I heated up some chicken and vegetables that I found in the fridge. I ate quickly, said goodnight and headed toward Jake’s room.
I headed to the bathroom and got myself ready for bed. Once I finished getting ready, I went into Jake’s room, closed the door, grabbed his backpack and sat down at his desk. I figured I would start with the subjects we had in common. That way, if we were changed back tomorrow, it wouldn’t have been a waste of time studying now.
I opened his physics book and turned to the chapter we were working on. I pulled out a piece of paper and started to write his name on the page. That’s when it hit me…how am I going to pull off being Jake, and he me, if we can’t write like the other? I have no idea what Jake’s handwriting looks like, much less be able to duplicate it. How are we going to pull this off? I would die if we were accused of cheating.
My heart was racing, and I was slightly frantic. Okay, I thought, deep breaths Nikki. We can work it out. Maybe we won’t need to work it out. Maybe things will be fixed by Monday.
Truth is, I had no idea when this would end. I don’t know why it happened in the first place. Maybe we were being punished. But what did I do? Is it because I was mean to Jake on Thursday? I could fix that. I could be extra nice if it would fix this. Tomorrow, I will do whatever he wants. Well, within reas…
DAY 3
I woke up the next morning to Jake’s mother knocking on the bedroom door and coming in.
“Jake? Mike’s on the phone for you. Did you fall asleep at your desk?”
“I…guess so.” I had a pile of drool hanging off my face and pooling on the desk. Eeeww.
“Honey, that’s not good for you. I guess I should have checked on you before I turned in last night.”
“I’m okay. I was lost in thought and I didn’t realize how tired I was.” She handed me the phone and smiled. I thanked her as she turned to leave the room.
“Hello?” I answered, changing my attention to the phone.
“Yo, it’s Mike.” As if I didn’t know.
“Hi Mike. What’s going on?” Did that sound too formal?
“Dude, what’s going on? You’ve been so weird lately.”
I guess that answers that question. “Whaddya mean?”
“I mean, you’re talking funny and you’re acting funny. Is this to impress Nicole?”
Good, he’s giving me an out. “Yeah, maybe. I don’t know. I want her to like me.” That sounds true, right?
“Yeah, well maybe you should try being yourself.”
I’m getting girl advice from Mike. I think even Jake would find this funny. “Thanks. I’ll keep that in mind. So, what’s up?”
“Come over and hang out.”
“Can’t. I’ve got plans.”
“No you don’t. You’re avoiding me, aren’t you?” Wow, does he know how to get right to the point, or what?
“Dude, I’m not avoiding you!” Well, yes I am. But it’s not what he thinks.
“Then come over and hang out.”
“I told you, I’ve got plans.”
“What kinda plans?” he pushed.
“I’m studying.”
“With who?”
“Nicole.”
There was silence, for about 20 seconds. “Somethin’s up.”
“What do you mean, something’s up?”
“I mean, somethin’s up. Friday morning, you were fighting, and don’t tell me you weren’t. Now, today and yesterday you are studying? I don’t buy it.”
“Don’t buy what, how I could spend time with Nicole?” I said defensively.
“No, I totally get that. I don’t get how a girl who you were fighting with two days ago, and barely knows you would spend two days straight with you, unless there was something more to it.”
Jake was right. Mike is pretty smart. Such a waste. “What do you think could possibly be going on?”
“I don’t know, but I thought I was your best friend. We’ve always told each other everything.”
Great. I’m in dangerous territory. I don’t want to mess up Jake’s friendship with Mike. Jake suggested we tell him, and I’m thinking he’s right more and more.
“Okay, Mike. I’ll tell you, but not over the phone. Nicole and I will come by your house later today. You’re not going to believe what I tell you, though.”
“Dude, she’s not pregnant, is she?”
“She is most certainly not pregnant!”
“Then why do you both need to come over to tell me?”
Now, he’s getting on my nerves. More so than usual. “Do you want me to tell you or not?”
“Whatever. I’ll wait. When are you gonna come over?”
“After she gets out of church. Probably around one o’clock. Maybe later.”
“K. Later.”
“Later,” I answered.
I hope Jake knows how to convince Mike we are telling the truth. If not, we are going to have a real problem on our hands.
Now that I was completely awake, I realized my neck and back hurt from sleeping on Jake’s desk. I stretched my neck and back and lay down on Jake’s bed. I closed my eyes for a minute. I felt tired, but I couldn’t sleep. Great.
The alarm clock read ten-thirty. No wonder I couldn’t sleep. I’m surprised I slept this long. I never sleep this long. I got up and went to the bathroom, took a shower and got myself dressed. Twenty minutes…I love it!
I returned to Jake’s room feeling a bit better. I still had a few hours before Jake would be coming to get me, so I decided to tackle some of the homework I obviously didn’t get to last night. Thankfully, I didn’t drool in any of Jake’s books.
Maybe it’s just me, but I always study better in a clean environment. I took a few minutes to straighten Jake’s room up. It wasn’t really messy. I just needed to make his bed and clean up his desk. While I was thinking of it, I decided to start some laundry.
