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All Chapters of The Girl with the Masks and The Student Body President: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10
140 Chapters
Chapter 1 (i)
We moved again. It was always the same; bills, nosy neighbours, new men, suspicious authorities, they made it difficult for us to settle in any one place for too long. My little brother, Matt, hated it; he’d throw a fit every time we had to start packing and Mom would get him whatever he wanted to ease the transition. It became obvious, sometime after he turned eight, that he didn’t really hate the moves but loved getting the presents. After that, his tantrums only ever got worse, and Mother’s indulgence only served to encourage them further. I never fussed. In the beginning, my compliance was a result of my intricate understanding of the correlation that existed between my protests and my mother’s unbridled retribution. But, the older I got the more I found myself looking forward to each new place. It was always a chance to start fresh where no one knew me and I could be anyone I wanted to be. Once, I was a hard-core goth girl who fastidiously washed her face and chan
Read moreChapter 1 (ii)
When it started, it was the same as it always was; school dances, student body elections, pep rallies—I led two of those—and sporting events. Something about rules got sprinkled in but by then I’d completely checked out. Sitting still had always been difficult and, exacerbated by the monotonous droning of the school’s vice principal, I was in real danger of falling out of my chair. Sufficiently through with the sanctioned torture, I asked to be excused to the bathroom and then took off in the direction that seemed more promising. I wanted to check out the music room, chat up the teacher for a bit, and make sure he understood what a prodigy I thought myself to be. Mr. Roberts…I think that’s the name they’d given. It didn’t matter that I’d never been particularly gifted at any instrument. He would find my enthusiasm and passion too hard to resist and once I explained my fateful back story of belonging to failed musicians, he’d stumble over himself to help me actualise my dreams. Teach
Read moreChapter 1 (iii)
"What . . .?" I challenged, hoping I’d only misheard him. "And you are?" The voice I’d intended to be strong had failed me, coming out with frail hesitation. "The guy with the power to get you in trouble.” He continued in a whisper as he leaned in. I could feel his breath against my ear and it sent a violent shiver down my spine. No. I was going to be in the band—I was going to play the drums and tell odd stories about Iggy my iguana. This…this wasn’t the start to my new school life that I was looking for and the more I thought about it was the less I could feel my lips. They remained stubbornly shut, trapped in their own uncertainty. I stared up at him, immobilised by the same fear that I had grown accustomed to at my old school. There were too many variables, the most pressing of them being my concern he was the type to ‘assert’ whatever power had been bestowed upon him by the school administration. I’d run into enough of those to last me another ten lifetimes. "Jayden, are you
Read moreChapter 2 (i)
In the hours that followed our orientation tour, thoughts of the convincing prankster relentlessly plagued my mind. It was that boyish grin, the ease in his movements and the way he’d been so sure of himself. It was the firmness of his chest and the mischief in his eyes that dared you to join in. They were silly little things that shouldn’t have mattered and yet, against my better judgement, I was entranced.It happened like that sometimes. You saw someone and everything just clicked in all the right—or wrong—ways. Jayden was trouble, I was nearly certain of it but that dimpled smile had etched itself into my memory in ways I’d never willingly admit.Listen to me, I sounded like a love-sick middle-schooler who’d never held hands with a boy. The disdain I felt for myself at having entertained such wayward thoughts was palpable, but even that wasn’t enough to silence the pounding in my chest every time his image flashed across my mind.Jayden had the charisma of a politician. I hadn’t y
Read moreChapter 2 (ii)
While I was hardly the hopeless romantic, I liked a good challenge. Misguided as the idea was, they were my chance at redemption. Whenever I won, if only for that brief moment, I felt like I was finally good enough for my mother to love me. After winning anything, I’d be all beams and smiles, eagerly recounting my victory, then we would become the only two people in my world. She’d happily show me off; she’d call the rest of the family and spend hours with them on the phone bragging about what a brilliant kid I was. For just that moment…we would be a happy family.Those moments were always short lived, of course. After that, things would go back to normal and I’d have to work to convince myself that I never wanted her love to begin with all over again.It didn’t always work, but it worked often enough that I fell back to it each time the magic faded and the carriage turned back into a pumpkin.Would Mom care that I’d ‘won’ the student body president? I didn’t know, but winning had bec
