A grin stretched across my face. “I’ve thought of something brilliant.”
“Why do I have a feeling I’m not going to like what you say next?”
Ignoring his comment, I said to Felicity, “How hilarious would it be if I turned each of the guys into a Disney character?”
“Oh my God, yes! I love it,” she replied, her entire face lighting up.
We both turned to Xander with hopeful expressions.
“There’s only one way I’ll agree to this plan.” He crossed his arms as if whatever he said next would be nonnegotiable, but it was obvious from the gleam in his eyes that he was joking. “I want to be Captain Jack Sparrow.”
“Jack Sparrow?” Xander’s condition was so far out of left field that it took my brain a moment to process what he said. And as I turned the concept over in my head, it occurred to me that Jack would be an easy character to recreate. I wouldn’t even need to make a prosthetic. “I can do that. Shouldn’t be difficult at all. Also, I was thinking Oliver would make a good Beast?” His hair was long enough that I wouldn’t need to buy a wig.
Felicity nodded in agreement.
“So we have Beast fromBeauty and the Beastand Captain Jack Sparrow fromPirates of the Caribbean. Any other suggestions?” I asked. Prince Phillip fromSleeping Beautycrossed my mind. I’d had a crush on him as a little girl, but a clean-shaven human prince didn’t make for a very good disguise.
“What about Hades fromHercules?” Felicity suggested. “He’d be good for Alec.”
I tapped my chin in consideration. “Yeah, actually, that would work well.”
Figuring out the first three character looks was easy enough, but coming up with a fourth and final concept for JJ proved to be more difficult. Xander pulled out his phone and googled Disney characters, but the result didn’t help.
“There’s always Simba,” he said, but the suggestion was half-hearted.
Finally, it hit me. “JJ can take a joke, right?”
Felicity scoffed. “He better. That boy deals out jokes like presents at Christmas.”
Excitement bubbled up inside my chest. “Good, because I have the perfect idea.”
Chapter 9
The week blinked by as I hurried to prepare everything I needed for Soul Harvest. My mom had called me on Tuesday with some bad news. She wouldn’t be able to visit at Thanksgiving, but I was too busy to dwell on my disappointment. If I wasn’t at school or sleeping, I spent my time hunched over a workbench in the garage, bringing my portfolio to life one piece at a time. The shelves above my industrial table were filled with all the supplies I needed: boxes of alginate, silicone, and latex; plaster bandages; buckets and mixing sticks; clay; jars filled with brushes, sculpting tools, scissors, and X-Acto knives; a hot glue gun and the clear sticks that accompanied it; and so much more.
My top priority was creating the prosthetics, which wasn’t a simple undertaking. The first step typically began with life casting, which was the process of taking a mold of whichever body part you were creating the appliance for—in this particular case, the boys’ faces—so it would fit perfectly against the model. The resulting negative mold would be filled with gypsum cement to produce a positive mold, a copy of the body part. Then I could sculpt the prosthetic directly on the mold using clay. But if I were to life cast all four members of the Heartbreakers, it would be a long, tediousoperation. They’d already agreed to give up an entire day to be my models, so I wouldn’t ask for any more of their time. Instead, I sculpted the shape of the prosthetics onto mannequin heads and hoped for the best.
Once that was finished, I stippled thin layers of latex over the clay using a sponge, careful to leave the edges as thin as possible. After the latex dried, I peeled it off the sculpture, andvoilà!—a homemade prosthetic. I didn’t finish them until Wednesday night, which only left me two days to make all the wigs, teeth, horns, and the other props I needed. By Friday morning, I’d transitioned into a state of full-on panic. How the hell would I get all this done? Better question, what had possessed me to think Icouldget all this done?
Homeroom started in less than an hour. If I came straight home after school and worked until midnight… No, that wouldn’t be enough time. Which meant I probably had to pull an all-nighter.
Or, I thought, as Dad passed my room on the way downstairs, already talking on the phone,I can just stay home…
Work consumed Dad’s life. He wouldn’t notice if an alien invasion was taking place, let alone if I cut one day of classes. I’d never skipped school before, but if there was ever a reason for me to do so, this was it. Rather than packing my book bag, I waited until I heard Dad’s office door close before heading down to the garage and getting down to business. I’d just finished constructing the horns for the Beast when my phone buzzed.
Galaxy Rider:
Ready for tomorrow?
Indie:
Not even close.
Galaxy Rider:
Anything I can do?
Indie:
