't you?"<br/>
<br/>
"Why, do you want to be plugged into it?"<br/>
<br/>
He shrugs and concentrates on tuning. But the signal has been given, and immediately after class you start shooting texts around.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"So how much trouble are you guys in?" you ask. You're sitting cross-legged on one of the beds in the room that Eva and Jessica share. They are sitting on the other bed with haggard expressions while Lin leans against the bedroom door with folded arms.<br/>
<br/>
"We don't know," Jessica says. Though she looks as distraught as her sister, there's more fire in her eyes. "We won't know until our dad gets home."<br/>
<br/>
"Marc says it'll be okay," Eva says mournfully.<br/>
<br/>
"Marc knows he can get away with that shit," Jessica snaps.<br/>
<br/>
"But that's good, isn't it?" you ask. "Your parents wouldn't go light him and heavy on you, would they?"<br/>
<br/>
Eva shrugs while Jessica snorts.<br/>
<br/>
Lin says, "How did you try to explain it to your mom?"<br/>
<br/>
"We haven't. She told us to wait until Dad gets home."<br/>
<br/>
"So practice with us."<br/>
<br/>
"But we don't know how it got in our lockers!" Eva cries out. "We don't bring stuff like that to school!"<br/>
<br/>
Lin frowns. "You don't keep any of it here, do you?"<br/>
<br/>
"No! And Marc doesn't either!" Eva says. "At least—" She glances at Jessica. "God, I hope he's not stupid enough to bring any of it—"<br/>
<br/>
"Eva!" Jessica says sharply. <br/>
<br/>
You and Lin exchange a glance. "If you're talking about Kelsey's parties," Lin says, "everyone knows what gets smoked there."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, it's not like we bring home <i>doggie bags,</i>" Jessica huffs. "And we sure as hell wouldn't keep them in our lockers—our <i>gym lockers</i>—if we did."<br/>
<br/>
You and Lin exchange another glance. "Well, it's the gym lockers that explain it, isn't it?" you say. You've been wondering why no one else has made the obvious deduction, so you make it for them. "It's Chelsea who's behind it, right?"<br/>
<br/>
Their expressions tighten. "You think so?" Eva says.<br/>
<br/>
"Sure! She's trying to get you thrown off the squad! Even if the school doesn't suspend you or anything, it'll get you kicked off. She'll be all about 'zero tolerance' and that crap." You blow a loose bang out of your face and fall backward onto the bed.<br/>
<br/>
"But what about Marc?" Lin says. "Why would she plant any in <i>his</i> locker?"<br/>
<br/>
"And how did she get ahold of any of that stuff?" Jessica asks. "I don't picture <i>her</i> talking to any of the guys who deal it."<br/>
<br/>
"So she got Gordon to get some for her," you snarl. "And whose side are you on?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm just saying—"<br/>
<br/>
Whatever Jessica has to say is interrupted by a lot of thumping, as of large animals stampeding down the hallway. A moment later someone bangs on a nearby door. "Yo, Garner!" a hard voice calls, followed by more knocks. "I know you're in there, open up!"<br/>
<br/>
You all look at each other, and there's a general rush on the door. From behind Eva's shoulder you peer out into the hall. Gary Chen is banging on a closed door a few feet down. George Mendoza, one of his hulking flunkies, stands behind him. Both of them glower over at you and your quartet.<br/>
<br/>
The door opens, and Marc doesn't even have a chance to speak before Chen and Mendoza shove their way in. The door slams, and loud but inarticulate voices sound.<br/>
<br/>
"Shit," Jessica mutters. "Why did Mom let that psycho in?"<br/>
<br/>
"Does she know he's a psycho?"<br/>
<br/>
"One look ought to warn her." She hurries down to put her ear to Marc's door. <br/>
<br/>
The rest of you rush after. "Come back here!" you hiss. "Get away! If they hear you—!" Jessica shushes you, but Lin and Eva help you drag her back into the bedroom. "Are you crazy?"<br/>
<br/>
"No, I'm being smart! You saw Gary's face, he's going to kill—!"<br/>
<br/>
"Not here he's not!"<br/>
<br/>
"Then why is he—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Same reason we're here with you," Lin says. "They're on the soccer team with Marc, they probably want to know what the fuck is going on."<br/>
<br/>
"They <i>know</i> what's going on!" Jessica snarls, "'cos Gary's the one that peddles that shit around school!"<br/>
<br/>
"And if they're worried about the team," Eva says, "where's Marcos? Shouldn't he be out here, like you guys are with us?" She looks between you and Lin.<br/>
<br/>
"I'm calling him," Jessica declares. "<i>Someone</i> has to be in there with Marc in case those assholes—"<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
She does eventually track down Marcos Rivera, Marc's best friend and his right-hand man on the soccer squad, but he's busy with other stuff and can't come out. Anyway, Chen and Mendoza leave long before he could show up. You see them when they go, too, for you struck a compromise with Jessica so that the girls' bedroom door is open. And when Chen comes charging out, he gives you a very direct look.<br/>
<br/>
He even stops not three feet from the door to stare at your quartet. His eyes settle on you. They seem to spark.<br/>
<br/>
Then he takes off downstairs, his and Mendoza's feet thundering loudly as they go. You hear a "Thanks, Mrs. Garner" from Chen and a grunt from Mendoza, and then they're gone.<br/>
<br/>
Jessica and Eva have already rushed to knock at their brother's door, and you and Lin follow. Marc, looking pale under his tan, answers. "Are you okay?" his sisters ask.<br/>
<br/>
"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"<br/>
<br/>
"What did Gary and George want?"<br/>
<br/>
He cocks a sour eyebrow at the question. "What do you think they wanted? Same thing you wanted," he says as he chucks his chin at you and Lin.<br/>
<br/>
"What did you tell him?"<br/>
<br/>
"That I didn't know how the stuff got in my locker."<br/>
<br/>
"Did he believe you?"<br/>
<br/>
Marc shrugs, then snorts. "Would you believe it? Chen actually lectured me on staying away from that shit!" He then gently pushes Jessica back and shuts the door.<br/>
<br/>
"I guess Gary doesn't know what kind of stuff gets smoked at Kelsey's parties," Lin says as the four of you troop back to other bedroom. She cocks her head as she closes the door. "So I wonder where she gets it from."<br/>
<br/>
"Ask Martin," Jessica says as she throws herself onto the bed. "He's the one who brings it in."<br/>
<br/>
"I can't picture Martin buying weed from Gary," Lin says. "I can picture <i>Kelsey</i> buying from him, but—"<br/>
<br/>
"Uh oh," you say as you examine your phone, which has dinged with a message. "Maybe I'll have a chance to ask him if he knows about Kelsey's parties." The others frown as you look up. "He just sent me a text, asking to meet."<br/>
<br/>
"Who?" Jessica gasps. "Gary?" You nod. "Son of a bitch!"<br/>
<br/>
"You're going to tell him 'No', right?" Eva says.<br/>
<br/>
"I— I don't know." Probably you shouldn't have mentioned the text, but you were being too deep into character to catch yourself in time. "Maybe he wants to talk about Marc? And you guys? Find out what we're thinking and saying?"<br/>
<br/>
"He's not the thoughtful type," Jessica growls.<br/>
<br/>
"He just wants to get you alone," Lin says. "Don't do it."<br/>
<br/>
"Tomorrow morning, nine o'clock," you murmur when the next text comes through. "At Starbucks." You swallow. "I don't think he's going to jump me in public."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
<i>The next morning. A Saturday.</i><br/>
<br/>
"Omigawd!" Chen squeals. He grasps you by the hands and draws you over to a corner of the coffee shop and into a pair of leather chairs. "Yesterday was so awesome! I was so—!"<br/>
<br/>
He gasps as he falls into a chair, and as he splays his legs you're startled by his very visible erection.<br/>
<br/>
"How did—?" he starts, then catches himself. "Okay, first of all, how would you like to be Amanda Ferguson?" </span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231322
author_id: seuzz
title: The Script Takes a Screwy Turn
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"Amanda Ferguson?" you gasp. "You mean for my, uh, extra person?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen's bobs his head, and his eyes disappear as his face rolls up into a beaming smile. "She's in, like, the perfect position for the next stage!"<br/>
<br/>
"Which is what?" you ask warily.<br/>
<br/>
Chen catches himself, and looks around the Starbucks. He also peers out the plate glass windows to make sure the coast up and down Orlando Road is clear. Then he scoots up, touching his knees to yours.<br/>
<br/>
"Okay, so we got the stuff into their lockers, right?" he starts with a girlish squeal. "And I've already got Coach Tesla's permission to kick Eva and Jessica off the squad."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, they're expecting that. You know you're the number one suspect."<br/>
<br/>
He flaps a dismissive hand, then he grabs your wrist. "Wait, didn't they talk to Marc? I mean, after I was there yesterday?"<br/>
<br/>
"A little, but Marc didn't want to talk about it. What did you say to him?"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, you know, I gave him a whole speech about how he needed to stay off that stuff for the good of the team. But I also told him I thought it was Erik Carstairs and his friends who did it to him."<br/>
<br/>
"Why?"<br/>
<br/>
"To throw him off the track! Look, it doesn't matter, I've got something else planned eventually. But I want you to think about Amanda, because I'm going to invite Kelsey to join the squad, and you know how Kelsey and Amanda are close, and with you and Amanda— I mean, you and Yumi and Amanda—" He titters.<br/>
<br/>
You finally find your voice. <br/>
<br/>
"Kelsey?" you exclaim. "Why are you inviting Kelsey onto the squad? She <i>hates</i> you! Chelsea, I mean," you add more quietly when Chen shushes you. "She <i>quit</i> rather than be on the squad with you!"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, she'll join up if I ask her. Her ego— Tch!" Chen rolls his eyes. "I'd just have to butter her up."<br/>
<br/>
"But why do you even <i>want</i> her? She'll join right up with Cindy and Lin and— Oh!" You gasp as Chen looks very coy. "That's why you want me to make a mask of Amanda. Right?" You study Chen's puckish expression. "But it still doesn't make any sense. Why not hold an open tryout, get someone who'll be loyal to you?"<br/>
<br/>
"I am! There's going to be two openings, remember? And I'll fill one of them with an open tryout." Chen pats your knee. "Look, don't worry about it. After the thing with Kelsey there'll be another thing and then another thing. It'll just confuse you if I explain everything to you." He giggles. "I almost confuse myself!"<br/>
<br/>
You continue to feel doubtful, so when Chen presses you again about Amanda, you turn down the proposition. He only shrugs. "Well, there's lots of other possibilities for you, I guess." He studies his fingernails.<br/>
<br/>
And studies them. A frown slowly distends his lips. "I've kind of fallen out of character, haven't I?"<br/>
<br/>
"A little."<br/>
<br/>
"Uhngh. Well." He shrugs and sighs. "I suppose we should at least <i>talk</i> like I'm in character. We're supposed to be discovering that we kind of like each other." He winks coquettishly.<br/>
<br/>
"I told Lin and the others that we were going to talk about Marc."<br/>
<br/>
"You did? Why did you say anything?"<br/>
<br/>
"I just blurted it out without thinking. I was with them when your text came in. Anyway, I told them I thought you wanted to ask me about Eva and Jessica, and what we all were talking about yesterday."<br/>
<br/>
"Oh." His gaze goes distant. "Okay, that works. Yeah! Now we have an excuse for getting together and finding out that we—!" He titters again.  "So I guess we should have that talk!"<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
As you compare notes, a script evolves. You related to Chen (so the script says) all that Eva and Jessica said, along with your suspicions that Chelsea was behind the frame-up. He told you that was bullshit, and called his three sub-dealers to ask if Chelsea, her boyfriend, any of her cronies, or anyone even related to the basketball team had bought any ganja. The results were negative. Chen then told you he thought it was Erik Carstairs or some of his friends from the football squad, because they had their own supply and he knew they had some kind of a grudge against Marc on account of his girlfriend. When you asked why Eva and Jessica were also framed, he said it was part of Erik's idea of maximizing the hurt.<br/>
<br/>
"And then we just kept talking," Chen continues, "and I listened to all of your problems in all of your classes and with all of your friends, and I was really sympathetic."<br/>
<br/>
Now it's your turn to titter. "Even when I was talking about Chelsea and what a bitch she is?"<br/>
<br/>
"I wasn't paying a lot of attention during that part of it." He smiles tightly. "I paid for all the drinks, though."<br/>
<br/>
"How long were we here?"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh." Chen consults his phone. "An hour and a half. And when we got up to go, I helped you up—" He stands and puts out his hand to lift you up. "But I didn't hold your hand or anything when we walked out the door together."<br/>
<br/>
"Then why do I want to see you again?" you ask when you're both outside.<br/>
<br/>
"Because I walked you over to your car, and I told you that if you ever know someone who needs an ass-kicking, to let me know."<br/>
<br/>
His voice has been dropping for the past little while, and for the first time that morning you're honestly unsure if you're dealing with Chelsea's personality or with Chen's.<br/>
<br/>
"And I said I didn't need or want that," you reply.<br/>
<br/>
"Then I said that if Eva or Jessica need me to fuck up someone on account of—"<br/>
<br/>
"They don't need that either. I told you that I don't want you doing that to anyone. Can't you figure it out, Ga—? Uh, Chelsea? This isn't the way to impress Yumi."<br/>
<br/>
"It isn't?"<br/>
<br/>
"No. We wouldn't be in this trouble—Eva and Jessica, I mean—if he wasn't bringing weed into the school. You should stop it."<br/>
<br/>
"Someone else would just take over," he says. "Besides, I can't stop. I need the money."<br/>
<br/>
"For what?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen chews on his cheek—that is definitely Chen's personality—then he slips on his sunglasses and says, "Never mind."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, you have to do <i>something</i> to charm me, or how are we going to explain why you and I—?"<br/>
<br/>
"You know, I've never spent this much time with a girl without trying to put my hands on her," Chen blurts out. His tone is very blunt. "I never spent this much time just listening to her." He jumps over to lean against the side of your car. "Listening, talking, arguing, , helping, making calls, trying to get things straightened out for her. I didn't even do it because I like you. Yumi Saito is a fucking Nip, you know."<br/>
<br/>
He leans forward into your startled silence, putting his face close to yours, but with his arms crossed. <br/>
<br/>
"So how's this?" he says. "I kept listening and talking and helping, and the more I did it the more I liked it. But I still didn't get it, not until we were outside."<br/>
<br/>
He gently pushes you back and opens your car door. "I opened the door for you and you got in the car—" You follow the stage directions. "And I closed the door and you were about to drive off when I tapped on the window." He taps, and you roll it down. "And I leaned in and said, Can we get together tomorrow and do this again?"<br/>
<br/>
"You mean, talk about all these problems? We already did."<br/>
<br/>
"No. To talk about you. Me. Us. I liked it. I liked being with you."<br/>
<br/>
"We didn't do anything, Gary."<br/>
<br/>
"So? I still thought I liked you. And I wanted to find out if I do."<br/>
<br/>
You smile wryly. "That's not the sweetest thing anyone's ever said to me."<br/>
<br/>
"The municipal library. We'll call it a study date. Besides, I might have some more news for you."<br/>
<br/>
"Alright. For that I'll come."<br/>
<br/>
"Great." He smiles. "Then that's the script."<br/>
<br/>
"That's the script," you agree, and put the key in the ignition.<br/>
<br/>
But Chen's hand darts in, and he seizes your wrist. "That's the script," he murmurs as he puts his face close to yours. "But it's not what really happens."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
He is clean, once his clothes with their stench of stale tobacco smoke are off and in a corner of the loft. He is clean and smooth and strong and supple. His skin is stretched tight over his arms and chest and stomach and legs. And his penis is very red as it swells and stretches and points at you. But he doesn't insert it into you right away. He crouches between your spread-eagled legs and strokes you.<br/>
<br/>
He strokes your legs and calves first and works slowly up, but he dodges your bush to press higher. Once he's reached your breasts, though, he keeps one hand up there while probing you with the other. Not until you are writhing in an agony of anticipation does he sheath his member, stretch himself over you, and slowly thrust his way in. He pulls you close, and you clench him to yourself, and your cry when you cum cracks and throbs like a frozen ocean that has burst its crust and flooded the ice with tropical waters. He pulls you close after he has cum, and burrows his teeth and tongue into your neck.<br/>
<br/>
Later, when you're on your backs and he is pulling on a cigarette, he says, "Jesus. Suddenly I have a lot more sympathy for horny guys. How do you manage? I mean, when you're not being—" He gestures at your face with the cigarette.<br/>
<br/>
"Cold showers and old socks," you confess.<br/>
<br/>
"Hrnh. Gary can't even do that. He doesn't even have a bed of his own."<br/>
<br/>
You prop up on an elbow. "He doesn't? He doesn't seem poor."<br/>
<br/>
"He and his family have debts." He takes another drag. "If you made me some more masks, we could solve some of his problems."</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221
author_id: seuzz
title: Debts and Acquisitions
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Gary Chen has scraped you over and spread you thin atop one of the gym mats up in the Westside High School fuck room. You're naked and a little chilly, but you're feeling loose and warm down between your legs. Chen is also naked, lying on his back and staring at the ceiling while occasionally drawing on a cigarette. He's already offered it to you and you've already refused.<br/>
<br/>
"What kind of debts does Gary have?" you ask. "Do you have," you semi-correct yourself.<br/>
<br/>
Chen blows out a long stream of smoke. "Sick grandfather. I work three nights a week at the country club, give all the money to the family. Also most of the money I get selling weed."<br/>
<br/>
You blanch. "His parents know about that?"<br/>
<br/>
"No, I— He tells them it's tips from work. Pft. Like busboys get tips."<br/>
<br/>
"That must be a lot in 'tips'."<br/>
<br/>
"Not really." He takes another drag, continues to stare at the ceiling. "I only clear a hundred or so a month."<br/>
<br/>
You sit up sharply at that. <br/>
<br/>
"Oh, bullshit! I know what an ounce of weed costs, and I have a pretty good idea how much gets sold! I know how much I see around here, anyway, and I know you— He— Must be selling a lot more than that!"<br/>
<br/>
Chen only takes another drag and says, "I said I got debts. The guy who sells Gary the weed, set him up in business? He loaned Gary the money to get started, charges massive interest on the principal. That guy clears <i>thousands</i> of dollars a month, but I barely break even because all the profits go to pay off that guy."<br/>
<br/>
"Really?" You wouldn't put it past Chen—even if it's Chelsea in the driver seat—to exaggerate.<br/>
<br/>
He turns to stare evenly at you. "You think those assholes are running a bank? They're sponsoring the fucking Junior Achievers? It's a fucking philanthropy where they give some bright and eager little cocksucker a leg up in business?"<br/>
<br/>
His tone has been dark and angry since getting up into the loft, and you have to believe it was "Chen"—the character—and not Chelsea who thrust his cock in and out of you with such ravenous abandon. This also sounds more like the real Gary Chen. So: "Chelsea?" you say.<br/>
<br/>
He blinks once, hard, then tosses the cigarette away and pinches the bridge of his note. "What?"<br/>
<br/>
"Just making sure you were still there, sweetheart." You scoot over, close enough to give his nipple a quick kiss and bite. "If it's so stressful being Gary Chen—"<br/>
<br/>
"It's not stressful," he says. "It's just a challenge. And I wouldn't have to sweat it so hard if—"<br/>
<br/>
He sits up and paws at his discarded clothes. He draws out a fresh cigarette and is about to light it when he pauses, then slips it back into the package. "Never mind," he says. <br/>
<br/>
"If what?"<br/>
<br/>
His eye is dull as he studies you up and down. "You don't want to make any more masks for me."<br/>
<br/>
"What would you do with them?"<br/>
<br/>
He rubs his legs as he answers. "There's two guys. That fucker downtown, who takes my money. Gary's money." He shrugs. "And the guy who actually supplies the weed. They're crooks, Will. They're not doing anyone any good. They keep trying to force me to sell more, to expand the business. If I didn't <i>owe</i> them—"<br/>
<br/>
"Would you stop selling the stuff in school, if we, uh, arranged it so you didn't have to pay off that debt?"<br/>
<br/>
"Someone else would just start dealing it," he says. "Best to leave it with me. But I wouldn't— Chen wouldn't have try so hard to get people to buy it. He— I could be more relaxed. You know. Just be the guy who has some, and if you want it I'll sell it but I'm not going to try to, you know, advertise."<br/>
<br/>
You sigh. "So you want to use some masks on the crooks. To make them, uh, do what we say."<br/>
<br/>
"What I say," Chen says. "I just want to get them off my dick. Chen's dick." He pauses. "You make these two masks for me, you know, you get to make two more for yourself. I said we'd match, go equal on everything. Even though I wouldn't be getting any use out of the extras, and you'd get something from yours."<br/>
<br/>
You wish she hadn't added that last part. Now it sounds like a bribe.<br/>
<br/>
"I'll think about it," you mutter.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
It's not long before you part: Steve Patterson wants the loft for the afternoon. But Chelsea molests you hard at your car before you part, eating out the inside of your mouth while squeezing your tits and rubbing his diamond-hard cock up and down your crotch. She's panting hard when you break off (and so are you), and there's a feverish gleam in the mica-like eyes that she has stolen from Gary Chen.<br/>
<br/>
At home, you field texts from your friends, who want to know about your crazy morning. You relate the script that you and Chelsea agreed on. All your claims—that Chelsea probably didn't frame the Garners; that it was probably Erik Carstairs or his friends; and that Chen was low-key and charming and not at all scary—are met with skepticism. And when you reveal that you'll be meeting Chen at the municipal library tomorrow for a "study date" or more, you get more than skepticism.<br/>
<br/>
Lin: <i>r u crazy ODNT GO!</i> Cindy: <i>That's a seriously bad idea.</i> Jessica (for both herself and Eva): <i>u dont have to take one for the team.</i> You insist to them all that you'll be alright.<br/>
<br/>
"Lin says she's going to chaperone us tomorrow," you tell Chelsea when she calls you later. ("Got some dirty talk I wanna try out on you," she gruffly informed you when you picked up.)<br/>
<br/>
"So let her," Chelsea says.<br/>
<br/>
"Really? You want her there while we—?"<br/>
<br/>
"While we what? It's not like I'm not going to throw you across the table and put my hand down your panties. Though that would be so hot."<br/>
<br/>
"We aren't going to talk about stuff?"<br/>
<br/>
"Not if we don't have to. It's a date. We need to set up that you like me and I like you, and that we're okay together. So it's perfect if Lin's be there. Tell her you're fine with it. As long as it's just her." His voice drops. "I'm not gonna try to entertain a whole fucking hen party."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
But you decide it's still a bad idea to have a chaperone, and convince Lin not to come because she and Chen have an awkward history together, and tell her you'll get Cindy or someone else to sit with you. Then you set up some multi-dimensional text tag that gets you out of having any kind of chaperone at all.<br/>
<br/>
"What, is it just us?" Chen asks the next afternoon, when he trudges into the library, where you're already waiting.<br/>
<br/>
"Uh huh. Everyone else had a scheduling conflict." You're not sure whether to put your arm around him, so you don't, and he keeps his hands off you as well.<br/>
Together you trudge up a swooping ramp to the mezzanine where the study tables are, where you unpack and spread out your books. You're a little disappointed when he takes the other side of the table instead of sitting next to you, but you assume Chelsea knows what she's doing in terms of setting up a plausible "study date" between two people who are just starting to get interested in each other.<br/>
<br/>
The time passes in a very business-like way, with you helping each other with the math homework. Then, about an hour into it, Chen stiffens. His eyes dart about, and he leans over the table. "Three guys just came in. Don't look," he cautions. "It's Gardinhire, Mansfield, and Kirk."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Mansfield? Geoff Mansfield? The guy who stole Lisa from you?</i><br/>
<br/>
"That would be perfect, in a lot of ways," Chen murmurs—to himself, it sounds like. His brow is furrowed.<br/>
<br/>
"What would?"<br/>
<br/>
"They're sitting down behind you," he says. "We'll just keep studying, play it cool."<br/>
<br/>
"You want them to see us?" you whisper.<br/>
<br/>
"Of course. They're bound to say something about seeing us together up here. We'll give 'em a little show when we're ready to go."<br/>
<br/>
Then he scribbles on a piece of paper. It's a long note, and his handwriting is so bad you can't read it upside down. But when he shoves it at you, you read: <i>What about one of those 3 for your 2nd? Pref Gardn or Kirk but Mansfd ok if you want.</i><span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132213
author_id: seuzz
title: As the Gossip Swirls
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span><i>Martin Gardinhire? Anthony Kirk? Geoff Mansfield?</i> One of those guys for your "second" mask?<br/>
<br/>
You do pause at the thought of making a mask of Geoff. That would be sweet revenge on the guy who took Lisa from you, and it would get you close to her again. But you quail at the idea of approaching her from under a face that she prefers to your own.<br/>
<br/>
Besides, you've got this relationship with Chelsea, and you doubt you should take a chance on making her jealous.<br/>
<br/>
"Why?" you whisper at Chen. He only answers your query with a shrug, as if to say that if you don't see the advantages, then it's not for you.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Thirty minutes later, he pushes back from the table and starts putting his things away. In a voice that's not too loud but will carry, he says, "How are you doing with the new orchestra piece?"<br/>
<br/>
"Huh? Oh." You think quickly through plausible, open-ended answers. "Bach breaks my fingers," is the one you settle on.<br/>
<br/>
"Mine too." He stands and holds your jacket for you as you slide into it. "I got time to practice it now, if you do."<br/>
<br/>
"That would work for me." You smile at him, and he brushes his fingertips across your shoulder. "But, um, there's a lot of noise at my place—"<br/>
<br/>
"There's no room at mine."<br/>
<br/>
"So what do you suggest?"<br/>
<br/>
His fingers linger on your back, between your shoulder blade. "Maybe we should just skip practicing, go get coffee someplace instead."<br/>
<br/>
"Okay." Your back is to those guys at the other table, but you smile at Chen anyway as he gently leads you toward the ramp that circles down to the main floor.<br/>
<br/>
"How was that?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"Perfect. One of them's bound to say something to Kelsey, and then you won't have to tell <i>your</i> friends anything."<br/>
<br/>
"I can't stand Kelsey," you mutter, speaking for both yourself and Yumi. "Why do you want her on the cheerleader squad?"<br/>
<br/>
"I don't. I'll tell you about it on Tuesday, when we have our next date."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The texts buzz that night. Lin and the rest of them express disbelief when you tell them that Gary Chen was a perfect gentleman—<i>he didnt even cuss</i>—with you at the library, and they really explode after supper once Kelsey has got hold of the news. <i>HE TOUCHED YOU?????</i> is all Lin has to write for you to deduce that Kelsey has made her move.<br/>
<br/>
<i>he helped me put on my jacket,</i> you reply.<br/>
<br/>
<i>He was guothing you!</i> Cindy texts, and you have to ask her what "guothing" is before you can even deal with her.<br/>
<br/>
Patiently you explain to various girls—including Molly Shaw, who texts you out of the blue to be "rly crfel" about Chen—that you only did some math together, and he was charming and helpful. You take a chance on using the adjective "sweet" to describe him to Lin, which earns you a vomiting emoticon in reply. You get sharp with her, and remind her that <i>ur fuckbuddy jurstins not exactly the cleanest drugfree guy at school.</i> You're not sure whether to interpret the silence that follows as "frosty", "angry," "ashamed" or just "done for the night," but you're glad to have shut her down.<br/>
<br/>
Then Cindy sends you the link in Westside's x2z.com stream. It's anonymous—like all the shit posts there are—and the photo is blurry, but it's obviously a quick pic of you and Chen at the library. You're both standing, in profile, and he's got his hand on your shoulder. The caption: <i>slumming!</i><br/>
<br/>
And the first comment, already collecting upvotes, is <i>which one?</i><br/>
<br/>
You send the link to Chen's phone. He texts back: <i>lol.</i> Then: <i>dont worry, ill handle, luv u.</i><br/>
<br/>
But you do worry, and send the link to Cindy. <i>is this whtat you think of me?</i><br/>
<br/>
<i>No who took picture?<br/>
<br/>
Geff mansfoeld or martin gard or anthony kirk. They wre sitting close to us.</i><br/>
<br/>
After sending that text, you wonder if you did the right thing, and ask Chen. His reply: <i>perfect. dont worry. well talk later off texts.</i><br/>
<br/>
