Aida choked, pounding her chest. Aida kissed that slimy kid? Just thinking of Pritchard’s blubbery lips pressing against hers made her want to hurl.

“I’m pretty sure I didn’t like it,” Aida said flatly. “And if I did back then, I certainly don’t want to do it again now.” Aida glared at Sue, who had the decency to quail at bringing up personal issues with someone else around.

Levi coughed lightly. “I’m glad you feel that way now, Aida. I always admired you for being so patient with him.” He paused, considering his next words before offering diplomatically, “I don’t have anything against him personally, but he doesn’t really seem to have any redeeming qualities.”

“Oh, I thought it was so romantic when you told me you two kissed,” Sue said dejectedly. “I wonder when I’ll be lucky enough to have someone kiss me…”

Aida felt a tingle run through her body, and her gaze shot to Levi. Levi seemed to have been tapped by the same shock, a feeling that something important to the story had been made known, except instead of meeting Aida’s look, he was staring at Sue intently.

Levi had always given off a friendly vibe towards Sue. He was flirtatious, but the compliments and remarks had always seemed more friendly than intentional; more like statements of fact about her beauty, the same way he would compliment a bro looking swole, or whatever.

But now, he was staring at Sue as if realizing she was the only woman in the world, and he was imagining how he could make her wistful comment come true. Aida shuddered. If this was what it looked like being on this side of a dating game, she wasn’t sure she could ever end up playing another one…if she managed to get out of here at all.

Just then, the bell tolled, signaling the end of lunch. Aida successfully managed to convince Sue and Levi to leave for class, with the excuse that she needed some more rest and would therefore be skipping the afternoon classes. Levi didn’t question Aida at all, with his focus wholly on Sue; he merely started loading up the empty plates and trays, while Sue tried to help Aida get ready for rest by trying to help her change out of her uniform.

“No, really, Sue, I can handle it–”

“You need to get right to bed, I’ll come check on you after class and share my notes with you–”

“I can’t undress when Levi’s in the room, you should just go–”

“Oh, that’s right - we’ll get going then–”

Finally shutting the door behind Sue and Levi, Aida breathed a sigh of relief. First order of business.

Aida pulled out all the heavy drawers in her desk, digging through papers and flipping through notebooks to find what she was looking for.

Aha. On one of the shelves right at eye level - right in plain sight - was a slim journal in a lavender paper cover. Upon flipping through the pages, the journal confirmed its contents as original-Aida’s diary.

Settling at the desk, Aida leafed through the pages, hunting for words that could explain to her what happened between Aida and Pritchard. Finally, she found an entry dated back to—according to the small desk calendar on her desk—roughly the middle of their second year.

In the original Aida’s neat, rounded handwriting, she declared her confusion when Pritchard kissed her. Per the previous entries, original Aida had apparently considered Pritchard a Very Nice Boy, someone who was so nice because he had no motive: he would share snacks from his mother’s care packages, offer her moral support when she struggled academically (despite receiving help from Sue and Levi, apparently original-Aida was still only barely able to keep up with the curriculum), and always seemed to be around to keep her company whenever she was alone; interestingly enough, he was never mentioned in the adventures Aida recounted with Sue and other classmates.

Reading between the lines of Aida’s later entries, Annie could see why Pritchard felt entitled to act so vengefully during breakfast earlier today. After Aida expressed her confusion about where Pritchard’s feelings came from, he apologized for misinterpreting her actions as reciprocal feelings, and asked for her forgiveness - and also if she would consider him as a boyfriend. Aida said she would think about it and promised (she wrote it right there) that she would get back to Pritchard (and she did think about it, for several entries after), but there were no further entries about any conversations with Pritchard after. It seemed that Aida thought since she had come to her own conclusion about Pritchard (the words she wrote when she reached her conclusion was that she didn’t see him as a romantic partner—what was really interesting was that she really seemed to struggle in parsing out her feelings), that was all she needed to do.

Pritchard didn’t approach Aida for months afterwards, until right before final examinations. Aida’s handling of that conversation made Annie want to rip Aida’s diary apart: she acted clueless, making the boy repeat and relive his humiliation. He stormed off in tears after realizing Aida wasn’t going to give him a straight answer.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Nothing about the entry, no agitated change in script, no extra or crossed-out words that provided any subtext, gave any indication that Aida had a purpose or master scheme to deliberately embarrass the boy. The girl was seventeen, and literally so self-absorbed and concerned with her own comfort that she couldn’t think far enough ahead to consider the consequences of her actions.

Annie still didn’t like Pritchard, but she didn’t have sympathy for Aida either. Granted, she was a teenager, so couldn’t be expected to handle delicate situations with finesse; however, having to be the one to suffer the consequences of another person’s careless actions greatly annoyed Annie.

