Chapter Twenty: Blondes or Brunettes?
Russell, disguised as Two-Bit, strolled into debate club. Carmen stared at him.
"You remembered? And you're on time?" she said.
Russell fumbled for a decent excuse, but was saved. Carmen clapped him on the back pal-ishly before he could say a word.
"Way to go," she said encouragingly. "Keep it up." She laughed suddenly. "I sound like a motivational speaker, right?"
Russell nodded. He wasn't at all sure what to say.
Carmen frowned at him suspiciously. "You're awfully quiet today," she said suspiciously.
Russell thought quickly. This mortal was supposed to always be making wisecracks. "Why did the chicken cross the road?" he said on sudden inspiration.
"Huh?" Carmen stared at him like he had grown a second head. "You feeling alright?"
"Yeah," Russell said hurriedly. "Just play along." He rubbed a sideburn nervously. They looked cool, or "tuff," as they supposedly said around here, enough, but they itched worse than mosquito bites.
"I don't know. Why?" Carmen asked.
"To get to the other side?" Russell tried the obvious answer.
Carmen rolled her eyes. "That's the worst joke you've ever cracked," she groaned. "And that's saying something."
"Uh huh," said Russell. It was more difficult than it seemed, being the mortal.
Ms. Wilson took her place at the front of the class and debate club began.
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"What now?" Carmen asked Two-Bit after debate club when they were outside in the sunshine, free of Ms. Wilson's wilting stare.
"I've gotta get home," he said.
"Why?" Carmen asked.
"I mean, to the Curtis' house," he changed his story.
"None of them are there. Soda and Darry work and Pony's got track," Carmen reminded him. He was acting very sketchy. Then it dawned on her. "If you've got one of your stupid parties to go to, you can say so," she said.
Two-Bit seemed oddly relieved. "Yeah! I've got a party to get to! Uh…lots of…alcoholic beverages and brunettes!"
An alarm went off in Carmen's head. Two-Bit had been acting weird all day, but Two-Bit liked blondes, not brunettes. And he wasn't about to forget that, no matter how weird he chose to act.
Maybe he had misspoken. "Did you say brunettes?" she asked.
"Yeah," Two-Bit responded. There was no mistaking it, she was sure.
She turned slowly and peered carefully into Two-Bit's eyes. He swallowed and blinked and turned to go, but Carmen grabbed his leather-sleeved arm.
She stared hard into his eyes. They weren't their usual color. A small but terrifying sentence popped into her head: Russell was never one to pay much attention to detail.
His eyes were gold.
Carmen let go of his arm and took a step back. When she spoke, her voice felt faraway as panic sucked all the breath out of her lungs. "You're not Two-Bit," she said. "You're…" she couldn't even bring herself to say his name. "You're Russell," she finally managed.
Two-Bit grinned wickedly. His teeth looked too big and too sharp, like a wolf's incisors. "You finally managed to figure it out," he said. It was almost funny, hearing Russell's quiet, deadly voice coming from Two-Bit, who would holler in a library for fun.
"Where's Two-Bit?" Carmen demanded, her voice getting stronger as she got angrier.
Russell laughed, a long terrible sound. In a fluid motion he transformed back, and suddenly Carmen was staring at the golden-haired, golden-eyed monster she had always hated.
"Where's Two-Bit?" Carmen repeated more loudly.
"Don't worry about Two-Bit," Russell chuckled. His voice was almost friendly when he continued: "He won't feel any pain—I promise you. And you won't have to grieve for him anyway. By the time we're finished with you, you won't even remember him."
Carmen swung her arm back and stepped forward to fight greaser style, but as she moved to release the punch, her arm froze. Russell grinned.
"Don't think this is going to be so easy," he said. "You got off easy at our last little encounter. Not this time, Caiman," he said, calling her by the childhood nickname she had always hated.
Carmen had discovered that while Russell had immobilized her good hand, she could still move the other. While Russell was snickering to himself, she drew it back and let it fly forward like lightening, smashing into Russell's jaw.
His head snapped backwards. When he looked up again, his mouth was bleeding and his face was twisted with rage and pain.
"You're paying for that one," he snarled.
His freezing charm had worn off her arm. She now raised both of them, ready to fight.
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All right, Carmen! Two-Bit was thinking. You go, girl!
"You idiot!" Mordred was raging. "Come back! Come back here this instant!" He was jumping up and down, knees as high as his shoulders, he was so angry. Two-Bit was shaking with silent laughter at the scene.
But of course they couldn't hear him. And so Mordred pitched a fit and Two-Bit had a laughing fit watching Russell and Carmen have it out.