My body felt heavy. Super heavy. When I shifted my body, I felt the bed shifting with me. My grip felt stronger too. When I groaned my voice sounded deeper. My body ached all over as if I were trying to stretch into it.

My eyes were open and what I saw made me let out a scream. A scream that was so deep I put a hand over my mouth. My body was muscular, wider. I saw abs and wonderful legs and my glutes… (focus April). What’s more my hair was shorter, a buzz cut, there wasn’t as many strands of hair on my pillow as before. Not to mention the little (big) elephant in the room that was in between my legs. I was a boy.

“What the fuck’s going on?”

I quickly took note of the room I was in. it was nothing much to look at. A small bedroom with a wooden closet and some bodybuilding and rock posters lining the wall. On my floor were a bunch of clothes, socks and dumbbells lying around. I almost tripped over trying to walk around the room. The room was bathed in a brown thanks to the cardboard-coloured curtains on the windows. On my door there was a pull-up bar. Cameron did not know how to clean up after himself, huh, I mumbled to myself as I stepped on some dirty looking clothes. A shot of pain flared up my leg as I started to move, I looked down and noticed a clumsy bandage wrapped around my shin. I opened up it up and saw a bullet wound. Wait a second? Who was I that I got into shootouts. I quickly stepped to the mirror hanging on the closet and noticed that the body I was in was none other than Cameron. I was in Cameron’s body. How? I didn’t know.

That was when the door opened up. Without even asking a man shorter than me barged passed me and opened up my closet, shuffling through my clothes.

“Where’s your wallet, huh?” the man was balding and had quiet the beer belly. He wore a faded plaid t-shirt and black pants. I assumed he was Cameron’s dad as eyebrows were almost exactly the same shape. “Give me some cash.”

“What for?” I asked. I didn’t mean to come off as sinister as I thought I sounded. Having a deep voice was tough.

“A drink, duh.” The way the man shuffled through Cameron’s clothes was desperate. Like an addict. He faced me. “I’ll pay you back. Where’s the money?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

I really didn’t know.

The man frowned. “Don’t act smart with me. Just because you’re all muscular and get involved in gang fights you think you can mess with your dad.”

Geez, Samantha wasn’t lying when she said her parents were a piece of work.

“Can you guys stop arguing?” said a voice. The voice of a woman this time who I assumed was Samantha’s mother. “You’re making too much noise.”

She stepped into the door frame giving me and ‘my’ dad a judgemental stare. The woman seemed like a stereotypical nosey housewife. She even dressed the part with an apron over a dotted robe and a necklace of a cross around the neck. And the way she talked; Samantha’s mum seemed more concerned about the noise we were making than what it was about. “Cam give him some money and…” she frowned. “Change into some more presentable clothes. Take a shower or something.”

“I don’t know where my wallet is,” I said, trying to keep my voice down.

“What’s that?” Samantha’s mum raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know where my wallet is.” I said that a little loud.

“No need to get so upset,” Samantha’s mum frowned. “You associate with gangs and think that you can disrespect me like that?”

“Come on give me money,” Samantha’s dad said. “I need to go out soon.”

“So do you,” Samantha’s mum said. “Don’t you have school?”

“Oh, right,” I said awkwardly. “School.”

I looked through my closet awkwardly. I managed to find my wallet underneath a pile of clothes. ‘My’ dad snatched it from me and scowled. “No money. Goddamn it.” He turned to ‘my’ mum. She let out an exasperated sigh and asked her to follow him.

I found my school uniform and was about to leave when I realised something.

“Where’s the shower?” I asked ‘mum’ and ‘dad’.

They looked at me dumbfounded.

“Did you hit your head or something?” ‘Dad’ asked.

‘Mum’ pointed the way. “What’s going on with you?” she asked as she walked me to the shower. “First you come in wounded…” the tone she said it in made it seem was more like it was a burden than anything else. “Shot at. That crass boy making naughty jokes at my expense and then afterwards you act like you have Alzheimer’s. Have you been doing drugs?”

I saw why Samantha left. This woman was exhausting. “Yes,” I said bluntly as I entered the shower. ‘Mum’ let out a shocked gasp but before she could say anymore, I entered the bathroom. My focus was on how I was going to survive taking a shower in a different body.

…

All in all, I managed. Even looking down at just how muscular this hunk of man was that it took me quiet a while to shower. I also had no idea if I was supposed to wash ‘it’ or not. I just lightly dabbed some soap and hoped for the best. After leaving the shower and changing into my school uniform I went downstairs only to see breakfast waiting for me. Toast and some eggs. ‘Mum’ was busy cooking food in the built-in kitchen, humming what sounded like a song they play at church.

“By the way, mum,” I said. This new body was much hungrier than my old one. “What happened to the guy I came with?”

“Cameron,” Mum said coldly. “What did I say about associating with people like him? What do you think the people at the church will say?”

I didn’t quite care about the people at the church or what they thought. I just wanted to get out of this body as quickly as possible. But I decided to play along.

“He has something of mine,” I lied. “I need to get it from him.”

‘Mum’ shrugged. “I don’t know. He just said some offhand remarks about how I was a ‘MILF’ and wanted to steal me away from that man.” By that man she was referring to her husband. She didn’t seem particularly proud of the fact that she was married to him. “By the way, darling why do you have a towel wrapped around your head?”

“To dry my hair, duh.”

‘Mum’ frowned. “That’s not how you talk. What is this duh business? You’re sounding a lot like that sister of yours. Didn’t you cut your hair short?”

Oh shit, I realised Cameron didn’t have as much or as long hair as I did. I reddened and dragged the towel off of my hair. “Just uh… taking care of my hair.”

‘Mum’ didn’t buy it. “You’re acting very queer. I’ll talk to Father about it.” She stared at the clock atop the kitchen wall. “Hurry up. I shouldn’t keep you from school.”

As I grabbed my bag and made my way outside ‘mum’ called after me. “You finished everything. What’s the rest of us supposed to eat?”

I ignored her and rushed to the train. I wasn’t going to school. I was going to find ‘myself’.

…

On the train ride to my apartment, I noticed something. Cameron was unbelievably boring. Within his bag were a bunch of textbooks and bland Thanatos sponsored self-improvement and health books. The other thing I noticed was since all the seats were taken, I was standing within the crowd and noticed women’s eyes on me. Some were college and high school students checking out my body, the rest were all mistrustful. As a girl I was used to being stared at a lot but those were usually from creeps and were very easy to brush off. Those mistrustful glares weren’t very easy to brush off.

I made it to my apartment complex. Momoko must’ve already scurried off to school. I thought I’d explain the situation to her but I realised how insane that would be and decided I’d think about what to do about my situation later. I walked up the stairs to my apartment. I noticed a few repairmen working on the apartment next to me.

“What’s happening over here?”

A repairmen went out to smoke on the balcony. He shrugged. “Shootout here a few weeks ago. Some men in masks shot up the place and now we’re fixing things up.”

So, the apartment that was being repaired was none other than Samantha’s? This girl was living right next to me this whole time and I hadn’t noticed. Goddamn, where else did this girl live? I went over to my apartment and sure enough the door was locked. Luckily, I kept an extra key buried under the potted plant on the side of the door (it was dead now, poor Stevie). I picked it up and opened my door expecting the entire place to be a giant mess.

It wasn’t. It was just as I had remembered leaving. Except for the bed. My bedroom was a mess and so was my closet. The person in my body was very tardy, I was starting to get a pretty good idea who it was. My clothes were scattered all over the place and I noticed my towel on the bed. I picked it up and it was barely wet, I noticed some hair stuck to the surface. I groaned. You were supposed to wrap it around your hair you idiot. ‘He’ probably looked like a fucking mess. I also noticed all of my skirts and pants were lying around and one pair of jeans was missing. Sticking to what was comfortable, huh. Not to mention the situation with my underwear. I sighed, boys.

I looked around for my phone and unfortunately it wasn’t anywhere to be seen. The bastard stole my phone. My laptop, however, was still around. I decided to pack my things first before checking out if there were any updates. Unlike some people I couldn’t stand to see my room in the state it was.

On my laptop, I decided to check my social media accounts. Cameron didn’t touch anything, thankfully but I did notice a few messages from none other than Violetta.

In it she said she was coming back to Walled City and hoped to see me there. She told em she had finished writing her finals early thanks to how exams worked in her part of the country and her mum had some courtroom things to sort out so she was looking forward to being back till the end of the year. She said she would be back…

Last week!