You turn off your own phone after that, for it's just too stressful. You sure hope Chelsea knows what she's doing!<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You're not surprised Monday morning when Eva and Jessica are absent from the changing room during first period. One of the first texts you found, on waking up, was a notice from them saying that they've already resigned from the squad. Everyone is very quiet, including Chelsea's two trolls, Kendra and Gloria, who seem baffled by the fact that Chelsea is tardy.<br/>
<br/>
She comes in five minutes later, after everyone has warmed up on the gym floor. She doesn't change before calling everyone into a circle. She is very sober as she speaks.<br/>
<br/>
"I guess everyone's heard the news. We're all shocked, I know I am. But it's funny the way these things work out."<br/>
<br/>
Lin snorts, and across the circle of girls you see Cindy clenching her fists.<br/>
<br/>
"We've got two slots to fill and not a lot of time to fill them," Chelsea continues. She seems distracted, and you wonder if it's the real girl, trying to reacclimate to her real life. "We'll hold an open tryout to fill one of them, but I've already arranged to fill the other, since we are in kind of an emergency situation. Kelsey's going to be rejoining the squad. Next Monday will be her first day back."<br/>
<br/>
A murmur of astonishment runs around the squad, and you join in. <i>Kelsey Blankenship?</i> the common thought is. <i>But she and Chelsea hate each other! Why would Chelsea ask her to join? Why would she decide to come back? She </i>quit<i> when she didn't get elected squad captain!</i><br/>
<br/>
"The thing to do now is to go on," Chelsea says. "But for today let's just exercise and condition."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You're glad for the bombshell news, for it overwhelms (for now) the gossip about you and Gary Chen being seen together. You have Kelsey for second period, and you eyeball her before and during class, but she gives no sign of acknowledging your presence. During third period, Cindy adds news of her own. She draws you into the back of the Chemistry lab for a whispered conversation.<br/>
<br/>
"Kendra texted me during the break," she tells you. "She says that Chelsea's been thinking about asking Kelsey to rejoin the squad for the past few weeks!"<br/>
<br/>
"No!"<br/>
<br/>
"That's what Kendra told me! She said that Chelsea told Kelsey that if any kind of opening happened, if someone quit or—" She drops her voice so low you can barely hear it. "If anyone got forced off the squad, that she wanted Kelsey to come back!"<br/>
<br/>
"For how long has this been going on?"<br/>
<br/>
"Two weeks or so. Kendra also says," Cindy continues as you try to wrap your head around these revelations; has Chelsea been planning these moves for so long? "She says that Chelsea is acting all surprised about Eva and Jessica, that she was trying to figure out a way to get <i>Michelle</i> off the squad so Kelsey could come back."<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, this is bullshit," you hiss back. "Isn't it?"<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know! But she says Chelsea is really upset about having <i>two</i> slots to fill, because she doesn't want to have to go through the bother of open tryouts, but that there's no one else who's an obvious candidate the way Kelsey is."<br/>
<br/>
"She could just ask Eva and Jessica to rejoin," you suggest, though you don't believe it yourself.<br/>
<br/>
"But didn't Gary tell you that Chelsea wasn't the one to, uh—?"<br/>
<br/>
"He told me that, but I didn't believe him. You didn't either," you remind her.<br/>
<br/>
"I know," she moans. "But I don't know what to think now!"<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
In sixth period, your boyfriend-to-be leans over you just long enough to whisper, "Wait for me at your car after school." You give no sign of acknowledgment, though, for you catch David Kirkham studying you intently. He and Chen exchange a fist bump as the latter slouches into a chair behind his buddy; Kirkham sucks on his toothpick and stares at you from under lowered brows.<br/>
<br/>
When classes let out, you loiter impatiently by your car for ten minutes before Chen appears. Kirkham is with him, but Chen sends him away before coming in to lean on the car next to you. "Gonna take you shopping tomorrow," he says. "Don't forget."<br/>
<br/>
"Shopping?" you echo, for the word has caught your attention. But then you get back on track.<br/>
<br/>
"Listen, you've got a problem," you tell him, for you think you've spotted a flaw in whatever plan Chelsea thinks she's running. "It takes a two-thirds vote to kick you out as squad captain. Right now, with Eva and Jessica gone and Kelsey in, there's four people who would like to dump your ass. We can get Michelle, probably. Then we just need Kendra's vote. And we've got that JV squad idea to dangle in front of her."<br/>
<br/>
"I know," Chen replies, sounding very serene. "I was gonna tell you to dangle it in front of her. Get everyone together with her tonight and talk about it."<br/>
<br/>
"Really?" you gasp. "You want us to promise her the JV squad if she votes with us?"<br/>
<br/>
"Exactly."<br/>
<br/>
You gape at her. <br/>
<br/>
"How long have you been planning all this? 'Cos I heard today that Kendra says you were already talking to Kelsey about this!"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure, I sent Kelsey an email last week, right after you told me what Cindy and them were planning to do."<br/>
<br/>
"But Kendra said it's been two weeks—"<br/>
<br/>
"Pft, that's only what I told Kendra. But everyone really thinks I got the idea two weeks ago? Awesome. And speaking of looking good, what about one of them?" He chucks his chin at Paris and Peyton Morrow, who are passing nearby. "For a second face. I'm getting the impression you don't want it to be a guy."<br/>
<br/>
"One of them?"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure. We got a tryout coming up, and either of them are good enough to make it on. Especially if I say they are."<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231322133
author_id: seuzz
title: The Corkscrew Confession
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"I'm flattered that you keep trying to buy things for me," you tell Chen as the Morrow sisters get into a car. "But maybe we should wait until this plot is finished. I mean," you add as his brow furrows, "maybe you think they'll be useful for this plan you've got. But afterward—"<br/>
<br/>
You gasp as Chen darts into give you a nip and kiss at the neck. Several of your organs liquefy with surprise—and more than a little delight. You swallow hard.<br/>
<br/>
"Sure, if that's the way you wanna do it," he says with casual insolence when he's withdrawn. "Makes sense. I'm still taking you shopping tomorrow."<br/>
<br/>
"That's great," you gasp, and wait for an embrace or a touch or another kiss.<br/>
<br/>
It doesn't come, though. Instead, Chen says, "So meet me at my Jeep after school. Go talk to your girls about Kendra. Sell her and them on that JV idea. <i>Sell it,</i>" he repeats. "Then text me, write, 'Talked to Lin and others about you,' then I'll know you did it." He grins, and edges closer to you. His hands are in his pockets, but he touches you with the cock that's swelling inside his pants. "Do it tonight, and by Wednesday you'll be shopping for that new face you keep putting off. Can't wait to see who you finally pick."<br/>
<br/>
You're quite flushed as you get in your car.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You pitch the idea first to Lin and Cindy in a series of texts, but since none of you three are particularly friendly with Kendra, you then pitch it to Eva and Jessica and let them arrange for another "Panera Plotting" session with Chelsea's lieutenant. The Garner girls join you, since Jessica is the most knowledgeable about that "JV cheerleader squad" idea that Kelsey had.<br/>
<br/>
Kendra is wary but open-minded as you all sit down at a big table. She is also very stylishly done up, in carefully applied makeup and nails, her auburn ringlets arranged just so, and in understated but expensive designer clothes. She explains that she's having dinner out with her parents at seven, so she will only have a coffee.<br/>
<br/>
Eva gets things off to a bad start by reminding Kendra that she was going to work with Kelsey at the start of the year if Kelsey got elected squad captain. Kendra gets a pinched expression and asks if there's a point in dredging up old history.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, remember what Kelsey suggested?" Jessica says. "She'd be squad captain, and she'd get the school to set up a JV squad that you could run?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, that didn't work out."<br/>
<br/>
"It could. Kelsey's coming back onto the squad, you know."<br/>
<br/>
Kendra's eyes dart about the table. "But Chelsea's already squad captain. She'd need to sign off on it."<br/>
<br/>
"But maybe Chelsea won't be squad captain after Kelsey joins," you say. "It takes a two-thirds vote of the team to force a captain to resign. After Kelsey joins, there will be nine people on the squad." You tick off your fingers. "Me, Cindy, Lin, Kelsey, you—" You tap your thumb meaningfully with a forefinger. "Only one more vote, and that's six people to knock Chelsea off."<br/>
<br/>
Kendra's nostrils flare.<br/>
<br/>
"I bet <i>someone,</i>" Lin says, "could talk Michelle into being that sixth vote."<br/>
<br/>
Kendra's dark fingers whiten at the knuckles as she grips her coffee mug. "And who becomes the new captain? Kelsey? You?" she asks Cindy.<br/>
<br/>
"Why not you?" <br/>
<br/>
All heads swivel at Cindy's reply.<br/>
<br/>
"You can be squad captain," Cindy continues, "and I'll run the new JV squad that you set up."<br/>
<br/>
"But—" Lin starts to say, then she jumps. Someone must have jabbed her under the table.<br/>
<br/>
"<i>You</i> want to be squad captain," Kendra says. "You've always—"<br/>
<br/>
"Yes, but I'm not going to get it. I'll just be happy if Chelsea gets kicked to the curb. And I don't think any of us want <i>Kelsey</i> running it."<br/>
<br/>
<i>None of us want Kendra running it either,</i> you want to shout.<br/>
<br/>
"You're the obvious compromise candidate," Cindy continues. "But I get the JV squad. That's my price."<br/>
<br/>
Kendra nods slowly, and sips her coffee. "I'll have to think about it," she says. She stares at the table for a minute, then gets up. "Tonight," she says, and gets a to-go cup for her beverage.<br/>
<br/>
"Are you crazy?" you hiss at Cindy after Kendra has gone. "Why are you giving up everything—?"<br/>
<br/>
"I haven't given anything up, Yumi," Cindy retorts. "Right now the most important thing is to get Chelsea out." Her expression hardens. "We've got the votes to do that now, practically, and we won't get them after Chelsea has filled that open slot. Now we just have to get Kelsey and Michelle to come along with us, so that next Monday we can dump Chelsea's ass in the garbage."<br/>
<br/>
She smiles mirthlessly. "And after that, we'll see if anybody except Kendra votes to make Kendra captain."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
<i>Six o'clock: Talked to lin and others abut u,</i> you text Gary Chen. <i>got more gossip too.<br/>
<br/>
talk dirty to me,</i> he texts back much later. <i>at work but i luf cheerfleadr gossip n shit</i><br/>
<br/>
So you relate the gist of the talk with Kendra, including Cindy's surprise offer and the implied double-cross. He doesn't reply until after ten: <i>thx chelsea syas she luvs u.</i> You interpret that to mean that you were texting with the golem, and that he somehow got the news to Chelsea. <br/>
<br/>
Which makes sense. You can't imagine Chelsea wasting her Monday evenings playing a Chinese-American busboy at the country club.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The news about Kelsey rejoining the cheerleader squad knocked your blooming romance with Gary Chen off the front pages (so to speak) but the subject returns on Tuesday with a vengeance. You get a hint of it during second period, when Kelsey Blankenship gives you a coldly murderous glare when you walk into Mrs. Goretsky's classroom, and in third, when Cindy keeps shooting you "significant" glances. But it's not until fourth period—AP German IV—that you get some glimmer of what's going on.<br/>
<br/>
Jessica is in that class with you, and she shoots you the same kind of look that Cindy gave you. You just return her a puzzled look of your own, then do a double-take when the AP crew shuffle in. <br/>
<br/>
Anthony Kirk and Geoff Mansfield just look grim. Ricky Golia dodges your eye. Amanda Ferguson stares down coldly at you. <br/>
<br/>
Martin Gardinhire is the last to arrive, and he's ten minutes tardy. A low murmur runs through the class as, with lowered head, he shuffles into the room.<br/>
<br/>
His face is like one giant bruise. Both his eyes are blackened, and there are purple blooms all down one side of his face. He winces and looks away from you. When you turn wide eyes on Jessica, she mouths <i>Your fucking boyfriend</i> at you.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Gary? Chelsea? One or the other, or one disguised as the other?</i><br/>
<br/>
Jessica grabs you by the hand and hauls you out of class when the bell rings. "Are you happy that you're dating that fucking psycho?" she yells when you're outside. "Did you ask him to do that?"<br/>
<br/>
"No! What makes you think—?" You gulp. The suspicion is all too easy to credit. "I haven't heard anything about this. What happened to Martin?"<br/>
<br/>
"Your <i>boyfriend</i> happened to him," Jessica spits. "On account of that picture that got posted on x2z!"<br/>
<br/>
You can't help but feel impressed at the gesture, and Jessica must have read your thought, for her eyes blaze. "You <i>like</i> that he almost put Martin in the hospital?"<br/>
<br/>
"No! But— What did Martin say happened?"<br/>
<br/>
"What did your <i>boyfriend</i> say?"<br/>
<br/>
"He's not my—!" You take a deep breath. "I haven't talked to him since yesterday afternoon. Barely. What did Martin say?"<br/>
<br/>
"He said Gary cornered him after work last night. They both work up at the country club, you know. And Gary slammed him into a couple of walls and a couple of cars and told him that if he ever takes any more cell phone pictures of him or you he'll—" Jessica shudders. "Well, it was some kind of threat, apparently!"<br/>
<br/>
Another voice interrupts. "That's not all he and Martin talked about."<br/>
<br/>
You and Jessica whip around. Her brother is walking up.<br/>
<br/>
Marc usually has a bright smile on his face, but his mouth is a grim line and his eyes are clouded as he approaches. "I talked to Martin last hour, before class. He told me that <i>he's</i> the one who put the marijuana in my gym locker. He said he did it as a prank."<br/>
<br/>
Jessica grabs your forearm, but she's staring at her brother with an open mouth. "Martin?" she gasps.<br/>
<br/>
"Uh huh. He said he didn't put any in <i>your</i> or Eva's locker, though," Marc continues, "so I don't know what's going on there." His frown deepens. "It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but that's what he said."<br/>
<br/>
You and Jessica exchange a numb glance. Then Jessica says, "Does this have anything to do with Gary?"<br/>
<br/>
"Something." Marc shades his eyes and squints into the difference. "He told me at soccer practice to talk to Martin, and Martin told me it was, uh, after he talked to Gary at work that he decided to confess. So it was Gary who, uh, talked Martin into confessing." He pauses. "He's going to talk to Sagansky and Coach Gellman about it. Tell them it wasn't my stuff." He grimaces. "Try to get them to reinstate me as captain of the squad."<br/>
<br/>
"They took that away from you?" you gasp.<br/>
<br/>
Marc rolls his eyes. "Sure. Guess Gary didn't tell you, did he? He was super-pissed about it, too, which is weird." He chews his lip. "He told me at practice to talk to Martin, said if I did I'd be captain again by the end of the day." He kicks the ground. "Not sure I like the way it worked out, though."<br/>
<br/>
You're not sure either. Maybe you should talk Chelsea into turning management of Chen over to you.</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332
author_id: seuzz
title: The Shopping Trip
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Marc has to go to class, which leaves you with Jessica for the lunch hour. (You don't feel like facing Lin or anyone else, so you tell her it's going to be just the two of you or fuck off.) You insist that you have no idea what the hell is going on with you and Gary Chen, and that you sure as <i>hell</i> don't know why he's battering Martin Gardinhire around, since it sounds like he's got a couple of reasons for doing so. "I'll talk to him," you announce, and you're about to send him a text when you remember that you're <i>supposed</i> to meet him in the parking lot after school anyway.<br/>
<br/>
Sixth period is extraordinarily fraught. You share AP Statistics with Chen, so you give him a long look when he comes in, but he ignores it, except to lurch slightly as he passes your desk to brush your shoulder with his elbow. Kirkham is in there too, and he smirks knowingly at Chen's move. Gardinhire is also in there, and he makes a point of taking a desk on the opposite side of the room. As for Marc (yet another of the dramatis personae), he pauses in the doorway before entering with a sigh. Chen holds his hand up for a high-five, but Marc ignores him and slouches in his own desk.<br/>
<br/>
Then there's Paul Davis, the guy who has the huge crush on Yumi. He slinks inside and huddles up in his desk and shoots your reproachful looks all during class.<br/>
<br/>
Everyone ignores you during seventh-period Speech class, which is a mercy when it comes to Deanna Showalter—you've been dreading having to talk to that shameless gossip about what's going on—but less enjoyable when it's Rachel Burton giving you the cold shoulder. Kim Walsh looks for awhile like she's trying to figure out how to approach you, but she apparently gives up and leaves class without giving you one word.<br/>
<br/>
Then there's Orchestra, where you're stuck sitting between Eva and Chen. Eva says nothing to you when she sits down and takes out her viola, but at least she doesn't glower at you. But then Chen comes in, and a minute after he's squatted casually in his seat, Eva reaches behind you to poke him with the tip of her bow. "What's the deal between you and my brother?" she asks.<br/>
<br/>
"I got 'im his job back," Chen replies. He looks right past you in giving this reply. "It was bullshit, them making him quit as team captain. That wasn't his shit they found in his locker. You know that."<br/>
<br/>
"So who put it there?"<br/>
<br/>
"Gardinhire." Now Chen does glance at you. "You know that, or did you unsubscribe to your news feeds?"<br/>
<br/>
"He didn't put that crap in my locker or Jessica's!"<br/>
<br/>
Chen only shrugs. "All I know is he told me he put it in Marc's. Maybe he had a friend put it in yours. I didn't ask 'cos, tee-bee-aitch, I don't give a shit who put it there."<br/>
<br/>
Eva wheels around and settles in to tuning her viola with a hard scowl.<br/>
<br/>
That's all that gets said during class, and you make your own solitary journey to your locker before going out to the parking lot. You loiter almost fifteen minutes by Chen's Jeep before he appears; there's a strong stench of cigarette smoke on him. "So, babe, you gonna yell at me?" he asks as he swaggers up.<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know what I'm going to do. I really wish you'd explain to me what you're doing and what's going on."<br/>
<br/>
"Sure thing. Climb in. This way." He touches your elbow and guides you up and through the driver's side door, and you pull at your skirt to keep from flashing your panties as you clamber over the gearshift. A soft chortling from behind tells you that's the reason he wanted you going in that way.<br/>
<br/>
But once he's inside and has the door closed, his whole manner changes. He covers his face and giggles, and his voice goes up an octave.<br/>
<br/>
"Omigawd, wasn't Eva just <i>too too</i> precious in Orchestra?" He hiccups with suppressed laughter. "It was all I could do to keep from losing it! I think I did pretty good, though. <i>Tee-bee-aitch, I don't give a shit about who put that stuff in your locker!</i>" He shrieks with laughter.<br/>
<br/>
"You were really in character," you admit.<br/>
<br/>
"Thanks! Except I wasn't. If I was—" He grabs your bare thigh, and you flinch and squeal. He arches his back, thrusting his pelvis at the roof of the Jeep. "God! I have <i>so much more</i> sympathy for Gordon right now!"<br/>
<br/>
You bite back the retort that you've got a lot more sympathy for the girls' side of things.<br/>
<br/>
"But you wanna know what's going on?" he continues. "You really don't know? I only <i>practically</i> spelled it all out to you last period."<br/>
<br/>
"I must be dense."<br/>
<br/>
"That's fine." He giggles as he jams the key into the ignition and turns the motor over with a roar. "I'll explain it on the way out. I was going to tell you what you needed to do next anyway. You'll have to make some phone calls tonight, and then!" He shrieks again, and you almost piss yourself for thinking that you're about to be hit by another car, only to realize it's Chelsea venting her excitement the way a boiler vents steam.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
It's brilliantly simple and even obvious in retrospect, you have to admit when she's done explaining, and she doesn't even have to tell you what to do. You're thinking through exactly who to call first, and what to say, when you look up and find that Chen is driving you into the parking lot in front of The Shoppes at Fells Lake.<br/>
<br/>
That's the most expensive retail center in Saratoga Falls. It's where the Kelsey Blankenships get their stuff. "What are we doing here?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen's native manner has settled back around him. "I told you, we're shopping. I'm gonna buy you something. I've got so much money to throw around now, since taking care of that, uh, you know."<br/>
<br/>
"You can't buy me something!" you screech. "Not right after you beat the shit out of Martin! Everyone thinks it's because he took that cell phone picture of us! I'll look like a—! Like a—!"<br/>
<br/>
He shrugs as he pulls into a parking spot. "If you don't want me to, I won't," he says. "You can just tell everyone I took you up here and let you try on a bunch of clothes." He gets out, and you stumble after.<br/>
<br/>
You start at Silbermann Jewelers, where you go up and down the display cases (while being ignored by the help) and look at various rings and necklaces. Chen holds you close, and whispers excitedly at you; and though nothing gets bought, you are sure that someone who looks like Chelsea will soon be sporting some new and expensive pieces of jewelry.<br/>
<br/>
Then you move on to Chesterbrooke Clothiers, which is the center of the Shoppes. The help there at least pay attention to you, though they are very frosty, and they frown sharply when you take a dress back to try on. Chen seems unfazed, though, and lounges in a chair while you model it for him. After the third dress, though, when you see one of the floorwalkers advancing on you, you suggest to him that you should leave.<br/>
<br/>
He only murmurs, "I know how to handle this," and leads you to a rack of jackets. After a little looking, he takes one down—a cropped denim jacket whose distressed look belies its $600 price tag. "I've seen some things in your wardrobe this would look good with," he says. "Try it on."<br/>
<br/>
So you do, and you admire yourself in the mirror while trying to ignore the skinny woman with the crossed arms who is glaring at you. "It's nice," you whisper to Chen when you peel it off, "but I really think we should—"<br/>
<br/>
"I think we should get it," he says. "Go look for a skirt and a top to go with it while I pay for it." His words leave you in a daze, and you can only stare as he saunters to the front counter with the jacket, and peels seven hundred-dollar bills out of his money clip as the cashier rings it up.<br/>
<br/>
After that, the temperature in the store turns quite balmy.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Your boyfriend—<i>Yes! Gary Chen is your boyfriend!</i>—has to hold your hand to keep you from floating away when two hours later you are walking back to his Jeep. Besides the jacket, you left with a matching distressed jeans skirt and brand-new, pink Converse sneakers from Anbrog, and a keepsake bracelet from a return trip to Silberman. (You couldn't say "no" to anything by that point.) You are sipping cafe macchiatos from La Patisserie as you cross the parking lot. "I can't wear these things to school," you remind him. "I'll have to hide them at home."<br/>
<br/>
"You liked getting these things?" he asks. You have to nod. "I know how you can get more, and you won't have to hide it."<br/>
<br/>
"How?"<br/>
<br/>
He waits until you're in the Jeep before answering. "You wanted to wait until this whole 'plan' was done before picking yourself out another face," he says. "So start thinking of someone, 'cos it's practically in the bag. There's a lot of country club assholes you could be. Or their girlfriends." Chelsea is now solidly in "Chen" mode.<br/>
<br/>
"You wouldn't be jealous?"<br/>
<br/>
"Not if you're both sides."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Huh?</i> "What do you mean?"<br/>
<br/>
"If you're both people. The guy and the girl. I owe you three masks. Two of them could be a couple, like—" He snaps his fingers. "There's this basketball player over at Eastman, really rich. Gordon and Steve can't stand him. You could be him and his girlfriend. Or, like I say, there's people at the country club you could be."</span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132213323
author_id: seuzz
title: Chelsea Wins the War
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>You make it back home just in time for supper, and since the house is full of people and your arms are full of illicit packages, you go in the side yard and drop them off under your window; then you go inside to your bedroom and lift them in that way.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You've not heard from anybody in the meantime, which you take as a sign that the wires are burning up behind your back. You put that deduction out of your mind as well as you can, and as it appears that you're still not talking to Lin, so you start the night's activities by calling Jessica at around eight. "Hey," you start. "Have you talked anymore to Marc about that stuff with Martin and Gary?"<br/>
<br/>
There's a silence, then a kind of whispering; you have the distinct impression that at least one other person and maybe more are with Jessica. "No," she says when she speaks again. "He doesn't want to talk about it."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I got Gary's side of the story this afternoon. You know," you continue after shoving back a sudden spasm of resentment, "it helps to wait for other people to explain themselves before you run off all half-cocked."<br/>
<br/>
You can practically hear Jessica rolling her eyes. "So what did <i>Gary</i> have to say?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, first of all, before I tell you what he said and what I figured out after that, I have to ask. Do you guys know where Kelsey gets her—" You drop your voice, even though you're alone behind a locked bedroom door. "Her party stuff?"<br/>
<br/>
"I know she doesn't get it from <i>Gary,</i>" Jessica says impatiently.<br/>
<br/>
"Of course she doesn't. But does she get it from Martin? I mean, is he the one that actually brings it in?"<br/>
<br/>
There's another silence. "Maybe," Jessica says.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, don't be fucking coy with me, Jessica," you snap. "Is he or—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Okay, fine, he's the one that actually gets the stuff. Wait." There's more of that whispering. "Are you gonna say that Martin gets it from Gary?"<br/>
<br/>
"That's what he told me. He says he brings in a bunch of that stuff to the country club once a month—because, like you know, he and Martin both work there—and Martin buys it off him for these 'reefer parties'—" <br/>
<br/>
How lame is it that Kelsey actually calls them that?<br/>
<br/>
"—that Kelsey has for you guys and Marc and a bunch of other people every Saturday night."<br/>
<br/>
"You <i>didn't</i> tell him about that!" Jessica gasps. "Oh my God!"<br/>
<br/>
"Keep your hair on. He already knows about them and he doesn't give a shit. And that's what I'm getting to, because that's how he figured out it was Martin who framed Marc."<br/>
<br/>
You launch into a script that pretty closely tracks what Marc said at lunch: Chen might give Marc a lot of grief, but he does respect him as a kick-ass captain of the soccer team, and he just about lost his shit when Coach Gellman and Mr. Sagansky forced Marc to quit as team captain after they got a tip that stuff was in his locker. "He started thinking about it. He knows that Marc doesn't smoke that stuff except at Kelsey's parties. Uh, does he?"<br/>
<br/>
"No comment."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, that's what Gary believes. Anyway, he started thinking about it, and he just got the idea that maybe it was Martin who put it in Marc's locker, to get back at him or something. So he, uh, talked to him last night, and Martin confessed. He said it was only a prank that got out of hand."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, that's what Martin told Marc," Jessica says. "But it doesn't make any sense. The stuff showed up in my locker and Eva's too. Was he trying to prank us? Why would he do that? And how would he get in the girls' locker room without being seen or caught?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, what if it's actually like this?" You take a deep breath. "It wasn't a prank, and Marc wasn't the target. It was Kelsey. <i>She</i> put it in your lockers, and she got Martin to plant some in Marc's locker to throw people off the track."<br/>
<br/>
There's a very long silence. You think you must have blown Jessica's mind, but when she speaks again she just sounds puzzled. "Why would she do that?"<br/>
<br/>
"Because of the situation with the squad! Remember what Kendra said? Two weeks ago, or like that, Chelsea told Kelsey she wanted to put her back on the squad if there was a vacancy. Then nothing happens and nothing happens, then bang! The administration gets a tip there's something in you guys's gym lockers, and suddenly you and Eva are off the squad. There's a vacancy for Kelsey to fill."<br/>
<br/>
Jessica draws in a deep, gasping breath.<br/>
<br/>
"Uh huh! Better than that, there's <i>two</i> vacancies, which Kendra says is pissing Chelsea off because it means she has to hold some trials. Bet you <i>anything,</i> though, that Kelsey's got her own candidate to bring in, and she'll suggest it to Chelsea, and—"<br/>
<br/>
"Olivia!" Jessica exclaims. "At the start of the year, Kelsey was trying to get Olivia onto the team so she could have her vote in the election! Oh!" There's some gabble on the other end, and you lean back against your bed's headboard to silently laugh.<br/>
