The Masqueraders: Part 3

The Masqueraders Have Arrived  
Meena slammed her tray down on the lunch table, making several seventh graders flinch and scoot away.
“Isn’t it great Louise? About that masquerade ball on Halloween, what are we going to wear?” As always, Meena screamed nearly every word she spoke.
“Please don’t talk so loudly Meena,” Faye, the girl who had handed Louise the note earlier, said calmly, making sure her right ear still worked. “If we want this to be a secret, we need to act like it’s a secret, not scream it to the world.” Meena clapped a hand over her mouth and nodded. She gave Louise a playful slap on the shoulder then sat down and began to eat.
“Ugh, I’m glad I don’t eat this cafeteria food, it looks like slop.” Two more girls came to sit down at the table. One has black hair halfway down her back, and another one had frizzy brown hair tied into a tight braid.
“Taylor, don’t complain, some of us have to eat this stuff every day. Besides, it’s not like what you eat is sirloin and caviar,” Meena teased. Taylor swept her black hair over her shoulder and gave a mock sniff, but a pudding cup and a PB&J sandwich rolled out of her lunchbox. “See?”
“Hey who wants this pocky?” Coleen, the frizzy female that sat next to her shouted. Every hand at the table went up. “Well, then we’re going have to decide by a fair, well known method. Eeny-meeny-miney-mo-“Coleen dropped the pocky. No one went for it. She was staring at Louise, pupils dilated. Louise slowly turned around. Gracie was standing behind her, arms raised, eyes rolled back into her head, a vampire grin on her face. To anyone else, she would’ve looked like something out of a horror movie.  Louise was unimpressed.
“Gracie, you could’ve at least gone for the scary clown look. This one is getting old. Or maybe the crazed wolverine. That works wonders on the seventh graders.” By that time all seventh grade and under had abandoned the table and squeezed into the seats where the delinquent kids sat. Gracie sat down chuckling, in one of her better moods. “So, Kujaku, where did you hear about this masquerade ball?” Louise said, raising her eyebrows.
“I have my sources, as you know,” Gracie returned, also raising her eyebrows.
“Okay guys, if we’re having a contest to see who can raise their eyebrows the highest, both of you have made it to your hairline.” Faye obviously wanted to get to the point of the conversation. “So Gracie, where did you find this ball?”
“Internet.” The sheer evidence of this fact left them dumbstruck for a moment. One thought ran through all their heads at the same time.  
<Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh>  
“Erm, ignoring our moment of stupidity there, where’s Neko?” Louise asked. Gracie shrugged.
“Probably in the library. I instructed her to do a little research on classic villain disguises. We need some.”
“But we’re not villains!” Meena screeched. Anything Meena said had a slightly higher volume than the rest of us. It was like she was stuck or something. And had no off button.
“Okay look. We’re going to make our ‘debut’ at a masquerade ball, right? So, maybe our disguises should resemble masquerade costumes.” No one knew where the suggestion had come from (mainly because there were so many people crammed at the table it was hard to concentrate on all of them at once) but it sounded like a good idea. Gracie raised her bottled tea.
“A toast, to the Masqueraders!”

                                                      * * * * * *
A call to grandma and a few trips to the craft store later, they had everything they needed to make their Halloween costumes. It took several weeks, but Halloween arrived. The night before the ball, Louise discussed the plan with their comrades.
“I’ve talked to Myra about the plan and she’s ready with her costume. Remember, your costume resembles your codename, so it’s easier to distinguish each individual. Don’t forget the plan. It’s vital that this go smoothly. I’ve convinced my parents that I’m going to meet up with you all near Chinatown. And of course, that is the plan,” she winked. Everyone ran through a rough summary of the plan, and then dispersed. It was time.
Louise adjusted her mask in the mirror. She didn’t want anyone to be able to recognize her in a line up, although that was for hard core criminals. She was just a simple teenager living an average life. No one had any reason to need to pick her out of a line up. She grinned in the mirror despite her discomfort. She had no doubt in her mind that this operation would run smooth as soft serve ice cream, but she hated wearing contacts. They made her eyes water. It was necessary though. And tights.
She despised tights.
But she was going to have to get used to those too. Her hand ran over the top of her dresser, grabbing her guardian angel figurine. She wasn’t religious, but it made her feel better. It had been her great grandmother’s before she died. Setting that down, she picked up the felt sack draped over her chair. Her “trick –or-treat” bag was also special, not because it was an old family hand me down, but because it would hold more than candy tonight. She slung it over her shoulder and hopped the stairs two at a time. Her little brother was downstairs, zipping up his ninja costume. Shoot, she had forgotten about her promise to take him trick-or-treating. She bit her lip. There had to be something she could do. This little roadblock couldn’t plug on their great heist. She beat her fists against her head.
“Are you ready to go yet?” he snapped. “I promised I’d meet Philip by eight and it’s already seven-thirty.!” She sighed. And yet again, she had forgotten she already put up a fight about this matter. He was going with his little friend, not her. But she couldn’t talk about the plan until after she had dropped him off by the sweet shop in Chinatown.  
Louise counted seven heads, including her head. Not eight. They included her, Gracie, Meena, Myra, Faye, Taylor, and Coleen.
“Where’s our last member Kuj-Gracie?”
“She went on to uh, uh, scope out the greatest haunted house,” Faye answered, to make sure Gracie didn’t accidentally spill the beans in front of Louise’s monkey. Gracie tried to look offended. To be nice, it was the worst display of phony naivety in the history of faked innocence.
The runt was soon dumped off with his cohort and his cohort’s haggard looking mother, and the team slipped off to “trick-or-treat”. As soon as they turned the corner they slipped into an alleyway where no light shone. One by one they scrambled up the pipes on the side of the building, up to the roof. The full moon stood out, large and silver against the diamond studded night sky.
“It’ll be snap to navigate across these rooftops. Everything’s so packed together,” Taylor sighed. The wind was soft, but it nearly carried her voice away.
“Yes, but even so, we have to be prepared.” Each person drew out of their bags a thick rope or cord with a large metal hook on the end. “Homemade grappling hooks, nothing better.” One by one, the shadows against the moon disappeared. One by one, each shadow literally sprinted towards its future. One by one, each shadow came closer to coming out into the light.