I was running around with Samantha last week and sure enough the next few messages talked about how I was missing and the missing persons posters lining the street. And then there was one last ominous message saying that Violetta found me but my mind wasn’t the same, just like the first time we met. She didn’t mention anything about what was going next.

Great, a missing persons report was out on me and I had no idea how to sort that out. Before I could even comprehend that I heard a familiar voice growl out you fucker.

I turned and saw Samantha but before I could even begin to explain my situation she punched me across the face. It didn’t hurt as much thanks to the body I was in but it did hurt emotionally.

“You drag my kids into this and here you are stalking this poor girl,” she yelled. She punched me in the stomach. “Is there anything you won’t do? Where are they, huh?”

“Samantha it’s me, April,” I said trying to regain my breath. “I’m in your brother’s body.”

Samantha stopped mid-punch. “Huh?”

“It’s me, April,” I said, regaining my composure after the onslaught of punches. “I don’t know how but I’m in your brother’s body.”

Samantha groaned. “Oh, that bastard! Thinks he can run away after everything he’s done!”

“I’ve been trying to find him,” I said. “Turns out my best friend saw him.” That was when I noticed the bruises on Samantha’s face and the wound on her leg. “How long ago did our fight happen?”

“Four days ago,” Samantha said. “Your other friends put up missing posters but apparently they were taken down by you and the search called off.”

That made me feel warm inside. I was so glad that they thought about me during the time I was missing.

“That wasn’t me,” I said. “By the way did you know about Lloyd’s involvement in this project?”

Samantha nodded. “Yep. He was supposed to be one of the first ‘friends’ you made in order to speed up the process and make tracking you efficient. I had no idea he was also very skilled. That kid left no openings for me to break through.”

Samantha crossed her arms. “What’s this about your best friend?”

“Violetta,” I said. “The girl who can read minds. She had been out the city for a while due to family issues but she came back to visit. Says she saw me and then after that she left me in the dark.”

I was starting to get a little worried about her. I had no idea why Cameron did what he did and I wasn’t anxious to find out either.

Samantha nodded. “I see. We need to look for her and Lloyd and I know just the place to start.”

…

On the train ride to school, I noticed Samantha was anxious. She was tapping her feet and casting anxious glances out the window.

“Are you okay?” I asked. “You look a little nervous.”

She side-eyed me. “It’s hard to separate the fact that you’re a friend in my brother’s body when you talk like him and look like him.” She sighed. “It’s about my kids. I don’t know if they’re safe or not. Lloyd didn’t press the button as far as I know but him keeping them hostage.” She shook her head. “When I get my hands on that scummy bastard…”

I rolled my eyes. “Now you know how I felt.”

A look of embarrassment flashed across Samantha’s face. “In my defence I thought we’d be doing a memory wipe.”

“What made you decide to run away?” I asked.

Samantha looked as if she wanted to answer me but laughed. “Oh my god I am not used to discussing feelings with my brother.” She smiled. “I gave everything for this stupid company, this stupid fucking project only for it to end with me becoming something I hated and losing something I loved. I ended up as someone I vowed never to be.” Samantha grinned. “Speaking off, how’s Caroline?”

I looked confused until I realised, she meant her mum. “I don’t know. All she did was make me breakfast. She seems snobby.”

Samantha laughed. “Oh, snobby is one way to describe it. Very generous, too.”

“How would you describe her?”

“Narcissistic, self-centred, apathetic,” she listed those traits off her fingers. “No self-awareness, awful, dramatic.” Samantha frowned. “I think I’m being unfair. I mean she does care, more about her public image than any of her children but she does care.”

“Don’t you think you’re being unfair?”

Samantha chuckled. “Now you sound exactly like my brother. Don’t worry, you’ll see.”

We finally made it to school. It was already 10 PM which meant break time. Samantha and I entered the school gates and started asking around for Lloyd.

“He’s in my class so I should have an easier time.”

I didn’t. most of the male classmates were intimidated when I started to ask about him, the girls also rolled their eyes, a few tried helping me out but it was just a ploy to get my number.

It took me a while to figure out why everybody was being so unhelpful. It was only when I was screamed out of the girl’s bathroom that I realised why. Getting used to a new body was difficult.

I finally got a good answer from one of my classmates in the library. An indifferent kid named Ashton who just kept to himself by reading books and studying. “Lloyd hasn’t been coming to school for a few weeks. That’s what he usually does though, doesn’t he?”

“Thanks,” I said. I looked around for Samantha to tell her the news. The school bell rang to signify that time was up. As I walked back to the cafeteria which was where I had agreed to meet Samantha, I passed by the school bulletin board which had a faded missing poster of me (April Anji, not Cameron) stuck to it. The contact number on it was none other than Harper’s. I couldn’t help but smile a little on the inside.

“Stop smiling at another girl otherwise Bev is going to be so pissed,” said the voice of a girl.

I turned to my right and saw absolutely nobody. I had to look down to see a rather pudgy girl with her black hair tied up in a ponytail and square glasses that fit oddly on her face. She had remnants of acne dotting her face and a big grin that made her face brighten up.

“And you are?”

The girl let out a gasp of sarcastic offense. “Oh no! Cameron Huley is too popular for his old DND group. Whatever are we supposed to do?”

“No really I don’t know you.”

“So, it’s true then,” the girl said. “You really are getting demented. Skipping classes, walking into girls’ bathrooms, you really are becoming such a punk.”

I walked into the girl’s bathroom barely half an hour ago. That wasn’t such a big deal. And then I realised, this was high school. It always was a big deal.

I reddened. “Oh fuck.”

The girl smiled. “Now you get it. The stone-cold Cameron’s mask slowly disappears. Now come, we have classes to go to and Mr. Bellamy was very pissed that you didn’t come today.”

Mr. Bellamy? Again! The more things change, the more things stay the same. As the pudgy girl led me through the hallways I ran past Samantha. I pointed at the girl who noticed I was looking elsewhere and followed my eyes.

“Your sisters here!” she gasped. “I thought she ran away from home!”

Samantha smiled. “Hey Lenna. How you doing?”

Lenna frowned. “Are you two cools now? I don’t want to get in the middle of some drama?

“Yes, we’re cool,” Samantha said quickly. “I just need my brother for a second.”

Lenna squinted at Samantha suspiciously. “Yeah, I don’t buy it. Besides if he doesn’t attend this class he’ll fail.”

“We’re cool,” I also said. “I just need to talk to her urgently Lenna.”

“But what about Bev?”

“I don’t care about Bev,” I said. “I need to meet up with her quickly.”

I immediately regretted saying those words because Lenna let out a shocked gasp. “Bev is your girlfriend, Cam. How can you say you don’t care about her? Something’s definitely wrong.”

She squinted at Samantha. “And I think she has something to do with it.”

Samantha immediately lost her patience. She was looking for her kids after all. “You nosy bitch. Can you just give my brother away or I swear to God, I will mess you up!”

Samantha immediately realised she was in the wrong but by then the damage was done. Lenna dragged me away from her and towards the classroom. “You’re right she is a crazy bitch. We need to hurry up, we’re already 5 minutes late and you know how Mr. Bellamy feels about tardiness.”

Oh boy, I knew so well. I followed along mainly because I didn’t want to ruin Cameron’s life any more than I already did by going into the girl’s bathroom. I didn’t know how popular Cameron was amongst his peers but with how nosy Lenna was and the number of times she touched his biceps I knew how popular he was amongst the ladies. As Lenna dragged me to class I wondered if Cameron extended the same courtesy to my body as I did to his. His messiness did not leave a very good impression.

I was surprised that Cameron was a second year. That meant Samantha was a first year and that her parents had two children a year apart. I was starting to feel pretty sympathetic for Samantha’s mum because that couldn’t have been easy. I once worked with babies at an understaffed hospital and that convinced me to not have them, ever.

As I walked in, Mr. Bellamy had something stupid to say as usual.

“Huley, Rodgers, you’re late!” a twisted grin appeared on his face. “I guess you were too busy making out in the girls bathroom.”

The classroom started laughing amongst themselves and the way they stared at me… oh god second-hand embarrassment. But it was Mr. Bellamy saying this and I always had zingers for him. Lenna held her head down and sat down on her seat.

“Rich coming from a guy who hasn’t made out with someone,” I said. The class was dead silent after that. A few of ‘my’ classmates let out an ohh.

Unfortunately, Mr. Bellamy’s face didn’t go as red as a chilli pepper like it did when April roasted him. Nope. “I guess your mum will hear about this at church Huley,” he said coolly.