After getting the washer running, I headed back to Jake’s room, ready to study. Once again, I pulled out physics and opened up the current chapter. I figured that I could write in my own handwriting and Jake could hand it in for me. That would take care of two subjects, but in-class writing and the other subjects were still a concern.
I worked on physics for maybe fifteen minutes before Jake’s mom came in to check on me.
“How are you feeling?”
“Not too bad right now, thanks.”
“Good. So, how was studying yesterday with Nicole?”
Some parents have a way of asking things where it sounds more nosy than caring. She wasn’t like that. She had a warmth about her that made me feel that she really cared about how things were going between Jake and…well, me. They seemed close, and it made me miss my parents. Even more than I already did. I quickly pulled myself together.
“It went well. We got a lot done. Nicole’s a nice girl.” I hoped that was something Jake would say. Not too much, but complimentary.
“Well, I wouldn’t expect you to fall for anyone short of fantastic.”
I must have been blushing, because my face felt warm. “I don’t think it’s going to be like that. She’s nice, but she’s not interested.”
“Then, she must not know you well enough yet. Give her time. She’ll see how special you are. But remember, if it’s meant to be, it will happen. Don’t force it. If she’s not the one, someone else will be.”
Okay, so I already know I like Jake’s mom. She’s kind. Thoughtful. I’m not going to tell Jake this, but I can’t help liking him a little more just because of his mom. Maybe we will end up friends. Maybe. “Thanks, mom.”
“Sure. Are you hungry? I could make some eggs.”
“Eggs would be great! Thank you.”
“Sure.”
I studied for a while, expecting she would call me when the food was ready. About ten minutes later, she came in with a plate of scrambled eggs and a glass of orange juice. The look on my face must have shown surprise.
“You were studying, so I thought I would bring it to you.”
“Wow! Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.
“So,” she continued, “what’s on your schedule for today?”
“I’m going over to Mike’s to hang out and…more studying.”
“With Nicole or with Mike?” she asked.
“I’m not sure, but probably Nicole.”
“Remember, I want to meet her.”
“Sure. If she drops me off tonight, I’ll have her come in.” I’m setting up a time for her to meet her own son. Will my life ever be normal again?
“Well, I’ll leave you to your studying.”
“Thanks, again!”
She smiled warmly and left.
I studied for about an hour, moved the laundry to the dryer and then I turned my focus to the rest of the day. Every day we have so much to cover, so I thought making a list and sorting the priorities would be a good idea. If the handwriting thing had occurred to me sooner, I would have insisted working on that yesterday. As important as it is to be able to look the parts we are playing, it is more important that people believe we are who we are. That won’t happen if we can’t even write properly.
So, today we will need to meet with Mike…I want to get that out of the way first…and then we will need to cover handwriting and lots of homework.
Sometimes I get a nervous feeling, like I have three hours worth of stuff to do and only an hour to do it. It doesn’t happen very often, because I am not one to procrastinate. Sometimes it does happen, and this is one of those times. Except, it feels more like I have three days worth of stuff to do, and only one day to do it.
If, by some miracle, we get handwriting and studying done, then we can work more on helping Jake be a girl. I mean, being a guy has been a piece of cake, but being a girl takes work.
My parents expect me home by ten on a school night, so we will only have until a little after nine to get stuff done before Jake has to bring me back here. Assuming Jake’s mom doesn’t expect him home earlier. I will need to ask him about that.
We would have more time if Jake had a car. I’m trying not to make a big deal of it, but I hate not having my car. I’m not really a big fan of Jake driving my car either.
I must have spent an hour or so lost in thought. I thought about Jake and me and how we were going to convince Mike about this situation. Then I thought about how we were going to get all of the necessary stuff done to prepare us for being each other at school tomorrow.
I hadn’t come up with any answers when Jake called me.
“Hi, Jake,” I said cheerfully, remembering my promise to be extra nice today.
“Hi…Jake,” he replied. He must be around my parents.
“How did things go at church?”
“They went fine.” His tone didn’t sound so certain.
“Did something happen?” I asked.
“No, not really,” he said, but I could tell there was more.
“Tell me later?”
“Sure,” he answered. “I’ll pick you up in a half hour, okay?”
“Okay. I’ll see you then.”
We hung up and I started getting everything together.
Once I had everything I needed, I grabbed, folded and put away the laundry. After I finished, I lay down on the bed to relax while I waited for Jake. I still felt tired. I must not have slept right last night. My mind was racing so much now, resting was futile. After a while, Jake called my cell phone.
“Hey, I’m outside. Do you want me to come in or do you want to come out?”
“I’ll come out. We’ve got a lot to do.”
“Okay,” he said in a curious tone. “Bye,” he said, hanging up.
I gathered his stuff together and headed down the hall. His mom was in the kitchen.
“Bye, mom. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Have a good day, Hon,” she said with a smile.
“Thanks!”
I walked out and got in…well, my car. My first thought was to remember to be as nice as possible.
