(C) 2010 by rmsl

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrival system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal.

Chameleons’ Ink

Cory’s father was mad that he had come home so late and barely finished the garden.

After the sun went down Cory went into his room and opened his journal. He didn’t have to look long for a pencil because one sat right next to his journal. The visit to Leigh’s house released a floodgate of images and emotions that felt brand new and sort of scared him a little. He did think like a girl. Joey was right.

But he couldn’t stop himself from writing. No matter how much he felt like a girl. Every word that transferred from his head to the page made him feel lighter, weightless almost. He knew these poems were some of his best stuff.

He made two copies of what he wrote that night—one for Leigh and one for Jason. He hadn’t shown him anything he’s written for a while and he felt a sense of wonder about what he came up with that night. He had to show Jason.

He went to bed that night and dreamt he was Romeo standing under Juliet’s balcony. But he couldn’t make out who played Juliet.

Jason didn’t mean to do it. Cory was as excited about his new poems as Jason was.

Jason missed homeroom because he had a dentist appointment. But when he came into English, he rushed to Cory.

“These poems are awesome! Definitely your best stuff. You’ve got to give them to Kym!”

His voice was loud, loud enough for Joey to hear him. Joey had been extra rough on Cory lately. Cory figured it was because he was jealous of how much time Kym was spending with him. Joey had always been sort of glad that she had Cory to talk to because then he wouldn’t have to hear the sappy stuff about her family. But recently, he seemed to change his mind and acted differently around him.

“Gimme those.” Before Jason had a chance to react, Joey had the attention of the whole class. He read each of the poems out loud. Cory tried to stop him but too many of Joey’s friends stood in his way.

Kym sat at her desk acting shocked. But she did nothing to stop Joey. It was as if she had waited for something like this to happen.

Leigh walked into class right as Joey read the first poem. It took her a few seconds to figure out what was happening. She just stood and listened like Joey was reading the poems to her. A smile crept slowly to her face and when she realized she was smiling she shook herself and changed her expression to one of anger.

In between most of the lines, Joey paused in order for everyone to laugh. But as he continued, his reading slowed and his face became white. He finished reading the final lines as if he wasn’t in front of an audience but was alone, soaking in each word for himself.

The laughter stopped and he handed the poems back to Cory.

Leigh walked past Joey’s desk and whispered, “You’re an ass.” She sat down next to Cory and started to talk about their reading assignment last night.

Joey didn’t acknowledge her, only shifting his eyes across his desk with his head down. Mr. Maragelloto walked into the room and all the talking stopped.

Cory was afraid to look at Kym. He didn’t know why. When he finally did her expression was plain, lifeless. Was it because of how her boyfriend had acted or because of the poems?

That afternoon at lunch, Jason let Cory know how sorry he was and how mad he was at Joey. They couldn’t keep treating people like that but he didn’t know one way to stop them.

“It’s okay, Jase. I’ve been through worse. Once in grade school, Kym saw a piece of tuna fish on my sleeve after lunch. She thought it was a booger. If I didn’t die that day, I don’t think Joey can do anything to me.”

Leigh crunched her face in disgust. “I woulda puked if I was her.”

Cory threw a pretzel at her and they laughed.

“We could think of something. We are very creative people,” Leigh said.

The rest of lunch they shared funny ways to embarrass Gwen and Joey. Cory thought nothing of it; it was just talk.

One of the techniques Leigh used in the alumni room to help Cory understand Shakespeare was to compare characters to real life people. Every evil girl was either Gwen or one of the other cheerleaders and every evil boy was Joey. Kym got to be a few of the princesses or queens, but Cory let Leigh be most of them. Leigh was a different person when they were in the alumni room. She came alive. Her strangeness seemed less dominant in that room. Not after long, Cory started to refer to the room as Leigh’s Stage.

Leigh never called it that. She said it made her feel funny talking in third person and if she called it My Stage it made her feel conceited. So she just referred to it as The Stage. “I like it,” she said once. “Shakespeare did say ‘all the world is a stage’.”

They were in Leigh’s Stage a couple of mornings after the day Joey read Cory’s poem out loud to the whole class when Leigh brought up an idea.

“I know what we can do to those two. It’ll put them right in their place.”

“Not that again. It was just fun at lunch. I don’t think I could do anything like that.”

Leigh gave him a look that she meant business. He agreed to at least listen to her idea. She wanted to create some college who would send both of them an invitation to attend the school on a full scholarship. Gwen for cheerleading and Joey for basketball. It was harmless because no one could find out who sent the letters and it was early enough in the school year for them to apply to other colleges.

“But how will they find out that the letters are fake? Announce it over the P.A.?”

“Naaa…that would be too mean. We just want them to feel foolish in front of their friends. Like Shakespeare does to Bottom in A Midsummer-Night’s Dream by turning his head into a donkey’s.”