Mr. Bellamy was almost never confident or authoritative. The fact that he was was definitive proof I fucked up. I couldn’t even do a confident walk-off as I had no idea where my seat was. Lenna had to point it out for me.

I sat down embarrassed. The embarrassment, however, didn’t end there. I was sitting next to a girl. A very pretty one with long waist-length blonde hair and a pretty face made prettier by immaculate makeup. She softly cleared her throat and nudged me with her foot. I stared at her, dumbfounded. I didn’t know who this girl was and was confused by the attention she was giving me. She looked offended at the way I looked at her. When Mr. Bellamy left to go and take a call she immediately spoke to me.

“What was that?” she asked.

I shrugged. “I wanted to show him who’s boss.”

“That, the girl’s bathroom incident and walking in with that…” she glared at Lenna who didn’t notice and turned to me. “I thought you wanted to keep things lowkey.”

They way she talked about Lenna I decided I didn’t like her. Lenna may be dragging me along without asking but she only did it because she cared and didn’t know better. Who did she think she was anyway?

“Hey leave Lenna out of this,” I said. “Who the hell are you anyway?”

She gasped, genuinely offended. “I’m your girlfriend.”

Oh shit. I realised this was Bev that Lenna was talking about when we first met.

“What is going on with you?” Bev asked. “You tell me you’ll be offline for a while. You don’t answer your calls and now I see you hanging out with Lenna when I told you we need to get rid of her…”

Mr. Bellamy walked in. The class quieted down but Bev whispered to me harshly. “We need to talk after this.”

Class finished. Beverly gave me a side-eyed look, beckoning me outside the classroom with a flick of her head. Lenna chose that time to walk over to me.

“Hi, Bev,” Lenna said with a forced smile. “Taking away my best friend again.”

“Hi Lenna,” she said. “Cameron and I want to have a serious adult talk. No children allowed.”

Lenna’s chuckle was very bitter. “As serious as his sister coming to see him.”

Beverly’s eyes flared up. She stared at me, her body red with anger. “I thought you hated that bitch. What the hell is she doing talking to you? What’s more you didn’t talk to me about it?”

Lenna rolled her eyes at Bev but stared at me concerned. “I thought you always talked to Bev…”

I tried calming them down but both of them talked over each other.

“Are you even taking this relationship seriously…”

“What’s the matter? You haven’t been talking to us for a while…”

“Not answering my calls…”

“Ahmed wants to join you in the gym but you’re not taking his calls…”

Their words were like being buried in a landslide of names, events and talking points I had no idea off. I tried to grasp at anything, anything to talk about or try and change the topic but no specific topic could save me from the barrage of things April Anji didn’t know about. Not to mention the venom in the words of Lenna and Beverly, not targeted at me but at each other. I wanted to cry out.

Unluckily, Samantha saved me. I said unluckily because it just made relationships worse. As soon as they saw her their collective venom as targeted elsewhere.

“You coward,” Beverly yelled out. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be running away?”

“Cameron doesn’t want to talk to little kids who run away,” Lenna muttered.

Samantha shoved past them. “Cameron and I have things to discuss. Things kids like you wouldn’t understand.”

I grabbed my forehead. “Stop making things worse,” I muttered.

“Now move out the way,” Samantha said, grabbing my arm and dragging me past the both of them.

“Hey,” Beverly yelled out. “Where are you taking him? There are still more classes.”

“Yeah, what part of he doesn’t want to talk do you not understand?” Lenna added in.

Samantha gave them both the finger and lead me through the hallways and outside the school building into the school field. She sighed, crossing her arms.

“I regret being so mean,” Samantha smiled. “Besides Bev, Lenna’s a decent person if not a little nosy, I just needed to get you away from them.” She eyed me. “My brother is not a fan of me.”

“I guessed that.” I leaned against a tree, hands on my side when I noticed the pockets on my cotton pants. I wasn’t used to those so out of curiosity I put my hands inside them. It was so damn comfortable. “So, what was so urgent?”

Samantha took out a cigarette and started smoking. “I can’t find anything out about Lloyd. I tried looking for him, asking around but nobody knew where he was. Nobody knew his address either. I figured the school would have some records but wouldn’t you know it, the school doesn’t let the schoolkids access them.”

“Uh huh.” I nodded along. Damn pockets were so great. Men really took them for granted.

“So now I have no idea what to do,” she said. “Unless you have any bright ideas.”

I didn’t hear Samantha over how well my hands fit into my pockets. Did quiet, brooding boys put their hands into their pockets like this because they didn’t feel warmth anywhere else?

“April,” Samantha yelled.

That got my attention. “Sorry. It’s just that pockets are great.”

“You don’t seem all that concerned about losing your body.”

“I am,” I said. “It’s just… he doesn’t seem to be doing anything wrong with it. Don’t get me wrong I want it back but he’s doing a much better job with my body than I am with his.”

“If you want to be my douche brother, go on ahead,” Samantha said, flicking her cigarette. “But at least help me find my kids. As far as I’m concerned Cameron’s the only one who knows where they are and he’s AWOL.”

I nodded. “Sure. I know Violetta’s number by heart so I’ll giver her a call, see what I can find out.”

Samantha nodded. “And I’ll keep a lookout for Lloyd.” Her eyes swivelled to the side. “Heads up. Lenna’s here to see you.”

“Is there anything you can tell me about her?”

Samantha shrugged. “She likes you. Cameron used to play DND with her unaware of the massive crush she had on him. They stopped talking after high school when Cameron realised, he outgrew them and liked getting jacked and getting laid.”

She walked off, Lenna walked up to me and noticed the cigarette butt on the floor and Samantha walking off in the distance. “So, are you two cools now or what?”

“Long story,” I said. “Where’s Beverly?”

Lenna scoffed. “She’s not talking to you. She thinks you’re being a massive bitch. Pot calling the kettle black.”

“Do you think I’m an asshole?” I asked.

Lenna shook her head. “No. No. It’s just Beverly’s the asshole. You’re cool.” She said that quickly, her face was turning red. “You should consider breaking up with her, she doesn’t care about you.”

‘As much as I do’ was something she wanted to add but couldn’t. As cute as that was, I wasn’t the one in control of the body.

“I’ll talk to her,” I said. “Hopefully she’ll buy my apology.”

Lenna frowned. “I think you’re better off not apologising to her. She just likes you because every other girl likes you and she wants to show off. She’ll do anything in her power to make sure she wins in the end.”

“Oh well,” I said. “We’ll see what I can do.”

Lenna looked baffled. “You usually rush to her defence. What’s going on with you?”

Oh, I did do that, huh. “Sorry just a little tired. My sister can be exhausting,” I said, hopefully it sounded natural.

If Lenna didn’t buy my excuse, she didn’t show it. We walked back to class as I tried to come up with an apology for Beverly that would work and get Cameron’s life in order.

Spoiler alert, it didn’t work.

…

When Beverly told me off amidst her council of friends, I wanted so badly to tell her I’m doing this for the relationship but she didn’t bother because she didn’t want to listen.

“She wants you to grovel,” Lenna said. “She just likes you because you’re popular, not because of you.”

I nodded along, sighing. I wish Cameron’s life wasn’t so complicated because my poor April brain wasn’t built for this.

I decided that I’d leave all this blowback to Cameron. I had another reason to find him also. I needed to know what happened to my 18-year-old self.

To not waste any time, I decided to give a call to Violetta since according to the messages she was the first one to ‘see’ Cameron.

That afternoon, Lenna offered to walk me home. I told her no because I had something else to do and after saying goodbye, I decided to call Violetta.

I hoped she would pick up. I realised I hadn’t called her as much during our time apart due to how busy I got finding dragons, climbing up Kaijus and carrying out corporate espionage. I smiled, I had a lot to tell her once we finally settled down and had time to talk.

“Hello,” Violetta said, her timid voice echoing through the mic. I realised how much I missed her when I heard her talk. “Who am I speaking to?”

I felt mildly offended by that. I wanted to make a sarcastic remark about it but I realised whose body I was in. “Violetta it’s me.”

Violetta paused. “I’m sorry who are you?”

“April,” I said. “It’s me April. I’m in another person’s body.”

Violetta was taken aback by my directness. “You don’t sound like Apr…” she paused for a while and in that pause, I realised she was putting the pieces together. “What happened?”

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

“It’s a long story,” I said. “I’ll tell you when I meet you.”

I heard the smile in Violetta’s voice. “The Usual Spot.”

I smiled. “The Usual Spot.”