“Hi,” I said cheerily. “How are you doing?”
“Good,” he said hesitantly, looking at me through the corner of his…my eye. “How are you doing?” He pulled off down the street.
“I’m good. So, I want to know how last night and today went, but first…head to Mike’s house.”
“Why?” He was a little concerned.
“Because it’s time to have the conversation with him.”
“What…now?”
“Yes, now. He knows something is up, and he thinks I am hiding something important from him. If we don’t tell him now, I think it could damage your friendship. I told him we would come by and tell him what is going on.”
“So, how are we going to convince him?” he asked.
“I thought you said you could convince him?”
“Well, I can. I just didn’t realize we were going to do it now. I haven’t exactly had a lot of time to think about how to do this.”
“We are just going to have to wing it. Have him ask you questions only you should know the answers to.”
“That’s what I was planning to do, but I was hoping to have a backup plan.”
“Well, you have about ten minutes before we are there. You might want to start thinking.”
“Nothing like a little pressure.”
“Look, you’ll do fine. If I didn’t think you could pull this off, I wouldn’t have agreed to it.” I smiled, hoping to give him confidence.
We arrived at Mike’s house and stopped at the door.
“You remember what to do?” he asked.
“I knock on the door, we walk in and I say hi to Diana. Then we head straight to Mike’s room.”
“Right. Are you ready?” he asked.
“As I’ll ever be.”
I knocked on the door and walked in. Mike was sitting on the couch. Jake came in behind me and I shut the door. Mike gave us a head nod.
“Sup?” he said.
“Can we talk in your room?” I asked.
“Why, noone’s here?”
“Okay, we can talk here then.” I looked at Jake. “Do you want to start?”
“I can try,” he offered. “Mike, you and Jake have been friends for a long time.”
“I don’t like how this is starting,” Mike said nervously.
“Ask me something that you would expect only Jake to know,” Jake continued.
Mike looked at me. “Jake, what’s going on?”
“Just humor her. You’ll see.” I hope.
“This better be good,” he said, irritated.
“Oh, it’s a doozie!” I promised.
“Alright, something only Jake would know. Uhh…okay, what was the name of the first teacher me and Jake had together?”
“That’s easy,” Jake replied, “Mrs. McKeon. Third grade. You had a crush on her. Man, she was hot!”
Now, normally it would bother me that he called his teacher hot while in my body. Here, it just might help make the point faster. Mike took turns looking at both of us.
“Okay, what’s going on here?”
“I don’t know exactly how to explain it,” Jake said, “and I’m not sure you’re ready to believe it.”
“Believe what?”
“Nicole and I have…somehow…switched bodies.”
“Dude, quit jerking me around,” Mike shot. “Do you really think I’m that gullible?”
“Dude, I don’t think you’re gullible, but this is real and I don’t know how to convince you.”
“There’s no way to convince me, because I’m not buying it.”
“Mike,” I interjected, “think about the last few days. You keep saying I’m acting funny. I’m walking funny and talking funny. That’s because I’m Nicole.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“It’s not funny. Do you really think Jake and I would become friends and spend all of this time together, just to try and mess with your head?”
Mike thought about that for a minute.
“And
, when Nicole flashed you the other day…” Jake started.
“You did flash me!” Mike said with triumph. “I knew it.”
“Yes, well, I flashed you…not Nicole. She wouldn’t do that.”
“So, why did you do it, then?”
“This…switch had just happened that morning. We were arguing when you came up, and she was rude to you. I was a little overwhelmed with the situation, and I didn’t like her making you think I was mad at you. I shouldn’t have done it,” he said looking at me.
Mike was trying to sort this all out. He thought for a bit, and then shook his head.
“No. This is good, but I still don’t believe it.”
“Ask me more questions,” Jake offered. “Stuff you’re sure only I…Jake would know.”
“You could be sending signals or something.”
“Fine, right the question down and I’ll write the answer.”
Mike hesitated before getting a pen and a piece of paper.
“Alright Nicole, or Jake, whoever you are…come over here where he, or she, can’t see,” he said pointing at me.
“Fine by me,” I said. “I’ll just have a seat over here.”
Mike wrote something on the piece of paper. Jake looked at him with his mouth open.
“Dude,” Jake said.
“Hey, if you’re Jake you should know this,” he said, trying to justify whatever he wrote. I was a little curious, with Jake’s expression.
Jake wrote something on the same piece of paper. Mike looked in disbelief. “Impossible.”
He looked at me and then he looked at Jake.
“There’s no way he would tell you that.”
“You’re right, but I’m Jake,” he said.
Mike looked back at the paper. “Wait, write your name on that paper.” Jake did so.
Mike ripped the paper in half and walked over to me with the blank half. “Write your name on this piece.”
I wrote Nicole Elizabeth Evans.
“That’s definitely not Jake’s handwriting, but hers is,” he said pointing at Jake.
“How?” Mike said, not sure what to make of the situation.
“How, what?” we both asked together.
“How did this happen?”
“Well, we don’t really know how this happened,” I said.
In My Shoes Page 9