Hidden Beneath the Mask
Disclaimer: Well two shows I do not own: "Good Luck Charlie" and "How to Rock", so try not to give me grief, as I'm not claiming them.
A/N:
Chapter 25 (Kacey's Plan)
"She's up to something!" Kacey exclaimed once again, pacing the Gravity 5 clubhouse. Paranoia was definitely her biggest problem. She didn't think so, but heard it many times from everyone else. Stevie and Zander remained silent, sitting on the couch together and nonchalantly fiddling with whatever they had. Zander with his guitar, and Stevie was just shifting through the address book on her phone. Nelson was texting back and forth on his phone with Grace. Kevin, of course, was the only one actually listening to her rants.
"Why do you think that this time?" Kevin asked, without actually supporting her thoughts on the issue. "Molly hasn't tried to upstage you, she hasn't tried to torment you or us, and she's been less of a coldhearted snob than usual." Kacey rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in the air, struggling for support here. "Honestly Kacey, she's doing nothing lately. You've been acting more off the wall than she has."
"No, she knows my plan. She has to!" Then again, she hadn't actually told anyone what her plans were. She would be carrying them out soon, however. "She must know I want her off the Perfs." This, on part, was both good and bad. The Perfs were still a creepy organization, as several of the girls she noticed had dark tendencies when she was on. Paranoia was just one of the few things they had wrong with them. If Molly was truly acting differently, or less than the 'perfect' girl she claimed to be and was more the 'innocent' girl that seemed to be showing, then yes. Molly needed to be out of that group. It wouldn't be good for her health in the long run to be a part of it.
The bigger plot, however, was to get PJ to become so annoyed with Molly that he wouldn't dream of letting her on the band! This had to be carried out soon, as soon as possible. Mr. Davis liked her audition, Emmett thought she could work a little on her pitch, and PJ was left with the deciding vote to put her in the final group of singers. He initially chose to do so, but was a little uncertain if she could really bring it. She heard Stevie sigh and quickly looked at the girl. "What? It's for her own good that she not be a part of that group…"
Stevie leaned forward, tapping her foot gently on the ground. "That may be so, but come on Kacey. It's really not up to you to decide that." The hell it wasn't, but whether or not she wanted to kick Molly off the Perfs, she wanted to focus on the bigger part. She could use the Perfs girls for now. "So what else are you planning."
"Well I want to bring PJ over, maybe have him hear me sing again to see if there's any tips he has for bettering my final audition."
"Seems fair enough…but what are you going to do with S-Molly?"
"Find a way to ruin Molly…" It was clear Stevie wanted the how, but it was the how that she wasn't going to tell. After all, she was more than aware that both Stevie and Zander were forming a friendship with the girl. When it dawned on her that Molly was the one that Spencer must have attacked, which really did piss her off, she became aware where Zander's fury had come from. "There is something tremendously wrong here, and I'm not sure what, but I'm going to find out. I wonder what the connection is between Molly and PJ. Old friends maybe? There might be a biased decision on his part."
"I don't think Molly's all that interested," Zander muttered. "Think about it, she's displayed absolutely no interest whatsoever in PJ's band." It was hard to believe that statement, since Molly appeared to know PJ. She scowled momentarily and crossed her arms over.
"Molly knows PJ somehow. How is she going to know him if she's not interested in the band? How is she going to know how he might analyze people auditioning? That to me doesn't say someone who doesn't care, that says something to me about someone who does care." Stevie snickered momentarily while Zander slowly shook his head. "You want to tell me that she doesn't care-"
"You know, you're really starting to get on my nerves. Have you considered the woman probably isn't too worried about the band, as she might be in regards to the members on the band?" Stevie moved her hand to Zander's wrist and he gently shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry, it's just…you're being highly conceited right now Kacey, and you don't even know the reality. Molly may not be who you think she is!"
"Sorry, geez…" Everyone was kind of startled by Zander's outburst, but no one was going to argue the point. After all, he had a truly valid point. Ever since PJ showed up, if not before, Molly had been acting funny. Regardless of anything else, Kacey still just wanted to talk to her and find out a little of what was going on. Also, she did want to get her away from the scary part of the girls on the Perfs, there was just something deep in her gut that said something was off about the rest of the girls in that group.
Stevie whispered something to Zander, and the two started walking out of the room. Hopefully to calm down a bit, without seeming so tense. Kacey walked over to Nelson and sat beside him on the edge of Kevin's drum seat. "Hey Nelson, can you do me a favor?"
"What do you want me to do?"
"Can you convince Grace to get Molly to come here?" Nelson raised an eyebrow and Kevin quickly bowed her head. She tugged at her lip and waved her hands in the air. "It's nothing too bad, I really just want to talk to her."
"I can try, but Grace says Molly really doesn't want to come here."
"She can't just avoid school for the rest of her life. Tell her it pertains to the Perfs." She could also influence Molly and Grace to leave the Perfs on their own, that would be less problematic than doing it the other way around. "I honestly want to talk about that group." Nelson looked uncertain, but he told Grace anyway. It was about five minutes later that Grace replied with confirmation that they would come, provided Zander and Stevie were there.
Phase one was complete, but there was still more work to come. It would take the girls about fifteen minutes to get there. Maybe she could get to talk to Molly before everything. She looked to the door, Zander and Stevie were still outside discussing whatever it was they were discussing. She really didn't want them to overhear anything, so this was a benefit.
