Biff wasn't entirely sure what he was going to do once he actually got to school. But he'd worry about that when he got there. In the moment, he was satisfied just feeling the love radiating off of the woman in the driver's seat of the car who thought she was his mother. The one who reached over and rubbed the back of Biff's hand at every red light and gave words of encouragement even if Biff didn't respond to them.
But the lack of response wasn't because of a lack of appreciation. Biff just didn't know how he was supposed to respond. Nobody had ever treated him this way before, like a delicate thing needing support. He liked it. He liked feeling supported this way.
The warning bell sounded just as Bethany Black pulled into campus, and Biff watched his classmates retreat inside as the car approached the front entrance.
"Hey, honeybear." Bethany put a gentle hand on the back of Biff's shoulder as he turned to open the car door. "Are you really feeling better? I could call you in sick if you need."
Biff let out a breath that just barely held a tear of relief at bay. "Yeah. I'm good. Thanks, Mom, you really are the best."
And then he leaned over and hugged her before grabbing his backpack from the foot well and exiting the car.
It was only as the car was pulling away that Biff remembered that he didn't know where he was supposed to be going. But at the same time, there was a little voice in the back of his head that said "library." So Biff went to the library.
He didn't run, like he usually would if he needed to cross half of campus after the warning bell. And, despite being unsure that he was going to the right place, he didn't really stress, either. Somehow just half an hour with Karyn's mom had put him in a mindset that he'd never felt before. Relaxed. Fulfilled. Strangely confident, not in the sense that he could accomplish anything he set his mind to, but in the sense that whatever hit him, he could roll with the punches. A confidence of passivity.
He walked into the library just as the late bell rang, and was greeted with an exasperated sigh from Kyla Leeson.
"Karyn!" The girl grabbed Biff's wrist and pulled him into the librarian's office. "You were almost late! Ms. Finch needs to give us our assignments!"
Biff kept quiet over the next five or so minutes, just absorbing information as it was being fed to him.
Karyn and Kyla helped in the library every day instead of first period. Ms. Finch, the elderly librarian, always assigned each of them a task. Usually the task only took up half the class period, at most, but she expected every task to be done properly and correctly.
Today, they had a joint task. A student had accidentally knocked over an entire bookshelf, leaving its entire contents in a pile on the floor. Karyn and Kyla were to sort the books and re-place them on the shelf in the proper order.
It wasn't complicated work, or physically difficult. It just took some time. And Biff felt oddly thankful for the task. Something to occupy his hands, but not something that would significantly remind him of the person that everyone now saw him as. Just pick up a book, check the spine for the number, and put it on the shelf where it belongs.
They were about halfway done when Kyla paused. "Are you feeling alright?"
Biff had to blink a few times, pulled from his meditative book-sorting state. "Yeah. I think so. Why do you ask?"
"Well, usually you're trying to hold up a conversation when we work together. I don't mind it, but I'm supposed to be the quiet one. You haven't said a word since we left Ms. Finch's office."
Biff felt his face flush slightly at the observation. He'd just felt so comfortable in the silence, so at home working alongside another girl-- another person who happened to be a girl, Biff corrected himself mentally, that he just didn't feel the quiet needed to be filled.
Had he ever felt that way before?
"I'm not really feeling myself today," Biff answered honestly. "I'm okay, I'm just in a weird mood."
"Okay. Well, if there's anything you do want to talk about, I'm always here."
Biff gave a small smile and a small nod, and he went back to work. Picking up, reading the number, placing on the shelf. Matching the movements and the pacing that Kyla set. He wasn't deliberately copying her. But something in his subconscious knew that acting like Kyla was more Karyn-like than acting like Biff. And the more Karyn-like he acted, the less likely anyone was to find out that he was an impostor.