<br/>
But when Jessica comes back on, she's got an objection: "But we were also supposed to vote for Kelsey. You know that, you were pissed at us because we weren't going to vote for Cindy. Why would Kelsey frame us instead of, well, you or Lin? Or Cindy?"<br/>
<br/>
"Maybe because Kelsey doesn't like you that much?" you suggest. "Or maybe— Look, those reefer parties are an open secret. Everyone knows about them, knows who goes to them. So if some of that stuff shows up in your lockers at school— I'm totally not saying this is right, I'm just saying what a lot of people were probably thinking— But it would be real easy for people to just think, well, the Garners are doing that stuff at parties and they got sloppy and brought some of it in. But me and Lin and Cindy, we don't do that stuff—"<br/>
<br/>
"Bullshit, Yumi."<br/>
<br/>
"Not as much! I'm just saying, maybe that's another reason Kelsey would have picked you guys. Because there's already kind of a presumption that, uh, you guys—"<br/>
<br/>
"Okay, I get what you're saying. Jesus!" There's some more talking, then Jessica pops on long enough to ask if she can call you back.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Sure,</i> you tell her, and drop the phone between your legs with a contented sigh.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
She calls back a little later to invite you to her place, where Lin is with her and her sister and brother. You again share your theory with them that Kelsey framed Eva and Jessica, with Marc as a red herring, in order to get the girls tossed off the cheerleader squad and make way for herself. But it's clear that most everyone is already convinced. <br/>
<br/>
"So what do we do?" Lin asks. "Go to Coach Tesla, Mr. Sagansky, tell them about this so Eva and Jessica get put back on the squad?"<br/>
<br/>
Marc answers for you. "Martin only said he put the stuff in <i>my</i> locker, he didn't say anything about you guys. Without a confession, I don't think they'll do anything."<br/>
<br/>
"And Chelsea would have to go along with it," you point out. "She's not going to bring you back."<br/>
<br/>
"So Kelsey wins!" Lin exclaims. "Un-fucking-believable!"<br/>
<br/>
"No, not if we tell Chelsea about this," you say. "Maybe Eva and Jessica can't get back on the squad, but she's got to know she can't put Kelsey on if we all think Kelsey's in back of this shit."<br/>
<br/>
"But Kendra says she doesn't want to hold a tryout!"<br/>
<br/>
"She's already got to, to fill one slot. It's no more work to have to fill a second one."<br/>
<br/>
And that settles the matter. Since you were the one who broke the scandal open, and you're the one who got the key information from Gary Chen—whose part in busting Martin's face has now been forgotten, if not forgiven—you're given the task of calling Chelsea when you get home.<br/>
<br/>
So you do. "Perfect," she gloats after you've caught up to her on her cell phone, for she's spending the evening as herself.<br/>
<br/>
"Uh, one thing I forgot to ask you this afternoon," you say. "Did Martin really put that stuff in Marc's gym locker?"<br/>
<br/>
"Of course not. I had Gordon put it there."<br/>
<br/>
"So why did Martin confess?"<br/>
<br/>
"Because I had Gary beat the snot out of him until he promised that that's what he'd tell people."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Oh.</i><br/>
<br/>
Oh.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The next morning's practice is almost a denouement. Chelsea tells the assembled squad that she's changed her mind about asking Kelsey to rejoin the squad because she has found out some "disturbing" news about her. Then she announces that she will be talking to Kim Walsh about changing the bylaws so that Westside can establish a JV cheerleading squad. "Kendra will be in charge of whipping them into shape," she says, "assuming we can get Kim to go along with it."<br/>
<br/>
Kendra looks startled by the announcement, but says nothing. Naturally, no one else says anything about it either, except to murmur that it sounds like a good idea. <br/>
<br/>
None of it matters. Even if Kendra has double-crossed you and your friends (as it would <i>appear</i> based on what Chelsea has said), there's not enough votes to overthrow Chelsea without Kelsey. Indeed, as you look around during practice, you realize that there are now only three reliably anti-Chelsea votes.<br/>
<br/>
Well, two. Yumi's vote isn't as solid as Cindy's and Lin's.<br/>
<br/>
"Fuck yeah," Chen murmurs in your ear when you point this out to him after school. You're at the Panda Garden Buffet, where he's comping you an afterschool celebratory meal, and he's got his arm around you. "And you know who'd be perfect for you get masks of? Cindy and Seth. Or Lin and ... someone." He bites your ear. "Think how hot that would be."<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231322133231
author_id: seuzz
title: Occupied Territories
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>This isn't the first time Chelsea has suggested Cindy Vredenburg to you as a second face, but this time you could pair her with her boyfriend, Seth Javits. That's an exciting idea. But the appeal is lessened somewhat by the lack of thrills at manipulating Cindy indirectly, as you have been doing. She's been completely neutered by Chelsea's maneuvers.<br/>
<br/>
Lin has been a real bitch to you recently, and it might be fun to get back at her this way. Particularly if you paired her up with a really inappropriate boyfriend. Justin Roth, who is one of Lin's fuckbuddies, is an obvious possibility. David Kirkham is another, and he'd be an even more fun boyfriend for her, because more inappropriate. But Lin as a choice also suffers the same defect as Cindy. With the climax of Chelsea's plot, would there be any fun in running her?<br/>
<br/>
Unless the fun would be in running her and Cindy <i>both</i> so that you had a monopoly on the anti-Chelsea brigade cheerleaders and used that whole group as spies in some other plot.<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332311
author_id: seuzz
title: Ambushing Cindy
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"Cindy and Seth," you murmur after a moment's thought.<br/>
<br/>
"Hell yes, them," your boyfriend agrees, and bends his head to nuzzle at your neck. "But start with Cindy."<br/>
<br/>
"Why with her?"<br/>
<br/>
"Easier to get, right?" he says. "You talk to Cindy, then after you're Cindy you can, you know, do whatever."<br/>
<br/>
It occurs to you that Chelsea doesn't care about Seth himself. Probably she wants you to take Cindy as a second face so that she—as Gary—can do unto her as she's doing unto Yumi.<br/>
<br/>
But that's okay. It might even be fun.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
<i>Friday afternoon.</i> "So are you ever going to get a car of your own?" you ask Cindy as you escort her from her front door down to where you parked. It's dinnertime, and you're picking her up, ostensibly for a business-related meal. <br/>
<br/>
"For college," she says. "I'm saving up for college. Besides—" She breaks off as you and she get into your car. "I've got Lucy and Seth to carpool with until then."<br/>
<br/>
"Seth isn't showing up tonight, is he?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, what if he does?" Cindy snaps, causing you to wince. "If he wants to show up, he can. Is Gary showing up?"<br/>
<br/>
"Gary's got to work. And if Seth wants to show up, that's okay too. "I just wouldn't think, you know, that he'd be into this stuff."<br/>
<br/>
<i>This stuff</i> is cheerleader business, and with nothing else to do while driving Cindy into the ambush, you start talking to her about it. "So who do you think will be trying out? Who do you <i>want</i> to try out?"<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know," she sighs. "Is there even any point in worrying about it? Chelsea always manages to be one step ahead of everyone else."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, what about Sydney McGlynn? Wasn't she supposed to have been, like, captain of her JV squad at her old school?"<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know her, except just to talk to. Do you?"<br/>
<br/>
"No. But anyone who knows what's she's doing is bound to hate the way Chelsea runs things. That makes Sydney a good choice."<br/>
<br/>
"But in that case, Chelsea won't pick her, will she? Even if she's good."<br/>
<br/>
"So maybe we should sabotage the girls that Chelsea <i>would</i> pick," you suggest.<br/>
<br/>
"Like how?"<br/>
<br/>
"Like ... I dunno." You try to think through what you said. "Like, how about we figure out who Chelsea would pick, and then we make a big deal about trying to get friendly with them, like we're trying to get them on our side. That way Chelsea <i>won't</i> pick them."<br/>
<br/>
"That sounds pretty complicated, Yumi. Or ass-backwards, or something."<br/>
<br/>
"Well then I don't know." You change lanes so that you can make an upcoming turn. "Have you talked to Lucy about this?" Cindy's older sister was captain of the Westside cheerleader squad a few years ago.<br/>
<br/>
She snorts. "Why would I do that? She doesn't care, and this isn't about cheerleading. It's about group politics."<br/>
<br/>
You roll your eyes. Yumi has always had the impression that Lucy is <i>very</i> interested in group politics. She could probably out-Chelsea Chelsea.<br/>
<br/>
"What are we stopping here for?" Cindy asks as you turn into the parking lot of strip center. "I thought we were going to Panera."<br/>
<br/>
"I have to stop here for just a minute," you explain as you pull into a space. "Only a minute. I won't even turn the engine off."<br/>
<br/>
You retrieve your giant shoulder bag from the back seat and from it draw a blank mask.<br/>
<br/>
Cindy watches with mild curiosity as you turn it over in your hand. She hasn't time to react before you smash it into her face.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
After wedging Cindy in place, you pull back into the street and drive out to a nearby elementary school, where you park in a deserted corner of the lot, far from prying eyes. <br/>
<br/>
As you wait you study Cindy's face and form. She has a very Slavic/Scandinavian look. Her skin, even in the summer, is the color of fresh milk, and her hair falls in straight, platinum sheets to her shoulders. She has big green eyes over high, flat cheekbones. Her build is very slim, except for her large breasts, and her tight black t-shirt shows all her curves, just as her short skirt reveals long, strong, silky thighs and calves.<br/>
<br/>
You feel a twinge of disloyalty to Chelsea, and it's not just from Yumi's native psychology: <i>Really, Cindy should be the captain of the cheerleading squad. She's got more talent, and she's prettier, too, and she really looks the part.</i><br/>
<br/>
Well, maybe you think that only because she's here, next to you, now, and you've got her scent—lavender with a hint of ... cinnamon?—in your nostrils. She's a different kind of beauty than Chelsea. Where Chelsea is short and plumped up in the bosom and hips and legs, with a bouffant of curly blonde hair, Cindy is the willowy type.<br/>
<br/>
Except, as noted, for her breasts, which are at least as large as Chelsea's. She must have a terrific sense of balance to be able to walk and tumble with those things.<br/>
<br/>
A minute later her face begins to glow, and you catch the mask as it falls out. You already have the "golem paint" out, and it's the work of only a minute to get it into the mask. Then you place it back onto Cindy's face, where it vanishes. Cindy sits up and sucks in a breath and turns those big green eyes on you. "What the—? What was that?" she stammers.<br/>
<br/>
"You have to do what I say, Cindy," you tell her in your sharpest tone. "You have to follow my orders."<br/>
<br/>
Her eyes widen, and her lips part. But she says nothing.<br/>
<br/>
"Answer me, Cindy. Do you have to do what I say? Do you have to obey me?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yes," she says faintly, and she swallows.<br/>
<br/>
"Good. Change places with me. What I mean is—" The quasi-Freudian slip <i>change places with me</i> causes you to stammer. "What I mean is, you get behind the wheel. I'm getting in the back."<br/>
<br/>
"What's going on?" Cindy asks in a plaintive tone as you get out of the car. "Yumi? What's happening? Why do I—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Just do like I tell you, Cindy. You'll get it soon enough. You'll <i>like</i> what's happening." <i>Oh boy will I?</i> you murmur to yourself as you crawl into the back seat. "Just drive us around," you order her as you begin pulling your clothes off. "I know, drive us up to the mall. Drive around the parking lot. Then drive us back to—" You glance around, but can find no sign to identify the elementary school. "Well, here. Wherever 'here' is." That should give you enough time to make the necessary changes.<br/>
<br/>
Cindy tries asking you again about what's going on, and by the quaver in her voice you think she is probably on the verge of bursting into tears. Is the Yumi golem going to be the same way once you've got it up and running? You hope not, and decide to try heading it off.<br/>
<br/>
So after telling Cindy to hold her tongue, you murmur softly to yourself as you strip off skirt and blouse and shoes and bra and panties: "You know what's going on, Yumi. You're a fake. You're secretly helping Chelsea Cooper and—" Your voice catches a little. "And Will Prescott. You like helping them." <i>Can you order a golem to like certain things? It's worth a shot.</i> "You and Cindy are fakes, and you're best friends with her and Will and Chelsea. You love helping them out. We're going to go get Seth now," you continue, "and you are really happy to help us get him, to turn him into a fake too."<br/>
<br/>
Even if the programming doesn't take, maybe telling Yumi ahead of time will spare you having to explain things to her.<br/>
<br/>
Once you're disrobed, you lay out in the back seat, grab your forehead, and pull at your face.<br/>
<br/>
It's like a hand has plunged through your brain and down your neck all the way to your gut, and you pass out as it turns you inside out.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You wake with a groan and a slight headache. Your head is muzzy, and even after you've sat up you blink heavily. Your mouth feels very dry. In short, you feel hung over.<br/>
<br/>
You're in a moving car, and it takes you a moment to place yourself. You're hurtling down the interstate, and as you glance around you see Northgate Mall rapidly approaching.<br/>
<br/>
You catch Cindy's expression in the rear view mirror. "Oh my God," she says in a soft squeak as she stares at you with horrified eyes.<br/>
<br/>
"Just concentrate on driving," you snap at her. You rub your face, and most of that "hung over" feeling vanishes. But you're repulsed by the bristly whiskers on your cheek and chin, and you look down at your old body with loathing. <br/>
<br/>
"Never mind going to the mall," you continue. "Just turn us around and get us back to that school." From the floorboards, where it has fallen, you retrieve Yumi's mask, and settle back to wait. The golem paint is already inside the mask—you had time beforehand to prepare it while setting up this ambush for Cindy—and now you just have to get Cindy to a quiet place where you can complete the switch.<br/>
<br/>
It seems to take forever: to get off the interstate, to turn around, to take the interstate back to another exit, then to navigate through residential neighborhoods to that school. Time enough to think about what comes next and how you're going to do it.<br/>
<br/>
Time enough to nurse your cock as it rises and falls with banked anticipation.<br/>
<br/>
The plan was to capture and switch with Cindy, then move on to capture—and switch with?—Seth. But now you're thinking maybe that could wait. You can collect Seth at your convenience. Besides, he's a bully and an asshole, who is always persecuting your old friend Keith. Maybe it would be fun to screw around with the real guy for awhile from behind his girlfriend's before dropping an anvil on his head.<br/>
<br/>
But you're also thinking about Lucy, Cindy's gorgeous college-age sister. You are due a fourth face. Maybe you could leapfrog Seth and use your next blank mask on her.<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332312
author_id: seuzz
title: Lin-ear Equations
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"Cindy and Lin," you murmur, and you don't realize you've said it out loud until Chen reacts.<br/>
<br/>
"Ooh, kinky," he says. He squeezes you.<br/>
<br/>
"I didn't mean it like that!" <i>Or did you?</i> "I was just thinking, you know, it would be neat if all that group— Well, if everyone thought they were still totally fighting you and stuff, but actually they were under our control."<br/>
<br/>
"Our control," Chen echoes. "I like that."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
<i>Friday afternoon.</i> "I've got it!" you yell as you run for the front door. But your big brother, Mokichi, is already in the foyer. "I said I've got it!" you shout as you barge past him—an elbow in the side of his stomach—to grab the door knob.<br/>
<br/>
"So you've got it," he snarls! "Jesus. Who is it, that you're—? Oh, hey Lin," he says as you rip the door open. You shoot him a dark scowl.<br/>
<br/>
Your friend smiles tightly at you and your brother. "Hey. You ready?" she asks you.<br/>
<br/>
"Almost. Come keep me company while I finish up." You purposefully step on Mokichi's foot as you stand aside to let her in. <br/>
<br/>
He shove you off. "Where you guys going?" he says.<br/>
<br/>
"Nowhere that matters to you!"<br/>
<br/>
"I was talking to Lin."<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know," she says. She pulls away as you grab at her arm, but suffers you to lead her down the hallway. "We'll let you know when we do," she calls back to Mokichi.<br/>
<br/>
"You shouldn't lead him on," you tell her. "He already likes you."<br/>
<br/>
"What's wrong with that?"<br/>
<br/>
You stop dead just in front of your bedroom door. "Are you serious?"<br/>
<br/>
"Maybe." Her lip curls, and she looks down her nose at you. "You think your brother is worse than your boyfriend?"<br/>
<br/>
Your scowl deepens, but you just turn your back on her to open the bedroom door. But you wheel when she adds, "What does Mokichi think of Gary?"<br/>
<br/>
"I haven't had Gary out here. Anyway, it's none of your business. And besides, I don't want to talk about him." You close the door behind Lin. "You'll piss me off. We need to talk about these bullshit tryouts that Chelsea's planning, what to do about them."<br/>
<br/>
Lin settles on the edge of your bed with a sigh. "I don't know what it matters. She's going to be in charge, she'll pick whoever she wants."<br/>
<br/>
"But what if we make sure some of the people that <i>we</i> want are at the tryouts? If <i>they</i> get picked—"<br/>
<br/>
"Like who?"<br/>
<br/>
"Kim Walsh?" You grab the suggestion off the top of your head.<br/>
<br/>
Lin snorts. "No way is Kim going to try out. She didn't even want to try out last—"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I don't know! That's why we have to get together to talk. Have you talked to Cindy about where we're going to meet?" You open the door to your walk-in closet. "Then how about you text her," you continue when she rolls her eyes and shakes her head. "We'll put our heads together. Think maybe we should get Eva and Jessica to meet up with us? They might have ideas."<br/>
<br/>
But Lin has her cell phone out and she is bending over it with concentration.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Perfect.</i> That's what you wanted. You take the blank mask from off a shelf, where you had it hidden under some pullover sweaters.<br/>
<br/>
So concentrated is Lin on the screen of her cell phone that she doesn't even raise her face as you approach, and you have to hit her with the mask with an upward-striking motion. She falls back on the bed, as though you've KO'd her with an uppercut to the jaw.<br/>
<br/>
You didn't prepare Yumi's mask ahead of time with any of the sealant that will turn its wearer into a golem under your control. And you're not about to turn yourself back into Will Prescott in the middle of Yumi bedroom. But you do have a tub of the stuff with you.<br/>
<br/>
So you text Chelsea with a brief update while waiting for the new mask to copy to Lin, and when it comes out of her you gingerly lift it off her face and, with a more than a few nervous glances at her sleeping form, coat its inner surface with the goop. Then you place it back onto her.<br/>
<br/>
Her eyes instantly pop open, and they widen as she looks over at you.<br/>
<br/>
"What happened?" she says. "Did you—?"<br/>
<br/>
"You have to do what I say. Don't you, Lin?"<br/>
<br/>
There's a flutter at her throat as she swallows, and the color drains from her face.<br/>
<br/>
"Answer me, Lin. Do you have to do what I say?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yes," she says in a faint, horror-struck voice.<br/>
<br/>
"Good." You don't mean to smile evilly. But you can't stop yourself from smiling, and it sure feels like an evil smile spreading itself over your features. "We're going to go find Cindy now," you tell her. "Oh, and if Mokichi says anything to us on our way out," you add as you help the pale-faced Lin to her feet, "tell him you don't talk to assholes."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
But Mokichi is in the kitchen as you head out, and once you're in the car you're intercepted by a message from Chelsea ordering you out to the school and to the loft. This surprises you—the plan was for you to ambush Cindy with the second mask that you've got in your purse. And besides, it's getting close to the time for Gary Chen to be at the country club.<br/>
<br/>
Golem-Lin says nothing as you enter the gym and cross the basketball court. Not until you're mounting the stairs to the loft does she speak. "Do you know where you're going, Yumi?" she asks in a wavering voice.<br/>
<br/>
"Sure. The fuck room. You'll get used to it. You'll probably be spending a lot of time up here. And don't worry." You squeeze her arm as you pause outside the door. "You'll <i>love</i> it."<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea answers in her own voice when you tap at the door, and you find her waiting inside dressed only in shorts and a t-shirt. "Oh, did you send the Gary golem out to work?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"Not yet," she says. "I'm getting ready for that." She looks past you, and smile at Lin. "Oh my God," she squeals, and bounces past you to catch Lin in a hug. "Is this her? She's on our team?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yes. Even though she doesn't look happy about it." Indeed, the golem looks like it's about to throw up.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, how about you get changed?" Chelsea says.<br/>
<br/>
"Changed?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yes. To Lin. Don't you want to try out your new face?"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure. But what's the rush?"<br/>
<br/>
"No rush. I just figured you'd want to and I'd help. Get out of your mask," she continues as you stare at her, "switch over to Lin, and we'll put that stuff into Yumi's mask while we're at it!"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh," you say, and decide that that would work.<br/>
<br/>
"What are you doing?" Lin asks as you start to strip. "What is going on here?"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, just be quiet," you tell her. "You'll understand soon enough." <i>Once I'm inside your skin,</i> you add to yourself.<br/>
<br/>
Once you're undressed, you lay on the gym mat. Chelsea huddles up close to you. You're struck by how soft and beautiful and healthy she is, with her clear complexion and mane of golden hair. You'd love to pull her down to your face and kiss her all over.<br/>
<br/>
But she puts her hands on your face, and you close your eyes as she grips your forehead. You hear her whisper some words, and yank at your face.<br/>
<br/>
It's like someone ripped the universe away, and then you know nothing.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You feel very relaxed all over when you wake. Boneless, almost. You blink at an unfamiliar ceiling.<br/>
<br/>
Then you remember where you are, and all the sleepiness flees from you. You sit up with a gasp, and your heart hammers in your chest.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Oh God. Head rush.</i> You reel.<br/>
<br/>
But it's more than a head rush. Or, it's a "head rush" in the most literal sense of the word. Two brains are banging around in your skull, vying for supremacy. You clutch your temples—<br/>
<br/>
And one of them bobs to the surface, filling the space between your ears. The mind of Will Prescott. That's who you are, and you know exactly where you are and how you got here.<br/>
<br/>
But the other mind is still there, inside your own, and you sink into it, like sinking into a hot bath. You smile as you feel the memories lap about and seep into you.<br/>
<br/>
The memories of Lin Pol.<br/>
<br/>
You look down at your bosom. There's Lin's puppies. Her breasts are large—much larger than Yumi's—and firm. You clasp them and heft them and hold them up. They're wonderful. Guys like them too. Almost as much as they like your—<br/>
<br/>
You release your boobs, and spread your legs and put your hands between your thighs. The bush. You brush it, and slide your fingers into it until you find the lips therein. You peel them back and stroke the soft lining within.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Wow,</i> you marvel as you relax all over again. <i>Lin sure likes to get laid.</i> She's got guys all over the place, too, that she can go to for a good fuck. Not like Yumi, who was herself jumpy and nervous about sex, even without your own jumpiness.<br/>
<br/>
But you're more used to it now, thanks to all the attention that Chelsea has been giving you. Is that why you're not freaking out as you think of all the cock Lin has had? Or is it because she likes it so much? Such pleasant memories of rock hard members prying her open and pulsing into those tender membranes. Chelsea's going to <i>love</i> how much you're going to love—<br/>
<br/>
But where is Chelsea? You look around with a frown. She's not here. She's left behind the real Lin, who is passed out on the mat. Except it's not Lin, of course. It's Yumi.<br/>
<br/>
Then you notice that Yumi is wearing the clothes that Chelsea was wearing. <br/>
<br/>
<i>Oh, Chelsea, you kinky girl! Getting into Yumi's mask!</i><br/>
<br/>
Maybe you should give her a really pleasant wake-up.</span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132213323122
author_id: rugal
title: An Intimate Conversation
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Much as you’d like to just go at it with the Yumi-disguised Chelsea right there you realize that’s not exactly a good idea. For starters, though the two of you have been repeatedly intimate under the guises of Chen and Yumi… that’s Gary Chen and Yumi Saito. You’re not exactly sure where Chelsea Cooper and Will Prescott stand. You certainly like Chelsea in a way that goes beyond simply lusting over her. You’d like to hope that she feels the same way towards you.<br/>
<br/>
But you’re not so sure, after all she’s Chelsea and this is all being done to help her. She’d have no time for someone like you otherwise. She’s been nice to you, far nicer than you’d have expected and probably nicer than she needs to be. But it’s probably more out of need than anything. You’re the one going through the book, you know it better than her now so she needs to keep you happy. But maybe that’s an overly cynical view to take. You’d hope it’s just a product of getting in your own head.<br/>
<br/>
Even ignoring all of that, you just need to think about it morally for all of two seconds. Chelsea’s out. Waking her up with a kiss might seem romantic in the movies but the reality is much murkier. You don’t want to be the guy who forced himself on Chelsea. You’re not even sure if she’d like you doing it anyway. You’d just risk pissing her off which would put the kibosh on this relationship, whatever type of relationship it may be, real quick.<br/>
<br/>
So you do the only thing you can do.<br/>
<br/>
“Hey, wake up,” you say as you nudge her. She moans and begins to stir before she’s able to push herself up into a sitting position. “You all good?” you ask.<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea, that is Yumi, stares at you with half-closed eyes for a few seconds before nodding. “Yeah, I’m...”<br/>
<br/>
She stops, cuts herself off. Yumi clears her throat, then grabs at it. Then turns her hands this way and that as she looks at them. She pulls at a bit of silken black hair and what little of it she’s able to bring into her vision she examines. She then looks at you hard, studying you and taking you in. Then a sly, hungry smile, a very un-Yumi-like thing, spreads on her face.<br/>
<br/>
“Oh my god!” she exclaims in excitement as she jumps to her feet. “Everything really did go off without any fuss, didn’t it?”<br/>
<br/>
“Without any… wait!” you exclaim. “You’d planned this from the start?”<br/>
<br/>
“Of course I did, silly,” she says. It’s a shock to both yourself and Lin to see Yumi acting and speaking in a way very reminiscent of Chelsea. “Why do you think I called you out here?”<br/>
<br/>
“So you wanted,” you stop though. Your head’s hurting. “Where’s the real Lin?”<br/>
<br/>
“At the country club?” Yumi shrugs. “I put Gary’s mask on her and sent her on her way.”<br/>
<br/>
“Okay, sure. That makes sense,” you state as you eye her. “So then… why?! Why send a golem to work? Why are you in Yumi’s mask?”<br/>
<br/>
“Because I want to be Yumi right now?” she responds with a roll of her eyes. “Isn’t that obvious?”<br/>
<br/>
“That didn’t answer my question.”<br/>
<br/>
“Pfft! Fine, okay, whatever,” Yumi says dismissively as she sits cross legged across from you on the floor. She gives you a look, the kind of look that is far more Chelsea and far more devious than anything you’d expect from the real girl.<br/>
<br/>
“I did it because you’re going to get Cindy tonight, right? Well I want to be there and see it for myself.”<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
“What’s your issue with Cindy?”<br/>
<br/>
Yumi could only glare at you. “What, you’re going to take her side because you’re Lin now?” she huffed.<br/>
<br/>
“Huh? No, it’s not that!” you say in surprise at her reaction. “I really am just wondering. Word kind of filters back through Yumi and everything and I wasn’t a total idiot. Even at my level I could see the two of you never really got along and one of the first things you wanted to do with these masks was get one of Cindy. So what’s the deal?”<br/>
<br/>
“You’re Lin now, you tell me,” she says.<br/>
<br/>
“I want to hear it from you.”<br/>
<br/>