Cory didn’t see how having your head turned into a donkey’s head was harmless. But he did like the fact that nobody could find out who sent the letters.

“But what if they never find out? It could be really bad.”

“I’ll think of something.”

Leigh dropped the subject as if she had already made up her mind but didn’t want to continue for fear of talking Cory out of the plan. She started to talk about one of her scenes from her play and Cory instantly forgot about Gwen or Joey.

He loved it when she talked to him about her characters. Her whole face sparkled and her performances made his heart race and his mouth hurt from laughing all the time. She never stayed too serious for too long. When she went on like this, he thought she looked sort of pretty. But then she would put on her costume for the day and all he could see was the same old strange Leigh Reynolds.

The next day, Leigh came up to his locker with the letters in her hands.

“You really are serious about this, aren’t you?”

The letters were official looking. She said she did them on her dad’s computer and used his drafting program to create the school’s logo.

“They’ll never fall for it. All they have to do is search the Internet and find out the school is fake.”

Leigh’s smirked mischievously and shook her head. “It’s not gonna matter that the school is fake. If I know the type of people they are, they won’t even consider going there. But they’ll brag to their friends about the scholarships.”

Cory had to give it her. She knew her character types. Cory had no doubt Joey and Gwen would eat up the letters and tell everyone they knew.

“How do they find out they’re fake?”

She pulled out her compact. “Look at the logo in the mirror.”

He couldn’t believe how smart this girl was! When the logo for the school was seen in a mirror it looked like a donkey eating grass with the words “You’re An Ass” one after another in a vertical line. How did she do that?

“How are we going to get them to look at the letters in a mirror?”

Leigh put her compact away and gave him a look that said: Are you serious? “Those cheerleaders carry around enough mirrors to burn down this school if sunlight hit them all at the same time. They even have three or four of them glued into their lockers. Someone is bound to spot it.” She seemed to sense his uneasiness. “Look, if after a couple days they don’t figure it out…I’ll send them another letter explaining it all. They won’t even hafta tell anybody then.”

Cory finally accepted the plan. He figured it was a long shot that either one of them would see the logo in a mirror. And if they didn’t, Leigh would anonymously tell them it was a joke in another letter. They would just tell everyone they decided to look at other colleges. No one would know any better.

When Cory saw a ton of basketball players surrounding Joey’s locker, he knew the letters arrived in yesterday’s mail.

By fifth period it seemed like every senior in the school was talking about the letters.

A few days passed and no one saw the donkey logo in the mirror.

Leigh wrote the other letters and planned on mailing them after school. She seemed disappointed about having to send them, but they still laughed and wished they could be at one of their houses when Joey or Gwen opened it up.

After the last bell that day, Cory grabbed all the books out of his locker he needed and headed to the gym to meet Leigh. He didn’t get to talk to her that much during study hall because he helped Maddy Lawson and Steven Dumbrowski with their government paper. Maggie just couldn’t stop using “I” and Steven never explained his relative pronouns. “Man, you explain it so much easier than Miss Masterson,” Steven said. Explaining things came effortlessly to Cory.

He passed Gwen’s locker. Michelle and Carl Krachi were hanging around the locker waiting for Gwen to get her stuff to go home.

“Gwen, can I see that letter again? I just can’t get over it. It gives me chills every time I read it.”

Cory stopped just short of Gwen’s locker. It couldn’t be happening.

Gwen was squatting inside her locker, rummaging around for a hairbrush. She pretended like Michelle’s asking to see the letter again annoyed her, but Cory knew better. “It’s on the top shelf.”

Michelle unfolded the letter. Carl Krachi read it from behind her. “Don’t read over my shoulder, you pig. I know what you’re really doing.” So she turned to face him.

Cory saw the donkey eating grass and the words “You’re An Ass” clear as day in the six by six inch mirror on Gwen’s locker door. So did Carl. He grabbed the letter from her hands and held it close to the mirror. He couldn’t stop laughing.

Gwen finally stood up to see what they were all laughing about and she saw it. She looked devastated. There were rumors that she had planned to go there. But rumors were rumors. She slammed her locker door and ran down the hallway. She left the letter behind.

By now everybody was looking at the donkey eating grass and the insulting words hidden in the school’s logo. Joey handled it better than Gwen, but Cory could see his self-image crumbling.

“Dude, someone got you good. This is the best prank I ever seen. Whoever did this is a genius! A god!” Cory didn’t expect Carl Krachi’s response. He did feel a little proud of Leigh.

Joey just laughed. “Like I was going to go there anyway. They were division two. You know I want to go to state.” If the prank bothered Joey, he wasn’t showing it.

“Yeah, dude, I know. But you have to admit it was a good one.”

As Joey and Carl walked down the hall, Joey’s eyes stayed on Cory longer than usual. He knew.