This story is fictional. If you are not over the age of 18 or are opposed to this type of material please Do Not Read It. Also this story belongs to Green and reproductions without permission are not allowed.

~~(prologue)~~

Julian is a superstar. He is the boy every body wanted to be or be friends with. Julian was smart, attractive and incredibly popular. He could have what ever he wanted at the drop of a hat and he did just that. He used people, manipulating them to get his up most desire. The ever mindless drones of Maybury high school worshiped the ground that Julian walked on and Julian couldn't have been any happier. Julian is the total fabrication of arrogance and plastic persona, that Irritated my very soul for almost a year. I thought I needed him and for a while I convinced myself of that, but when he changed it all I found myself trapped.

It began exactly one year ago, with three words, “Were getting divorced,” three words uttered by my mother and confirmed by my father's nod.

“What?” I asked. “What the hell happened?”

“Honey this isn't your fault,” said my mother.

“Son this is about us,” added my father.

“Of course this isn't my fault. What are you both crazy?” I asked them incredulously. “I know this isn't about me. Now can you tell me what the hell happened?” I asked the two idiots sitting before me.

“Well son, your mother and I we've grown apart,” said my father trying to grab my hand, which I quickly moved away. “You see son were totally different people these days. Your mother and I haven't been happy for a long time.”

“We've been seeing other people Mason, and your father just received a very big promotion,” said my mother who had succeeded in holding my hand.

“Wait, dad you were promoted?” I asked my dad feigning interest but really thinking how I was going to benefit from the promotion.

“Yeah son,” he said with a smile.

“So that means that your going to move away?” I asked.

“That means that we're moving away,” he said. My jaw hit the ground. There it is my benefit. “Were moving to Maybury. It's just a couple of hours away” A couple of hours could be a whole world away. I didn't want to be the new kid. I prided myself in being a townie here and I expected to be just that for the rest of my life.

“But I can't move. My friends and mom and Gram is here. I can't leave this place I've been here since I was born. Mom please tell me this isn't true?” I begged.

“Mason this is for the best,” she said.

“Yes Mason this is for the best. Your mother needs to go find herself and Charla and I want to have you,” added my father.

“Wait who's Charla?” I asked.

“Charla is your father's Girlfriend,” said my mother. “She is very nice and I'm sure you will find that you do like her and her son.”

“They are moving to Maybury with us son. You get to have a new brother,” my father said as my whole world came to pieces. Everything I've never wanted was placed right at my feet. A replacement mother, a new brother and a new home in a stupid town two hours away from all I have ever known.

So with that a week later I packed my bags, said goodbye to every person I had met in the last few years and for the first time In my life I became the new kid. The new kid at Maybury High two hours away from everything that had been a part of my life for fifteen years. There was no welcoming, no student was forced to show me around the school and not one teacher introduced me to their class. I was one of the invisibles. The kids that had no friends no clique and didn't belong to any sport or club the kids that fell through the cracks because no one noticed them. This is the story of how I became the person known as Julian Grace. One fateful encounter in a music class would change me in ways I never thought possible.

My name is Mason Grace, Mason Julian Grace...

The Life and Death of

Julian Grace

1

Mason's Invisibility

“Son look I know this is hard. This is just a transition,” said my father as we pulled up to Maybury High School. It was my first day of school. “Soon you'll make new friends and everything will settle but for now you just have to hang in there bud. Your brother doesn't seem to have a hard time with this.”

“Dad he is not my brother alright? He's just in third grade what does he care? You did this to me and nothing will change that so just stop with the speeches alright because I'm going to be late,” I told him before leaving the car.

I had to face this new world alone and nothing my father said or did would ever change that. Welcome to hell, I thought as ascended the steps to my new high school. I put on my head phones and the sweet sounds of my favorite band flows into my ears.

Where would I fit in? Would the Preps let me join their crowd? Or would the Punks take me under their wing?Would I be labeled a Nerd or maybe I could be one of the Jocks. I would soon find out that I wasn't even a blip on their radar.

I looked at the map the school had mailed to me along with my class schedule. My first class was U.S. History on the second floor. The map as expected was of no help so I asked one of the teachers in the hallway.

“Excuse me can you tell me how to get to room two twenty five?” I asked the man. He didn't seem to notice that I had asked a question. “Excuse me sir,” I said a little louder.

