“Okay Hon, sleep well. And make sure you make it into your bed tonight!” she called down the hall. Well, it’s Jake’s bed, but who’s keeping track.
I got everything ready for tomorrow, went to the bathroom and got ready for bed. I lay in bed running tomorrow over in my head again and again. The real fun is just about to begin. Lord, please have mercy.
DAY 4
I woke up with a start and searched for the alarm clock. I was sure it hadn’t gone off, causing me to oversleep. The clock was glaring five a.m. I had set the alarm for five fifteen, so I guess I beat the clock. I wasn’t late for school after all. Relief came over me as I lay back down to take in my environment.
Normally, I would have trouble waking up in the morning. I could go all day long once I got going, but starting out was always tough. Since I’ve been in Nicole’s body, waking up has been easy, but I’ve been exhausted by the time I get into bed.
So, waking up like this, I was already subconsciously aware that Nicole and I were still switched. If there was any doubt, the pink and yellow flowers, frilly pillow and makeup table were plenty enough of a reminder that I was still not myself.
I lay in bed thinking about my day. So many things I needed to remember today, and a lot could go wrong. Last night I had decided I wasn’t going to play the ‘what if’ game. I’ve prepared myself as well as possible. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen. And let’s face it; I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to P.E.
I got out of bed and took off my nightgown. That just sounds weird…‘my nightgown.’ Anyway, I took off Nicole’s nightgown and put it in the appropriate laundry basket. While I was in there, I grabbed the outfit Nicole had laid out for me and took it to the bed. She had a blouse and a dress. Really? A dress? First day at the school with all of her friends and she lays out a dress. I was tempted to pick something else out, but I didn’t want to get in trouble for messing something up.
The blouse was a button down that was a random design of different shades of green and purple. I looked in Nicole’s drawer with her bras. There were white, black, brown and one red. No green or purple. I knew red and brown were wrong, but I wasn’t sure between white or black. I grabbed the black bra, fastened it around my waist and adjusted it into place. I put fresh deodorant on and put the blouse on. The buttons were on the opposite side. Strange, but fitting. Since everything in my life is reversed right now.
I pulled the dress up to my waist. It had an elastic waist, so it just kind of stayed there. I grabbed some socks and put them on.
My hair was still in the French braid, but I smoothed a little Pomade over it to keep down the stray hairs. I brushed my teeth and then decided to put the makeup on. Nicole didn’t say much about the makeup yesterday, so either she was holding her tongue or she thought I did a passable job. I carefully went through all of the steps she explained, trying to pay as much attention to detail as possible. I took twice as long yesterday as she took when she made me up on Friday, so I gave myself extra time this morning. I’m not fast, but I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. That’ll look great on my college application…Special Accomplishments: Good at applying makeup and French Braiding hair.
I gave a final look in the mirror. I don’t remember Nicole ever wearing this outfit. It didn’t seem right to me, but who was I to say? Everything looked in place, so I gathered up Nicole’s backpack, purse and phone and headed downstairs to get some breakfast.
Nicole’s mother was already up and she was walking around in a nightgown. I would imagine that it was not totally inappropriate morning attire for around the house…unless, of course, some guy is walking around your house disguised as your daughter. There are some very good genes in this family.
“Hi Mom,” I offered politely, sitting down at a barstool in the kitchen.
“Hey, Sweetie. I was just getting ready to scramble up some eggs. Would you like some?” she asked, looking over my way.
“Yes, please.”
“You’re wearing that new blouse I got you. It looks great on you!”
“Thanks,” I said, feeling a little relief. If she thinks it looks okay then it must be okay.
“So, do you have anything special going on at school today?”
I felt a knot in my stomach. “No, it should be pretty much the usual today.” As long as you don’t count the fact that I’m in a girl’s body, that is.
She went about her business cooking when Nicole’s cell phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Jake it’s me,” Nicole said. She sounded funny. I couldn’t tell if it was frustration or something else. My voice, but I didn’t recognize the expression she used.
“Is everything alright?”
“Yeah,” she said after a long pause. “I’m just really enjoying…being a guy.”
“That sounded a lot like sarcasm. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. Look, are you alone?”
“No, I’m getting ready to eat breakfast with…my mom.”
“Great. Okay, when you hang up the phone, tell her it was Meredith on the phone.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because, if my mom’s been listening to this conversation, she would believe it was Meredith. I’d rather not have her think we are talking morning, noon and night.”
“Oh, okay. Is that all you called for?”
“Yeah, I called just to tell you to tell my mom someone else was calling you,” she snapped.
“What’s with the attitude?” I said defensively. “Did I do something wrong?”
“No,” she said, backing off. “I’m sorry. I’m having a rough morning. I was calling to ask you to meet me after P.E.”
“Sure. You’ll tell me then?”
“Tell you what?”
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t really want to talk about it. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay, so why are we meeting after P.E.?” I asked. Maybe it was just me, but this wasn’t making any sense.
“Look, can you just meet me? I’m nervous about P.E. and I’m nervous about the rest of our classes. I’d just like to check in with you before we have our difficult subjects.”