“It’s her and her stupid sister,” she states. “Lucy’s an even bigger cunt than Cindy if you can believe it. When she was running the squad she looked down on me, ran me down at every opportunity. Everyone thinks I’m bad but none of them but me were there to see how she was.”<br/>
<br/>
“What’d she do?”<br/>
<br/>
“The details aren’t important,” she answered with a wave of her hand. “But I worked my ass off to keep my spot on the squad. I was the only sophomore on it for a reason; the only one that deserved to be on it anyway. And after Lucy’s gone Cindy expected to just be handed the spot too.”<br/>
<br/>
“But you outplayed her,” you state. Lin’s own memories tell you that securing her own position is why Cindy invited Lin, her long time best friend, onto the team.<br/>
<br/>
“If it was fair I would’ve gotten the spot without having to do all that bullshit,” she says. “But it wasn’t. Cindy was doing the same crap I was doing but wasn’t as good at it. She’s never liked me anyway but she’s been angry about it ever since. Arrogant fucking cunt. And the things she said...”<br/>
<br/>
Yumi looks at you. Her face is hard and determined and below it I can see Chelsea. Her own emotions bubbling up to the surface. Angry and hurt and vengeful.<br/>
<br/>
“I didn’t know,” you tell her. “What did she say?”<br/>
<br/>
“I’m not getting into it. She thought she had something that she could use against me, that’s all.” She begins to sniff. “But once I worked Kendra and Maria and Gloria onto the squad she couldn’t do shit. She wanted to play dirty? I’ll use every dirty trick in the book to make sure she’s never captain.”<br/>
<br/>
You could hear her breathing become labored and her eyes start to water. Whatever it was Cindy thought she could hold over Chelsea, she doesn’t seem to have told anyone about it. Even Lin doesn’t seem to have any idea what it could possibly be. And whatever it was it’s got Chelsea very upset and not in a way one would normally associate with her. She’s hurting and it’s a hurt that’s much deeper and much more intense than any petty rivalry.<br/>
<br/>
You want to do something for her because recalling all of this has clearly made her upset. Not knowing what else to do you lean in and place a hand on her cheek.<br/>
<br/>
“Will,” she says softly as she slides her hand under you own in. You assume she means to push it away. Instead she takes her other hand and places it around the backside of you own. She clasps it tightly and you can feel her pressing it tightly to her face.<br/>
<br/>
“Will, can we…?”<br/>
<br/>
You don’t know what she was asking and you didn’t even get a chance to ask yourself. With no prompting she leans forward, her breathing heavy, and places her lips on your own. You don’t have a chance to react as quickly her tongue is probing your mouth. Without thinking you free your hand from her grasp, move it to the back of her head and grab her right hand with your free one, pulling her down as you lean back. At this time you let Lin take control; your mind is racing far too much.<br/>
<br/>
It’s something that could’ve only ever existed in your own fantasies and yet here it was playing out in real life. But the best was yet to come as, eventually, Yumi pulled away and began divesting herself of her clothes. You're no idiot and had done it enough at this point to know where this was going so you followed suit. Again you allowed Lin to take the lead as she had experience with this sort of thing.<br/>
<br/>
Not that Lin Pol is bisexual or a lesbian. No, “sexually omnivorous” might be a better way to phrase it. The only people she feels genuine attraction and genuine romantic affection for are guys but she’s just got such an… appetite that she’s willing to feed it however she can.<br/>
<br/>
And right now it’s being fed very well as you lean Yumi back and begin to probe and massage her with your fingers. It’s fed even better when she returns the favor except following it with a little action from her tongue that very quickly works you up. You feel the trembles and then spasms that run through you as you’re brought to climax. When it’s finished the pair of you collapse, exhausted, on top of each other.<br/>
<br/>
You’re not sure what’s running through your partner’s mind as your vision is blurry and you’re too focused on catching your breath. But you feel her hand clasp around your own and squeeze and that is, perhaps, all you need to know.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The two of you watch as the mask sinks into Cindy’s face and she collapses onto her bed. You both take a moment to look at her as she lays there unconscious before you both look back at one another. Yumi’s face is twisted up into that smile that is so very Chelsea.<br/>
<br/>
“She deserves it,” is all she says before looking back over to Cindy. “Although I guess since she’s on our team now I don’t have to, like, humiliate her. When we get the JV squad I’ll put her in charge of them because god knows I don’t want to deal with them.”<br/>
<br/>
“You’d give her that kind of power?”<br/>
<br/>
“It’s not a promotion,” she states. “No, I’d give you that kind of power. Because I think I’ll be a lot more inclined now to make Yumi my co-captain.”<br/>
<br/>
That’s a shock. You’d be going back to being Yumi and running the squad with Chelsea? That sounds amazing… but not as amazing as what you’d just shared with her prior to coming over to Cindy’s. You want to keep sharing it too. Not just as Yumi and Chen either.<br/>
<br/>
And that’s when a crazy idea hits you, one that might curry further favor with Chelsea. She’d wanted Cindy at the start of all this so why not let Chelsea have her?</span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231322133231221
author_id: nirxor
title: Offer Cindy to Chelsea
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"Am interested in staying as Lin. She is entirely different woman from Yumi, I want to see <i>how different</i> Lin can be." You say, bringing your arms around her for a hug. She smiles, mimicking your movements, the arms delicately holding you, as you look up to her. Lin is shorter than Yumi, its not her that is making this enjoyable. Its <b>because</b> Lin likes the idea of cucking Chen, you can feel her panties getting moist from the rubbing your doing on Yumi's leg.<br/>
<br/>
"What? You want to play here when Cindy wakes up? Will, you're sick......" Chelsea cuts you off, wearing that disgusted Yumi smile, but she grabs you stronger than before and whispers into your ear. "I love it." The imposter coos, kissing you on the lips, the act sending Lin's body into an overdrive reaction. Your body's heat rises, the tingling of your earlier exploration is rushing back, suddenly your body feels soft, Lin is demanding sex, she is prowling in your head, watching it unfold. <br/>
<br/>
"Fuck, this turns me on! Can she hurry up and wake up?!?" You moan, grabbing Yumi, damn near mounting her right then and there.<br/>
<br/>
"Wow! I had heard about Lin's little habits, but she really is a nymphomaniac, huh? Or is that just you?" She calls out sweetly, as she plays with your body, making Lin take hot, deep breaths, which she loves.<br/>
<br/>
"You have no idea how bad Lin has got it for stealing people from others! You scratched that itch real good, but this? This is going to definitely need something deeper!" You whimper, the rising sexual tension in your body going critical.<br/>
<br/>
<i>"FUCK! I didn't think Yumi had it in her, but she can put out, maybe Chen is on to something, he won't mind if I borrow her. I need it, can't keep using my toys, parents might hear me eventually!"</i> Your inner thoughts burst as Cindy begins to stir, the smile on your face telling the classic turn of events, now with Cindy's fate in your hands. She doesn't even have time to process what is happening, you're in her face with a depraved smile, issuing your first order.<br/>
<br/>
"You have to listen to me Cindy!" You sweetly tell her, as your next set of orders is all ready on the way out. "Go and wear one of those sluty maid outfits your dad likes, comeback her and watch us have sex.". Cindy's parents are gone for the week, a nice bonus for you. An interesting memory plays of how Cindy's dad was, Lin knew he watched her bend over, the older man, impressive for his age, was just as much as a stud as the younger guys she slept with, but Cindy's dad had something they didn't; expirence. Oh how Lin loved it when they would chat, she would tease, and he would pull. He would call to her in secret, yet  never drew her in with money or lies. He knew what he wanted, how to get it, how to play with it, how to hide it. Lin was so close to getting him into bed, until Cindy's mom called about an important meeting, Lin had to settle for the stoner gang. You remeber setteling for Roth who couldn't even hold out properly, Lin had to finish herself, only to start again at home. <br/>
<br/>
<i>"Hmmmmm, make Cindy watch me and her dad fuck all night long? I like it, maybe Chelsea would be into that? No, I would like to see it, besides, Chelsea like being guys, couldn't hurt to ask!"</i><br/>
<br/>
Lin's mind goes crazy with how kinky she could get, but you're pulled back to Chelsea, or Yumi as she pushes you down with strength you have never seen her use, and this time, she is reaching into Lin in a way that rocks you beyond anyone else. You're unsure of the method, but you can feel every finger, tongue, kiss, bite, nibble, and, you return every single one. Yumi is soon shaking, like you wanted, like you remember. All of the ways she enjoys being touched, the way she moans, what she loves, and where to kiss, guide you with Lin's expertise in sexual stimulation. The climax is greater than before, both of you are soaked in sweat and Cindy's bed is tainted with the two imposter's fluids, yet the hands that are locked tenderly together aren't done, not yet. Cindy walks in, wearing a slutty maid outfit. It barely covers anything. The stockings are tight, the mini skirt shows the shape of her ass perfectly, it doesn't even cover her breasts, it barely covers her nipples. She has her hair pulled into a lose ponytail, her makeup is even done, a little darker than normal, it drives Will crazy, and Lin loves it when she lays on the bed cleaning both you. Without even muttering an order, she silently begins her task. <br/>
<br/>
"Smart girl." Yumi says, panting hard on your chest.<br/>
<br/>
 "I hope we aren't done Yumi, I can go all night long and still find some one to suck me off." You call to her, letting Lin take full control. "Of course if you want to leave, I won't hold it against you." Lin says smiling at the state she is in. Yumi smiles, just barely letting you in on her plan. <br/>
<br/>
"Oh God, what will Chen do if he finds out?" Yumi, in some form of actual distress, gets out, almost looking scared, the acting of Chelsea bleeding through Yumi is certainly convincing, but Lin? She <b>wants</b> to cuck Chen, she wants to take Gordon from Chelsea, Lin is a two faced kind of girl with a lot of kinks, and a lot of people to call to sleep with. She has taken a couple of girls from guys, and from Jelena. Nothing to fight for, but everything to prove, which makes it even more delicious, like Seth.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh my God......" You bleep out, catching the attention of Chelsea as Cindy leaves with rags dretched in juices. "I had sex with Seth the day before we got this mask of Cindy!" You pant out, the smile growing like Chelsea's which she shares.<br/>
<br/>
"Lin! You little slut! Who won't you sleep with?" Chelsea calls out dropping her facade, fully eating the delicious truth. <br/>
<br/>
"I'd never sleep with you Chelsea, I got standards and people to think about!" You throw at her, a classic retort to her tactics, which draws a smile on her face. "Yumi needs me to save her from Chen, so it's different, she'll thank me later." You say, firm on the belief that he's trash Yumi shouldn't even be with.<br/>
<br/>
"Fine! But what about William Prescott? He's her friend, and not much better, I think you should try to see things the ways she would." Chelsea counters with Yumi's perspective on things, as she speaks she reaches up to your face, you don't fight it, you already know what she is planning.<br/>
<br/>
*****************************************************<br/>
<br/>
From Cindy's room, to the kitchen, to the living room, and finally, her parent's room, almost every place in the house was stained with your passionate night, as well as the combinations of Lin, Yumi, Chelsea, and, more surprisingly, Will. Sometimes you were Yumi, having Chelsea herself work her magic on you, other times Lin, but soon the face of Chelsea was traded for Yumi and Lin, finally Chelsea appeared. She let you do what ever you wanted to her, she was gentle with you, dominate, but loving, a very out of character thing for Chelsea. Soon, maybe too soon, she changed back to being Lin. So there you laided. With Lin gasping and clawing at your back, the last of her energy spent on marking you as your self. William Martian Prescott, who was driving his last few pumps into Lin pol, who was Yumi at first, then Chelsea, and finally Lin. You had lived a fantasy every guy at high school would kill to make happen, even better, you did it as yourself, with help from your expirence as women to guide you. You outlasted through sheer endurance, willpower, and, lust. Chelsea shook as you finished, Lin's body going into a ragdoll state of limpness, her face plastered with ecstasy. Your bodies were covered in sweat, as was the master bedroom, a shame really, it looked so nice, but it was fun to let go and have some serious relief, as you haven't been in your own damn body for a while now. Cindy was waiting with a glass of water, looking absolutely devastated, she was used as a cleaner for each room, the real cleaning ladies would be here tomorrow, since her parents were gone, she had told you this was normal, they wouldn't care. Chelsea had you order her to not touch herself, depriving her of any sort of joy, but she was keeping your thirst quenched. <br/>
<br/>
"Go enjoy yourself Cindy." You say before the water hits your mouth, ending your dying breathing. She dashes off in an insanely fast sprint, something you would never see again, as Lin rose meeting your lips. She barely manages a kiss, trying to syphon some water for your mouth, you take another mouth full for her sake, and she manages to drink it all from your lips. <br/>
<br/>
"I can't believe I fucked William Prescott." She blurts out, looking a little worse for wear, she leans on you again, adjusting to your body, taking another drink from you. "And liked it. That's even weirder, by <b> Lin's</b> and <b>my</b> standards!" Chelsea says dropping the facade, she has a steady look on her face, it's new, or rather, it's her observant face. She simply smiles and leans in again. "I guess we're back to being Yumi and Chen?" The question out of character for her, doubt? From the queen of the school? It's hard to not give her answer, being Yumi is fun and having Chelsea inside Chen makes it better, even if you're on the receiving end. You have long and silent debate, it's hard not say no, but you have an idea.<br/>
<br/>
"Let me think about it, I kind of want to enjoy being myself for a bit. Since I haven't seen my body in a while." You admit, she closes her eyes, holding you a bit closer, lays her head down, for a mintue she looks like peaceful.<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea" you call out. "I want you to have Cindy, that way if you have to deal with Lucy or anybody else there is an ace up your sleeve." You tell her, she doesn't open her eyes, but smiles and says a very simple<br/>
<br/>
"Thanks Will."<br/>
<br/>
 As she passes out, you look at the clock, which read four in the morning and barely able to keep your eyes open slumber with your master. Maybe after all this she won't mask you, you hope.</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332313
author_id: seuzz
title: The Plot Against Lin
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"Lin needs a boyfriend," you declare.<br/>
<br/>
"I hear she's getting plenty of cock without one," Chen chortles softly.<br/>
<br/>
"What I mean is, she needs a highly inappropriate one," you continue. "The way I have a highly inappropriate one." Chen freezes. "That'll show the bitch."<br/>
<br/>
Carefully, Chen lays down his chopsticks and puts his head under the table. His back shakes. Only when he breaks out in a long, low howl, only partly muffled by the table cloth, do you realize he is laughing.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, fuck," he gasps when he raises back up again. His face is red and his eyes streaming. "That's great. Like who?"<br/>
<br/>
"Justin Roth?"<br/>
<br/>
"Justin?" Chen makes a face. "I thought he and Lin were already fucking each other blind."<br/>
<br/>
"Only occasionally. If I made Lin my second face and Justin my third—"<br/>
<br/>
"Whoa, you're talking about putting them together that way?" he asks. You nod. "But if they're already doing it now, why make it a Do-It-Yourself project?"<br/>
<br/>
"To make sure they really are together! I don't see what's so hard to understand about what I'm saying."<br/>
<br/>
"It's not hard to understand," he protests. "I just don't see that— No, hang on." He clutches the sides of his head. <br/>
<br/>
"No, I get what you do," he says when he resumes. "You make your Lin your second, like you say. But you make some <i>other</i> guy your third. Put him and Lin together."<br/>
<br/>
"Why? What's wrong with Justin as my third, putting him with Lin?"<br/>
<br/>
"You <i>still</i> put him together with Lin. Like, make Lin and this other guy, your third, a couple. But then you send Lin out on the side to bang Justin anyway!"<br/>
<br/>
Your jaw falls open. <br/>
<br/>
"Yeah," Chen chortles as he picks up another bit of sweet-and-sour. "If you're gonna make it inappropriate for Lin, make it <i>really</i> inappropriate for her."<br/>
<br/>
You cinch your jaw back into place. "Well, I was thinking that, if not Justin, then maybe your— Uh, Gary's friend David Kirkham."<br/>
<br/>
You expect that to provoke another howl of laughter, but instead Chen gets very sober and grave.<br/>
<br/>
"You mean putting Lin and Kirkham together, and Lin cucks him with Justin on the side? Wouldn't work. Totally unbelievable. No one would buy that my man Kirkham was letting Lin cuck him that way. I'm pretty sure Roth wouldn't take a chance on it."<br/>
<br/>
"So who would work as a—?" You don't ever use the word, so you stumble over it. "Cuck."<br/>
<br/>
"Someone who's also inappropriate?" Chen has to take, chew, and swallow on several bites of food before he has an answer. "Okay," he finally says. "How about—? Or—?"<br/>
<br/>
They're both interesting and unintuitive suggestions. After thinking it over, you decide  to take Lin as a second face, and for a third face ...</span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132213323131
author_id: seuzz
title: Dregs and Druggies
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"Let's keep it simple," you tell your boyfriend. "Lin and Justin."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Chelsea wants you to copy Lin first. But what with one thing and another, it's late Thursday night before you finish making up two masks, and as you work you decide it would be more fun to grab Justin first. Then, from under his mask, you could have some hinky fun with the real Lin before enslaving her.<br/>
<br/>
"Like where?" Chen asks you Friday morning as he drives you to school. "Like, where would you take her, do her?"<br/>
<br/>
"I dunno. Depends on what they usually do. The Warehouse, maybe?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen chortles. "Nasty. Take her upstairs as Justin, fuck her, then come downstairs as Lin. I love it."<br/>
<br/>
"Maybe that's what I'll do." You reach over to squeeze his hand. "What are <i>you</i> doing tonight?"<br/>
<br/>
"Got work."<br/>
<br/>
"No, <i>you</i>, Chelsea."<br/>
<br/>
"Huh? Oh. I dunno."<br/>
<br/>
"We could get together in the loft?"<br/>
<br/>
His face tightens. "Nuh-uh. Steve's gonna want it. He was bitching to Gordon earlier about, uh, him and me using it too much and him not getting to." He jerks his shoulders. "So I told him he could have it tonight. Keep the peace."<br/>
<br/>
"Mm." You rub your fingertip across his thigh. "Maybe Justin'll know a good alternate place to hang out."<br/>
<br/>
But Chelsea doesn't reply to that.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
As Chen is a friend of Justin's, you leave it to Chelsea to set up the ambush. "We're meeting hiim out by the portables after class," he tells you as you walk to last period Orchestra together with your arms around each other's waists. "Well, I'm supposed to meet him. I didn't mention you."<br/>
<br/>
"Why not? You ashamed of me?" you tease.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, you suck at the viola. It's fucking embarrassing."<br/>
<br/>
You jab him in the side with your elbow, and he grunts in pretended hurt.<br/>
<br/>
Eva hasn't frozen you out since the disaster that hurled her and Jessica off the cheerleading squad, but she hasn't been real friendly, either, so you're prepared to ignore her again. But today, she leans over to murmur at you soon after you sit down.<br/>
<br/>
"Sydney McGlynn's trying out for the squad," she tells you.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah?" you say. A moment later, though, the penny drops. "Wait, did you say <i>Sydney McGlynn?</i>" Eva nods. "Wasn't she a cheerleader at her old school, wherever that was?"<br/>
<br/>
"Down in Texas, yes," Eva says. "She was the captain of her JV squad. You know what that means, right?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, that there's no way in hell Chelsea will pick her."<br/>
<br/>
Eva's face falls. "Do you have shit on <i>everything,</i> Yumi?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm  not shitting on it. I'm just telling you—"<br/>
<br/>
"'Cos Jessica and I have been telling her she needs to try out. You know she won't put up with any of Chelsea's shit."<br/>
<br/>
"Which, like I say, is why Chelsea won't pick her. She thinks she's got control of the squad now, she's not going to do anything that'll, like, jeopardize it."<br/>
<br/>
Eva's lip curls. "So you're just gonna give up? Coach Tesla's gonna watch the tryouts, isn't she gonna get any say in things?"<br/>
<br/>
"I guess we could talk to her," you reply, and avoid Chen's face. "Have you guys talked to Cindy or Lin about this?"<br/>
<br/>
"Jessica's talked to them. Come on, Yumi! You can't let Chelsea win! Not after what she did to us!"<br/>
<br/>
"I thought it was Kelsey who got you kicked off the squad," you snap back.<br/>
<br/>
Eva's expression darkens, and she turns away.<br/>
<br/>
Chen doesn't say anything to you about what Eva said, not then and not after class.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
When Orchestra lets out, you and Chen part, at least briefly, to visit your lockers. After you've got the necessary supplies loaded up in your back pack, though, you make your way out a set of back doors and trot off toward the portables.<br/>
<br/>
The portables!<br/>
<br/>
It's not a place that Yumi particularly hangs out at. Even you, who are a little more comfortable with the low-class denizens of Westside High, don't visit them very often. Because there is nothing there to visit.<br/>
<br/>
They must be a relic of a time when the high school had a bigger population, because they have been abandoned to rot, and in all your time at Westside you've never heard of a class being held in one. There are eighteen of them, next to the Agricultural Annex, arranged like a square with an open side: a double set of three portables, each the size of a small mobile home, on the north, south and west sides, with the east side opening out toward the school. In the makeshift "courtyard" in the middle, students will gather to eat lunch or skip class, but it's always the academic losers who gather there: the stoners and the smokers, the delinquents and the dropouts-to-be. <br/>
<br/>
And that's what goes on in public. Smaller groups, and lone individuals, can be glimpses skulking about behind the portables, or in the alleys between them; and Chelsea—in Chen's mask—has already shown you that some portables can be gotten into, and that all sorts of nasty stuff can be done inside one.<br/>
<br/>
And that's where he'll have Justin set up and waiting for you.<br/>
<br/>
You spot them almost as soon as you've exited the school building, in that open space. There's half a dozen people there, including Adrian Semple and Spencer Osbourne and a few other people whose faces you recognize but whose names you don't know. They're all sitting cross-legged on the grass, or sprawled on their sides, but Gary and Justin are standing a little apart. Your boyfriend has a cigarette, and he takes drags on it while gesturing and talking at Justin with evident excitement.<br/>
<br/>
You're halfway there when he glances over and spots you. His expression gives no acknowledgement, however; but he does grab Justin by the arm and tugs him into the complex. They disappear around a corner.<br/>
<br/>
Not until you're almost atop the losers clustered within the arms of the portables do you realize that you've tensed up. And when one of the kids—a guy with coarsely blonde chopped hair and a bold stare under a trucker cap—shouts up at you, you realize why you're tensed all over.<br/>
<br/>
"Party at my place tonight," he says. "Your boyfriend's working, wants me to show you a good time while you're busy."<br/>
<br/>
Semple gasps, and Spencer snorts out a laugh, but neither they nor anyone else says anything as you stride through the group. But the guy who shouted at you grabs at the hem of your jacket as brush past, and jerks you back. "I mean it," he says, and his eyes glint over a tight smile. "Show you all kind of stuff that fucker can't—"<br/>
<br/>
You slap  his hand away, to nervous laughs all around. "You're pretty fucking brave," you snarl down at him, "but I don't—"<br/>
<br/>
He grabs at you again. "What's your snatch taste like? Gimme a taste of it, and if I like we'll talk about—"<br/>
<br/>
You smack at his hand again, but this time he doesn't release you.<br/>
<br/>
"Better let her go, man," says a dark-haired kid sitting next to him. "Chen catches you, or if she tells him—"<br/>
<br/>
"Fuck you!" the other guy snarls. "Go ahead and fucking tell your fortune cookie what I'm doing," he tell you as he pulls and paws at the front of your jacket. "After I fuck him up, I'll talk to <i>you</i> about—!"<br/>
<br/>
You wrench yourself free and spin about, and on trembling legs totter off in the direction Justin and your boyfriend went. Obscene taunts batter at the back of your head, and you flinch, but a babble of voices behind tell you that the other guys are probably restraining your harasser. You wonder who he is, that he's willing to brave the jealous temper of Gary Chen.<br/>
<br/>
You round the same corner that he vanished around, and find no one. You creep along, listening at doors, until you find one that you think you hear voices behind. You try the knob, and the door opens with a creak. Justin and Gary look over at you.<br/>
<br/>
Justin is sitting behind a scarred teacher's desk. It's got the only chair to sit in, for all the regular desks have been hurled into a tangled pile on the other side of the room. Chen is propped up on the corner of the desk, and he summons you in with a jerk of his chin.<br/>
<br/>
"Here she is, she'll show you," he says.<br/>
<br/>
Justin's eyebrows go up. "You're shitting me," he says in a gruff baritone rumble. His arms are crossed against his chest.<br/>
<br/>
"Nah, es verdad," Chen says. "Show him the thing," he says to you. "Give it to him." He raises an eyebrow.<br/>
<br/>
You push the door shut behind you, and advance to the desk. You've no idea what they were talking about, but it's pretty clear that your boyfriend is telling you to get out and use the blank mask. You set your bag on the edge of the desk and unzip it; Gary crosses around to stand behind Justin, who stares at you from under lowered brows.<br/>
<br/>
You take out the mask. The instant it's free, Chen grabs Justin from behind, catching his throat under the chin in the crook of his arm. Justin gasps and turns red, and grabs at his captor's forearm.<br/>
<br/>
But he has no leverage, and it's the easiest thing in the world to press the mask onto his face. It vanishes into him, and he slumps in the chair, his eyes glassy.<br/>
<br/>
And when Chen releases him, he slides to the floor with a heavy thump.<br/>
<br/>
"Clothes off," Chen says, "and I'll get the mask off you. You already put that stuff inside it? I can just put it straight onto Roth after the other mask's done with him?" You nod. "Fuckin' awesome." He snaps his fingers. "Come on. I wanna have a little fun with you before I take the mask off you." He grabs at your pussy.<br/>
<br/>
"You should keep watch outside," you tell him as you slap him away. "Stop anyone from coming in."<br/>
<br/>
"No one's coming in," he sneers. <br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332314
author_id: seuzz
title: Grabbing a Garner
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"How about the Garners?" you murmur to your boyfriend.<br/>
<br/>
He stops in mid-chew, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth. "Eva and Jessica?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah. How about them?"<br/>
<br/>
Gary sucks down his mouthful, then puts his face to the side of yours. "Twins," he whispers. "That is too hot."<br/>
<br/>
A shiver ripples through you. "I know, right?"<br/>
<br/>
You don't even have to explain your notion of using them to make trouble for the friends they still have on the cheerleading squad.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You have one mask ready to go, so you could strike at one of the sisters tonight. But Chelsea asks you to wait until Thursday before making a move, so you've time that evening to go shopping and make another mask. You work on it up at the school, inside one of the old, ratty portables out back. It's dark and musty and creepy in the portable, whose ceiling sags and whose half-rotted away floor tilts toward a corner, and more than once you stop and listen to the creak of boards and a rustle like little feet, and you draw your own feet up under you for fear of rats coming up to nibble on your toes.<br/>
<br/>
Whatever aftershocks there are from the earthquake that knocked Eva and Jessica off the squad are taking place are happening outside your ken. But they must be fierce and ugly, because Eva snarls at you at you the next day when ask if she can stay after school to talk to Chelsea. "Who are you?" she demands. "Chelsea's errand girl all of a sudden?"<br/>
<br/>
You're in the Orchestra room, and you can't help glancing over at your boyfriend, who is packing up  his viola case. He pretends like he's not listening.<br/>
<br/>
"Don't be like this, Eva," you snap at her in turn. "I just— I don't know what it's about. But she wants to talk to you, and she wants to talk to me, so she just asked me to ask you if—"<br/>
<br/>