Next, she would bring PJ over to hear her sing a second time, and hopefully gather some tips from him. If he ran into Molly, oh well, it probably wouldn't actually matter much. Besides, he was always talking about wanting to see her, so maybe this was for the best. "What's next?" Nelson asked with arched eyebrows. Kevin was still shaking his head, his hand was over his eyes and he was in mid groan.
"I want some tips from PJ." She flipped her phone out and dialed up the number for PJ and the Vibe. She put the phone to her ear and glanced at the door, breathing in sharply as the phone rang. Eventually PJ did answer. "Hey PJ, it's Kacey Simon. I was hoping you could come down to the clubhouse and give me some tips on how I can improve." She took to heart the advice he did give her, and she worked a little on it.
"Um, I guess that's a possibility."
"Yeah, I toned down on my high notes a little, and was hoping maybe you could hear me again." PJ hummed to himself and Kacey was sure she heard him flipping through some paper. "Can you?"
"I can be there in thirty minutes, if that's no trouble." Was it a problem? She glanced at the clock on the wall and winced, she might want to space that time apart just a little. After all, she wanted a little more time to get Molly to see what the Perfs were really like, convince her to leave them, and then talk about the whole thing. The whole deal with PJ could wait, she just wanted to confirm with Molly whether or not she actually gave a damn about the band. "That's the only time I have available today. If not, I can't do a whole lot until the final auditions, everything's busy."
She groaned and closed her hand. "Y-Yeah that'll be fine, I guess." Everything was about to become really fast, really soon. "Thirty minutes."
"All right, I'll let Emmett know and we'll head on down. Spencer Walsh won't be there, will he? I'm kind of annoyed with him right now." Did he know what happened to Molly? He didn't sound like he did, he just simply sounded grossly irritated with Spencer.
"No, he's been banned from this place. He kind of hurt someone here while we were gone."
"What? What did he do?"
"He brought a girl in here…and beat her."
PJ growled and kicked a surface, possibly a table leg. "Son of a…there goes my foot for the day, Jesus. Whatever, not my priority, I'll be down in thirty." He hung up and Kacey bit her lip. She was a little more nervous now. If there was a prior connection between him, and Molly, then it might not end well if he knew Molly was the one Spencer hurt.
"Okay, that's done…one more thing to do." Kevin lifted his head as Kacey began walking towards the clubhouse landline phone. She was going to issue some very strict orders for The Perfs, knowing it would take them some time to get everything done. The two men watched her and she smiled their way. "This is the only way to get her to leave The Perfs at this point in time."
"Oh god, seriously Kacey?" Kevin asked. "You're still on that?"
"It's not like they're good people to be with." Honestly, if Molly and Grace hadn't seen it yet, she would be surprised. Although, she herself had been on the group for a long time before she even picked up on some of the darker beliefs the girls had. "I'd be safer in a group of flesh-eating zombies than them…at least one of the girls, I think, practices witchcraft or something." That was Dakota, she remembered seeing the girl memorizing some sort of spell from a strange looking spell book.
She picked up the telephone and dialed Kelly's number after taking a moment to practice her best 'Molly' voice. "Hello?" Kelly asked, with a hint of uncertainty in her voice. "Who is this?"
"This is Molly!" Kacey blinked a couple times, noting that quite clearly the vocal inflection she was delivering actually sounded very close to her own. This wasn't intentional, this was exactly how Molly sounded. Like her. "Shit, Zander was right. Ugh…what else aren't they telling me?"
"Molly! I didn't recognize your number on the caller id. What's wrong?"
"Cell phone's dead so I was calling from a crappy landline. I know, right?" She smacked her lips and looked at her fingernails, curling her fingers inwards, then flipping her hand over to stretch out her fingers. "So here's the deal. In about fifteen to twenty minutes, I'm going to be going over to Gravity 5's clubhouse with Grace, she wants to go make out with Nelson." Nelson narrowed his eyes and Kelly sighed.
"Disturbing, but whatever, I won't judge Grace for it. God I can't stand men these days Molly…after what that man did to you? Then there's this dumbass prick that comes over here and has all the girls wrapped around his finger! I wouldn't be surprised if they're trying to sleep with him."
"Who is that?"
"Nobody, I'm fixing to ban him from our place anyhow. Can't stand him, and if he touches me again, I swear to god I'm going to cut his man toy off." Kacey started to shudder as she imagined a fierce cat yowling at its prey. "Sorry, onto more important things though! What can we do for you Molly? Anything?"
"Oh yes, I need you to grab a few things. It's going to sound strange, but whatever you can do to distract me from that god awful Kacey Simon while she's talking will help me out so much. I need someone to start giving me a manicure while I'm there, I need a Chanel 5 perfume, someone needs to do my hair and makeup…are you writing all this down?"
"Um, yes." Kelly giggled and grabbed a notepad. "You know how we are! We're always eager to do anything you ask, Molly!"
"Good, I know I can count on you!" She breathed in and paused for a few brisk seconds. Nelson and Kevin began protesting, but she went ahead and shut them out. She had a really bad feeling that something was going to go terribly wrong, but as usual, she ignored her gut instinct. "Now, just a few more things…"
Your thoughts my friends?