“Okay. I’ll meet you at my locker.”
“Thank you. Wait…is that your locker which is my locker or your locker, which I’m using currently? Oh, and how do I get into your locker? I don’t know the combination. Actually, I don’t even know where your locker is.”
“Uhh…why don’t we meet at your old locker and take the rest from there?”
“Okay, sounds good. See you then.”
“Bye,” I said, hanging up. Boy, does she talk a lot, and fast, when she gets nervous. I hope she can keep it together.
“Who was that?” Nicole’s mother asked.
“That was Meredith. She’s having a rough morning.”
“That girl has more rough mornings than anyone I know,” she said.
Oh, I’m sure we could give Meredith a run for her money right now. “Yeah, but she’ll be okay,” I said. I was more worried about Nicole.
“Mom, do you think I handle pressure well?”
“I think you handle pressure better than a lot of adults, Sweetheart. Although, you do tend to over think things sometimes.”
Yeah, that seemed about right.
“Why do you ask?” she questioned.
“Oh, just our conversation about Meredith made me think about how people see me.”
“Nikki, you and Meredith are not much alike. I know you girls are friends, but it’s not because of your similarities.”
That’s good to know. I guess I won’t worry about Nicole too much. At least she has Mike to help her out. I’ve got to worry about myself at this point.
“Do you mind if I take my breakfast with me? I think I’d like to get an early start on the day.”
“Not at all,” she said.
She rolled the eggs into a tortilla, gave it to me with a kiss and wished me a good day. Then she walke
d into the dining room. I gathered up my things and headed for Nicole’s car.
On the way to school, I continued thinking about the day, trying to convince myself it was all going to be okay. Nicole and I covered so many things over the weekend, yet there are so many things we didn’t cover. There are so many people at our school. I know a lot of them, and so does Nicole. But…how do I know if Nicole knows someone that I know, or vice-versa. Can we fake it all day without offending people? Not likely. We’ll just have to do our best. I just hope it’s good enough.
The detail has been so tedious, I feel like I’ve had the life of a girl crammed into my brain for some sort of twisted mid-term. I mean, Nicole had seventeen years to learn how to be who she is. This is my fourth day. And she doesn’t miss a detail. Step by step by step. Ugh.
My thoughts strayed for a moment and I couldn’t help thinking about my mom. It’s strange how I have been totally engrossed with everything I needed to know and do, that it would seem my mom would be a lesser thought in the grand spectrum. The thing was, she wasn’t. I’ve thought about her a lot over the last few days. It was so nice to see her last night. To see that, at least from her perspective, everything was completely normal. She’s not missing me because, as far as she knows, I’m there as much as I usually am. I miss her. I miss our talks. She’s been there for me through everything in my life.
Part of me wishes I could tell her about this, to let her in to this strange life I’ve taken on. As much as I want to, I’d never do it. First, as hard as it was to convince Mike, I was pretty sure it would be possible to convince him. I don’t think there’s a possibility of convincing my mother. She’s a very simple, practical person and I can’t see her buying this. Second, if there were a way to convince her, I’d hate for her to have to carry this burden. There would be nothing she could do, and that would destroy her. So, for now I play this game, trying to figure out the rules as I move along. I couldn’t help but wonder if Nicole was missing her parents the same. They seem really great. I’m sure she is missing them.
It seemed like just minutes had passed since I left Nicole’s house, and I was already pulling into the school parking lot. I had eaten my breakfast on auto-pilot. I grabbed Nicole’s purse and her backpack and headed into the school.
It looked as though I was about thirty minutes early. I headed toward the girls’ locker room to try and get acquainted before others arrived. It seemed like a good idea to look like I knew my way around, and not like I just walked in here for the first time.
As I opened the door, my heart started racing. I could feel it pounding against my chest. I was like a kid in a candy store. I kept waiting for someone to yell at me to get out of here. I knew this was wrong, but I could barely wait for P.E. to start.
I walked around, familiarizing myself with where the showers were, the lockers, the office and the restrooms. Maybe it was the exhilaration of the moment, but as I passed the restroom, I realized I had to go. I put my stuff on the counter and went into a stall. Hmmm…I wasn’t sure how to maneuver the dress without getting it on the floor. I decided to ask Nicole after P.E., and to just take the whole thing off for now. I hung it on the hook, went to the bathroom…still not used to that…finished up and got dressed.
After washing up, I grabbed my things and headed back toward the lockers. I wasn’t sure which one was Nicole’s. Since she wasn’t in a very good mood earlier, I decided I would text her to find out where her locker was.
A few minutes later, she texted back. ‘Third row from the front, fifth from the right. Combo: 32-18-14. What about you?’
It hadn’t even occurred to me to tell her mine. ‘Mike will show you where it’s at. Combo: 21-17-36.’
I found her locker and opened the padlock. She had several pairs of gym clothes, neatly folded, and an extra set of clothes. Pants, a shirt, underwear, bra, socks…all hanging or folded neatly. Why would she have extra clothes in her locker? Is that a girl thing, or a Nicole thing? Just in case she didn’t like her outfit once she got to school? Girls.