…

I thought I wouldn’t have to clue Violetta in when I saw her at the Usual Spot thanks to her mind reading powers but even, she was taken aback by Cameron.

When I sat down, I noticed her face was as red as a pimple about to pop. Her violet hair made her look like a beetroot.

“Hey,” I said. “Oh my god I missed you.”

I held my hands open to hug her but she didn’t get up at all. She just stared at me and when I tried to meet her eyes, she looked away quickly.

I decided to sit down since it didn’t seem like I was getting a hug. I noticed I had to look down at Violetta, barely able to meet her eyes. Not that she wanted to. She looked away from me as if I were something forbidden.

I groaned. Violetta was always shy around boys. “You can read my mind, you know?”

Violetta nervously glanced at me. She tentatively beckoned me to sit down which I did and tried her best to look at me.

“What will you two useless excuses for human beings be having?” the waiter asked. I had a coffee; Violetta had a milkshake. We sat together.

“I have so much to tell you but we don’t have time for that.”

Violetta briefly looked disappointed but she nodded with an understanding. She got the briefing from reading my mind.

“What was he doing with your body?” she asked. She looked so nervous, tapping her fingers and trying not to look at me. “What was he doing…?”

“First let’s go with how I looked,” I said, crossing my arms. “Did he know what to do with my hair?”

Violetta shook her head. “No, it was all over the place. He tried tying it into a ponytail.”

I frowned. “Oh goddammit.”

“I don’t think he even put shampoo.”

I cried out, trying to hide my face in the table. “No! All that work taking care of my hair only for this.”

Violetta nervously pat my arm.

“What else was he thinking about?” I said, my tone grave. “Any plans to ruin my life.”

Violetta shook her head. “Nope. He didn’t talk to me much. He just saw me, said some vague words. When he realised, I knew who he was, he ran away.”

That wasn’t much help. “Anything else?”

“He seemed content, being you, I mean.”

Hearing that was kind of flattering. Even I wasn’t content to be me. “Did he give you any clue about where he was going?”

Violetta shrugged. “No. His thoughts were just about freedom.”

I sat back. “Huh.”

Violetta seemed to be getting more comfortable with me. I decided to catch her up to speed. She was more than happy to oblige.

She told me she was starting college next year. She was already studying supplemental material. She also told me that her mum was fine and was starting to get ready to see new people. She also told me about her new friends, which admittedly made me feel a little jealous.

I also told her about my end of things and boy was this girl enjoying it. She loved my adventure with Amrita the most and wished she could’ve been there to see the dragon.

After we were done talking, I felt someone staring at me. I looked to see a girl in our school uniform looking at me. she glanced away nervously when I saw her. When I asked Violetta to get a read on her, the girl quickly left.

I asked her what she was thinking about and Violetta shrugged. “Something about Beverly wanting to hear about this.”

I frowned. “Oh no.”

…

Violetta and I left the Usual Spot. She volunteered to help me look for my body, she agreed. On the train ride home, I thought about how I’d save Cameron’s relationship with Bev. When the train stopped and I walked out of the station I realised I was at ‘April’s’ apartment neighbourhood and not my own. I went back to the train when it finally registered that I didn’t even know ‘my’ own home address.

I called Samantha who told em where it was.

“You sure you want to go back?” Samantha asked. “Aren’t you enjoying your freedom?”

“Nah,” I said. “Besides I don’t want to ruin his life any more than I already did.”

Samantha scoffed. “His life was already ruined the moment he chose his crap bag parents over his sister. Suit yourself

Unfortunately, the train was fifteen minutes late and when it finally arrived, I was already bombarded by texts from ‘mum’ I hadn’t read.

Where r u?

You have to pick dad up. Don’t make me pick him up.

Before I could even reply, I got a call.

“Why are you so late?” she asked. “Don’t you know you have to pick up your dad?”

“I was late,” I stammered. “The train was late.”

I could tell ‘Mum’ wasn’t buying it. “Where did I go wrong?”

“Can’t dad drive himself home?”

“Are you stupid or something?” Mum asked.

She didn’t have to put it that bluntly. “You don’t…”

Mum mocked my voice. “‘You don’t.’ Shut up. It was such a big deal. How could you forget?” Mum sighed. “Forget about it. I’ll pick him up. You’re as useless as your sister.”

She hung up. Now I was slowly starting to get why Samantha and Cameron were both the way they were. Mum didn’t have to be that blunt. It hurt. The pout on my face must’ve been out of character because I was getting stares from everyone on the train.

I decided to text Samantha.

What happened to dad’s licence?

He’s not ur dad.

Three dots

Lost it because of an accident. Was a big deal when I was 12

Three dots

A laughing emoji preceded the text. Why you had to pick him up?

I replied yes.

More laughing emojis. Enjoy the family tradition.

Now didn’t seem like a good time to tell her that I didn’t know how to drive.

When I got home ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ were waiting. More like ‘mum’ was sitting on the sofa with her arms crossed and dad was snoring on the couch.

“You’re late.”

“The train was late,” I said.

“In this city trains are never late unless you are.” She unfolded her arms. “No. You come late, don’t answer my texts and now you have the audacity to lie to me.”

“I’m not lying,” I said. “The train was…”

‘Mum’s’ voice was strained. “Don’t like to me. I’ve had enough from dealing with this bum the whole day.” She side-eyed ‘Dad’.

“Ungrateful. After everything I do for you. What’s wrong with you, huh?”

I sighed. maybe I should tell her the truth. After all, I wasn’t acting like her son. I was just in his body. Maybe she’d understand.

“Mum,” I said, gravely. “There’s something I have to tell you…”

And that, unfortunately, was how I got grounded.

…

The next day there wasn’t going to be any ‘going to school’ by myself no. Mum was going to drop me and pick me up from school.

Despite my protests my mum just scoffed. “You’re born a male. God made you a male. You’ll learn some discipline until this satanic nonsense gets out of your head.”

When I tried telling her the truth of what I meant, that I wasn’t trying to be a girl but a girl in her son’s body she just brushed me aside.

“Pastor Wesley will deal with you,” she said. “First your sister, now you. What ideas are they feeding you in that school of yours?”

And so, I begrudgingly waited for my mother in the morning as she took me to school, ranting about me to the hungover corpse that was supposed to be my father.

“Can you believe what he’s saying?” she said, her face red with performative anger. “I’m a girl in a boy’s body. My name is April.” She said those in a mockery of Cameron’s gruff voice. “What’s next? ‘He’ is going to become ‘They’. It’s an affront to God.”

I barely talked to her that day on account of her sheer stupidity. She tried provoking me but I ignored her. On my car ride to school, I started getting phone calls from Samantha. We were supposed to meet by the trains. I quickly texted her my situation which caught the suspicion of mum who side-eyed me and went back to driving.

“I don’t know where you’re getting all these woke ideas,” she said. “It must be from that phone or dungeons and dragons. I told you to stay away from that Satanic game. Who are you texting?”

I learned that being honest wouldn’t work so I decided to lie to her. “A teacher.”

‘Mum’ scoffed. “I’m going to have a word with your teachers. What are they teaching you nowadays? Children are supposed to learn maths and science, not this gender crap.”

After reading the texts about my situation Samantha just responded with a series of laughing emojis. I couldn’t even blame her; I wasn’t even trans but now I saw what Samantha was getting at when she called her mum self-centred. Even if I told her the truth she would barely listen and choose to fit whatever I said into her little agenda.

She parked her cars by the school gates. I saw Samantha waiting there for me amidst the throng of students but she slinked back as soon as she recognised the car.

My ‘mum’ noticing her scoffed. “That little harlot still has it in her to attend classes. I wonder who’s paying for her.”

That caught my attention. Who was paying for Lloyd? His parents most likely but surely, they must know about his behaviour, right. There’s no way he could hide his connections from Thanatos from his parents.

“I’ll have a word with your teachers, hopefully get them on the right track,” she said, as we got out the car. “I’ll come back and pick you up. Don’t be tardy like your father.”

I followed behind her and once we were lost in the crowd, I quickly texted Samantha the situation. I met her eyes amidst the herds of green and white wearing students. She could barely hide her glee. I promised to meet her at break alongside Violetta where we’d look for Amrita and try and figure out what to do next. I told her through text to look into Lloyd’s financial records.

As I walked to my homeroom, Lenna bumped into me. She didn’t even say good morning or ask how I was, instead all she asked was a question that made my stomach sink.

“Who was that girl you were talking to at that shitty coffee place last afternoon?”

Oh no.

“Um, a friend,” I said, unconvincingly.