“If you can't figure out a map then maybe you shouldn't be here. Remedial education is building three down the hall,” he said before I could ask the question again. I was taken aback at the teachers brashness. He mumbled something resembling, Dumb kid under his breath and walked away.

I waited till he was far enough away and I yelled, “Jerk!”

“I heard that,” he yelled back.

After ten or fifteen minutes of searching for that specific classroom I found it. To my shock it seemed that the teacher was the same man I had met in the hallway. “Your late, you have detention,” he said as I waked into the classroom.

“But the bell hasn't even rung yet,” I said. “You can't say I'm late if I'm early”

“Take your seat before I give you detention for the week,” he growled and I found myself a seat somewhere near the back. None of the other students seem to notice our little spat. Three girls in cheerleader outfits were giggling about something. Two boys sat to my right. They were talking about some gig they had played the previous weekend. A group of football players were recounting a story about how one of the players got drunk and a couple of kids seemed to be sleeping. None of them noticed me, the blond kid with glasses that sat in the back.

The bell rung and the teacher readily closed the door. He began to speak for what seemed to be hours before the next bell rang. “Remember I want your papers on my desk next time we meet. And you I expect you here at three o'clock,” he said pointing at me. “Make sure you have a notebook and Pen you will be writing a lot.”

My next class didn't take long to find. It was the next room down the hallway. Once again I found myself on the ignore list. And it just so happened that the teacher needed us to break into groups of two and I was the odd man out. “I guess that you are working alone,” she said handing me a work sheet.

Then there was Gym class. I was the last one to be picked for a volleyball team. Then as we played they seemed to forget that I was on their team so I sat down and watched them play.

The worst was the lunch hour. It seemed like everyone at this school had a table and they all seemed to use them all at once because I couldn't find an empty table in the whole cafeteria. I found a corner and I sat on the floor to eat my lunch.

To say that it was depressing would be an understatement. I was slipping into a deep fog. “You can't sit there,” said one of the lunch monitors. “There are plenty of tables here son. Why don't you go find yourself one?”

I looked the man in the eye and stood up. I took my lunch and I dropped it into the trash barrel. “Sir I checked not an empty seat in the room,” I said and I walked away.

My last class was music class and it seemed to drag on for eternity. I watched as the teacher tried to teach us scales and no one except for one guy seemed to be able to sing. “Brian let's try that again,” said the teacher. Brian did like he was told but his voice had me in a daze.

After Music I showed up for detention. I waited for half an hour for the teacher to show up and he never did. I was fuming at this point. What had I done to deserve this? I was always a good kid and I stayed away from trouble. I kept reminding myself that my father was to blame.

The next day was more of the same. I was beginning to fall into a deep depression that no one could ever hope to lift me from. Was I destined to live my life like this for the extent of my high school career? I was beginning to think that it was until I met Trish Merrrick.

During my music class I sat in the back watching Brian black play as the teacher taught us cords and songs from decades past that he had liked. I was transfixed by Brian Black's voice as he sang an old song the teacher asked him to sing.

“Good isn't he?” said the girl behind me. I looked at her with an incredulous look on my face.

“Are you speaking to me?” I asked her.

“Yeah? What's your name?”

“Mason,” I answered.

“Hi Mason my name is Trish,” she said extending her hand to me. “What do you think of Brian?”

“He's really good,” I said. “He should have a record deal.”

“Yeah maybe,” she said shrugging her shoulder. “So I've been watching you today Mason. It seems to me that you have an invisibility problem.”

“A what?' I asked.

“You have an invisibility problem. No one has actually looked at you today with the exception of me, but then again I'm in the same boat. I'm also new here I started last week and I still haven't talked to any one,” she said and then pointed to Brian. “Brian was new here last year but he came with a back story and a reputation, and all of his friends already go here. You and me however we fall through the cracks.”

It all had a self destructive quality to it but for some reason I believed every word she said to me but I didn't want to hear this. I didn't want to know that I was going to slip through the cracks. “So what do we do about this?” I asked her, wondering if I had just met the schools quack.

“See that is the problem I don't know. I tried talking to people and I even joined a club or two but it's still the same,” she said. “I thought maybe you and I could.”