"If it's about the squad, she can go fuck herself."<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know what it's about! Besides, if it is about the squad, wouldn't <i>you</i> like to tell her to fuck off, instead of getting me to do it?"<br/>
<br/>
Behind her back, Gary's mouth twists into a brief smirk.<br/>
<br/>
Eva must have seen you glancing at him, because she tosses him a quick look over her shoulder.<br/>
<br/>
"It's like I don't even know you anymore," she mutters. "But what time and where?"<br/>
<br/>
"Six o'clock, in the parking lot next to the gym."<br/>
<br/>
"Perfect. Of course," Eva sneers.<br/>
<br/>
You squeeze her arm affectionately, even though you'd prefer to throttle her. "I'll take you to Panera afterward, my treat. I mean, I'm not looking forward to it either. We'll both probably want to scream after we're done with her."<br/>
<br/>
Eva grumbles in the back of her throat, hikes her pack onto her shoulders, and stomps out of the Orchestra room.<br/>
<br/>
You jump when you feel your butt tweaked by strong fingers. "Oh, you <i>know</i> you're gonna scream by the time I'm done with you," Gary murmurs in your ear. He rubs his nose in your hair, and you giggle.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You kill the balance of the afternoon in the school library with homework, though you don't get much done with Chen snuggled up beside you, his arm around your waist and his hot breath on your cheek. Every time you start to get into a groove, he breaks away from his own schoolwork to smooch you on the side of the head, and you have to return his kiss with a lip-to-lip kiss of your own. In this way you manage to snack your way through most of your math problems, but no further before the library closes for the day. After that you drive out with him to the Panda Garden for another on-the-house supper provided by his aunt.<br/>
<br/>
You're back up at the school by five forty-five. A girl who looks like Chelsea Cooper is tapping her foot impatiently by the gym's side door, and she flashes Gary Chen a dirty squint when he grins at her. Wordlessly, she unlocks the door for you and slaps the key ring into Chen's hand before stomping away. "She doesn't like you," you observe as you follow him into the echoing basketball court. The lights are off, and the interior is hung with dim shadows.<br/>
<br/>
"She knows what I'm thinking when I look at her," he chortles. "God, do you know what it's like to look at yourself from the outside, and to think how <i>fucking hot</i> you are?"<br/>
<br/>
"I thought you always knew that about yourself, Chelsea."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, well." He turns a little shy as the door clicks shut behind you. "It's one thing to do yourself up and look in the mirror and think you look real nice. It's totally something else to look at yourself from the outside and think—" He sucks in a deep breath, and sighs. "I'd like to fucking pound her inside and out until she's soft as a jelly donut." He squints at you sidelong. "That's the thing in my pants is thinking, anyway."<br/>
<br/>
A twinge of hard jealousy runs through you. Before you can muster a retort, though, Chen follows it with, "What about you? What do you think when you see, uh, that guy who looks like you?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I don't want to fuck him shapeless," you reply. "Or let him fuck <i>me</i> shapeless."<br/>
<br/>
"He's cute."<br/>
<br/>
"You think so?"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure." Chen rubs your back. "Sometimes I wonder what it'd be like if—"<br/>
<br/>
He puts his mouth to yours, and gently probes his tongue between your lips. You softly kiss him back. But you are holding your breath, even as he grips your head between his palms and nibbles at you.<br/>
<br/>
"Mmm," he says when he breaks off. "But come on. Let's get ready for Eva."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
She's late showing up because of course she is, and she returns your tight smile with a glare as she clambers out of the minivan. "So where's Chelsea?" she asks.<br/>
<br/>
"Inside, waiting."<br/>
<br/>
"Where's her car?"<br/>
<br/>
The question puzzles you, until you realize that the fake Chelsea drove off in it.<br/>
<br/>
"I don't know," you stammer. "Maybe Gordon dropped her off."<br/>
<br/>
"Is your boyfriend dropping <i>you</i> off?"<br/>
<br/>
Another puzzling question, until you realize that the only other car by the gym is Chen's Jeep. "He gave me a ride up here," you improvise.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, God, Yumi!" Eva groans. "He's not going to <i>hang out</i> with us when we're done up here, is he?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, what if he does?" Then you catch yourself. "I can send him off, you and me can go off to Panera or wherever—"<br/>
<br/>
"I don't feel like it," Eva snaps. "Let's just get this over with."<br/>
<br/>
She brushes past you, and you give her back a dirty look. <i>I'm gonna have to change her attitude when that's </i>me<i> up inside her,</i> you think.<br/>
<br/>
Eva is already inside the darkening gym when you catch up to her. "So where is she?" she asks as she glances around.<br/>
<br/>
"Up in the loft. She said to come find her up there."<br/>
<br/>
Eva snorts and follows you. Your sneakers squeak and groan on the polished hardwood floor.<br/>
<br/>
But at the shadow-draped corner where a winding staircase leads up to the loft, you hang back and push Eva forward. "What are you—?" she starts to say.<br/>
<br/>
But she has no more time to say anything else. From around the corner steps Gary Chen. You catch Eva from behind in a bear hug as he thrusts something at her.<br/>
<br/>
Then Eva falls like a dead weight, dragging you down with her.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Chen lifts her up in his arms, and carries her up the stairs. It's a huge strain, you can tell, from the way he grunts and puffs and takes each step slowly and carefully. At the top he carries her over the threshold into the loft—it's like a black parody of the traditional honeymoon ceremony—and drops her onto the gym mat beside the dorm refrigerator. He moans loudly and presses both hands into the small of his back. "God <i>damn!</i>" he hollers, "she's fucking heavy!"<br/>
<br/>
"It's all muscle," you remind him as you kneel beside Eva and begin pulling her shoes and socks off. Gary lets you work a moment, then with a grunt kneels beside you to help. Inside of a minute, you've stripped every bit of clothing from her, and you can stare down at her bare, naked form.<br/>
<br/>
She's gorgeous.<br/>
<br/>
Okay, not as gorgeous as Chelsea or Cindy. Eva's kind of a hefty girl, and though she's not carrying much extra weight, she is covered all over in baby fat. But she is luscious in her nakedness, with big, floppy boobs and rich, thick, fluffy patch in the seam between her legs. Her blue eyes are half open but unseeing, and her loosely curled, pale-blond hair swirls in a disordered heap under her head.<br/>
<br/>
You flinch a little as Chen touches your back and strokes it. "Nice," he says, "really nice."<br/>
<br/>
"Mm-hmm."<br/>
<br/>
"And you're gonna have another one just like it." He means Jessica, who is also on your list. "Unless you want to share."<br/>
<br/>
You jerk at the question. "What do you mean?"<br/>
<br/>
"Share the girls. You know. One for you and one for me."<br/>
<br/>
"I thought they were both supposed to be mine."<br/>
<br/>
"They could be. Or we could share. I could get one, you could get one. And then you could, like, take someone else to go with Eva."<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132213323142
author_id: seuzz
title: A Hell of a Way to Wake Up
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>You're supposed to take both Garner girls for yourself—that's the bargain you made with Chelsea. But you like the idea—now that she's suggested it—of splitting the girls between you. Taking both girls for yourself would be like doubling up on the same thing. And if you took and Chelsea took the other, she would still owe you another mask in order to keep things even between you. In fact, you would be owed two masks, if she is still determined to get a mask of someone who could help her with Chen's finances.<br/>
<br/>
Gary pulls you to his side and squeezes you. "We could be sisters," he murmurs.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, I like that." You shiver with delight. "Let's do it."<br/>
<br/>
"Great! So do you want—"<br/>
<br/>
"Eva," you interrupt, for you're eager to get started. "I'll get into Eva, and then I'll go get Jessica, and we'll—"<br/>
<br/>
Gary shuts you up by mashing his mouth to yours.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You are still wriggling out of your clothes when the mask appears on Eva's face, and you squat beside the girl as Gary coats its inner surface with some of the goop you prepared to seal it with.<br/>
<br/>
"Okay, Will," he says as he gently pushes you onto your back. "Lemme get Yumi off you, and—"<br/>
<br/>
You clench your eyes shut and fight down a grin of anticipation as Gary leans over you. He grips your brow and temple with strong fingers and mutters under his breath. <i>Has Chelsea been practicing?</i> you wonder, because she hasn't had to consult the book for the incantation. If she has, she hasn't studied it well enough, because her fingers slip off your face when she pulls. A chill, like a cold douche, washes over you.<br/>
<br/>
Twice more she tries without success. But before you can brush her hand away and try it yourself, she pulls again, and the entire front of your skull is torn away, taking your consciousness with it.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Someone is shaking you awake when next you are aware, and you squirm and groan and try to turn over. <i>Five more minutes,</i> you mutter in the back of your throat. <i>Just give me five more minutes—</i><br/>
<br/>
But you are pinned down and can't flop over as you'd like. Even worse, you realize as your consciousness breaches the surface of reality, is <i>how</i> you are being pinned down.<br/>
<br/>
Someone has shoved a hot, hard spike all the way up your cunny.<br/>
<br/>
You pry your eyes open with a gasp. Gary Chen, his eyes clenched shut and a light film of sweat beading on his brow, is looming over you, his face only inches from yours. His lips are peeled back from his strong teeth as he puffs and pumps away rhythmically inside you.<br/>
<br/>
A shriek forms down deep near your diaphragm and rolls up your gullet and past your throat. But it dies behind your teeth even as you open your mouth.<br/>
<br/>
Because as horrible as it is to wake to the nightmare of <i>being raped by Gary Chen,</i> something in the back of your head says, <i>This is wonderful!</i><br/>
<br/>
So you lay frozen with terror and confusion as Chen, gulping and gurgling, rams his way up inside you. It hurts terribly—he is scraping you raw—but you spread your legs to give him more room.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Jesus, I knew it was a bad idea to come up here to meet Yumi!</i> you think. <i>And when I saw Gary's Jeep—</i><br/>
<br/>
Your thoughts dissolve like tissue in the rain as Chen pauses, gathers himself, and explodes within you. It's like he's trying to hammer himself through your bruised and bleeding flesh into the floor below. Tears well into your eyes and pour out.<br/>
<br/>
Five, six, ten, a dozen times he bangs away inside you, then with a groan he sags and rolls off.<br/>
<br/>
You lay in a daze, at the center of a rippling confusion. <i>Why am I having deja vu?</i> you wonder.<br/>
<br/>
Then a  new reality—cold and hard and bracing—snaps into place. <i>Now I know what's going on.</i><br/>
<br/>
Chen sniffs and coughs. "Sorry about that," he mutters. "Are you okay? I just I couldn't fucking help myself."<br/>
<br/>
"I'm fine," you reply. "Though it's a hell of a way to wake up."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I didn't hurt you too much, I hope."<br/>
<br/>
"I need to take a shower." Your muscles creak as you sit up.<br/>
<br/>
"Gimme a minute, and I'll come with you."<br/>
<br/>
"No, I need a minute by myself." You gather up your clothes—Eva Garner's clothes—and clamber unsteadily to your feet. You look down at Chen, who is sprawling with one arm behind his head. His drooping dick looks like it's been dipped in vermillion dye.<br/>
<br/>
He follows your gaze, and grins. "Like it?" he asks. "Eva ever have anything like it before?"<br/>
<br/>
"No," you can truthfully reply. "She never has." Naked, with your clothes in a bundle, you totter from the loft.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Despite your request, he comes and finds you a little later in the girls' changing room, under the shower, where you've been gingerly cleaning yourself out and off. He's stripped to nothing too, and pushes his way under the spray with you You pretend less reluctance than you feel as he embraces you, and gnaws at the side of your neck.<br/>
<br/>
Afterward you towel off, but you're still damp so that Eva's flannel leggings stick to your skin, and you feel a hot mess all over. When Chen leans in again to grab and rub you, you shake him rudely off.<br/>
<br/>
"Hey, hey," he says, "what's wrong, babe? I feel like you're not that into me, all of a sudden."<br/>
<br/>
"I'm not," you snap. "Because 'all of a sudden' I'm Eva Garner, and she thinks you're just about the skeeziest asshole around."<br/>
<br/>
He grins. He reaches out to squeeze your shoulder. "I know. That's what makes it so hot."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, you're just gonna have to give me time to warm up to it." You shake out your limbs. "I mean, how would <i>you</i> feel, Chelsea, if you woke up with <i>Gary Chen</i> pounding his meat inside you?"<br/>
<br/>
His expression freezes, then falls. He kicks at the floor.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, okay," he grumbles. "I see what you mean. I'm sorry." He tears his ski cap off and rakes his fingers through his thick and tangled hair. "Only I was so excited—"<br/>
<br/>
"I get that you were. If you'd only waited, and been a little gentler with me—"<br/>
<br/>
"I couldn't help it. Eva's such a cunt."<br/>
<br/>
You stiffen. <i>Oh,</i> you think. <i>So you really did want to—</i> But you swallow the word instead of thinking it.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Your phone, when you retrieve it from the loft, is bulging with impatient texts from Jessica, demanding to know where you are and what Chelsea wanted to meet you about. <i>Bullshit apology,</i> you reply, <i>abt kicking us off squad.<br/>
<br/>
She didn't want say sorry to me????</i> Jessica asks.<br/>
<br/>
<i>She said sayg sorry to one is like sorry to both of us.<br/>
<br/>
O FUCK HER!!!!</i> Jessica replies when she's calmed down enough to actually type.<br/>
<br/>
<i>I'll come home pick u up,</i> you reply. <i>Yumi wants take us both out to talk.<br/>
<br/>
Bring Lin? Cindy?<br/>
<br/>
No just u and me.</i><br/>
<br/>
You show the exchange to Chen. "Nice," he says, and chucks you under the chin. You can tell he wants to kiss you, but has thought better of it. "How're we gonna handle this?"<br/>
<br/>
"We should get her up here, like we did Eva. Where's Yumi?"<br/>
<br/>
"I sent her to wait outside."<br/>
<br/>
"Then come on, I'll tell you and her both what to do."<br/>
<br/>
Yumi is leaning against Chen's Jeep when you step outside. She's got her phone out, and she gives you a funny look as you come over. You feel awkward as well, and dodge looking her in the face.<br/>
<br/>
"We're gonna go pick Jessica up now," you tell her and Chen. "We'll take my—Eva's—the minivan. Yumi, you sit up front. Um, Chelsea, you get in the back. With the stuff. After Jessica's in and the door's closed—"<br/>
<br/>
"Gotcha." Gary chortles.<br/>
<br/>
"And then we'll come back up here to finish it off."<br/>
<br/>
You look between your two conspirators. One, a real girl disguised as a guy. The other, a fake version of the girl you've been pretending to be. Chen openly gloats and grins at the plan you've outlined. Yumi doesn't react, though, not until she thinks you're not looking.<br/>
<br/>
Then she reaches out and brushes her fingertips quickly down Chen's arm.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Well, that's interesting,</i> you think as you walk around to the driver's side door. <i>I guess I got her trained.</i> Her face creases into a shy smile.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The plan goes off without a hitch. At a red light you text Jessica to say you're on your way to pick her up, and to warn her that Chen is hitching a ride back to his place, so Jessica doesn't squawk when she finds him waiting in the back for her. Neither does she squawk when Chen grabs her. Not until you glance back in the rearview mirror do you see Chen hunched over your sister, tearing at her blouse, and realize your partner has made her move. Everyone in the back is naked by the time you get back to the school, to park in a dark and distant corner of the student lot.<br/>
<br/>
Then you clamber into the back, to watch as Chen seals and fires the mask that comes out of Jessica, and to pull Chen's mask off of her, exposing the real Chelsea Cooper.<br/>
<br/>
Without anticipating the consequences, you put Chen's mask onto Jessica. Instantly she changes form, and instantly Gary Chen's eyes spring open. He stares at you.<br/>
<br/>
Then, quick as a cobra, he catches you by the wrist.<br/>
<br/>
"Hey, Eva," he gurgles. "How 'bout we pick up where we left off in the girls' shower?"<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231322133231421
author_id: seuzz
title: Garners' Night Out
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Chen's grip is like an iron manacle. No matter how you twist or pull, you can't get loose. He grins at you.<br/>
<br/>
"Gary, let go," you hiss.<br/>
<br/>
"No," he says. "Come on, this is fun." He grabs your elbow with his free hand and wrenches you toward him.<br/>
<br/>
You fall off your feet and onto Chelsea. She wakes with a squawk.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
It was the best thing that could have happened. After a lot of slapping and yelling, Chelsea woke enough to the situation to order Chen to let you go. He gave you a lot of sullen, resentful looks, but like a kicked dog he clambered out of the minivan when Chelsea ordered him gone. "I'll talk to you later," he mumbled at you in what sounded like a threat.<br/>
<br/>
"No you won't!" Chelsea yelled at him. He ducked his head as flinching from a punch. "You leave her alone! Stay away from her! Don't even talk to her!"<br/>
<br/>
Chen hunched his shoulders but nodded, and slunk off toward his Jeep. Yumi, who had been watching all this from the front seat, hopped out and hurried after. You watched as they stood by his Jeep, talking. Chen had a very black look on his face, but Yumi looked concerned, and she stroked his cheek gently with the palm of one hand.<br/>
<br/>
But they've driven away now, leaving you alone with Chelsea. Or with Jessica, actually. While you watched the two fakes, she mumbled about "finishing changing", and when you looked back again, it was the naked form of Jessica who was slumped in her seat.<br/>
<br/>
You get out of the minivan and pace about the parking lot as you wait. You're still shaken by Chen's attack, and a little light exercise, you hope, will make the trembles go away. As you pace, you try dismissing your fright—what will happen if you see Chen again?—in favor of looking at the bright side. Chen was definitely acting in character when he grabbed you, and that's good, if you don't want people suspecting that there's something different about the people you've used masks on, and he did let you go when Chelsea ordered him, so he is obeying her like he's supposed to.<br/>
<br/>
But you're still bothered by the implications of the attack. If you've got Yumi trained to "be in love" with Chen, then you have to think that Chelsea also got Chen trained. And look what he did. What does that say about the training she's given him during her time pretending to be him?<br/>
<br/>
<i>Well, that's something to worry about later,</i> you conclude. You hoist yourself onto the hood of the minivan and take out your phone, to kill the time until your fake sister wakes and joins you.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You've just got time to become deeply absorbed in some texts from Olivia Byrne, warning  that Kelsey is "head-banging mad" at Eva and Jessica, when you hear the minivan door slide open and slam shut. In fact, so absorbed are you in the texts that you do a double-take at the girl who comes sidling up before remembering who she actually is.<br/>
<br/>
Like Eva, Jessica is a bosomy blonde, but she gives the impression of being leaner, more agile, and more athletic. Part of it is her hair, which she wears in a short bob that curls over the top of her neck, giving her an air of boyishness despite her flagrant boobage. But in fact her build is hardly different from her sisters. They both have well-stacked torsos balanced atop wide, bowl-like hips and strong legs; large, china-blue eyes; a pert nose and a wide mouth; and a dusky, peach-colored complexion.<br/>
<br/>
"Hey," Jessica says as she sidles up beside you. "I'm sorry about what happened with Gary."<br/>
<br/>
"It wasn't your fault," you tell her, though you actually feel like it kind of was.<br/>
<br/>
"He needs a good kick in the nuts."<br/>
<br/>
You give her lopsided smile. "So you're getting into character as Jessica already, huh?"<br/>
<br/>
"What?"<br/>
<br/>
"That's what Jessica would have said."<br/>
<br/>
"Oh. Well." She looks away. "I'll take your word for it."<br/>
<br/>
"What's wrong?"<br/>
<br/>
"Same deal I was having with Gary. I don't really—" She squeezes her head between her hands. "I'm not really getting any of the memories."<br/>
<br/>
"No? Where do we live? What are our mom and dad's names? What did we have for supper last night?" Jessica shakes her head mutely at all of your questions. "Well, dang."<br/>
<br/>
"Maybe it'll be okay," she says. "But it was, like, twenty-four hours before I got Gary's memories. If I have to wait that long—"<br/>
<br/>
"You'll be okay. I'll help you out. And it won't be like when you had to fake your way through as Gary. Just act like yourself, Chelsea, and probably no one'll tell the difference."<br/>
<br/>
"Gee, thanks," she grumbles. "You must really have it in for your sister if you'd say something like <i>that!</i>"<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The Garner girls are not due back home until ten o'clock or so, so you spend a half hour at the school going over some of the things that Chelsea might need to know about her new identity. Mostly this just involves telling her about the life the girls have at home—things like, they share a room, while Marc gets a room of his own—and the roiling drama that has been stirred up thanks to her shakeup of the cheerleading squad. You still have homework to do, though, and because you don't want to do it at the house, you drive back to the Garners to pick it up. You leave Jessica in the passenger seat while you run inside to collect her books and yours.<br/>
<br/>
Marc's bedroom door is open. You avoid glancing inside, but Marc calls out as you hurry past. "Kelsey's pissed at you and Jessica," he says when you lean inside the doorway. His expression is sober.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, I heard. Well, she can—" You glance back down the hallway. The coast is clear, but you mouth your reply to him. "Go fuck herself."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, it's Martin she should be mad at anyway. Except she can't be, since he's the one that brings in the—"<br/>
<br/>
"Is she mad at you?"<br/>
<br/>
He blinks. "Why would she be mad at—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Because you got caught with some of that stuff in your locker too."<br/>
<br/>
"That's not my fault! And it all got straightened out."<br/>
<br/>
<i>Hmph.</i> It wasn't your or Jessica's fault either. But Mr. Popular-Little-Brother gets to skate. "You going out to her place Saturday night?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"Prob'ly not. Not if you and Jessica aren't. Where is Jessica, anyway?"<br/>
<br/>
"Out in the car. We're going out somewhere to study."<br/>
<br/>
Marc's face brightens. "I'll go too!"<br/>
<br/>
"I think it's just a girls' night for us."<br/>
<br/>
"Not now, it isn't. Where are we going?"<br/>
<br/>
<i>Such a typical Marc thing,</i> you sourly think. <i>So used to being the most special person in any group.</i><br/>
<br/>
Not only that, when you get outside he takes the keys so he can drive. As Jessica is sitting up front, that means you have to clamber into the back. "Where are we going?" Marc asks as he buckles himself in.<br/>
<br/>
"Milagro," Jessica answers, tonelessly. She gives you a meaningful look over her shoulder. "Yumi and Gary are meeting us there."<br/>
<br/>
Marc gasps. "Oh, shit!"<br/>
<br/>
"The fuck?" you demand, for Gary Chen is the last person you want to see. "Can't you text them and cancel?"<br/>
<br/>
"I just got finished setting it up!"<br/>
<br/>
"What? Why the <i>fuck,</i> Jessica?"<br/>
<br/>
"Because I wanna see them!"<br/>
<br/>
"Cancel, Jess," you plead. "I don't want Gary at the same table as—"<br/>
<br/>
"I'll take him off your hands," Marc volunteers. "I'll take 'im to another corner, and you girls and Yumi can—"<br/>
<br/>
"I want us all to sit together," Jessica says through gritted teeth. "Besides, they're gonna want to be together. If they're <i>going</i> together."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, that's the problem," Marc snorts as he turns the motor over. "Seriously, you girls need to have a talk with Yumi. I thought she'd be smart enough—"<br/>
<br/>
"I want to <i>see</i> them together," Jessica insists, "before we have a talk like that." She crosses her arms. "You never know, maybe they <i>are</i> good with each other."<br/>
<br/>
Marc gives you a look over his shoulder, and snorts again. It's a very silent ride out to the coffee shop.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
The scene is even worse when you get there. The Milagro Beanfield Warehouse is one of the toniest coffee shops in town, with interiors decorated in parched, expensively weathered wood; carefully stacked coffee sacks woven of distressed canvas; and polished table tops of knotty pine. The prices are at least fifty percent higher than those at Starbucks or some other chain shop, and the staff look like they've been hired at least as much for their piercings, their lumberjack beards, and their tattoos as for their skill with a cappuccino machine.<br/>
<br/>
So of course Kelsey Blankenship and her best pal Amanda Ferguson are seated in the main dining room when you arrive.<br/>
<br/>
You try to avoid noticing them, but Kelsey makes eye contact. For a moment her face freezes into an expression of contempt and anger. But it quickly changes to a sorrowful frown as she beckons you and Jessica over while Marc goes to the front counter.<br/>
<br/>
"I was just about to text you guys," she moans. "Something came up, and we won't be able to have my usual Saturday night party."<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, what happened?" you ask. Amanda, you notice, looks puzzled at Kelsey's announcement.<br/>
<br/>
"It's a family thing. Nothing important, but— Tch! It totally blows our party plans to hell."<br/>
<br/>
"What about next Saturday?" Jessica asks.<br/>
<br/>
Kelsey's expression scrunches up into one of the most insincere smiles you've ever seen. "Oh, it'll be back to normal by then," she assures you. She cups her mug in both hands. "You here to do some work? I got mine done this afternoon," she smugly explains, "so Amanda and I are just chilling out."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, I've got a short paper for AP English I've got to finish up."<br/>
<br/>
Kelsey's eyes narrow. It's a sore spot with her, that she couldn't fit an AP English class into her schedule, so she has to make do with "Classical Literature."<br/>
<br/>
"I'm impressed, Will," Jessica murmurs as you leave Kelsey's table. "You're a natural-born bitch."<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332314211
author_id: seuzz
title: The Difference Between Boys and Girls
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>You and Jessica and Marc have your coffees and are bent over your phones when Chen and Yumi come rolling in. They have their arms around each other's waists, and Chen sports a cocky grin. "Hey man, where's your girl?" he teases Marc.<br/>
<br/>
"We're here studying," Marc says. He slips his phone into his backpack and pulls out some books.<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, I'm studying too," Chen says. "Studying this little girl." He kisses the side of Yumi's head, and she squeals.<br/>
<br/>
"If you wanna get a table for yourself," Jessica says to Marc. She's on his side of the booth, squeezed between him and the wall, and she nudges him.<br/>
<br/>
But Chen pushes Yumi in next to you. "Nah, there's room for us all," he says. "Getcha something, babe?" Yumi asks for a latte, and he saunters off to get it.<br/>
<br/>
"He seems sweet," Marc tells Yumi with barely concealed sarcasm. "Sweet and thoughtful and sensitive."<br/>
<br/>
"He is," she retorts. "No one gives him a chance."<br/>
<br/>
"So what do you do when you get together?"<br/>
<br/>
Yumi makes a face. "None of your business."<br/>
<br/>
"You all have Stat together, right?" you hastily interrupt. "I mean," you add when all heads swivel toward you, "we're all here to study. Yumi, you got your Stat homework done yet?"<br/>
<br/>
"I didn't know we were getting together to study."<br/>
<br/>
You duck your head, letting golden curls fall around your face to obscure the faint blush you feel creeping up your cheeks, and dig inside your own backpack.<br/>
<br/>
{center)* * * * *</span></div><br/>
It's a rough hour that follows. Chen and Yumi haven't brought any books along, so they've nothing to occupy themselves as you try to bear down on Eva's unfinished homework, and Chen loudly prattles and brays at Marc as he tries to do his, talking about the soccer team and who's doing a good job on it and who isn't, and tossing out unsolicited advice on what Marc, as team captain, should be doing differently.<br/>
<br/>
Worse, when that topic runs out, he starts advising Marc on his ganja usage. "Long as you don't let that stuff fuck you up out on the field," he tells Marc, "I don't got no objection to your using. An' I can set you up with better stuff than whatever shit you've been gettin' wherever you been gettin' it. Cheaper too." Marc thinly replies that he knows what he's doing.<br/>
<br/>
But the worst part comes about thirty minutes into the session, when you feel something touch and tickle the back of your shoulder. You twitch, thinking to shake loose the fabric that has bunched up there, then with a shock realize that you're being gently probed and rubbed by a hard fingertip. You freeze in place as the fingertip strokes and massages a tiny patch of skin between your shoulder and shoulder blade, and it takes you a moment to realize it's Chen. He's got his arm around Yumi's shoulders, but he's slid his hand past her, and is finger-flirting with you (literally) behind Yumi's back. <br/>