Read moreChapter 2 (iii)
"Are you crazy?" Madelyn countered, nearly shoving out of her own seat before catching herself. "You can’t just walk up to them. You gotta wait for one of them to acknowledge you and call you over first.""Why?" My eyebrows were rising ever higher with each new thing said about this mysterious body and the image I had cultivated was constantly changing. This…this was secret society cult business confirmed and that only made it more exciting.The sweet smiling politician was proving to be more interesting than I’d first imagined. It would be a shame when the time came to leave him behind. Madelyn shrugged, seeming at first to be at a loss of words that would make real sense. "That's just how things are done around here.""I think it's time we changed that," I said before turning on my heels and stalking off. I had to strike while the iron was hot and my nerves were still steeled. This would be nothing, a cakewalk, a…an…other metaphor that would make me think it was a good idea. All I
Read moreChapter 2 (iv)
"What's the criteria for joining the body?"The question had their expressions darkening noticeably but it wasn’t enough to elicit further response from them. I’d shocked them. It was a question none of them had been expecting, one they evidently hadn’t been asked in far too long. They were hoping I would back down, that if they stared hard enough I would bend; instead I doubled down in my silent wait. They weren’t going to push me aside like they did everyone else and by now I was making as much of a social statement as I reckon anyone had in a while.Before I left my table, I’d said it was time for things to change and a small part of me liked the idea that someone else would be given courage by my ill-advised pursuit. With any luck, these five would start being approached more often and others would feel emboldened to pursue their own ambitions of student body leadership. I would be the social revolutionary they were waiting for and in turn they would put me at their helm.It was a
Read moreChapter 3 (i)
I’d never been happier to be home from a first day of school. While I’d expected to make some waves with my latest character innovation, I hadn’t anticipated the turn things had taken and I hadn’t anticipated the trench I’d ended up digging myself into through my questionable impulse control. By the final bell of the day, I’d started to get the feeling that everyone knew who I was and it had nothing to do with my quirky family dynamics or my musical supremacy. Whispers filled the halls from biology to French, from physics to homeroom; whispers about me I’d severely undercut my own story and didn’t have the first clue how to steer it back on track should this business of joining the body become a failed pursuit. How did anyone ever recover from such social calamity? I doubted my mother would allow me to be the reason we changed houses a second time, least of all because I’d made a fool of myself with my own ambitions. She’d be too pleased with the outcome and
Read moreChapter 3 (ii)
The 13- year-old let out a loud sigh. "Mom!"It was his trump card, the one that would get him absolutely anything he wanted and he'd learned to use it a long time ago."Okay here!" I said, grabbing my jacket from the nightstand and thrusting it toward him. The last thing I needed was Mother coming in to see what had upset her son so badly. She would’ve gone at me for being so horrid to my precious little brother, annoyed I couldn’t do this little thing to make him happy. With the rise in my position to ‘talk of the school’, I couldn’t afford to show up the next day with more fodder for their active rumour mills. The woman never cared where she left her bruises anymore; it was always up to me to hide them after.Matt’s face contorted into that sweet smile I’d grown to hate before he turned and saw himself out.He’d lose it before the night was out, likely left behind at one venue or another like all the other things he’d borrowed then Mother would punish me for being careless. Money d
Read moreChapter 3 (iii)
She swung the bat at me but with the way she was already staggering, it missed. Missing wasn't something Mother made a habit of and it only made her angrier. "You've been sleeping around again, haven't you?!" This time, she didn't miss. It caught me square in the side of my head, sending my left ear ringing as blood trickled out. "After all I've taught you—all the shit you’ve caused, you go around being everybody's whore again!" She swung another time and caught me in the stomach. The pain bent me double as I tried desperately to regain my breath.I curled into a ball sucking in deep breaths to maintain my composure. Crying would only give her the satisfaction she craved and denying her was about the only thing I had within my power in these moments. I bit my lower lip to keep from crying when the bat co
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