“You and I could do what? Listen Trish I don't know you maybe we could be friends but I don't know anymore than you do. I can't just reinvent myself,” I said before the bell rang. I picked up my stuff and I walked away.

“Mason wait look maybe I'm just desperate alright. I used to have so many friends before I moved here. I was popular and everyone wanted to be me.” I found that hard to believe especially when I noticed her face. “When I got here it was a shock alright and I see that it's happening to you too. Look can we start over maybe we can hang out sometime. I don't mean to sound desperate but I need to leave my house.”

I laughed and I waited for her to catch up to me. “Alright so you got me there. My house is also driving me crazy. I used to have so much to do back home now I have nothing to do. My dad was promoted and he moved us here,” I said.

“My mother divorced my father and she moved us here,” she answered.

“So did my parents, but my dad moved his girlfriend and her son here with us too,” I added.

“Cool so we do have a lot in common,” She said. “Look I have the car do you need a ride? Maybe we could go get a bite to eat and get to know each other better.”

“Sure,” I said. My father wasn't picking me up and I wasn't keen on walking in this cold.

“I know this place at the edge of town by Lakeside,” she said. “Brian's band plays there all of the time.”

“Nice Car,” I said as we approached her car.

“Thanks but it's my moms car. She let's me use it so i won't be seen in the one I own. Get in.”

Lakeside is a noticeably wealthy neighborhood. She points out where the kid from our music class, Brian lives. The house was a huge house at the end of the lake. “You see the white house across the lake behind the church?” She asked. I nodded. “Brian's boyfriend lives there.”

“Boyfriend?” I asked. “You mean he's gay?”

“Yeah, and you are too right?”

“I, I'm not,” I try to say but I suddenly found myself unable to speak. How could she know what I couldn't even admit to myself?

“Hey don't you die on me. It's not that noticeable I wasn't even sure I just asked because I'm a lesbian. I'll keep your secret if you keep mine,” Trish said as we passed by Brian's house. “It's like we were meant to find each other.”

I was still hung up on how she knew. It wasn't that I'd think that people would hate me It just felt weird to me. I've tried everything to convince myself that I wasn't gay. I thought that If I denied it then it wasn't true. Trish however now knew the truth and that actually forced me to be her friend. I had to make sure she wouldn't let the cat out of the bag, sort of speak.

As she drove us I took her in. Trish is not what I'd exactly call attractive but that just might be her own fault. Her hair looks dirty and so do her clothes. Her pants are really baggy and her shirt has holes all around the bottom. Then there is the uni-brow she was sporting which to me might be the sole reason no one talked to her. The word Butch suddenly came to mind.

“Here we are,” she said as we pulled into the parking lot of a restaurant called Jimmie's. There were a lot of kids there. I noticed Brian Black pulled up with some friends after us in a bright yellow car. He seemed so cool to me. “Hey let's see if we can get a booth,” Trish said, pulling me into the restaurant.

After a twenty minute wait they finally sat us in a booth. The waitress took our drink orders and disappeared. I looked around for Brian Black and I couldn't find him. I wanted to see him face to face he was so interesting to me.

“I got it!” she said breaking me from my thoughts. “ I know how to deal with our little problem.”

“What's that?” I asked.

“We need new Identities,” she said.

“New what?”

“I mean you said it yourself, we need to change who we are to blend. Look at that girl over there her name is Mary Beth Stevenson,” she motioned to a girl seating at a booth across the restaurant with a group of girls. The girls all looked the same but Mary Beth was clearly their leader. “I need to look like her maybe even better than her.”

“So your telling me that we should get makeovers?”

“No were going to need more than that. We need to be like them. We need to study them before we do anything,” she said, taking out some notes.

“Wait a minute I don't think that this is a such a good idea,” I said, hoping she would come up with something better.

“Do you want to be invisible until you graduate?” she asked, looking up from her notes. “Because I don't.”

“I don't either, but this is a bit drastic isn't it?”

“Exactly and that's why it's going to work for us. Look we need to do some research and planning. For example Brian Black has a story and a reputation before he even started school and that means he has a crazy back story.” I sat there as she explained Brian's back story to me. She even outlined how his black hair set him apart from his brother Tim that looked almost exactly like him.

“This also means appearance. If you show them that you have money in some way or form that gives you an edge. How do we do this? With what we wear. Expensive clothing means money.”