<br/>
Grimly, you lean back, pinching his fingers between your shoulder and the back of the unpadded booth. With a jerk, he pulls free, and doesn't try that slimy trick again.<br/>
<br/>
"You didn't say much," Marc observes to Jessica on the drive back home. "You didn't study much, either."<br/>
<br/>
"I was watching Gary and Yumi."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah? And?"<br/>
<br/>
She shrugs. "They seem happy."<br/>
<br/>
Marc snorts. "He's a fucking psycho, and what's wrong with her?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'll talk to her."<br/>
<br/>
"You fucking better. Tell her—"<br/>
<br/>
"Shut up, Marc."<br/>
<br/>
He jumps a little in surprise, then ducks his head to concentrate on his driving. Jessica glances back at you. Her expression is unreadable in the dark, but she says, "Me and Eva'll have a talk with them."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Back home, in the bedroom that the Garner girls share, you change into flannel pajamas, and show Chelsea what she needs to change into. After that, she pushes you into the chair at the dressing table and, like a hair stylist, goes to work brushing out your pale gold hair, and pushing it this way and that while you both study the results in the mirror. You ask if she's starting to get any of Jessica's memories. She says she hasn't, but you wonder. "Jessica likes to play with Eva's hair," you inform her. "Like you're doing now."<br/>
<br/>
"Huh. Well, you're like a big, life-size doll," your ersatz sister replies. "You're just too tempting. And you're so easy to push around."<br/>
<br/>
"I am?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, Eva is." She bunches up a fistful of your hair. "You should think about getting a permanent while you're, you know. Put a little more curl into her hair."<br/>
<br/>
"Eva tried that back in middle school." The smell of the chemicals comes back to you. "It was a pain and she didn't like keeping it up."<br/>
<br/>
"Tch. That's her whole problem, you know."<br/>
<br/>
"What is?"<br/>
<br/>
"She's lazy."<br/>
<br/>
You give Jessica a narrow look in the mirror, but she's too busy playing with your hair to notice.<br/>
<br/>
"Eva and Jessica," she continues, "they're both lazy. Well, Eva is. I don't know about Jessica yet, but Eva's one of those girls who thinks that because she was born with looks that she doesn't have to work any extra. Not on her looks, not on her hair, not on her figure. Sure not on her gymnastics." A sneer curls onto Jessica's lip. "She just goes along like, 'Look at me, I'm so cute, I'm so good, love me just like this.' Pfft!"<br/>
<br/>
Her voice hardens. "Do you have any freaking idea, Will, how hard I work to keep myself looking as good as I do? Keeping my routines as good? Keeping my boyfriend happy?" Her brushstrokes intensify, pulling and yanking at your hair by the roots. "There's not one freaking moment I can have to myself, for myself. I put in so many flipping hours, it makes me exhausted!"<br/>
<br/>
"So why don't you relax a little bit? I mean," you add as her frown hardens, "just take an extra ... five percent? For yourself?"<br/>
<br/>
She doesn't answer, but only works faster and more intently at your hair, and meekly you submit. But after a few more minutes, she throws the brush down with a snort.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I give up," she says. "I guess Eva knows best what she can do with her hair, and if this what she does with it—"<br/>
<br/>
"It's fine, I think," you say. Your scalp hurts from the brushing, and gently you pat the tresses back into a fuller shape from the mauling she gave you. "Really, I think I like—"<br/>
<br/>
 Jessica gives a start, and her eyes sharpen, as though she's seeing you for the first time. For a long moment, you hold each other's gaze.<br/>
<br/>
Then Jessica's expression softens a little, and she touches a your jaw with a gentle fingertip.<br/>
<br/>
"This really is something new for you, Will, isn't it?" she says. "I mean, the whole 'being a girl' thing."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I was being Yumi for—"<br/>
<br/>
"But that was different, wasn't it?" She shakes her head. "That was for— Well, that was for me. I asked you to. Or—" She seems to catch herself. "It was my idea. 'Cos I thought it would help you with, um, your old girlfriend."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, yeah. But I was—"<br/>
<br/>
"Yumi's not much of a girl."<br/>
<br/>
You feel another blush creeping up your cheeks. "I think she was. <i>Gary</i> seemed to think so."<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, <i>that!</i>"<br/>
<br/>
She turns away, then turns back around again. Her expression is hooded.<br/>
<br/>
"But now," she says, and touches your jaw again, pushing it to tilt your head a little to the side. She ruffles and fluffs your hair. "Eva's a lot more— Well, she <i>is</i> like a big, living doll. You feel more like a girl this way, Will?"<br/>
<br/>
You don't know what to say to that. Of course you feel more like a girl—you <i>are</i> a girl!—but admitting it to Chelsea would feel like you're forfeiting your masculinity. So you lower your face.<br/>
<br/>
But as you lower your eyes, you catch sight of yourself in the mirror, and can't stop from looking up at your reflection.<br/>
<br/>
It really is a pretty face you've stolen from Eva Garner. A soft brow over eyes that slope sleepily at the corners; a regular nose; a plump little mouth. And below your smooth throat and framed by your shoulders, rising and falling gently inside your pajama tops, are two ripe, full breasts. Their tips start to prickle as you drink yourself in.<br/>
<br/>
Jessica leans down to rest her chin on your shoulder, and stare into the reflection of your eyes.<br/>
<br/>
"It is different, isn't it, Will?" she says in a soft voice. "Being a girl from being a boy. And being a <i>soft</i> girl like Eva from being a sassy little bitch like Yumi. I really got a feel for how different boys and girls are when I was ... you know. Being Gary." She bites her lip. "I felt so powerful, but I was also so scared."<br/>
<br/>
"You didn't act scared."<br/>
<br/>
Gary tries not to. But he is. That's why he tries not to act like it. He's scared of what he's doing, scared of what's going to happen to him. Scared of girls." Her voice turns to a groan. "He wants <i>so bad</i> to be with a girl, to—" She swallows. "To ram himself up inside a girl, and then to hold her afterward, and protect her." She hesitates. "He <i>almost</i> would want to see her in trouble, to see her cheat on him, or to get in trouble with another guy, so he could bust on the other guy, and then go back to the girl and say, 'See what I did for you, what I'll always do for you?'" <br/>
<br/>
She sighs, raggedly, as she straightens up. "It was making me crazy, because he's crazy. And then I was watching him all the time tonight, at Milagro. Thinking what an ugly, creepy asshole he was being. But I was also thinking, 'I know what he's doing, why he's acting this way.' I could almost <i>feel</i> what he was feeling. He was so scared being with Yumi, in front of Marc and us, not knowing how to act."<br/>
<br/>
She hops onto her bed with a sigh. "But I don't know why I'm telling you all this, Will. You're a guy, you know totally what it's like."<span class="O"></span></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132213323142111
author_id: seuzz
title: Eva, Hot and Bothered
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Whether she meant to or not, Chelsea has given you a lot to think about, and you spend a good hour tossing and turning before falling asleep.<br/>
<br/>
To start with, there's the whole "being a girl" thing she. Whether she was being very insightful and intuitive, or just mean, Chelsea has hit on something. You do feel "girlier" since swapping Yumi's face and body for Eva's. Even on the inside, Eva feels fuller and softer and riper than Yumi, and as you lay in the warm darkness under soft sheets and blankets, you are aware of the weight of your breasts and of a breathing humidity down between your legs. Sharing a bedroom as she does, Eva keeps her hands discreetly to herself during the night, and you do so as well. Only when the desire to touch yourself through the front of your pajama bottoms becomes unbearable do you give in to the same extent Eva does when she is feeling hot and itchy and bothered: You turn onto your side, draw your knees up, and press your clasped hands between your thighs, brushing the tender and greedy lobes with the heels of your hands. Your breath comes very short, and you dig the side of your face into the pillow as you fantasize another warm presence in your bed, curled about you from behind.<br/>
<br/>
Naturally, one thought will trip on the heels of another, and soon you are battering away some pretty grotty memories of being touched and kissed and mooned over by one of the last people you'd like to get naked and wet with, in any form. Jeremy Richards is a tall, droopy-eyed basketball player with a fat lower lip and a thatch of dark hair that falls over his ears and into his eyes. Eva, for whatever reason, allowed herself to pretend to find him sweet and shy and clumsy, like an adolescent buck, and she went on a couple of dates with him back in September, and even got into a couple of clinches with him. Luckily, she got smart and let Lin Pol—who knows a thing or two about basketball players; though a Westside cheerleader, she is serially dating her way through the team at arch-rival Eastman High—convince her that Jeremy was dopey and fumble-fingered and not even all that good looking. She shook him off, and (sure enough!) Jeremy proved so gormless and insecure that he didn't even plead for another chance but let one broken date stand for a solid kiss-off. You're glad of that, not only because his kisses were sodden with drool, but because Jeremy was once a friend of yours in middle school, before a growth spurt led him to join the basketball team and try to become a jock. Since then, he's hung out with assholes like Seth Javits and pretended not to know you.<br/>
<br/>
But not even the memories of Jeremy's nerveless lips pushing against yours can turn off the hot steam you feel eating away at your most delicate tissues. Did Chelsea see that in your eyes? Some change in your soul, looking out through Eva's eyes, that hadn't been there when you looked at her with Yumi's? Is that why she talked about knowing how Chen felt, knowing how guys felt, and how his emotions and desires overwhelmed her—because she knew you would feel the same about Eva's? Was she giving you, in some sense, permission to be overwhelmed by Eva's femininity, telling you that she would understand? Maybe even telling you that she would expect you to be so overwhelmed?<br/>
<br/>
Keeping your hands between your thighs, you flop over onto your other side, to stare through the darkness at the bed where Chelsea, in her new body, is sleeping. Her breath is soft, deep and regular. <i>She</i> at least had no trouble dropping off! You grimace at her before another thought catches you. Chelsea didn't just observe that <i>you</i> will know better now what it is to be a girl. When she said she had learned what it was to be a boy, she casually dismissed it by saying that <i>of course</i> you already knew that kind of thing yourself—that <i>you</i> already know the desire to be with a girl, to be inside a girl, to have and hold and grip a girl tightly to yourself.<br/>
<br/>
Not that you can really recognize yourself inside her description of Chen. If his acting up in front of you and Jessica and Marc was him being scared, what does that make <i>you</i> around girls? "Petrified"?<br/>
<br/>
But if she thinks that she knows and felt what you know and feel, because she knows and feels what Chen knows and felt—?<br/>
<br/>
<i>My God,</i> you gasp silently to yourself, <i>is she saying that she knows how I must feel about her?</i> Is she—? Could she be saying—? That she knows what I want, and how much I want it?<br/>
<br/>
<i>Is she telling me I can make a play for her?</i><br/>
<br/>
Well, in a sense, it would be nothing new. You and Chelsea have already fucked each other senseless a couple of times. Only you were being the girl. Somehow, you think with gritted teeth, it had to be that way. Chelsea is so much the dominating personality, so much the one in charge. She talked about keeping her boyfriend happy, but you have the firm impression that Gordon must have had to work ten times harder to keep Chelsea happy. Would Chelsea really let <i>you</i> be the one with the hard and raging cock the next time (if there even is a next time!) the two of you snap your bodies together like Legos?<br/>
<br/>
Eventually you thrash yourself into a hot and sweaty sleep, but your unbuttoned anxieties wake you long before dawn with a headache that's like a rash on your brain, and you get up an hour before the alarm to try washing it away with aspirin and a shower.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"Jessica!" Jenny Ashton exclaims as she stops cold just inside the door to the school library. She looks between you and your sister. "What are you doing here?"<br/>
<br/>
"Skipping History," Jessica retorts. She's sliding an emory board over her nails and staring through a nearby bookshelf. "I didn't get my homework done last night and didn't feel like listening to Mr. Walberg get all sarcastic with me."<br/>
<br/>
Jenny shoots you a querying glance. You reply with a warning one of your own. Chelsea woke with Jessica's memories, but she feels to you like she's in a very Chelsea-ish mood.<br/>
<br/>
"Okay," Jenny says as she slides into a seat, putting you between her and Jessica. "What are you doing first period these days?"<br/>
<br/>
"We're not joining Concert Choir," Jessica snaps.<br/>
<br/>
"We don't need the credits," you explain to Jenny, who has suggested to Jessica and Eva that, since they don't have cheerleading practice any more, they could join her first-period class. "A guidance counselor said we don't, so we think we're just going to turn first period into another study hall."<br/>
<br/>
"Or maybe we'll start coming in to school an hour later," Jessica says. Still she hasn't so much as glanced in Jenny's direction.<br/>
<br/>
And she keeps that frosty shield up all period long, even after Bonny and Audrey and Rachel join you. She only grunts a couple of times when directly addressed, and for the rest of the time sits with her chin high in the air, staring over the heads of you other girls as you quietly gossip and do a little light studying.<br/>
<br/>
"What's the deal with Jessica today?" Jenny whispers to you after the bell has rung, and your sister has swept off for her German class.<br/>
<br/>
"There's lots of drama, Jenny," you remind her. You're feeling another headache coming on—it was stressful having to keep a happy face with Jenny and her friends while cocking a wary eye in Chelsea's direction. "Or hadn't you noticed?" <br/>
<br/>
Jenny makes a sour face, and mutters something about making weekend plans with you later.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
That headache never gets any worse, but it never goes away either. In fact, you start to feel feverish—flushed, sweaty, and distracted. You try telling yourself you've caught a bug, but by seventh period you give up and admit to yourself what the problem is.<br/>
<br/>
You are a blonde, bouncy, sexy teenage girl, and in every class and at every turn in every hallway, guys turn to peer or openly stare at you.<br/>
<br/>
And—<i>God damn it!</i>— you like it.<br/>
<br/>
It gives you a prickle all over, like a heat rash, and makes you feel sodden, inside and out. Guys like you, they're fascinated by you, they want to get close up to you and lean over you and breathe on you. And the thought of it—the steamy breath; the touch of dry, hot skin; the bright stare of cute boys—makes you limp.<br/>
<br/>
It's not every day that Eva has such flashes. It's not even most days, and it's never this intense. But it's happened often enough and hard enough that you recognize it for what it is.<br/>
<br/>
It's an itch that can't be scratched—an itch that can only be dug out with something long and hard and rhythmic.<br/>
<br/>
"God!" Jessica exclaims when you bump into her at your lockers after seventh period. "Was the A/C off in your last classroom? You look like you've been in a sauna!"<br/>
<br/>
<i>Something like that,</i> you mutter.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I pulled Gary over last period, told him to leave you alone, in case you were worried about him acting up in Orchestra. God, he was so freaking obvious with you last night at Milagro."<br/>
<br/>
"You noticed that?"<br/>
<br/>
"<i>Marc</i> noticed it! Though for once, our little bro had the sense not to say anything about it."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, thanks for that."<br/>
<br/>
But are you grateful? Mention of Gary Chen's name at this moment doesn't excite disgust or fear. It excites lust.<br/>
<br/>
Because he's the only safe place you could satisfy the craving that's capsized your good sense.<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231322133231421112
author_id: seuzz
title: Putting on the War Paint
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Whatever Chelsea said to Gary, it worked. He doesn't so much as look at you, and all of his attention is bent toward Yumi.<br/>
<br/>
Somehow, being ignored is even worse than being flirted with.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"So, what have you girls got planned for tonight?" Marc asks as you're leaving school. <br/>
<br/>
He's driving—Marc <i>always</i> drives; he treats his right to the wheel like it's a fucking law of nature or something—and the minivan is inching its way through the parking lot in bumper-to-bumper traffic. From behind his shades he watches the other drivers and the strolling crowds, occasionally flashing a peace sign, or an insolent middle finger, and grinning at his friends.<br/>
<br/>
You're in the front passenger seat, and you glance back at Jessica, who has been absorbed in her iPhone since leaving her locker. "I dunno," you admit. "What are you doing?"<br/>
<br/>
It's Friday, so naturally the popular Garner siblings must have plans. "Oh, something," Marc says. "Go get a bite with Hannah, hang out someplace, then go do something somewhere til, I dunno, three in the morning." His sunburned face shines pinkly with anticipation, and his eyebrows arch excitedly over the tops of his shades.<br/>
<br/>
Translation: <i>Pick up my slutty girlfriend and take her to Taco Bell, where we'll feed sloppy burritos to each other. Then we'll drive out to the river for a beer and a blow job, hang out with other guys and their girlfriends, bragging about what studs we all are. Back in the car for another blow job. Then out to the Warehouse to dance and make out and get shitfaced and fuck each other in the back of the car. Stagger home hours after curfew, trip and bumble up the stairs like a pachyderm, and pass out with jeans unzipped and hanging halfway off my ass while drooling into the pillow.</i><br/>
<br/>
Like most Friday nights for Marc Garner.<br/>
<br/>
"Jessica?" you call into the back. "Jessica?"<br/>
<br/>
"Huh?" she says. "Oh, we're going out to Catherine's."<br/>
<br/>
"Sexy-Butt Catherine's?" says Marc.<br/>
<br/>
"Do you call her that in front of Hannah?"<br/>
<br/>
Marc's grin almost splits his face. "Oh yeah!"<br/>
<br/>
"God!"<br/>
<br/>
"Is she having a party tonight?"<br/>
<br/>
"Just the usual," Jessica says. "We'll hook up with someone there, then go someplace later."<br/>
<br/>
Marc sobers up instantly. "Hook up with someone?" he asks.<br/>
<br/>
"We'll find a crowd that's going someplace," Jessica explains, "and go with them wherever."<br/>
<br/>
"Oh," he sighs with relief.<br/>
<br/>
Jessica kicks the back of his seat. "You fucking <i>brat!</i> If me and Eva wanna go out and get laid, what fucking business is it of yours?"<br/>
<br/>
"Hey! I'm just looking out for—"<br/>
<br/>
"You're a fucking hypocrite, Marc, you and those man-whores you hang out with! How do you know me and Eva haven't sucked off all the wrestlers and half the football team by now? You've got them crawling all over the house all the time!"<br/>
<br/>
Marc spins around on her. "Hey! Just so you know, if I ever catch you with one of those guys behind a locked door—"<br/>
<br/>
"Hey, just so you know," Jessica retorts, "the only reason we <i>haven't</i> blown any of your dumbass friends is because they're almost as disgusting as you!"<br/>
<br/>
Marc slams the car into "Park." "I'm warning you, Jessica," he says, and points a strong forefinger at her. "You and Eva both, you—"<br/>
<br/>
Jessica grabs his hand, and they grunt and wrestle.<br/>
<br/>
You settle back with a sigh behind folded arms, until the car ahead lurches forward. Then you interrupt the fight by leaning over to blast the car horn. Marc jerks free of Jessica and turns back to the wheel. All the way home, he and Jessica holler at each other about what guys get to do and what girls don't.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
You expect Jessica to blow off some super-hot steam when you get back home, but she only laughs and tells you start getting showered and changed. Plans are afoot, you can tell. You dress out in a short skirt and a tight top and stockings while she bathes, but when she comes back in—beads of water glistening and steaming off her taut skin—tells you get changed into your old soccer uniform. You ask what the deal is.<br/>
<br/>
"We want to look fresh and healthy and like we're totally not up to no good," she explains. "You dress like this"—she lifts up the hose you've discarded, and clucks over it—"then everything you say sounds like a come on. You dress in soccer shorts and a jersey, and you just sound like you're being honest."<br/>
<br/>
So you pull on the crisply laundered gold-and-crimson jerseys that Eva and Jessica wore when they played on the Westside girls' soccer team before switching over to cheerleading. For bottoms, you wear tight black shorts and ankle socks and sneakers, to show off almost more leg than is decent. Jessica brushes your hair back into a loose, fluffy pony tail, and when you regard yourself—hands on hips—in the full-length mirror, you concede that Chelsea is right. You look like a couple of girls on your way to or from a cheerful, healthy workout, with nothing more sinister on your minds than the pleasures and benefits of good exercise.<br/>
<br/>
Even the arms you wrap around each other's waists, to pull each other into a sidelong embrace, are wholesomely sisterly.<br/>
<br/>
But there's nothing innocent about the plan that Chelsea outlined while you dressed.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Catherine Muskov is famous for her after-school parties. They're casual affairs—so casual that they hardly qualify as "parties." Rather, she and her family just open their doors to her friends, and the friends of her friends, and to anyone who happens to drift in with those friends. She doesn't provide any food or drink or music, so people have to provide and share their own. So when you walk into her house, you're met by nothing more exciting than a bunch of high school kids flopped onto the floor or sofas, snuggling up close or draped across each other, studying their phones or chilling to their music players.<br/>
<br/>
But there's never less than a dozen kids at her place at a time.<br/>
<br/>
You yourself have never been out to her place, and Eva and Jessica have only been out a couple of times. But no one looks surprised when you let yourselves in. You just get some friendly smiles and nods from the kids in the living room. "I'll make a circle, see who's here," Jessica murmurs in your ear. "You go find Cindy and Seth." She gently touches your shoulder before pushing off, and your skin prickles where her fingertips pressed you.<br/>
<br/>
Cindy and Seth are in the kitchen, leaning against the cooking island with their arms loosely draped around each others' waists. They're talking with a Hispanic kid with a narrow face, impudent mouth, and sharp eyes, who (thanks to Eva's memories) you know is a member of the JV basketball squad. He openly looks you up and down, and his eyes are visibly watering when he meets your glance with a hard, lusty stare of his own. You slide past him to stand next to Cindy, you gives you a quick hug and smile in greeting.<br/>
<br/>
<i>Wow, this is nice,</i> you think. <i>Cindy wouldn't even look at me if I was me. But when she thinks I'm one of her girlfriends ...</i><br/>
<br/>
"So how was practice this morning?" you ask after getting it settled that your hostess is upstairs somewhere. "How's <i>Chelsea</i> handling it?"<br/>
<br/>
Cindy rolls her eyes. "Freaking out. Now she's only got seven people she can kick around."<br/>
<br/>
"When's the tryouts?"<br/>
<br/>
"Are you and Jessica thinking about trying out again?"<br/>
<br/>
"No!"<br/>
<br/>
"I bet Chelsea would let you back on."<br/>
<br/>
"No she wouldn't. And we wouldn't rejoin anyway. It was mistake, us joining in the first place. It was Kelsey's idea, not ours."<br/>
<br/>
"So are you going to try getting back on the soccer team?"<br/>
<br/>
"What? No."<br/>
<br/>
"Has Anita talked to you about it?"<br/>
<br/>
"No." The very question startles you. "Has she said anything to you?"<br/>
<br/>
"No, I just thought maybe—"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, it wouldn't fit in our schedules anyway. I don't think it would." You look past Cindy at Seth, who is the person you are supposed to be targeting. "How are <i>you</i> doing, Seth?"<br/>
<br/>
He shrugs. "Great, I guess."<br/>
<br/>
"You don't have to deal with this kind of shit on the basketball team." You feel for the phone in your pocket.<br/>
<br/>
"No, I guess not. Not really."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, can you explain why not?" You glance at the screen of your phone, pretending to read a text there. "Jessica's looking for you," you tell Cindy. "She's upstairs."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I'm in here."<br/>
<br/>
You turn back to Seth. "So how come you don't have all kinds of drama on <i>your</i> squad?"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, well." Seth shrugs again. "Gordon and Steve, they know how to keep things running smooth. Everyone respects them."<br/>
<br/>
"And not everyone respects Chelsea," you dryly observe.<br/>
<br/>
"I guess not," Seth says. He throws an anxious glance at his girlfriend, who pulls away and says, "I'll go see what Jessica wants." Seth gives her a wounded look as she walks away, like a cat with bristling fur.<br/>
<br/>
"How are things on the JV squad?" you ask the Hispanic kid, who has been greedily eyeing you this whole time.<br/>
<br/>
"Great," he says. "We're awesome."<br/>
<br/>
But you're concentrating on the text you're sending Jessica, saying that Cindy is now looking for her upstairs. That done, you reach over to clasp Seth by his wrist. "Can I talk to you outside?" you ask. "Alone?"<br/>
<br/>
Seth visibly starts, then nods. Squeezing his wrist, you tug him toward a pair of French doors that lead out onto a deck. There's a couple of band kids out there—their names escape you for the moment—so you draw Seth down into the yard and over to heavy-limbed tree, from which dangles a tire swing.<br/>
<br/>
"I didn't want to say anything in front of Cindy," you tell him in a low voice. "But things on the squad are about to get really ugly, and <i>you</i> need to be ready for them."<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332314211121
author_id: seuzz
title: The Sapper
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span><i>Things on the squad are about to get really ugly, and you need to be ready for them.</i><br/>
<br/>
That's the warning you've just delivered to Cindy Vredenburg's boyfriend, and he blinks at your words. That blink makes him look even dopier than usual.<br/>
<br/>
Seth Javits is not, in fact, a dummy. He's taking at least one AP class, which is more than you yourself can boast, and that makes it all the more unfair that he's also one of the stars on the basketball team <i>and</i> is also a first-class a-hole and bully. But though he can brag about a flat, muscled stomach and a strong chest and arms, he has a pop eyes set in a horsey face with a long nose and beaky lips.<br/>
<br/>
Also, he's clueless in the way swaggering jocks typically are. Like a minute ago, when he fell right into the trap you set for him in the kitchen, when you got him to accidentally imply that the cheerleading squad is all messed up because "not everyone" on it (like his girlfriend, for instance) respects the squad captain. At least he was smart enough to understand he'd said something wrong from the way Cindy instantly dropped his hand and went off to find Jessica.<br/>
<br/>
So you pretty confident that you can spin him around more or less the way Chelsea wants you to.<br/>
<br/>
"Listen," you continue, and step up very close to him so that Cindy, if she's watching from an upstairs back window will see you sharing confidences with her boyfriend. "There's gonna be some tryouts, and two new girls are gonna get added to the squad."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, I know," Seth croaks. You're standing under the biggest tree in Catherine Muskov's back yard, and he puts out a hand to grab the tire swing that dangles from a fat branch. "'Cos you and Jessica— Um—"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah. Because me and Jessica got kicked off."<br/>
<br/>
The healthy pink glow under Seth's fading summertime tan deepens to a crimson.<br/>
<br/>
"Do you know <i>who</i> is going to try out, and get picked?"<br/>
<br/>
Seth shakes his head.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, the news I've heard is that one of them is going to be Sydney McGlynn."<br/>
<br/>
"Um—"<br/>
<br/>
"You know who <i>she</i> is, right?"<br/>
<br/>
Seth's eyes crinkle up. It's obvious he's trying to decide whether he'll get in more trouble by admitting or denying it. "Yeah, I think so," he hedges.<br/>
<br/>
"You have any classes with her?"<br/>
<br/>
"Um— I don't—"<br/>
<br/>
"You know if you do, Seth."<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, okay, she's in my English class."<br/>
<br/>
"The one that Cindy's in, too?"<br/>
<br/>
He sighs, and nods.<br/>
<br/>
You give him a steady look. "How many times have you gotten in trouble with Cindy because of her?"<br/>
<br/>
"What? None! I—!"<br/>
<br/>
"Seth." You put your hand on your hip. "Are you telling me you've never scoped out Sydney McGlynn?"<br/>
<br/>
His blush deepens, and his lips turn very white.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I'm not here to bust your balls," you tell him. "Though I don't know how come I want to help you save them. You and Cindy ... Well ..."<br/>
<br/>
"What about me and Cindy?"<br/>
<br/>
You give him a long, tired look, "I never knew two people who were so good at pushing each other's buttons."<br/>