Annie shook her head; she didn’t like how condescending everyone was towards her, but after getting a glimpse of Aida’s thought processes…Annie really couldn’t blame everyone for having such low expectations of her. Literal head of air.

Tossing the diary onto the desk, Annie pressed her knuckles into her temples. Aida’s hair is so soft and smooth. Annie curled a lock of Aida’s hair around her finger as she thought.

Reading Aida’s diary was a slog. Annie did keep a journal on and off throughout the years, but she had never gone back and reread any entries. Her journal was just a place for her to dump her worst thoughts without fear of judgment from others, a place she could release her true, petty feelings without having to worry about how she might look. After purging her feelings, she could then focus on the more productive task of how to move forward. Once she had worked through the problem that had driven her to spill her tears and frustrations onto paper, she tended to feel better, armed with a path forward; therefore, she had never had to revisit her moments of weakness.

But Aida’s diary—was odd. Aida’s writing seemed so detached, like she was narrating what happened to her, offering labels for what she was allegedly feeling, but not providing any details that indicated the events actually happened to her. Annie hadn’t read other people’s diaries, but she didn’t think people would typically keep diaries in such a dry manner. There were no hopes or plans for the future, just words that conveniently told the reader what Aida had gone through.

Unnerved, Annie flipped to the most recent entries. Aida didn’t mention any discomfort or ailments that foreshadowed having another soul transplanted into her body. It was literally just more lists of what Aida did during her days, with nary an indication of what she wanted. It was the most recent entry (still written in Aida’s impersonal but neat hand) that made Aida pause.

Mother and Father spoke to me before I returned to Maglica. They told me they appreciated my efforts at school, but we had to be realistic. With my grades and ranking as they are, the best option to secure our future is marriage. They have begun talks with some of the local families. Mother assured me as long as I do my part and graduate Maglica, that will guarantee me at least a family beyond Father’s journeyman status in the sanitation industry. They promised they will have suitors prepared by the time I return home from school.

Snapping the book shut, Aida tossed it back onto her desk and pressed her fingers against her forehead. Her time limit—the one school year—was a lot more critical than she thought. In a way, this was worse than her original life; at least her real parents didn’t try to pawn her off via marriage. An arranged marriage was a huge gamble, one that Annie wasn’t willing to take. Given how casually Aida’s parents mentioned the arrangement, Annie had a feeling refusing the marriage would do more harm to her reputation in this world than insisting she make her own way in life—especially if she didn’t have the magical ability to back it up.

Gazing out the window, Annie watched as students convened in the quad. It was early afternoon, and the relaxed bodies of the students indicated they were done with classes for the day and fully planned on enjoying their free time before dinner started. Several students took up positions facing each other, their wands in their hands. It didn’t look like they were fighting each other seriously; the groups of students on the side were eyeing the matches with casual interest, sometimes hooting or clapping when a participant pulled off a particularly notable move.

Curious, Annie leaned over the desk to get a better view. She was too far away to distinguish any identifying characteristics among the students, but she could see the sparring matches weren’t simple stand-your-ground-casting fights; the participants were weaving around, avoiding enemy attacks while also casting their own combinations at their counterparts.

Annie was fascinated, then immediately disappointed as she realized all five of Aida’s low stats would make it so that she likely wouldn’t be able to win in that kind of environment. Almost nearly as immediately, she rallied as she recalled that she had visual breakdowns of her improvement. If only she had that kind of concrete evidence that she was improving in her normal life, then it would be a lot easier to remain motivated and maintain focus on her goals, so that she and her family didn’t have to constantly suffer.

It felt like a bucket of cold water poured over Annie, bringing her back to reality, as she stared at the obviously unreal scene of elemental combat in front of her.

How would she return home? Annie was certain she wasn’t dreaming: her thoughts were coherent, not a mixed jumble of ideas that made sense as they surfaced, but would slip away as she tried to parse out further details; things happened chronologically throughout the day, all events proceeding rationally with no major aberrations; no inexplicable time skips where she couldn’t vouch for what she was doing.

Annie brought nothing of hers with her as she entered this world and bodysnatched another person’s life. She had no clue how she would even find out the fate of what happened to her original body, let alone what happened to Aida’s actual persona.

She felt a chill close in on her as she tried (but failed) to fend off the idea. Did I die in my sleep? What about my parents?

Her breath hitched. I never got to say goodnight to Mom. Thinking of her parents made the pressure of the day and dismal realizations of her position unbearably heavy. In this world, there was no one to share the burden with Annie. She was completely alone.