“What if this all backfires?” I asked.

“If we make sure it doesn't, it wont. We cover our bases Mason. You live in Green Court right?” she asked me.

“How do you know that?” I asked her as the waitress returned with our drinks. Green Court was just as wealthy as Lakeside but it was the new neighborhood in town. The houses were all fairly new and expensive. Most of the houses in Green Court were priced in the millions ours alone was five. My father's company bought us a brand new one out of the box. The grass hadn't even grown in yet when we moved. His big promotion made him a wealthy man and we definitely benefited.

“I also live in Green Court, I am your neighbor,” she said, smiling and taking a sip from her drink.

“Your my neighbor?”she nodded. “Then why didn't you say anything the past two weeks I've been here?”

“Because it bothers my mother,” she said as a matter of fact.

“How can saying hi to your neighbors bother your mother,” I asked.

“It's not that. It bothers her that I didn't say hi so I didn't. I told you my mother and I aren't in the same hemisphere sort of speak,” she said. “She thinks that she can control my life.”

“There goes one more thing we have in common,” I told her when the waitress returned to take our order. “My father thinks that he can control mine.”

I can't deny that what she proposed wasn't appealing but at the same time it sounded desperate, difficult and asinine. The more I thought about it I wanted out but then she did it again. She made me want to be popular. “You like him don't you?” she asked pointing at Brian Black who had started to sing on the stage. “You could have him. His boyfriend is going to be away until Christmas. That gives you four months and after were done with our transformation you could make him want you.”

I looked at Brian and I cursed Trish for being right.

~~(JG)~~

Dinner that night would serve to only make me hate this place even more. We sat the four of us across from each other as Charla's son, Troy spoke for what seemed like hours. “And I had so many friends already. Mom they asked if I wanted to go play with them at their house. And Charlie wants to know if I can go to his birthday party,” Troy the little heathen said at the kitchen table. How can someone have so many friends already.

“Can I be excused?” I asked my father.

“Mason your brother is speaking have some respect,” My father let out.

“Troy is not my brother. Just because you say he is doesn't mean that he is,” I yelled and I left the table.

“Get back here,” my father yelled back at me.

“Mason Please come back to the table,” asked Charla.

I didn't, I kept walking and I left the house. To my surprise I found Trish standing by her car. “Hey want to go for a ride? I got some Ideas I want to put pass you,” she said.

I didn't hesitate a second later I was in her car. “Drive,” I said.

“Where do you think that you are going Mason?” I heard my father yell somewhere behind us. Trish gave me a look.

“Just drive please,” I said and she tore away from my house.

I watched through the window as she drove into the city. “I think that we should put our plan into super-drive. I was thinking about this after we left. I think it best if we acted different than them. It will give us an edge. What we need now is a back story,” she said. I looked at her wondering what she had in mind. “I need a new name.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Because Trish isn't going to cut it?” she said.”You're going to need a new name too Mason.”

“What's wrong with my name,” I asked.

“It's too plain. What's your middle name?”

“It's Julian but I think that's too plain,” I said as she pulled in front of a salon.

“Alone Julian is plain but Julian Grace has a certain punch,” she said, smiling.”Now come on I want you to meet my brother he's going to help us.”

I followed her into the salon and I watched a man freak from behind a desk. “No I told you to go through the back,” he said to Trish. I found it kind of rude but then she really didn't seem like the type of girl that would never go into a place of beauty, ever.

The man pushed her into a door in the back and motioned for me to follow. “Julian this is my brother Chase,” Trish said.

“Unfortunately I am this horrid creature's brother,” he said as he quickly grabbed a bottle of something. “Now I was made aware of your plan and I think it's brilliant. I have decided to help you in this endeavor.”

“Cut the proper crap Chase,” Trish said elbowing her brother who in fact was way more beauteous than I thought she could ever be.

“Let's get started,” Chase said motioning me to a chair.

“Wait what are we doing?” I asked and they both exchanged amused looks.

“Don't worry hon by the time I'm done your going to be hot,” he said.

An hour later I was looking in the mirror at my now black with red and pink streaked hair. I was ready to panic. My father was going to kill me when he saw me like this. Then I looked at Trish as her brother did her makeup. “Are you ready to see my best work,” Chase asked. I nodded and he slowly turned Trish's Chair. She looked like a girl an attractive one at that.