<br/>
"What does <i>that</i> mean?"<br/>
<br/>
"It means, every other day me or Jessica or Yumi have to talk Cindy down off the roof because of something you said. And don't tell me you're not always pissing on about Cindy with <i>your</i> friends."<br/>
<br/>
"I'm not—!"<br/>
<br/>
"You <i>are,</i> Seth. Constantly. You just don't <i>realize</i> you are, but it gets out and it gets back to Cindy. Jeez! I never talk to your friends, and even <i>I</i> get to hear about it when she's got you in a mood."<br/>
<br/>
Seth looks completely bewildered, as he should be, because most of what you've just said is exaggerated bullshit built around a pinhead of truth.<br/>
<br/>
"But it's going to get worse," you continue, "if Sydney winds up on the squad. Which she is going to."<br/>
<br/>
"How come?"<br/>
<br/>
"Because she's practically a professional. The squad at her old school in Kansas or Utah or wherever went to nationals, so if she can't get onto the Westside squad—"<br/>
<br/>
"I mean, how come I'm going to be in trouble if she does?"<br/>
<br/>
"That's what I'm explaining to you, Seth! She's practically a professional, so she's going to get onto the squad, and <i>she's</i> going to be the one to want to run it."<br/>
<br/>
"So? What does that have to do with me?"<br/>
<br/>
"Doesn't <i>Cindy</i> want to be squad captain? You do know that, don't you, Seth?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah!"<br/>
<br/>
"Well, good freaking luck pulling that off with Sydney McGlynn getting in her way!"<br/>
<br/>
Seth's expression creases up with bewilderment. "But Chelsea's squad captain, and <i>she's</i> not going anywhere."<br/>
<br/>
"Seth, I sincerely hope that's not an opinion that you're sharing with <i>Cindy</i> of all people."<br/>
<br/>
Now Seth looks like he wants to pull out his hair.<br/>
<br/>
"Sydney is going to make all kinds of trouble on the squad," you go on, "and she just might make enough trouble to push Chelsea off her perch. And if she does that, it won't be because she wants to put Cindy on top. You want to know how bad things are going to get? Do you get an earful <i>now</i> from her about Chelsea?"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah," Seth mutters.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, imagine how much worse it's going to be when Cindy has to decide whether to support Chelsea Cooper or Sydney McGlynn."<br/>
<br/>
Seth stares at you. Very slowly, an expression of horror erodes and ages his face with worry lines. His gaze goes distant as he imagines the shrieks and groans and storms of fury and frustration that Cindy will pitch at him, and the gingerly way he'll have to pick his way through them.<br/>
<br/>
You let the vision get good and dark, then reach out to squeeze his forearm. It is smooth and hairless, but ropey with muscle. He starts a little.<br/>
<br/>
"So listen," you tell him in a gentler tone. "I'm not trying to give you nightmares. Well, I'm not trying, though you definitely should have them. If you think Cindy's been— Well." You catch yourself. "It's really hard for her, right, living in Lucy's shadow?" Lucy Vredenburg is Cindy's older, and much more perfect sister, who actually did get to be squad captain two years ago when she was a senior. "It's going to be tougher for her, and you— Well, don't take this the wrong way, Seth. But if Cindy was a field of landmines, it's like you're always trying to clear those landmines with your face."<br/>
<br/>
He turns very red, but he doesn't argue.<br/>
<br/>
"The thing is, I'm telling you all this so you know what you're going to be in for. Me and Jessica, we see it coming from a mile off and we've been talking about it. We <i>don't</i> want to see things blow up between you and Cindy. So listen, just between us—"<br/>
<br/>
You hesitate, and glance around. It's just the two of you, in Catherine's back yard, and the handful of kids up on the back patio aren't paying any attention to you. But Seth, perhaps unconsciously, also glances about.<br/>
<br/>
"Just between <i>us</i>, Seth, between you and me and Jessica, don't tell Cindy what I warned you. But if things really heat up, which they're going to after Sydney's on the squad, you can totally come and talk to us."<br/>
<br/>
"Why?"<br/>
<br/>
"So we can tell you how to handle Cindy."<br/>
<br/>
Seth turns a little green, and sways on his feet.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
He was probably going to try arguing with you, which was the last thing you wanted. All you really wanted from that talk was to undermine his confidence in his ability to handle Cindy, and to plant the seed of the idea that he could come to you and Jessica for advice and support. Nurturing that seed first into a bloom, then into a blossom, and finally into a poisoned fruit, can come later.<br/>
<br/>
So before he could open his mouth, you squeezed his elbow and suggested that you go back inside. You left him in the kitchen, looking aghast, while pretending to go look for Cindy. In fact, you texted Jessica to tell her that you were done. Five minutes later, you were out the front door without so much as having seen your hostess, and without seeing either Cindy or Seth again.<br/>
<br/>
Over a couple of Jamba juices, which you swallowed down in the shopping center parking lot, Chelsea recounted her talk with Cindy—filling her head with horrible anticipations of life on the squad after Sydney joins—and you told her of your talk with Seth. The two of you giggled over it all.<br/>
<br/>
And yet, you are not fully on board with Chelsea's scheme, for there's a worm of jealousy in your heart. Her plan, if all your nurturing brings it to fruition, is to bust up Cindy and Seth's romance, and send him into Jessica's arms as her new boyfriend, leaving her archrival bereft not only of her hopes of captaining the squad, but without the sexy alpha boyfriend that she had hoped to spend her senior year showing off with.<br/>
<br/>
But you've not completely given up on the hope that <i>you</i> might be Chelsea's boyfriend, in some disguise or other. As "Chelsea Cooper" is going with Gordon Black, and "Gary Chen" has a girlfriend, meaning it's only as "Jessica Garner" that she can be won to you.<br/>
<br/>
So when she drains her juice and asks if you want your next (and final) impersonation to be as one of the new girls on the squad, you're tempted to tell her you want to be a boyfriend to her instead.<span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132213323142111212
author_id: seuzz
title: Fun and Games
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"I think I want to be a guy again," you tell Chelsea. Your heart is in your throat, but somehow you get the words out.<br/>
<br/>
Jessica gives you a look of surprise.<br/>
<br/>
"A male cheerleader?" she says. "That's— I—"<br/>
<br/>
"No, not a male cheerleader. Not a cheerleader at all." You hate the way your voice is coming out as a gasp. "Just ... a guy."<br/>
<br/>
She gives you a long look. Her lips come together into an amused smirk.<br/>
<br/>
"Oh, have you started to miss your—? You really want to have one again?"<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea!" You pinch the bridge of your nose.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, that's fine, Will. I told you, I get it. It's fun having—"<br/>
<br/>
"Yeah, you told me! You had one while you were wearing Gary's mask, and you—" You frown at your fake sister as she titters. "Yeah, okay, I miss it, and—"<br/>
<br/>
"I told you, that's fine, Will. So who do you want to be? I do owe you a mask."<br/>
<br/>
Now it's your turn to give her a long look, which she returns with a serene one of her own, as you struggle to figure out how to ask her what feels like a cosmically important question.<br/>
<br/>
"Can it be someone who has a girlfriend?" you ask. Her eyes widen fractionally, but she doesn't answer. "Would you be okay with that?"<br/>
<br/>
"Why—?"<br/>
<br/>
"Would you be jealous?"<br/>
<br/>
"Jealous, Will?" she exclaims. The expression on her face tells you that it's a question that's never occurred to her. "Well," she stammers, "I just, um, we've been doing things together, uh, with these— these—"<br/>
<br/>
"What if I was someone who could be <i>your</i> boyfriend?"<br/>
<br/>
Her jaw drops a little.<br/>
<br/>
"It's not like we haven't been doing something like that already," you remind her. "You and me. Yumi and Gary. When we were being them, we were—" You find you can't finish that sentence. "Why can't we be like that again? But instead with <i>me</i>, um— And <i>you</i>—"<br/>
<br/>
"Oh! Now I get it, Will," she mutters and looks away. Her face has gone chalky, and your stomach contracts into a pit of misery. "But I want <i>Seth</i> as my boyfriend! As Jessica's boyfriend! That's the plan!"<br/>
<br/>
<i>So why can't I be Seth?</i> The question forms in your throat but gets no further.<br/>
<br/>
Jessica glances away, then jumps in her seat as her phone goes off. She snorts when she looks at the screen.<br/>
<br/>
"It's our darling little brother," she says, "reminding us we need to have the car back by six-thirty."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Texts from friends have piled up while you were at Catherine's, and you check through them (and through Jessica's texts) on the ride home. You rattle the contents off to Chelsea. There are plans to go to the Warehouse, to a dance club, to the river, to a movie, to this party  at that person's house and to that party at this person's house. None of them really excite you, and Jessica only grunts at them as well. But you want to do <i>something</i>—it's a Friday night, and you're a sexy ex-cheerleader—so after turning the car keys over to Marc you text Jenny Ashton, to ask for a ride out to the party at Mackenzie Fuller's house. Chelsea is still acting distracted, but she perks up, like a German Shepherd that's picked up a new scent on the breeze, when you tell her the plan.<br/>
<br/>
"It's not going to be a hot scene or anything," Jenny tells you after you're in the car with her. The caution is redundant, as she already said as much in her texts. "It's just going to be, like, a board game night or something."<br/>
<br/>
"That's fine," you assure her. "That's about the speed we want to run at tonight."<br/>
<br/>
Jenny gives you a querying look. "You know Mackenzie?" she asks. "She's a junior," she continues when you shake your head, "I know her from the marching band—"<br/>
<br/>
"You're not in the marching band, Jenny," Jessica interrupts from the back seat.<br/>
<br/>
"I know people <i>in</i> it," Jenny retorts. "That's, like, who's going to be out there."<br/>
<br/>
"I should'a brought my ocarina," Jessica mutters.<br/>
<br/>
"Never mind her," you tell Jenny, and turn halfway around to shoot Chelsea a dark look, which is probably lost in the dimness inside the car cabin. "Who's going to be there?"<br/>
<br/>
Jenny rattles off some names, most of which Eva knows even you don't. All of them sound solid, respectable, even a little boring.<br/>
<br/>
And so it proves. Half a dozen kids are splayed in the den of the large, plush house you come to rest at, in a development south and west of town, near the river. Mackenzie is a short girl with dark, thick hair and a wide but near-sighted smile. She seems pretty excited by your arrival, and exclaims over you and Jessica, and can't seem to stop touching you on the arm and at the elbow, and introduces you to everyone. It's not really necessary, as most of them are seniors that you and or Eva have shared classes with since you were a freshman, but you get a lot of friendly smiles and nods, and gameplay stops dead for about a quarter hour as you and Jessica get some refreshments and catch up with everyone.<br/>
<br/>
There's only two games going when play resumes: a poker game which Jenny joins, and <i>Settlers of Catan.</i> Neither is much to your taste, so you perch on a chair between Jenny and a dark-haired boy in a black ball cap to watch the betting action.<br/>
<br/>
"Whaddaya think?" the guy asks, and shows you his hand. It contains two red Jacks and mess of number cards.<br/>
<br/>
"Don't ask me," you shrug.<br/>
<br/>
"What's Jenny got?"<br/>
<br/>
"Hey!"<br/>
<br/>
"A ten of clubs, a seven of diamonds, a—" Jenny slams her hand face down before you can read the rest of her hand. "A bunch of other cards."<br/>
<br/>
The guy—his name is Nicholas Gray, and Eva would remember him from an AP English class last year—tosses a chip into the center of the table. "That's to you, Ashton," he says. The other two guys at the table—a senior named Randy Hodges and a junior named Brian Something-or-Other—exchange hooded grins. Both of them have already folded.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, what's <i>he</i> got?" Jenny demands of you.<br/>
<br/>
Nicholas says, "I raised you and I'm not bluffing."<br/>
<br/>
"He's bluffing," you tell Jenny.<br/>
<br/>
"What's he <i>got?</i>" Jenny repeats.<br/>
<br/>
"A six of spades, an eight of hearts, a—" You sigh as Nicholas lays his own hand flat on the table.<br/>
<br/>
The upshot is that Jenny calls. Her pair of sixes loses to his pair of jacks.<br/>
<br/>
"That was great what you did back there," Nicholas tells you a few minutes later, after he's followed you back into the kitchen for a refill.<br/>
<br/>
"Don't ask me to do it again."<br/>
<br/>
"We made a great team."<br/>
<br/>
"I was just messing with Jenny."<br/>
<br/>
"We still made a great team."<br/>
<br/>
You pause as you're refilling your cola, to give him a direct look.<br/>
<br/>
Nicholas Gray is a good-looking kid, with regular features in a square face. He has a strong brow and chin, and a direct, confident gaze. He's dressed in a bright white t-shirt under a dark, bluish-green short-sleeve button up. He's a little on the short side, and he doesn't look very strong, but he's well-shaped and handsome.<br/>
<br/>
A little of the hunger you felt earlier comes back, and you idly wonder what it would be like if he put put one arm around you, laid his hand on your back, and smiled knowingly into your face.<br/>
<br/>
But after a minute of this, he drops his eyes, and his expression tightens.<br/>
<br/>
"Are there any team games we could play in there?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"What do you mean?"<br/>
<br/>
"I mean, games where it's one team against another. We could be a team."<br/>
<br/>
Nicholas thinks a moment. "Mackenzie has a railroad building game in the stack. <i>Great Lakes Rail,</i> or something like that. I don't think it's got teams in it, but—" He rolls the tip of his tongue over his bottom lip. "We could join up anyway, take out the other players, before turning on each other." His mouth twitches into a smile.<br/>
<br/>
"You're on." You give him a long stare over the top of your glass as you knock back your cola.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
"God, Nicholas is <i>cute,</i> isn't he?" Jessica teases you at home, as you're getting ready for bed. "You two were like <i>a thing</i> all night long!"<br/>
<br/>
It's true. You and he badgered Randy and Jenny and Brian into tossing away the cards in exchange for <i>Empire of the Great Lakes,</i> and you and he openly conspired to stomp the others flat, then arranged a stalemate that left each of you with monopoly ownership of half the board. After that came a fast game of cut-throat Monopoly where the two of you traded cash and mortgaged properties back and forth in a bid to keep each other in play while ruthlessly crushing the others. Again, play ended when you and he were the only ones left, with him resigning the game to you. He tried to give you the Park Place and Boardwalk property cards as a trophy, but Mackenzie primly snatched them back.<br/>
<br/>
"I was having fun," you admit with an exhausted sigh. "I didn't know girls had so much fun when a guy flirts with them."<br/>
<br/>
"Depends on the guy," Jessica retorts. "Some are just gross."<br/>
<br/>
You've slithered in between the sheets and are about to put out the lamp by your bed when Jessica plops onto the bed beside you, and stretches out by your side. Her bright, fresh-scrubbed face is close to yours when she says, "If you want to be my boyfriend, Will, you have to turn yourself into Seth. Or," she continues when you say nothing, "we could be two new people? You could pick yourself out a guy, then pick a girl for me. Or," she drawls, "you could let me pick a girl, then pick out a guy for you." <span class="O"></span></span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231322133232
author_id: seuzz
title: So Many Choices
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Chelsea has suggested a lot of people to you since she promised you another identity. You've had some ideas yourself. As you gorge yourself on food that Yumi Saito really should not be eating, you let your mind drift back to those suggestions and ideas.<br/>
<br/>
You remember more or less when all this started, with Chelsea suggesting that maybe you should adopt another identity to be a go-between for Yumi and Gary Chen, before you decided to put them directly together. Who were those suggestions?<br/>
<br/>
Oh yeah. Justin Roth and David Kirkham.<br/>
<br/>
You know the first two, at least by reputation, and you've seen them around with Chen, so they'd fit in well as friends of him and Yumi. Kirkham in particular might be a good one to snag, so that he's not always smirking at you when he sees you and your ... God, it's still weird to think, but ... your boyfriend.<br/>
<br/>
Who else has Chelsea suggested? You have the vague memory that she suggested Sienna Goldman one time, and Susie Lekuawehe and Kristina Townes. The first two don't have steady boyfriends, but the latter is awfully close to Parker Stott in a way that suggests there's an "unofficial" romance going on.<br/>
<br/>
The last time you and Chelsea talked about this, she suggested some rich guy who goes to Eastman. She also suggested some country club types. You're not sure who all she has in mind there, but Anthony Kirk, Geoff Mansfield and Martin Gardinhire would qualify. Related to them, she also once suggested Amanda Ferguson. She and Gardinhire might still have a use, as a way to keep Kelsey pinned down. You don't remember her suggesting Kim Walsh, but it occurs to you that the student council president is another possibility.<br/>
<br/>
She has also suggested Paris and Peyton Morrow, who could be fast-tracked to replace Eva and Jessica on the squad, or some of the girls for the new JV squad. You're not sure you want to go through your junior years again, though. Besides, there's a chance the expansion might not go through. (Which might be another reason to make Kim Walsh a face.) Maybe you should wait to see which senior girls try out for the two open slots on the varsity squad instead.<br/>
<br/>
You're bemusing yourself with these possibilities when Chen leans over and suggests a quick visit to the loft before he has to leave for work. That reminds you of another idea you had a long time ago: Steve Patterson, and any others with access to the loft, so you don't have to worry about not getting use it, or being interrupted inside it. You briefly muse that something like might be the best way to make a decision: Think of the <i>type</i> of people who would be useful as additional identities, and not simply in terms of who seems attractive or interesting.<br/>
<br/>
And finally, there's the least likely possibility. Now that Gary Chen has served his use, maybe you could talk Chelsea into making a new mask of the guy, and giving him to you.<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332321
author_id: seuzz
title: Your Boyfriend's Best Friends
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"So you once told me—<i>glmph!</i>" You almost choke as Gary Chen, expertly wielding a set of chopsticks, pops a piece of sweet-and-sour chicken into your mouth. "Thanks," you mumble as he grins.<br/>
<br/>
"You were gonna say?" he purrs as he pulls you more closely inside his embrace. <br/>
<br/>
"I was going to ask you about Justin Roth. What's the appeal?"<br/>
<br/>
"If you're asking sex appeal, you tell me."<br/>
<br/>
"No, I mean for, uh—" You put your mouth to his ear. Well, you put it to his ear as best you can: his hair falls to earlobes, and so does edge of his ski cap. "Gary Chen," you murmur. "You said," you continue more loudly, "he likes to hang out with Justin. So what's the appeal of him as a friend?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen shrugs. "He's just cool, I guess. Doesn't give a shit about anything, doesn't freak out, just takes people as they come." He pauses, and you see a muscle in his cheek tighten. "Gary had kind of a shitty time of it in elementary school, middle school. On account of being—" He does a double-take at you. "Well, you can guess."<br/>
<br/>
Yes, you can. Yumi had her own troubles with people—emphatically including ones like Chelsea—who made a big deal about the fact that Yumi's skin and hair and ... eyes ... were not of "standard issue."<br/>
<br/>
"Well, Justin's just easy to be with," he continues. "And he's pretty impressive. Smart. Does shit, like hunting with a bow, that a lot of people don't do." His eyes travel over your face. "Why, is that who you're thinking about for your second?"<br/>
<br/>
"Thinking. And David Kirkham?"<br/>
<br/>
A grin—slow, lazy, terrifying—spreads over his face. "My man Kirkham? Yeah, we have fun together."<br/>
<br/>
"Sell him to me."<br/>
<br/>
But instead of answering right away, Chen holds your eye, and his expression falls. He turns away and takes a couple more bites of his own food. <br/>
<br/>
"He can get laid," he says at last in a very clipped way. "I supposed you'd consider that a selling point."<br/>
<br/>
"Was that why you were trying to sell him to me earlier?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen shifts in his chair, and his arm falls halfway off your shoulders. "Look, he's Gary's best friend," he says in tinny and unhappy tone that's closer to Chelsea's native tone than Chen's. "That would make it really convenient if you went there. And it is like he's the only person Gary can really treat like an equal. I think they've got a lot of the same stuff inside."<br/>
<br/>
That sounds like a good thing for you, but it also sounds like Chelsea wouldn't like it.<br/>
<br/>
She'd probably like it even less if you asked for Chen to be your second while she went somewhere else.<br/>
<br/>
Or maybe she'd find it a relief. You won't know unless you ask.<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 113122112111211111223132213323213
author_id: seuzz
title: Trying to Choose Chen
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"Okay, new question," you continue. "How do you deal with being Gary Chen?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen stops chewing. "What do you mean?"<br/>
<br/>
You lean forward to speak in a very low voice without moving your lips.<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea, you're living Gary Chen's life for him. How do you deal with it? He's a lot different than you. And ... Well, it doesn't seem like the kind thing you'd enjoy. Or I don't picture you enjoying it."<br/>
<br/>
His expression darkens. "How do you deal with being Yumi Saito, Will?" he retorts, and doesn't bother to soften his sarcasm. "Or is she the kind of person you always wanted to be?"<br/>
<br/>
You could let his words rile you, but you don't. You get why it might have been insulting to put it the way you did.<br/>
<br/>
"Well, I guess I get along with it by just doing what Yumi would do," you reply. "Is that what you do with Gary?"<br/>
<br/>
"Sure. Once I got used to being in charge of him." His brow furrows. "Why are you asking?"<br/>
<br/>
You start to shrug. But then you find the words that have been eluding you.<br/>
<br/>
"You got Gary because you wanted to test that spell out on a mask. Remember what you said? Something about how Gordon was shopping for an asshole, and Gary was the one he brought up?"<br/>
<br/>
He nods. "Sure."<br/>
<br/>
"And then, we went ahead and used the mask because you needed someplace to hide so we could talk. But we don't need it anymore, do we? You don't need to be inside his mask."<br/>
<br/>
"Why not?" That furrow on his brow deepens. "What are you trying to say?"<br/>
<br/>
"I guess I'm trying to ask ... You did this thing so that <i>Chelsea Cooper</i> could get rid of some people from the squad. You've done that. So, why keep pretending to be Gary Chen? Isn't it, like, you did the time in order to get what you want, and now that you've got it— Why are you still doing the time?"<br/>
<br/>
Chen stares at you, then turns away to stare down at his food. He doesn't move, except to stab ineffectually at the rice a few times. His expression tightens.<br/>
<br/>
When he next speaks, it is in a low voice. There's a tightly coiled emotion in it, one that sounds like anger. But his words don't sound angry.<br/>
<br/>
"Don't you like hanging out with me? Because this is the only way that Chelsea and Yumi can hang out. The only way that <i>you and me</i> can hang out."<br/>
<br/>
At first you can only let the words roll around in your head. They are English, and perfectly meaningful. It baffles you, briefly, that Chelsea would make such a big deal about how this is the only way that she can hang out with ...<br/>
<br/>
It's when you come to fill in the blank at the end of that sentence that your heart does a somersault.<br/>
<br/>
Is Chelsea saying that <i>she</i> likes hanging out with <i>Will Prescott,</i> and would be upset if you stopped?<br/>
<br/>
Chen turns away as you remain silent. "Okay, I guess you don't want to hang out anymore," he says.<br/>
<br/>
"But I do! Chelsea!" you blurt out, then catch yourself. "I do like ... hanging out with you," you continue in a much quieter voice. "Being with you, doing stuff with you." You catch and squeeze his arm. "And if you have to be Gary Chen and I have to be Yumi Saito for us to do it, then okay." You can hardly believe you're saying those words. They seem very wrong ... an insult! <br/>
<br/>
But you continue, and pull up closer to him, and put your face to his.<br/>
<br/>
"But I'm trying to think about <i>you,</i>" you murmur. "That's why I asked how you deal with being Gary." No, it wasn't the reason, not exactly, but the words will work here, you judge. "If you don't want to keep being Gary, I'll understand. You don't have to keep using his mask on my account. We can find another way."<br/>
<br/>
His expression remains dubious. "How? We can't let Gary out. Not until the end of the year, at least," he mumbles.  "Or do you just mean, leave him the way Gordon is? But either way, if I stop being here—" He points to his chest. "How are you and me going to hang out?"<br/>
<br/>
"As another couple. Or as friends." A thought seizes you. "You said I could be Lin or Cindy. Maybe <i>you</i> could be Lin or Cindy, and I stay as Yumi—"<br/>
<br/>
His eyes widen. "You mean make another mask for me? You didn't want me doing that."<br/>
<br/>
"Well yeah, but it's the number of them that worries me. So you become Lin or Cindy, and— Okay, we can't let Gary come back, because I can deal with <i>you</i> as a boyfriend, but I'm sure I couldn't deal with the real guy. But instead, we make a new mask of Gary, and I'd have him as a face. So to get Cindy, or whoever, you give up Gary, and so you'd still have the same number of masks. Then Gary would be my second, but we could still hang out if I'm Yumi and you're—"<br/>
<br/>
"Maybe I don't want to be Lin or Cindy," she blurts out.<br/>
<br/>
"Then you can be someone else who's friends with Yumi. Jenny Ashton, or—"<br/>
<br/>
His eyes flash. "Is this because you just don't like having my dick up your—"<br/>
<br/>
You grab him by the face before he can finish the sentence. He flushes, and jerks away.<br/>
<br/>
"If you want to go on being Gary Chen, that's fine," you say. "I'm just offering."<br/>
<br/>
That brings the meal to vexed conclusion.<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Much later that evening, after you've separated, Chelsea (not Chen) sends you a brief, apologetic text. You send one of your own. You're not sure yours is sincere. But then, you're not sure that hers is, either.<br/>
<br/>
Then the texts start in from Chen, so either Chelsea had her replacement send the apologies, or she has Chen's phone with her so as to disguise who's sending you these bizarre messages.<br/>
<br/>
She starts by saying that if you really want to be Gary, then you can take him. You ask who she will replace him with. She says she'd have to think about it. <i>maybe new girl on squad or on jv squad.</i><br/>
<br/>
<i>a junior?</i> you ask.<br/>
<br/>
<i>maybe soph or frsh even lol you could be one of my new friends</i><br/>
<br/>
That, you have to admit, would be an interesting idea. Chelsea as a girl in the junior class (or farther down) and you down there with her. <i>makes chen kind of useless tho,</i> you point out. <i>but maybe</i><br/>
<br/>
There's a long pause after that, so that you think maybe you've lost her for the night. But then she texts back: <i>gary needs contact n jr class or sph class to take over for him after he gradates.</i> You don't get what she means, so you ask her to explain. That provokes a whole series of long texts.<br/>
<br/>
Their gist, though, is this: If Gary Chen—or Chelsea—or you, if you're going to take over management of Chen's life for the foreseeable future—will still need or want an income from his trade even after he graduates. But he doesn't deal much in the underclassemen, probably because most of those kids are way too scared of him and his own dealers. He needs to set up another sub-supplier down there, who he can deal to. Chelsea suggests that, whether or not she continues to manage Chen, you could be that sub-supplier.<br/>
<br/>
You are not thrilled with the idea of increasing the supply of drugs circulating in the school. But you've also seen the kind of money that comes from it, and it's awfully enticing. And it would be a way to stay in contact with Chen.<br/>
<br/>
You tell her you'll think about it, and sign off for the night.<br/>
<br/>
But you go online and start looking through the various x2z streams, particularly those set up by the juniors and sophomores. (Though some freshmen can't help slipping in.) As you scroll through, it occurs to you that there's another possibility. <br/>
<br/>
You could just take a face down among the underclassmen.<br/>
<br/>
Now, that normally would not be all that enticing a prospect. You have struggled through high school, and are glad to see it finally coming to an end sometime next year.<br/>
<br/>
But maybe you're so glad to see it end because you mismanaged your time there so badly. Going back a year, or two, or even three, to do it again and this time to do it right, might be a rewarding experience. Especially if you chose a person with advantages already in place.<br/>
<br/>