Anyway, I felt like I was prepared to start the day, so I sat down on a bench to relax. Couldn’t hurt to run some things by in my head either.
About fifteen minutes later, girls started coming into the locker room and heading toward their lockers. A few of them gave me a funny glance. What was that about? Did they not like Nicole? Moments later, Jessica came into the locker room and walked up to me. There must have been something wrong with me, because she gave me a look like ‘what are you wearing?’
“Hey Jessica, is there something wrong with my dress? People are looking at me funny.”
She grabbed at my midsection and gave a short laugh. “Okay, first since when do you not know the difference between a dress and a skirt? And second, that skirt totally does not go with that top. You must be sick.”
She wasn’t really being mean, just honest, and playful. I figured the best thing to do was to play it off. “Yeah, I don’t know what I was thinking. I should have gone with my instinct on this.” It’s a good thing Nicole has backup clothes. Maybe girls really did change their minds about outfits.
I was thinking about Nicole’s backup clothes when Jessica started undressing in front of me. I think my mouth fell open because all of a sudden she asked, “What’s wrong with you?”
I shook my head. “Uhh…sorry. I thought I had left my calculus homework at home, but I’m pretty sure I have it.”
I started undressing too, but I figured if I was talking to her I could keep looking at her. So, I did.
“So…how was your weekend?” I asked.
“Better than yours, it sounds like,” she answered. She had no idea.
“So, what’d you do?” I asked.
All of a sudden, the flood gates opened. “Well, you know what we did Friday. That was fun, as always, but we really missed you. Saturday, Mer and I went to the mall, and I found a really cute dress that scooped down to about here,” she said, holding her hand flat just above her…chest, “and I found the best pair of shoes to go with it, which is perfect because…oh, I didn’t even get to mention to you that Jeremy Courtfield asked me out on Friday, ‘cause you weren’t here and I haven’t seen you…so anyway, the outfit was perfect for our date Saturday night.”
I swear, I don’t think she even breathed once that whole time.
Jessica and I were both changed into our P.E. clothes by now, but it still wasn’t time for class. So, we sat down and I asked her more questions while I scoped out the rest of the changing girls. This is so awesome!
“So, where did he take you?”
“Well, first we went to dinner, but I drove, because you know how I like to drive,” I nodded as if I knew, “so we went to Carrington’s for dinner, and I had Fettuccine Alfredo, which was amazing, and he had steak and lobster.”
I knew Jeremy a little bit. He seemed nice enough, but not a whole lot going on in the bell tower. I can’t imagine there was much substance to the conversation.
“What’d you guys talk about?” I asked, trying to seem interested in what she was saying.
“We talked about school and friends and classes…”
“What classes does he have?” I interrupted. Honestly, I didn’t care, but I was hoping to keep her doing most of the talking.
“I don’t think he said what classes he had.”
“Well, what does he like to do for fun?”
“I…don’t know.”
At this point, I had stopped checking out the room and was focused on our conversation. “Did you let him talk at all?” I asked as politely as I could, considering what I said was blunt. She seemed offended, but she was considering what I said.
“Well, I thought I did. But…now I’m not so sure.”
“Jess, if you want a guy to like you, you’ve got to give him a chance to show you who he is, and tell you what he likes. I mean, it is supposed to be about you both getting to know each other.”
She thought about this. “Do I always do that?”
“Do what?” I asked.
“Talk the whole time,” she said.
I had no way of knowing for sure, but I had a feeling she did. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, because she seemed to be taking our conversation to heart.
“Well, not always, but you have your moments.”
“I didn’t realize. Why didn’t you say anything before?”
Good question. “I don’t know. It never seemed necessary to say until now, but I thought you’d want to know.”
“I do,” Jessica confirmed. “Thanks, Nikki.” She hugged me and turned to leave. “We should go.”
“Right,” I said following her. Maybe Jessica’s not so bad. Hey, this girl talk thing is easy.
P.E. seemed to go fast. We played softball, which I always enjoy. Apparently, softball isn’t Nicole’s strong suit because I got some funny looks after I hit a double and caught two balls in the outfield. As we were leaving the field to head to the locker room, Jessica caught up with me.
“So, have I been oblivious to that too, or are you all of a sudden good at softball?” she said, leaning in to give me a friendly bump.
“I just got lucky today. Everything was going my way.”
“I guess,” she said as we walked inside. She continued as we picked up clean towels and headed to our lockers.
“So, what did you do this weekend?” she asked. “I know you were sick, but did you do anything?”
“I studied a lot. Watched a movie with my parents on Saturday. That’s pretty much it.”
“Hmmm…A little birdie said they saw you at Target on Saturday with a guy.”
“Uhh...yeah, that was Jake Matthews.”
“From our physics class?”
I didn’t even realize she knew I existed. “Yeah, you know him?”
“Well, not personally. I didn’t know you liked him. I mean, he’s cute, but he doesn’t seem like your type.”
“It’s not really like that. We were just studying together.”
“At Target?” she questioned.
Think fast Jake. “We took a break, and he needed to get a new phone.”
In My Shoes Page 12