“Wow,” was all I could say. He had transformed her alright. Her hair was perfectly done in red curls. He gave her two eyebrows and he did her eyelashes this man was my hero.

“I feel like I'm finally done what I was put on this earth to do,” said Chase, fanning himself with the blow dryer.

“Can I see,” Trish asked. Chase handed her a mirror. I watched as she looked at herself stunned. I guess she hadn't looked like a girl often in her life. Then she looked at me, “Oh wow,” she said. “You look hot,” she said approaching me. “I love the streaks.”

“I look like a fa,” I began to say when Chase cut me off.

“Watch it mister! I don't care who's friend you are I wont tolerate that word here,” he said.

“I don't think you look like that,” she said. “You look real good we just need to work with this a little more. Come on we have a couple of hours until the mall closes and we need new clothes for our first day as Julian and Leigh,” she said, pulling away as Chase waved at us.

“Remember I need you guys here every week for maintenance!” Chase yelled.

~~(JG)~~

“Can we stop please,” I asked Trish or rather Leigh.

“No we still have to get you aviators,” she says. “Do you have contact lenses?” she asked.

“Yeah but I never wear them.”

“Then you should start trust me,” she said. “Come on I see some nice aviators over there.”

“But I already spent my allowance for the next week on nothing but black clothes,” I told her as she pulled me into another store.

“Here try these on,” she said handing me a pair of aviator glasses. I put them on and she shook her head. “Try these.” she handed me the next pair. “Aha perfect.”

I looked at the price and they were very expensive. “I can't afford these,” I said putting them back. She takes them back and walks over to the store clerks register and pays for them herself.

“I want you to have these,” she says handing me the sunglasses. “Put them on now,' she said and that was the end of Mason and the birth of Julian.

I looked at myself in the mirror and I did look real good. The color of the lenses made me look like I was someone else. I put my sunglasses back to see if I could find a trace of Mason but there was no one there anymore. I was Julian now and I had to act the part. The next day I was going to be noticed...

The Roy Column

This is where I take over. This is where I tell you what role I played in the fall of Julian Grace. I mean Mason Grace as he should be called. I am, one of the writers of the Maybury High Chronicle and it's editor in chief. I'm going to tell you how I got the story of a lifetime and how that got me into college.

I am one of those people that everyone knows about and I'm just about friends with everyone I know. They have to be my friends or I might just happen to write something less flattering in the next issue of our beloved newspaper. You see I know just a little something about anyone. What Mason and Trish failed to realize was that I make people popular in this school. You can't just walk in here and expect to be liked. Now don't get me wrong some people are destined for greatness and they just might make it as soon as they walk in but it's up to me to keep them up there. I have the power to destroy and I use it quite often.

He told you about Brian Black right? He is the only person that is the exception to the rule, not because he was once a street urchin or because the boy has the attitude of ten men, but because he doesn't care. I tried to end his reign but people seem to genuinely like him. No one can touch someone who's name has already been dragged to the floor. So I gave up for now, but I'm confident that soon I'll find the means to take him down.

Now back to Mason. I overheard the conversation that he and Trish were having at Jimmie's. I sat in the booth over from them as they planned their strategy. I couldn't believe that someone was bold enough to think that they could pull it off. Then I got to thinking. This could be a great story for my final newspaper this year and I could use it to get myself into college. So I cleverly placed my tape recorder behind them as they spoke.

An hour later I was at my house looking through the school's database. I was looking through their files looking for anything I could use. “How do I have access to the school's database,” you ask? Well lets just say that I found some incriminating evidence against one of the administrators and they were glad to give me a passkey.

I found out some interesting things but nothing that would give me much of a story. Trish has apparently been to three schools in the last four years and had fought someone in each of them. Mason however was clean as a whistle which means that he probably knew how to hide himself very good. Then something caught my eye. His previous high school was only a few hours away I could easily take a trip up there for facts.

It came to me in an act of brilliance. I would make sure that they succeeded in this. The higher they climbed the further they would fall and all the better for me. I would be god by the end of the school year and my legacy would be imprinted in the schools walls for ever.

My name is Pierce D. Roy and this is The Roy Column.

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