Lenna frowned. “Isn’t she that third year who left because of her parents divorce?”

Ugh shit, I didn’t have anyway of getting out of this. All that came out of me was gibberish. Even Lenna looked confused. Her confusion was quickly replaced by concern as her finger trickled over my shoulder like a light rain before pulling away.

“You’re not yourself, Cam,” Lenna said. “You told me you hated that place. I saw your mum storming over to the office. What’s going on?””

“I’m grounded.” I gulped, my mind trying to reach any corner of my mind to find the solution to ‘me’ not liking The Usual Spot. I turned to Lenna and the gentle look in her eyes quelled my anxieties. She was genuinely concerned. The same couldn’t be said about my ‘parents’.

“I’ll tell you later,” I said as we entered the classroom.

I didn’t get time to finish my sentence as Beverly stormed towards me.

“I know who that chick was,” she snapped. “Just because you’re not talking to me you think you can go around fucking anybody you like!” her scream attracted everyone in class.

Lenna stepped in front of me. Her jaw was tight and she looked mildly irritated but I could see she was keeping it in check. “Now’s not the time…”

“Shut the fuck up you, fat bitch,” Beverly said. “News flash, Cameron himself told me he doesn’t like fat girls so why don’t you stop making advances on my man and go play with those dumb little toys of yours.”

The irritation on Lenna’s face felt more like a farce, her confidence started to wane. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Beverly sneered. The sneer made her face look ugly. I tried standing in between them but Beverly pushed me aside. “Oh, I do. He told me this right after he fucked me good. I asked him why he still hung out with you and he said it was because you didn’t have any friends and he felt sorry for you. I told him about the way you look at him...” she poked her chest. “And he told me it’s fine, he didn’t like chubby girls.”

She cackled like a witch after she said that. Lenna’s face was red. From embarrassment, from sadness, I didn’t know. She stared at me pleadingly. I could see the tears welling in her eyes.

“Is this true?” she asked.

I had no choice but to look away. I didn’t know. How could I? This wasn’t my life.

Sensing that, Lenna walked away and sat on her desk. Beverly turned to me with a look of smug satisfaction on her face.

“Now that she’s out of the way…”

“Fuck off.”

Beverly squinted, turning her ears to me like she didn’t hear me. “What?”

“Fuck off,” I said. “You’re a massive bitch.”

Beverly’s face couldn’t settle on offended, baffled or amused. “What are you saying? Are you joking?”

“I said what I said,” ‘I’ said cooly. And as my first executive decision as Cameron, I made a decision he never would have. “I’m breaking up with you. Fuck off.”

Beverly’s face was red with anger as the flags she was giving off. “Wait till your mum hears about this,” she hissed as she stomped back to her seat. The teacher chose then to pop into class, I took my place near Lenna who looked baffled.

“That was…”

I grinned. “Yeah.” I tapped her shoulder. “We’ll talk about this later, I have some things to do after class.”

…

Violetta snuck in at break time.

“What am I doing here?” she asked.

“Reliving your cringe high school memories,” I joked. “Look for any mention in people’s thoughts of Lloyd and tell me what you find out, meanwhile I’m going to look for a friend of mine.”

I didn’t have to look far. Looking elegant in her uniform, Amrita left her classroom and when I walked up to her a smile appeared on her face.

She hugged me immediately. “Man, I like the muscles. I’m so glad you’re safe.”

I smiled back at her. “Violetta come over here,” she called out. Violetta was startled at being called by somebody she didn’t know.

“Is this the girl who can sense history?” Violetta asked.

“Yep,” I said. “It makes her almost psychic at times.”

Violetta frowned. “But if you can sense history which is the past how come you know I’m here?”

“The past smell of Cameron or should I say April’s…”

I shrugged. “Anything goes.”

“Caperil’s clothes has the smell of your perfume on it,” Amrita said. “It’s a bit more complex than that but from there I can gain the context behind the perfume and why you chose that one in particular in the past until I come back to the present.”

Violetta blinked in confusion.

“Yeah, it’s difficult,” Amrita shrugged. “Let’s just call it super senses and call it a day. Anyways let’s head out for lunch, shall we?”

We walked to the cafeteria, Amrita using Violetta’s arm for support even though she didn’t need to.

“So, the missing people posters?” I asked.

“Harper’s idea,” Amrita said. “She was worried about you even though I told her you were in safe hands.”

I scoffed. “I wasn’t really.”

Amrita laughed. “Oh boy I would’ve loved to see that fist fight.”

Violetta looked confused. “What fist fight?”

Amrita winked at her. “April will tell you all about it.”

“Long story,” I said, frowning. “Let’s get back on track.” I turned to Amrita. “When did the search stop?”

Amrita tilted her head, her expression vacant as she looked for answers.

“Just a few hours after the body swap,” Amrita said. “The cops told us you were found during an assembly and that was that. Harper didn’t buy it and neither did I. We went to the police to find out and that’s when I learned about the body swap thing.”

“How come you didn’t look for me afterwards?” I asked.

“We were planning to,” Amrita said. “But Harper and the crew got busy.”

“Busy with what?” I asked.

It was Violetta who answered. “Priest Wesley.”

“What’s going on with him?”

Amrita walked in front of me when we reached the cafeteria. “You’ll see. Welsey will tell you all about him.”

…

After Amrita ordered some food, we went back to our usual hang out spot at the back of the school. Lots of my classmates noticed me and started whispering to each but honestly it brushed off of me. Whatever hole he had dug himself into in his life I couldn’t bother to fix, especially after what Beverly said about him.

As we walked to ‘our’ spot I noticed Harper comforting Wesley by patting his back. Wesley was just staring at the brick floor, clutching his long hair with a pained expression on his face. Momoko just sat across, unsure of what to do, twiddling her thumbs and looking nervous. When Harper noticed us, she tensed up. She stared as me as she greeted Amrita and Violetta who I had told her about a while back.

“What’s Cameron doing here?” Harper crossed her arms. “Most popular guy in his class hanging out with us. Why’s that?”

“That’s not Cameron,” Amrita said. “It’s April.”

Harper scoffed. “You can’t be serious. Dragons I can believe but this.”

She turned to Violetta who just nodded in agreement with Amrita. Harper sighed in defeat. “What does she want this time?”

“My body back,” I said, sitting down next to Momoko. Momoko’s face turned red and she started taking heavy breaths.

“What’s wrong with Momoko?” I asked.

Amrita grinned, winking at me. “She loves the new you. April wrapped up in that package…”

Momoko got up and bowed at everyone. “Sorry I have to leave.”

Amrita’s grin got wider. Violetta whispered to me… “You have to tell her the truth.”

Harper took a seat next to Wesley. “Can we get back on track?”

Amrita groaned. “It’s just another Wesley. They all have issues…”

Harper glared at Amrita who shrugged it off. “What? You know I’m right. Sooner or later, he’s going to have to accept that they’re the same person whether he likes it or not.”

Wesley groaned. Harper went back to patting his back.

“What’s going on with Wesley?”

Harper didn’t answer me but Amrita did. “He left the family after the dragon incident. It shook him. He got back into preaching and his speeches…”

Wesley groaned in protest. Amrita winced. “Let’s just say his speeches aren’t friendly to people who aren’t white or straight.”

“That sounds awful,” I said.

Harper scoffed. “Like you care. Just cut to the chase. What do you want to use us for this time? Some grand mission to get back your body?”

I was starting to get sick of Harper’s passive aggression. “Look there’s more at stake than just me this time…”

“Guys…” Amrita muttered.

“There was more at stake the other times but you were so self-centred to notice,” Harper shot back.

“Well…”

Before I could say anything, Amrita interrupted me. “You seem to forget we have a guest here.”

She pointed at Violetta. Harper cleared her throat and sat back, I did too.

“Sorry you had to see that,” I whispered to Violetta.

“It’s okay,” she whispered back. “So, what are we even doing here? What am I doing here?”

“We’re looking for our classmate Lloyd,” I said. Harper rolled her eyes. “We’re trying to figure out anything we can about him because his friend has my body and…”

“That bitch’s kids,” Amrita interrupted me. “Serves her right for taking away my powers like that.”

Harper was the only one who was confused. “Which bitch?”

“The bitch who kidnapped me, Samantha,” I sighed. “Look it’s a long story… just that’s who we’re looking for and I want any information I can on him. Lloyd and the guy who has my body, Cameron.”

Harper got up. “Well, you can count me out. Wesley let’s go.”

Wesley groaned in agreement and got up, dragging his feet behind Harper, his face still buried in his hands.