So there seem to be three possibilities, based on where you've drifted. One: Let Chelsea stay as Gary Chen while you move into the junior or sophomore class as one of his sub-dealers; then you could at least still have a (non-sexual) relationship with Chelsea. Two: Take over "management" of Chen and also take the face of someone who is a friend of Chelsea's replacement face. Then you'd get Chen's lucrative income and you'd still keep your relationship with Chelsea. Three: Take this as a chance to start over. You're not sure how you'd sustain your relationship with Chelsea, but maybe that would help you determine who to pick—someone who, even as a freshman, could plausibly be friends with either Chelsea Cooper or Gary Chen. <br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 1131221121112111112231322133232133
author_id: seuzz
title: The Burgeoning Underclass
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>Before you start investigating the particular possibilities, it would help to set some search boundaries. Namely, which class are you going to retreat into?<br/>
<br/>
The junior class has one big advantage: They are the oldest of the underclassmen, and many of them are accepted by the seniors as peers. But as a "do over" point, they're don't give much of a chance to do a lot of doing over.<br/>
<br/>
The freshman class has the opposite advantages and disadvantages. They are very low on the totem pole (some of them still look like they should be in elementary school) but they are the best "do over" point possible.<br/>
<br/>
The sophomore class, of course, splits both differences.<br/>
</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332321331
author_id: rugal
title: A Junior Jump
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"I appreciate you agreeing to give up Chen last night," you tell your boyfriend the next morning as the two of you stroll through the nearly empty parking lot.<br/>
<br/>
A text from Chen had woken you up around six wanting you to get ready because he wanted to swing by early to get you. You'd grumbled and reluctantly hauled yourself out of bed. Still a bit groggy you'd put only the bare minimum into your clothing choices and makeup so you're a Yumi that's sloppy by her own standards by the time you said goodbye to Yumi's very surprised parents. Of course Yumi is the type of girl who could take half-asleep sloppy and make it seem intentional and chic you had mused after Chen had showered praise on you once he'd picked you up.<br/>
<br/>
He still hasn't told you why he needed to get you so early though. It's still well over an hour before first period and at least forty five minutes before the school fills up.<br/>
<br/>
"Not really that big of a deal I guess," he replies coolly as he leads you from the parking lot's threshold into the school proper. "Sounds like there's a 'but' in there though."<br/>
<br/>
"There is," you say though you cut yourself off when you notice he's stopped at the entrance to the gym. "Two buts actually. I'll tell you what the second one is but first... why are we here?" He says nothing but simply offers you a wolfish grin as he pulls the door open. He doesn't even have to, especially not once he begins walking towards the direction of a now familiar set of stairs.<br/>
<br/>
"Really? First thing in the morning?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well if we're going to do this then this'll be my last time right?" he says as he turns back to you at the foot of the stairs and leans down. "Figure we should get it all out of the way as soon as possible," his grin only grows wider. "All of it."<br/>
<br/>
"Gary..." you reply warily but that seems to only increase his hunger and quickly one hand's pulled you in closer by the arm while the other clasps your ass tightly.<br/>
<br/>
"Speaking of butts," he states.<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea!" you squeal but that only seems to increase not only his own hunger but yours as well as you wrap your arms around his neck and jump, both of his arms now supporting you while your legs wrap around his waste.<br/>
<br/>
You're kissing one another passionately as he carries you up the stares (with little issue to your amazement), fish the key out of his pocket and unlock the door. He lets you down one you're inside the loft and while he closes and locks the door you quickly make your way over to one of the mats stained with sweat and other bodily secretions and begin undressing.<br/>
<br/>
He undresses as well and you pull him down on top of you. Hungrily you devour one another's mouths while your delicate hands massage his shaft. Once the appetizer's finished it's time for the main course and he's thrusting away with as much vigor as he's ever done it but there's nothing rough or animalistic about it because it's equally sweet and sensual. The benefit, you suppose, of Chelsea running that body because if anyone would know how to please a girl then it'd certainly be another girl right?<br/>
<br/>
Once he's exploded once more the two of you lay down, he on his back and you on your side with your arms clutching him and your head on his chest. The two of you say nothing for quite a while before he finally breaks the silence.<br/>
<br/>
"If you'd asked me a few weeks ago what I would miss sex with Yumi wouldn't have been on the list," he says with a laugh. "But at least you'll have it. Have you ever thought about her Will?"<br/>
<br/>
"Mhm," you mutter as you regain your faculties. "Never really thought it would be like this though. You can still have her too you know." Your partner doesn't say anything but simply lets loose with a curious sound. "That's the second but. I appreciate you offering up Chen but I've decided to re-neg on that one."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Chelsea, because now she's out of the mask but with Chen's clothes draped on her, listens as you explain to her what's going on. She seems wholly neutral about the entire situation being neither upset nor overjoyed at the fact she's still going to have Chen for herself. She doesn't state it explicitly but after what she said to you last night you're made to wonder if she's in fact a little upset that you're going down into the one of the lower classes without her.<br/>
<br/>
Could Chelsea Cooper actually be a little bit heartbroken over being separated from Will Prescott? You almost want to laugh at the absurdity of that thought but after last night it doesn't seem quite as absurd.<br/>
<br/>
She does perk up when you tell her that she was the inspiration for you deciding to do it. That her willingness to move down first got you thinking about having a bit of a do-over. It's not a lie really, not even a white lie, but it is a definite bit of ego massaging on your part and you're thankful for Yumi's near flawless social skills in helping you read the situation.<br/>
<br/>
"Anyway getting a mulligan seems good but I don't want to take it too far," you explain. "Being a freshman or even a sophomore seems too limiting."<br/>
<br/>
"So you're going with a junior?" she asks. Her eyes light up when you give a positive response.<br/>
<br/>
"You seem excited about that," you state. "Actually last night too when you'd mentioned moving into a junior if I took Chen."<br/>
<br/>
"I actually know the junior scene pretty well," she replies in a rather self-congratulatory tone, "given the deal with the JV team at the start of the year and all. So I can help you pick out faces for us and--"<br/>
<br/>
"Wait wait, us?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"Yes? I said I'd move down last night didn't I?"<br/>
<br/>
"I know you did but, I don't know, I figured you were saying it just because I was offering to take Chen," you say.<br/>
<br/>
"I was," she replies. "But I'm saying it now because you're moving down there too. It's probably better if we can stick together... you know for the book and all." She flashes you a sweet smile, the kind of smile that Chelsea flashes the cheerleaders when she's feeding them a line of bullshit but you don't actually sense malice behind this smile so you let it pass. "So anyway we can get some girls and they'll be first on the JV squad, or no! They can get the open spots on the team! Or maybe one can get the open spot and the other can be captain of the JV squad."<br/>
<br/>
"Why are you so concerned about the juniors?"<br/>
<br/>
"I'm concerned about the <i>future</i>, Will!" she states with a surprising amount of conviction. "When Cindy's sister graduated last year I was there to jump in and fill that spot. When Gwen, I don't think you know her but she was there before Cindy's sister and when <i>she</i> graduated two years ago Cindy's sister was there to fill that spot. But there's nobody to slide in after I'm gone."<br/>
<br/>
You want to tell her that it's probably her own fault for that but you hold your tongue. "So you want to set things up to keep that sense of continuity and make sure any transition goes smoothly?" you ask.<br/>
<br/>
"Right! Exactly!" she exclaims.<br/>
<br/>
"Well that's good but what about the masks?" you ask. "You've got a lot out right now and there might be some kind of issue with having a bunch out. It'd probably be a good idea to give one up."<br/>
<br/>
"Give one up," she parrots.<br/>
<br/>
"Not Chen though."<br/>
<br/>
"No not him... me!" she exclaims. "Will, I'm only doing this because I want us on the same page okay? If we're going to set up the these juniors right then you need to look at it from my perspective so..." she pauses for a second. "So I'll give up my face for a little bit, just until we get the juniors and JV squad set up."<br/>
<br/>
"You mean I'd--" you cut yourself off in your own astonishment. "Chelsea that's making an awfully big sacrifice. I mean not just your face but, uh, I'd know everything you know?"<br/>
<br/>
"That's... that's fine," she says as she hides her face in her hands. "But if we do it then we have to do it right. <i>You</i> have to do it right because that means you're running the tryouts."<br/>
<br/>
"Me!?" you exclaim in shock. "And where are you going to be?"<br/>
<br/>
"Under the faces you choose," she states. "Pick two girls and we'll get masks on them. I'll replace your girl first and do the tryout as her, then I'll do it as my girl. With me running them and you running me they'll be shoo-ins."<br/>
<br/>
So you make tentative plans to be back in the loft during your lunch. Chelsea's already gotten ahead of you and made a couple of masks so as Chen she'll duck out of during fourth lunch to grab them and then during your lunch you can switch out into her mask while you finalize your choices. She'll even let you pick her identity because with both of your brains inside of your head she knows you'll pick out a good one.<br/>
<br/>
You've still got a bit of time so you show her the two juniors you'd narrowed it down to. She says they wouldn't have been her first choices, especially the first one, but if you pick one of them she'll make it work. She then has you pull out your phone so you can check social media where she points out the hopefuls that she's familiar with, any of who would make good additions on their own she insists.<br/>
<br/>
You then break for now and you're left to spend the first half of the day debating. On your list you'd had it narrowed down to two people. There was Shayna Offerman, a girl with a punk rock style and a head of thick, dark hair popular among the underground crowd. The other was Alexis Lachance, a girl blessed with looks and wealth but who seems to carry herself without the same air of pretension the other rich kids have.<br/>
<br/>
Then there's Chelsea's list: Cara Fuhrman, Leah Powers, Dallas Lockhart, Courtney Tran, Peyton Morrow, Stacey Stahl, Bailey Keane and Zoe Hicks. Outside of Peyton, who Yumi shares orchestra with, you don't really know who they are but Chelsea must have seen <i>something</i> in them and maybe you'll see it too once you're in her mask.</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332321332
author_id: rugal
title: A Sophomore Submergence
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"I appreciate you agreeing to give up Chen last night," you tell your boyfriend the next morning as the two of you stroll through the nearly empty parking lot.<br/>
<br/>
A text from Chen had woken you up around six wanting you to get ready because he wanted to swing by early to get you. You'd grumbled and reluctantly hauled yourself out of bed. Still a bit groggy you'd put only the bare minimum into your clothing choices and makeup so you're a Yumi that's sloppy by her own standards by the time you said goodbye to Yumi's very surprised parents. Of course Yumi is the type of girl who could take half-asleep sloppy and make it seem intentional and chic you had mused after Chen had showered praise on you once he'd picked you up.<br/>
<br/>
He still hasn't told you why he needed to get you so early though. It's still well over an hour before first period and at least forty five minutes before the school fills up.<br/>
<br/>
"Not really that big of a deal I guess," he replies coolly as he leads you from the parking lot's threshold into the school proper. "Sounds like there's a 'but' in there though."<br/>
<br/>
"There is," you say though you cut yourself off when you notice he's stopped at the entrance to the gym. "Two buts actually. I'll tell you what the second one is but first... why are we here?" He says nothing but simply offers you a wolfish grin as he pulls the door open. He doesn't even have to, especially not once he begins walking towards the direction of a now familiar set of stairs.<br/>
<br/>
"Really? First thing in the morning?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well if we're going to do this then this'll be my last time right?" he says as he turns back to you at the foot of the stairs and leans down. "Figure we should get it all out of the way as soon as possible," his grin only grows wider. "All of it."<br/>
<br/>
"Gary..." you reply warily but that seems to only increase his hunger and quickly one hand's pulled you in closer by the arm while the other clasps your ass tightly.<br/>
<br/>
"Speaking of butts," he states.<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea!" you squeal but that only seems to increase not only his own hunger but yours as well as you wrap your arms around his neck and jump, both of his arms now supporting you while your legs wrap around his waste.<br/>
<br/>
You're kissing one another passionately as he carries you up the stares (with little issue to your amazement), fish the key out of his pocket and unlock the door. He lets you down one you're inside the loft and while he closes and locks the door you quickly make your way over to one of the mats stained with sweat and other bodily secretions and begin undressing.<br/>
<br/>
He undresses as well and you pull him down on top of you. Hungrily you devour one another's mouths while your delicate hands massage his shaft. Once the appetizer's finished it's time for the main course and he's thrusting away with as much vigor as he's ever done it but there's nothing rough or animalistic about it because it's equally sweet and sensual. The benefit, you suppose, of Chelsea running that body because if anyone would know how to please a girl then it'd certainly be another girl right?<br/>
<br/>
Once he's exploded once more the two of you lay down, he on his back and you on your side with your arms clutching him and your head on his chest. The two of you say nothing for quite a while before he finally breaks the silence.<br/>
<br/>
"If you'd asked me a few weeks ago what I would miss sex with Yumi wouldn't have been on the list," he says with a laugh. "But at least you'll have it. Have you ever thought about her Will?"<br/>
<br/>
"Mhm," you mutter as you regain your faculties. "Never really thought it would be like this though. You can still have her too you know." Your partner doesn't say anything but simply lets loose with a curious sound. "That's the second but. I appreciate you offering up Chen but I've decided to re-neg on that one."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Chelsea, because now she's out of the mask but with Chen's clothes draped on her, listens as you explain to her what's going on. She seems wholly neutral about the entire situation being neither upset nor overjoyed at the fact she's still going to have Chen for herself. She doesn't state it explicitly but after what she said to you last night you're made to wonder if she's in fact a little upset that you're going down into the one of the lower classes without her.<br/>
<br/>
Could Chelsea Cooper actually be a little bit heartbroken over being separated from Will Prescott? You almost want to laugh at the absurdity of that thought but after last night it doesn't seem quite as absurd.<br/>
<br/>
She does perk up when you tell her that she was the inspiration for you deciding to do it. That her willingness to move down first got you thinking about having a bit of a do-over. It's not a lie really, not even a white lie, but it is a definite bit of ego massaging on your part and you're thankful for Yumi's near flawless social skills in helping you read the situation.<br/>
<br/>
"But yeah, I figure doing things over would be nice but not all the way over," you tell her. "So I've got my sights set on the sophomores."<br/>
<br/>
She simply nods. "That works I guess although," she scrunches up her face, "they don't stand out much compared to the other classes. Even the freshman are more notable than them. But it's not a bad choice I guess. I'm sure we'll find something good."<br/>
<br/>
"Wait, we? As in us?" you ask. "What about Chen? You're abandoning him?"<br/>
<br/>
"Not abandoning him, jeez!" he exclaims. "I'll just put the mask on whoever."<br/>
<br/>
"But you've already got a lot of those masks out right?" you quickly fire back. "Who knows what could happen if you have too many or even if you can."<br/>
<br/>
"Then you can have him."<br/>
<br/>
"I just told you that I don't want him," you retort. "Besides that'd mean making a new mask and using it on the real guy and he's going to be hopelessly out of date."<br/>
<br/>
"Well we have to do <i>something</i> with him," she pouts. "We can't just let him out. Even if he doesn't have all of the what's in this mask we can still fill him in I guess. Just take him."<br/>
<br/>
"I just told you...!" you reply before stopping yourself. You want want to get into a fight with her but part of you doesn't want to conceded defeat just yet. "Besides he'll count against my total."<br/>
<br/>
"It's a freebie," Chelsea replies insistently, "for everything you've done for me."<br/>
<br/>
She's not going to drop it you realize so with resignation and realizing you're not going to get a better deal you take it. "That doesn't mean I'm going to be him," you state with a twinge of defeated bitterness, "I'm taking him off of your hands and nothing more."<br/>
<br/>
"That's fine," she shrugs.<br/>
<br/>
"So are we doing this switch off right now?"<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea just shakes her head. "Not until you've found places for both of us," she says. To your incredulous look she adds, "You're the one who spent all night looking up the underclassmen. Past the juniors you know more about them than I do."<br/>
<br/>
"I'll try to decide before the end of the day. I'll contact you when I've got some names so I can run them by you."<br/>
<br/>
She agrees to that and tells you that she'll be Chen until then so to just text his phone when you have to. She then puts his mask back on and the two of you are able to slip out of the gym before anyone shows up. You'd probably have to abandon Yumi in embarrassment if any of the cheerleaders caught you coming down from the loft with Chen.<br/>
<br/>
As far as the sophomores go you'd already narrowed it down to a few candidates last night and it's just a matter of weighing them all against each other.<br/>
<br/>
The first is Riley Peterson. She's pretty and popular but she's popular not just with the sophomore crowd but you noticed in some pictures or videos from her or others' social media sites that she regularly hangs around with some juniors as well. You don't really get the same kind of bitchy or ambitious vibe from her that you got from Laura Serrano (another girl near the top of the Sophomore hierarchy) but neither do you get the vibe that she's sugary sweet. She's almost archetypal and maybe a bit of a tabula rasa so if you wanted to start over with a better high school life or find a place for Chelsea then she's an obvious first pick.<br/>
<br/>
After her is Alexandria Hull. Her chocolate-colored hair is cut boyishly short and nearly every picture you see her in she's wearing jeans and a t-shirt or a work shirt or something similar. She's usually hanging out with guys and you think you see more pictures of her with cars and engines than you do with other girls. One notable exception is Katelyn Page as they appear together frequently so it's obvious they're good friends. Which is kind of funny because of how opposite they are: Katelyn prim and business-like, Alexandria relaxed and dirty.<br/>
<br/>
She seems easygoing but she also seems to have a mechanical mind which might help you in getting further into the book too.<br/>
<br/>
Last on the list is Evie Cummings. On paper she doesn't stand out. She has a core group of friends, seems to be a good student and is on the JV soccer team but outside of her circle she doesn't show up much in others' conversations. But you, or rather Yumi, see something there. She's plenty cute in the type of innocent way that you could see guys falling for. Though her friend group isn't gigantic it's big enough and she seems to be the core that holds them together. With some work she could definitely go places. Not to say that she's an ugly duckling as that's an unfair comparison; it might be better to say she's closer to the carp that leaps the falls of the Yellow River to become a dragon.<br/>
<br/>
She'd definitely make a good place for you or even for Chelsea.</span></div></div>


path: 11312211211121111122313221332321333
author_id: rugal
title: A Freshman Flip
chapter_content:
<div><div> <span>"I appreciate you agreeing to give up Chen last night," you tell your boyfriend the next morning as the two of you stroll through the nearly empty parking lot.<br/>
<br/>
A text from Chen had woken you up around six wanting you to get ready because he wanted to swing by early to get you. You'd grumbled and reluctantly hauled yourself out of bed. Still a bit groggy you'd put only the bare minimum into your clothing choices and makeup so you're a Yumi that's sloppy by her own standards by the time you said goodbye to Yumi's very surprised parents. Of course Yumi is the type of girl who could take half-asleep sloppy and make it seem intentional and chic you had mused after Chen had showered praise on you once he'd picked you up.<br/>
<br/>
He still hasn't told you why he needed to get you so early though. It's still well over an hour before first period and at least forty five minutes before the school fills up.<br/>
<br/>
"Not really that big of a deal I guess," he replies coolly as he leads you from the parking lot's threshold into the school proper. "Sounds like there's a 'but' in there though."<br/>
<br/>
"There is," you say though you cut yourself off when you notice he's stopped at the entrance to the gym. "Two buts actually. I'll tell you what the second one is but first... why are we here?" He says nothing but simply offers you a wolfish grin as he pulls the door open. He doesn't even have to, especially not once he begins walking towards the direction of a now familiar set of stairs.<br/>
<br/>
"Really? First thing in the morning?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well if we're going to do this then this'll be my last time right?" he says as he turns back to you at the foot of the stairs and leans down. "Figure we should get it all out of the way as soon as possible," his grin only grows wider. "All of it."<br/>
<br/>
"Gary..." you reply warily but that seems to only increase his hunger and quickly one hand's pulled you in closer by the arm while the other clasps your ass tightly.<br/>
<br/>
"Speaking of butts," he states.<br/>
<br/>
"Chelsea!" you squeal but that only seems to increase not only his own hunger but yours as well as you wrap your arms around his neck and jump, both of his arms now supporting you while your legs wrap around his waste.<br/>
<br/>
You're kissing one another passionately as he carries you up the stares (with little issue to your amazement), fish the key out of his pocket and unlock the door. He lets you down one you're inside the loft and while he closes and locks the door you quickly make your way over to one of the mats stained with sweat and other bodily secretions and begin undressing.<br/>
<br/>
He undresses as well and you pull him down on top of you. Hungrily you devour one another's mouths while your delicate hands massage his shaft. Once the appetizer's finished it's time for the main course and he's thrusting away with as much vigor as he's ever done it but there's nothing rough or animalistic about it because it's equally sweet and sensual. The benefit, you suppose, of Chelsea running that body because if anyone would know how to please a girl then it'd certainly be another girl right?<br/>
<br/>
Once he's exploded once more the two of you lay down, he on his back and you on your side with your arms clutching him and your head on his chest. The two of you say nothing for quite a while before he finally breaks the silence.<br/>
<br/>
"If you'd asked me a few weeks ago what I would miss sex with Yumi wouldn't have been on the list," he says with a laugh. "But at least you'll have it. Have you ever thought about her Will?"<br/>
<br/>
"Mhm," you mutter as you regain your faculties. "Never really thought it would be like this though. You can still have her too you know." Your partner doesn't say anything but simply lets loose with a curious sound. "That's the second but. I appreciate you offering up Chen but I've decided to re-neg on that one."<br/>
<br/>
<div align="center">* * * * *</div><br/>
Chelsea, because now she's out of the mask but with Chen's clothes draped on her, listens as you explain to her what's going on. She seems wholly neutral about the entire situation being neither upset nor overjoyed at the fact she's still going to have Chen for herself. She doesn't state it explicitly but after what she said to you last night you're made to wonder if she's in fact a little upset that you're going down into the one of the lower classes without her.<br/>
<br/>
Could Chelsea Cooper actually be a little bit heartbroken over being separated from Will Prescott? You almost want to laugh at the absurdity of that thought but after last night it doesn't seem quite as absurd.<br/>
<br/>
She does perk up when you tell her that she was the inspiration for you deciding to do it. That her willingness to move down first got you thinking about having a bit of a do-over. It's not a lie really, not even a white lie, but it is a definite bit of ego massaging on your part and you're thankful for Yumi's near flawless social skills in helping you read the situation.<br/>
<br/>
"But yeah, I'm going down," you tell her. "All the way down actually." She can do nothing but give you a curious look. "I figure if I'm going to do it over I should do <i>all</i> of it over."<br/>
<br/>
"You mean...?" Her eyes go wide but quickly they light up and to your surprise she starts to laugh. "You wanting to be a freshman is like the dumbest and craziest thing I've ever heard!" she exclaims. "But I it's kind of inspired too." She gets a thoughtful look on her face for a moment or two before she talks again. "Okay so that's what we'll do. We'll move down together."<br/>
<br/>
"Wait, both of us!?" you exclaim. "But what about Chen?"<br/>
<br/>
"I just put the mask on whoever's place I'm taking?" she says in a rather "duh" tone.<br/>
<br/>
"But you've already got a lot of those masks out right?" you quickly fire back. "I don't know how many each of us can have out there before... I don't know, something bad happens?"<br/>
<br/>
"Then you can have him."<br/>
<br/>
"I just told you that I don't want him," you retort. "Besides that'd mean making a new mask and using it on the real guy and he's going to be hopelessly out of date."<br/>
<br/>
Chelsea lets out a frustrated noise that you're unsure is directed at you for being obstinate or because you're right. She stews for a moment before her face lights up again. "Pookie," she says quietly. "Gordon," she says louder in response to your confusion. If you want to move into a freshman and I want to move down too..." She trails off and pauses before muttering an assurance to herself. "If we do that then you can have Gordon."<br/>
<br/>
"You'd be willing to give me Gordon!?" you ask in astonishment. "He's a statue though so how would we get a new mask?"<br/>
<br/>
"We wouldn't," she says plainly. "The mask is on the statue thing right? But we never did the thing to it that we did to the others. So I thought that if we did it to Gordon's mask then he'd listen to you and maybe you could... when I want to be myself..."<br/>
<br/>
She turns away and you think you actually catch a glimpse of her blushing. You don't press that issue but instead the other big one. "But the statue spell used your hair right? So would it still listen to me?"<br/>
<br/>
"Well that's why we'll try it later... at lunch!" she exclaims. "Meet me up here at lunch and we'll see if it works." She then picks up Chen's mask; she'll need to put it on because it's around seven-thirty and the school's going to soon begin filling up. "If you find someone you can tell me then too. Maybe we can find someone good for me too."<br/>
<br/>
After that she puts Chen's mask back on and the two of you part for the first half of the day. Your head's spinning as you head out of the gym to try and find Yumi's friends. But even with all of that finding someone for you shouldn't be hard, now you just have to take Chelsea into consideration and because of that you run down who you'd narrowed things down to last night in all your searching.<br/>
<br/>
The first is Mee-Kyong Lee, or Mimi as she tends to go by since Mee-Kyong's a bit awkward for most people. She's in the orchestra and is a talented player. She's cute as a button and her accent -- she's only been here since around fifth grade -- only makes her cuter. She seems to hold a bit of popularity in the freshman class but it's the orchestra connection that really drives it home: she's also an easy get. Through her it becomes easy to find another spot in the orchestra for Chelsea; Taylor Smith would probably be someone she'd like.<br/>
<br/>
Then there's Daniela Ramos. She's cute, intellectually gifted, seems to stay out of trouble and holds a very high social rank among the freshmen. She does come with a boyfriend in Victor Perez but if you want to bring Chelsea down with you that may be a spot to put her if she's fine with being a guy again.<br/>
<br/>
Finally there's Shelly Nolan, a girl with long, wavy red hair and a bright personality. She doesn't seem to be a social giant but you'd seen her with lots of others which means she's accepted by a lot of groups. In all of the pictures she seemed to wear a bright smile, strike a goofy pose and in general seems like someone that lights up any room they're in. As her there's no shortages of spots you could get for Chelsea.</span></div></div>


