Snake waited until Horst had left, then he left the foyer and entered the library. He needed a quiet place to think. It was funny, even if he didn't have a reason to be in the library because of his rep, everyone assumed he was sent there by a teacher to finish his work. He smiled as he looked at the books as he slipped through the stacks. He hadn't expected Horst to kiss him, and he wouldn't have expected to enjoy it as much as he did. It was odd, Horst's face and body seemed to change. It was like Snake was kissing that hot Ryan Standish. Since they were in Middle School Snake had had a crush on that hot jock. He couldn't explain it. He liked girls. He had fucked more than a few. He figured it was probably a dominance thing. Ryan was the top jock, and popular with all the kids. The fantasy after Snake had spent the weekend in jail, and this older punk had tried to rape him. Snake had turned the tables and enjoyed it, but the whole time he had been imagining it was Ryan Standish under him.
A book caught his eye as he walked through the stacks. It was an old black leather bound book sticking out from the others. He pulled it off the shelf. It was a magic book? He almost put it back, but he needed something to read while he was here to look like he belonged. There was a scrap of paper marking a page. As Snake sat down and opened the book, he realized it was a reference book, and shouldn't have been on that shelf at all. He didn't know that Vinnie had been looking in that very same book an hour ago. He had seen Horst come in and start to study his playbooks, so he had marked his page and shoved the book back on the shelf. Vinnie couldn't admit that he really didn't understand what he had done to Ryan or how to reverse it.
Opening to the marked page, Snake read. It was an article about transforming a guy into an object or article of clothing. The wearer could assume some of the attributes of the transformed person, and even appear to be them briefly. Damn, Horst had to be wearing Ryan. Snake bit his lip. He wanted Ryan, but he wasn't sure which article of clothing Horst could be wearing that was Ryan Standish. That was why Horst was in the library, he was reading this book, concluded Vinnie. He studied the chapter about how such a spell might be cast and how it might be broken.
But how could he be sure that Ryan had been transformed? Snake closed the book, and shoved it into the big pocket inside his backpack. It wasn't the biggest thing he had ever shoplifted. He pulled out his homework sheet for History - the class he was currently ditching. He quickly filled it out, every answer correctly answered because he had stopped to make the errors that he usually did. He was brighter than most people realized. He knew Ryan Standish should be in that class right now. So he grabbed his backpack and the completed homework and headed for the fire exit. The reference book wouldn't pass through a detector there, and he had already rigged that door, so the alarm wouldn't sound. It came in handy to be able to be seen entering the library, and exiting it an hour later, after actually having slipped out the back way five minutes after entering to do other stuff that he might need the library alibi to exonerate himself from committing.
He took a deep breath and opened the classroom door. He tossed his homework paper on the teacher's desk as he took an empty seat. It was Ryan Standish's usual desk next to his girlfriend Stacy.
"Jason, you're late," snapped the teacher.
"Sorry, I was working on my homework at the library, and I just finished," Snake answered.
The teacher glanced at the paper. It looked like Snake-er Jason- had been studying or maybe just looking up the answers at the library. At least all the questions were correctly answered. Maybe a pop quiz was in order.
"Put your books and papers on the floor. It's time for a pop quiz," the teacher said.
Snake put his backpack under his desk and leaned over to whisper to Stacy, "So your loverboy's not here. You break up? I got a chance?"
Stacy sneered at Snake, "No, Ryan's not here. Horst said he went home sick, and may not play in today's game."
Snake smiled. Horst said that? He didn't notice Vinnie eavesdropping. The test paper appeared before him, and he just whipped through it in a couple minutes, and leaned back to think about his rendezvous with Horst later. He had to get Standish.
Snake didn't notice the teacher come up behind him while his classmates pencils scratched and erased and scratched again.
"Finished already, Jason? Let's see how you have done," the teacher said grabbing the paper.
"I'm not done," said Snake, "I was just thinking."
"Yes, I'm sure. Maybe you're over thinking...all these answers are correct. I guess you really were studying," the teacher said writing 100% at the top of the paper.