“Now that they’re gone what do we know about Lloyd?” I asked.

Amrita and Violetta were silent. “What’s wrong?”

“You should tell her the truth,” Violetta said, concerned. “She deserves to know.”

I groaned, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Not this again…”

“Hating yourself isn’t an excuse…”

“Shut up, okay,” I snapped. Violetta was taken aback, so was Amrita. “Look I’m sorry it’s just… my issues are not important. Can we get back to the mission at hand?”

Violetta and Amrita stared at each other as if they were knowing something I didn’t. I ignored my irritation at them in favour of getting at the task at hand.

“Nobody saw you,” Amrita said. “As in Cameron from what I know but a lot of people talk about Lloyd.”

“Yeah, he’s been around,” Violetta said, her face reddening. “A lot.”

“And apparently he’s very rich,” Amrita continued. “The people I sensed who do know him wondered how he got rich so fast. He didn’t tell anybody about it.”

“They say he’s a daredevil,” Violetta said. “Takes unnecessary risks.”

“And he wasn’t always like that.”

I was taken aback. “Wow and you guys know all this without talking to anyone.”

Violetta reddened. “I mean it’s not that hard.” She twirled her fingers and smiled sheepishly.

“You’d be surprised how often people are in each other’s minds,” Amrita said.

“Well, that was good to know,” said another voice. Samantha walked up behind us and took a seat next to Amrita. “Overheard your little conversation.”

Amrita shifted away from her. “Oh great, you.”

Samantha ignored her. “Looks like we’re all at an impasse. No Lloyd, no Cameron. Nothing.”

I was confused. “What do you mean? They told us everything we need to know.”

Samantha crossed her legs and spread her arms on the bench. “Notice they didn’t mention where?”

Amrita and Violetta both looked down.

“Any history I try to sense from him is a contradiction,” Amrita said. “Like Wesley.”

“He’s a lot like you,” Violetta said. “From a different time but it’s as if he knows.”

“Knows what?” I asked.

“That I can read minds.”

Samantha cursed. “God dammit.” She slammed her fist against the bench. “I fucking hate this. Why are your friend so useless?”

“Fuck off,” Amrita said, crossing her arms. “No wonder he left you.”

Violetta just looked very ashamed of herself.

“Samantha, I know you’re worried about your kids,” I said. “But it’s no excuse to lash out at them.”

Samantha glared at me like a lion about to snap back but then she caught herself. She sighed, running her fingers over her eyes in shame. “You’re right. I’m sorry guys.”

All four of us sat there with the sound of teenagers laughing and playing sports in the distance.

“Don’t you have somewhere to be?” Samantha asked. “You were going to tell Lenna everything.”

I flicked my fingers. “You’re right!” I got up and was about to rush back to class when Samantha called after me.

“Make sure you don’t talk to her where mum can see,” she said. “You’ll get a grilling. She doesn’t like her or the satanic tabletop RPG’s she’s associated with.”

“Thanks.”

Samantha chuckled. “I still can’t believe you told her about your situation. How did you think that would go?”

I was embarrassed. “Well, I was screwing up everything and didn’t want to ruin Cameron’s life.”

Samantha smiled. “Wow you’re really showing him more consideration than he deserves.”

“She shows more consideration to people she doesn’t know than her own close friends,” Amrita muttered. The cocky smile on her face was starting to piss me off.

Samantha smiled, staring at me judgementally. “Tell me about it.”

I wanted to say they weren’t really my friends but decided against it. Unfortunately, I forgot I was in the presence of a mind reader and a history senser. All it took was a slight brush of her fingers and she had access to my thoughts.

Amrita sighed. “You still don’t listen, do you?” she looked disappointed. I looked away from her. I didn’t like it when people were disappointed.

“Whatever,” I said, ignoring that whole exchange. I wasn’t looking at their faces as I walked away. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

“If ‘mother’ doesn’t have anything to say about it,” Samantha said. I ignored and walked back to class, looking for Lenna. It didn’t take me long to find her. Throughout the boring classes I told her my story.

…

After school I didn’t have a lot of time to talk to her. She was quiet throughout the whole talk, listening intently. I could see she understood what I was saying but her mind was elsewhere.

“You got all that?” I asked, trying to make sure she was listening.

Lenna nodded absent-mindedly.

“Lenna,” I said, snapping my fingers.

“Yeah, I know, April.” Lenna sighed. “Body swapping. Apparently, Cameron could do that. Why he didn’t tell me was another story but…”

She crossed her arms as if she were feeling cold. “What Beverly said, it hurt, you know? If I’d known that’s how Cameron felt about me…”

I felt bad for her. Lenna genuinely looked hurt. I placed a comforting hand on her back but she pulled away.

“I don’t…” our eyes met but she looked away. “This isn’t what the Cameron I know would’ve done. My best friend… the Cameron…”

Tears were starting to well up in her eyes. “What did he really think of me all this time? Did you know?”

I felt bad for her, I really did but I shook my head. “I’m sorry. I don’t.”

I couldn’t say anymore as just then my mother called out to me. Her stoney glare and her constant side-eyes at Lenna told me I was in for a long talk. “Cameron. It’s time to go home.”

I sighed, shoving my hands in my pockets (man I love these little things) and walked towards her. I waved at Lenna before I left but her focus was on her shoes instead of me. She looked devastated. As I got in the car with ‘mum’ she immediately started complaining before she even put the gear on reverse.

“Why are you talking to that girl again?” she said, staring out the rear window. “I thought you didn’t like her.”

“None of your business.”

Mum smiled. “Your sister is really rubbing off on you, huh?”

I tried feigning ignorance but as soon as she reached the road she smiled. “You think I’m stupid. I know you keep your text app connected on your laptop. I’ve seen the messages you send to her…”

I didn’t know what to really say. Was shuffling through laptops normal in families? All I knew was that I wouldn’t want anybody going through my messages without my permission.

“That’s private!” I snapped. “What the hell mum?”

“Oh, here you go again with your privacy rights,” she scoffed. “You and your sister! I brought you into this world. I can do whatever the hell I want with your computers.”

If this what having parents was like, maybe I should be glad I was abandoned at an orphanage. I shoved back that thought.

“But this Lenna girl,” she frowned. “I thought you told me you didn’t like her because she’s fat. What suddenly possessed you to start talking to her again?”

Those words echoed through my mind. From that to dating Beverly and obeying Thanatos orders to a tee, I thought to myself maybe Cameron’s life really was in the shits and everything I did wrong was a favour instead of a screw up.

“I’ve decided,” ‘Mum’ said. “I’ll set up a meeting with Father Wesley tonight. He is sure to guide you to the straight path.”

Hold on a minute. Father Wesley. Did she mean?

“Father Wesley?” I raised an eyebrow. “Is his surname Pointer by any chance.”

Mum chuckled. “Yes. He is well aware of the plights us Christian’s face. I’ve never seen a Priest like him before.”

I tried my best to hide my displeasure. A questionable number of hours with Priest Wesley. This wasn’t going to go well.

…

When I got there, it wasn’t just Priest Wesley. No. Beverly was there with her parents. Their massive grins stretching across their face unable to hide their wary eyes as they stared at my father spread across the couch snoring. Beverly sat in between them, a look of fake solemn acceptance on her face as none other than Priest Wesley sat in the centre of the circle of sofas around him, running his fingers through the thick copy of the Bible on his lap.

Mum walked on ahead with a smile on her face. I tapped her shoulder lightly.

“What’s Beverly doing here?” I whispered.

“She told me all about what happened at school,” Mum said, a firm glare directed at me but her smile still taped onto her face. “And you seem to be forgetting you’re the Church’s favourite couple.”

I took a seat next to my dad who sat on my right, still snoring. Mum sat on my left. We mirrored Beverly who still wore that look of fake remorse on her face. Her parents had uncomfortable smiles on their faces. They looked rich, with Beverly’s mum wearing high-end gold accessories and very comfortable but expensive looking cotton shirts and pants. Beverly’s dad wore a Rolex and a cotton shirt with a frilly helm and slick black pants. They looked perfect with their shared blonde hair and smiling faces. When mum saw them, she seemed to shrink two sizes.

“Sorry we’re late,” Mum said with a chuckle. “Traffic at this hour.”

“No worries,” said Priest Wesley. He shut his bible. “If Mr. Huley would…”

The taped smile on ‘Mum’s face was starting to wear off. “Dear.”

Dad’s only response was a snore.

Mum cleared her throat, loudly. Dad snored even louder.

“Maybe we can out him in another room,” Beverly’s dad suggested.

“Unfortunately, I have other duties to attend to,” Priest Wesley said confidently, staring at a watch underneath his robe. “Time is of the essence.”

“But his snoring,” Beverly’s mum said, trying to keep the disgust from her voice.

As if responding to he, dad’s head lolled to the side and his snoring stopped. With his fat belly and low posture, he looked like a broken teddy bear.

“I would have preferred all hands-on deck,” Priest Wesley said. “Especially in the case of a fickle youths.”

“Sorry Father,” Mum muttered.

“However, this will have to do.” Priest Wesley leaned back. He stared at me. “Cameron. Your mother informed me about the issues you’re facing.”

“Yeah, Wes,” I said, smiling at him. “It’s your old friend April.”

“Yes, this delusion,” Mum suddenly spoke up. “That he’s a girl in a man’s body…”

Priest Wesley nodded. “Yes, these woke values that infringe upon our Christian values.” If he had heard me call myself April, he didn’t show it.

Beverly spoke up too. “I also saw him talking with a pagan girl this afternoon. He even hugged her.”

Both Beverly’s parents gasped at this. Priest Wesley tapped his chest and his forehead. Immediately there was a fire in his eyes.

“These pagans,” Priest Wesley said firmly. “These Indians, Arabs…”

“You mean Hindus and Muslims?” I asked.

“Whatever they call themselves,” Priest Wesley said. “They’re unholy. They don’t believe in the truth. They’ll have you believe dragons exist.”

“But you saw them,” I said, the frustration in my voice peaking. “I was there with you.”

Priest Wesley went silent

Beverly’s dad frowned. “What is he talking about?”

Priest Wesley smiled nervously. “Nothing important.”

“That’s not even the worst part,” Beverly said, she started to choke up. Crocodile tears started trickling down her face. “He… he broke up with me. Over some atheist who plays dungeons and dragons.”

Everybody gasped at that, except Priest Wesley. Beverly buried her face in her mother’s chest. Her parents both put their arms around her.

“Cameron,” Mum said with a frown. “This isn’t like you. You and Beverly, you were perfect together. The power couple of the church everybody said. You were such a good boy throughout this entire year now look at what’s happening to you.”

Priest Wesley regained his composure. “These woke ideologies, they will only lead you to ruin. These liberal Marxists think only of this world, they don’t know it’s temporary. We are specially chosen by God and you’re abandoning that for pagans and people who love not God, but this world.”

I rubbed my eyes. “This is what I’ve been trying to tell you. I. AM. NOT. CAMERON! I’m April!”

Everybody gasped at that. I glared directly at Priest Wesley. “You idiot! Wesley’s concerned about you. You know that? Yet here you are, so afraid of change that you’re regressing. Wesley doesn’t want that. He doesn’t need that.”

“What is he talking about?” Beverly’s mother asked.

Beverly’s father stared at me in confusion. The only one who had something to say was Beverly’s mother who blamed the ‘wokeness’.

“This child is clearly struggling,” Priest Wesley stuttered out. “Forces beyond our control have gotten to him. He could be possessed!” Priest Wesley exclaimed possessed as if we were in a cheesy horror movie only, he wasn’t acting. Even mum was baffled.

“What?” Mum scoffed, waving her hand dismissively. “He’s just been watching too many YouTube videos.”

“No, he’s possessed!” Priest Wesley yelled. “I’ve seen a Marxist spirit and she was associated with it.”

Beverly broke character and raised an eyebrow. “She?”

“He’s a boy,” mum corrected. “A fine young boy.”

“I mean he,” Priest Wesley said quickly. “Either way he is possessed by the communist ghost.”

“Do I get to speak?”

“NOT WHEN YOU’RE POSSESSED!” Priest Wesley exclaimed.

I sighed. Before I could even speak, Beverly turned away, burying her face in her father’s chest this time, crying those same crocodile tears.

“I don’t want to hear anything from him,” Beverly cried. “He’s not the man I know.”

I chuckled. “From what you told Lenna, you clearly knew me alright.” I winked at Beverly’s parents who looked confused so did my mum.

“What do you mean?” Beverly’s mum asked.

I made a ring with my left fingers and pushed my right through it. Everybody gasped except ‘my’ dad.

“No!” Priest Wesley yelled. “I will not have erroneous claims like that. You may not defile a women’s character like that…”

“Liar!” she cried. “Look at him!”

Beverly’s dad got up. “My daughter is no sinner. Take that back or I swear to God…”

I leaned back, savouring the moment. I wish Mr. Silver could see how smug I was right now.

“Ask most of our class,” I said. “Hell, ask Lenna. Beverly made a full confession in front of everybody. You don’t need to worry; she definitely confessed her sins.”

Beverly’s mum pushed her away. “Is this true?”

Beverly’s face was red, red, red. “It is but I wouldn’t have done it if I wasn’t coerced.”

Mum glared at me. “Cameron!”

“I’m going to call the cops you fucking…” Beverly’s dad spat, his face red with anger.

I stood up, towering over Beverly’s dad. “Sit down, sir.” I cracked my knuckles. “Otherwise, things won’t be pretty for you.”

The colour on Beverly’s dad’s face slowly drained as he sat down on the couch weakly. Everybody was staring at me, terrified, except for Beverly. I could swear I saw her lick her lips.

“C-Cameron this isn’t like you…” Mum stammered.

“Violence is not…” Priest Wesley said.

“Shut up!” I growled. “Your future self is an atheist.”

Priest Wesley shrunk at that statement.

“You’re right,” I said, turning to mum. “This isn’t like me. Because I’m not me Caroline, I’m April Anji!”

I shoved Priest Wesley out of his chair, whimpering like a coward. “I’ve been trying to tell you, tell all of you that I’m not April but you don’t listen! None of you do. I bet you didn’t even know your son could swap bodies.”

“I did,” Beverly interrupted quietly.

I didn’t want to think about the implications of that so I ignored her.

“You guys are just reacting instead of listening because that’s what you’re comfortable with,” I turned to all of them. “Because if you did listen, you’d have to open up your minds a little bit but that would be too uncomfortable for you, wouldn’t it?”

They all remained silent. It was my mum who spoke up.

“Cameron Huley, you are grounded.”

I sighed. I gave her the finger. Everybody gasped.

“The first sign of end times is children disobeying their parents…” Priest Wesley said, tapping his chest and forehead.

Beverly’s parents were more concerned with her apparent sexual ‘affair’ with me. I felt bad for Beverly, especially since her dad looked so angry that she looked as if she were about to cry for real. Meanwhile, ‘mum’ was eager to get me to my room. Dad on the other hand was knocked out. All of that washed over his limp snoring body. Man, I wished I were him at that moment.

I ignored my ‘mum’ or should I say Caroline’s repeated calls for me as I left the house. Mum started screaming at me from the door but I walked away, her words going over me like wind. When I reached the train station, I was glad that the train that was just about to leave was to my neighbourhood. I boarded it and made my way back to my apartment.

Cameron was a tiring asshole. I wanted to live as April Anji for a while.

…

As soon as I got home, I got a text from Samantha.

He’s in ur apartment. I’m waiting for u in my aprtmnt.

Wow, that was quick. I could finally get back my body and find out what happened to 18-year-old April. I rushed up the stairs, eager to finally find out what I’d been searching for this whole time. However, I couldn’t ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach. Cameron was a competent guy, especially considering the whole Samantha incident. There was no way in hell he’d make a blunder this obvious. Samantha seemed to share my concerns because as soon as she saw me walk past her window, she dragged me into her apartment.

“Let me take the lead,” Samantha whispered. “In case he tries to do anything I’ll try and capture his essence.”

She didn’t seem too sure. “You don’t know his true essence, do you?” I asked.

She chuckled nervously. “I haven’t talked to him for more than 20 years, of course I don’t know his essence. Judging his little blunder though I’m starting to grasp a little bit of it.”

I nodded. Samantha took the lead. I didn’t notice the pistol she held by her hip until we had already left the apartment. That made me terrified.

“Don’t shoot me please,” I whimpered.

If Samantha heard me, she didn’t say anything. She opened the door quietly, pointing the gun through the corridor. Cameron surprisingly left the door unlocked. I frowned. Why was he making basic blunders like this?

I got my answer almost immediately as Cameron burst out of the shower, running a comb through my hair and cursing. “How the hell do you get your hair to fucking sit?”

First of all, it was weird hearing your own voice without your brain filtering it through. Was I always that squeaky? It was also very weird seeing your face like without a mirror. I frowned. My forehead wasn’t that big. Was it? Cameron was had nothing on except a towel wrapped around his torso and even that was clumsily tied. Water was still dripping down his body as he sat down on my favourite sofa. He didn’t seem to notice us standing in the doorway until I spoke up.

“Hey,” I said. “You really need to work on your towel wrapping skills.”

I for real, for real did not want to see my body. I already had enough trouble with my own face and voice and Cameron’s towel was dangerously close to slipping.

Cameron let out a scream which reminded me to never scream again. “Get the fuck out of my house,” he said. “I will not be harassed.” He started randomly throwing pillows at us and each of them barely hit the mark.

Samantha crossed her arms. “You pervert. The girls come back to get her body.”

Cameron finally noticed who we were and rather than continue the fight, he just smiled in sad acceptance.

“The jig’s up, huh?” Cameron sighed, there was a look of genuine sadness in his (my) eyes. “Let me just put on some clothes.”

“Let me do that please,” I said. “I saw the clothes you picked and you have no style.”

I don’t know what happened next but as if I were being carried by a gust of wind I was suddenly back in my body, clumsy towel and all.

I turned around on my sofa and saw Cameron, his eyes downtrodden with Samantha quickly placing her pistol at his temple.

“Try any funny moves…”

Cameron smiled sadly. “You can feel essences. You know what I’m feeling right now…”

Samantha’s left hand glowed a bright white. After the white light disappeared, a look of anger flared across her face and she cursed. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.” She slapped her brother across the face, Cameron just accepted it. “You absolute…”

I ignored their fight, sneaking away to my living room to change. It was hard to with Samantha’s constant yelling, as I did, searching through all the clothes I was surprised at how unfamiliar what I was looking down at felt and how frail I felt compared to Cameron.

…

Everything around me seemed bigger. It took quite a while to navigate my body, my clothes even felt small for me. that was probably due to the fact that Cameron was taller than I was, also due to the fact that my muscles weren’t as big or as toned as Cameron’s were.

I felt dizzy and was aching for a seat. I was surprised to see Samantha sitting across Cameron, her gun safely tucked away. Samantha noting my expression filled me in on why she wasn’t as paranoid around her brother as she was before.

“Turns out my brother is a much bigger idiot than I thought he was,” Samantha said. “Useless too.”

I sat down on a sofa. “So why did you put me through the mess that was your life? You don’t seem like a pervert.”

Cameron did something I never thought he ever would. He blushed, looking embarrassed. He rubbed the back of his head, smiling sheepishly.

“It’s a little embarrassing,” Cameron murmured.

Samantha wasn’t having any of that. “Tell her why you were in her body for a whole week. You fucking…” She wrangled her fingers as if she wanted to strangle him.

“I really enjoyed living as you,” Cameron said. “Away from my parents. Alone. I was… free. It was nice being an orphan.”

“So why the fuck did you stay?” Samantha yelled. “Why the fuck did you shame me like the rest of them when you hated them as much as I did?”

Cameron looked down, his eyes barely meeting his sister’s. “I didn’t hate them. I just… realised how exhausting they were.”

Samantha started pulling at her hair, groaning in anger. “You think I didn’t know that. You think I didn’t try to let you know that. But no… Samantha isn’t joining the prayers in mass; Samantha is out smoking with her friends. Ever the good, diligent boy. A little tool of those fucking assholes.”

“Someone had to be!” Cameron snapped back. “You weren’t there when dad died in that accident. You didn’t have to sort out all the legal bullshit. You weren’t there when mum had dementia! No, you were out being happy with your stupid little family and mum’s grandkids.”

“MY KIDS!” Samantha yelled. “They don’t belong to mum. And you didn’t have to be there for any of that. Dad’s a useless bum. If mum cared about any of us, she would have dumped his ass years ago instead of watching him leach off of you or me but no. All she ever cared about was the church and how she looked in front of her dumb asshole friends who didn’t even like her because they thought she was too poor for them. Speaking of where are they? Where are my kids?”

“They’re safe,” Cameron muttered. “The CEO wouldn’t do anything to harm them. Harms the bottom line.”

There was a look of relief on Samantha’s face before she immediately went off on blasting Cameron. I immediately stopped her.

“Can you stop?” I yelled. “Please. Before I kick you both out of my apartment. As fun as it is to watch your guys’ problems are as exhausting as your parents. Speaking off, Cameron. I’m sorry but I think I ruined your life.”

“It was already ruined,” Cameron said with a self-mocking smile. “I… when I went back in time to work on this experiment I wanted to improve my old high school life. So, I started working out and cut ties with the nerds. That’s how I got into a relationship with Bev. Turns out, judging by all the rumours I ‘ve been hearing, it wasn’t worth it.”

“Why did you do all that?” I asked. “I mean Lenna, she adores you…”

Cameron frowned. “Lenna’s fat. She’s…”

Both Samantha and I stared at him judgementally.

He sighed. “I’m just like mum, aren’t I?”

He stared at Samantha. “Sam…”

“Don’t call me that,” Samantha said through grit teeth.”

“Samantha,” Cameron leaned forward. “I know it’s too late to apologise. I realised through my time as April, through my time alone that it wasn’t worth it. Everything I did when I came back to this time to try and fix my life, becoming a good Christian, working out and being a ‘good’ boy to try and make mum and dad proud, none of it was worth it. I should’ve been me, not what mum and dad wanted for me. I… I shouldn’t have tried to fix everything.”

Samantha sighed. “Whatever. I’m glad you realise.” She leaned forward too. “But it’s going to be a long time until I forgive and an even longer time, maybe never, before I decide to let you in my life.”

Cameron sat back. “I understand.” And then he turned to me. “This stupid experiment has gone on forever, it’s unethical… it’s awful. We’re not supposed to mess with time like this, mess with lives. I’ll do whatever I can to get you out of this alive.”

I was glad their little emotional moment was done but alive. What did Cameron mean by ‘alive’? The implications of that made me feel cold and my body feel heavy.

“Cameron, I have a question for you,” my voice didn’t seem real. “What happened to me? The seventeen-year-old me. Samantha told me you swapped our bodies through time.”

Cameron’s face paled. I don’t know what he saw in my expression but I know it wasn’t good. He turned to Samantha who just nodded grimly.

“I swapped your 24-year-old spirit with your seventeen-year-old spirit, by extension that means your bodies are swapped…”

“I know that,” I said. “But where is my twenty-year-old body. It has to be fine, right?”

Cameron was silent.

“Cameron,” I squeaked. I think I was crying. “What happened to the girl who’s supposed to be in this body?”

Cameron couldn’t meet my eyes; his face was pale. “She’s… she’s dead. Seventeen-year-old April is dead.”

I didn’t hear anything that happened next. Didn’t even feel what happened next as a brown bead in the shape of a bicep formed on my wrist, I didn’t care. I felt numb. She was dead. The old me was dead. Why… why did that make me feel so dead? Why did that bother me so much?

The only thing that snapped me out of my stupor was one word.

“Lloyd!” Cameron yelled. Before Cameron could even make a move, he was shot in the leg, Samantha tried shooting him but Lloyd quickly disarmed her, tossing her gun out the window and slamming her face against the wall, knocking her out.

I got up, immediately on guard. Lloyd just smirked at me, with a gun pointed at Cameron.

“Lloyd, you don’t have to keep doing this,” Cameron grunted. “You off all people should know that what we’re doing here is unnatural.”

Those words just brushed over him. Lloyd grinned, facing Cameron. “Oh yeah, I know.” He then faced me. “But I also know this girl like the back of my hand.”

“W-what do you mean?” I stammered, taking a step back as Lloyd took a step back. I looked at Cameron. “What does he mean?”

Lloyd just smiled at me. “You’ll see, spring-flower.” Samantha lunged at him from behind but Lloyd dodged her effortlessly, using his palm to chop her on the neck. Samantha crumpled like a domino.

“We have to stop this experiment…” Cameron cried out.

Lloyd walked over to Cameron, kneeling over him. “Here’s the thing, Cam. I don’t think she wants that.”

Lloyd flicked his fingers and a black circle appeared on my friendship bracelet. “And I can prove it.”

Before I could even react, the black circle expanded, swallowing me and everything around us into it. The blackness went on forever, spiralling downwards and as if I took a plunge into a black hole, I felt my body twist and rend, but it wasn’t pain flaring through it but what I could only describe as time. Before I could even comprehend what was happening, it stopped

And eventually, I did too.

To be continued…