*BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...*
"..."
*BEEP!... BEEP!... BEEP!...*
"......"
*BEEP!!!...BEEP!!!...BEEP!!!...*
I gave up on resisting the alarm any longer and finally opened my eyes. It was Monday which meant it was that time of the week where I had to give a status update on the project they assigned me at my internship. I groaned and began fighting my body to turn off the ringing alarm clock when I realized something was very wrong. The familiar environment of my apartment was nowhere to be seen, I was in a bedroom I had never seen before.
“What the hell…”
*BEEP... BEEP... BEEP...*
I slowly got out of bed and turned the alarm off. I then slowly looked around the room trying to piece together how I got here. Did I blackout and sleep at someone’s house yesterday?
“I swear I made it home last night…”
I looked at the clock and noticed it was only 7 in the morning.
“Ah doesn’t matter, I need to get back home and get ready for work.”
Ignoring the lack of hangover, I found myself glad this alarm was still set since it didn’t seem my phone had gone off today. I looked around the room for the guilty phone in question to no avail. I exited the room thinking I must have left my phone somewhere else. I heard some noise coming from down the hall and figured whoever’s house this is must already be up. Before I went to greet them, I figured I should empty my bladder in the bathroom that was right next to the room I woke up in.
I flipped the switch and as I passed the mirror I slipped and bashed my head on the wall after seeing the unfamiliar shape in the mirror. After several seconds soothing my head I managed to get back up and take another peek.
“What the fuck!?”
There was an unfamiliar face in the mirror. A teenage boy, black hair with a bowl cut… and an unrecognizable face. It also wasn’t just my head, I quickly noticed my body was also very different. I looked at my body and noticed it had become much skinnier and smaller. My muscles honed from years of powerlifting and football were gone.
As I stood staring at this unfamiliar figure in the mirror there was a knock on the door followed by the unfamiliar voice of a girl.
“Ray! Are you ok? Mom and I heard a loud noise!”
I opened the door only to be greeted by a young girl who seemed to be about ten years old.
“Great you’re ok! Hurry up and get changed so you eat breakfast, you don’t want to want to be late on your first day of high school!"
Before I could form a response, she had already disappeared in the direction I had heard noise from earlier. I slowly closed the door, took a deep breath, and proceeded to get my knees and have a mild panic attack. After a few minutes of hyperventilating and trying to calm myself down, I managed to get back on feet and tried to rationalize what the hell was happening.
Why did I look like this? Where am I? High School? Why did she seem to know me and call me Ray? As much as I didn’t want it to be true, I could only come to one conclusion.
“I... seem to be in someone else’s body…”
I had already injured myself enough to know I wasn’t dreaming so that was the only thing I could think of. How did this happen? Does that mean the real Ray is in my body now? I honestly wanted to stay in that bathroom all day, but I needed to figure this out. After washing my face, slapping myself a few times and headbutting a wall once for good measure I left the bathroom and headed for the direction the mysterious girl had gone.
I arrived to find the mysterious girl sitting on a table eating breakfast, and a woman who seemed to be somewhere in her late 30’s - early 40’s washing dishes. As soon as the woman noticed me she said.
“Ray, what took you so long? I know you’ve been enjoying summer break but it’s time to get used to waking up early again. Your food is already cold and if you don’t hurry and get your uniform on you’re going to be late.”
I honestly had the urge to scream and ask them what the hell was going on but I figured that wouldn’t take me anywhere. These people really do seem to think I’m this ‘Ray’ person. So rather than looking like a maniac, I decided to eat my cold breakfast and started to think about what to do.
Now that my stomach was a little less empty I had figured out what my plan was for today. I went to Ray’s room and began dressing myself in the navy colored suit that was already laid out by who I presume was either Ray or his mom.
“Now if only I could remember how to tie a tie…”
The last time I had worn a suit was 6 months ago when I was interviewing for my internship, and even then, I spent a good 10 minutes looking up instructions on my phone to finally get the knot done.
“It’s 201X, this guy has to have a phone here somewhere…”
I looked through his drawers but could only find a crappy flip phone that looked like it came right out of 2005. There’s no way this is it right? Smartphones are dirt cheap at this point, there’s no way a high school student wouldn’t have one. If his family can afford to send him to private school then a simple smartphone shouldn’t be a problem, right? But soon my worst fears were realized as I opened it.
“It’s charged…”
“And has a signal…”
I was honestly flabbergasted; what person honestly uses a flip phone? Was this a punishment by his parents? Ignoring that, since I finally had a phone it was a prime opportunity to get in contact with Ray. If my alarm rang as it should, then Ray should be awake right now.
“This is not a valid number *click*”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
What… I know I’m not the best at remembering numbers, but I’m not stupid enough to not have my number memorized… I let out a loud sigh, decided to try a few different numbers, my girlfriend, my parents, my roommate, some of my friends, all gave the same response… Am I sure this phone even works? I decided to give up on the phone and realized that I would have to deal with the tie situation on my own.
After much of trial and error, I managed to tie a knot what wouldn’t immediately self-destruct after 3 seconds and I noticed the clock said it was 8:10. Since Ray’s mother hadn’t kicked me out yet I’m guessing school started either at 8:30 or 9:00. Not that it mattered to me since I had no intention of actually going to school. My priority was to find out where I was and contact Ray, who I presume was in my own body and work together to figure out what the hell was going on.
A grabbed Ray’s backpack and did a quick search of its contents. While it was mostly useless junk like notebooks and pencils, I did manage to find Ray’s wallet. Inside I found his school ID which let me know that his name was Ray Westler. But more importantly, it made me realize something.
“This isn’t English…”
This card was in an unknown language I had never seen before. I couldn’t even say it resembled any language I’ve ever seen. But I had no problem reading it. And I was in too much shock to have realized sooner, but the people living here, they weren’t speaking English either.
A thought suddenly popped into my head. What country am I even in? And why was I able to understand their language? Did it something to do with me switching bodes with Ray? This house didn’t seem to have anything in it to give me any insight into the issue, nor were its occupants. Ray’s family seemed Caucasian, was I somewhere in Europe? It seemed like an average home that could be from anywhere, although it seems nicer than anything I could afford. Too many things are cluttering my mind, I need to calm down and just continue with my plan.
I grabbed my backpack and headed for the living room when I noticed there was one more person here than there was previously. A girl, she seemed to about Ray’s age and was wearing the same uniform that I was wearing although with a skirt instead of pants. Our eyes meet, and an uncomfortable silence lingered that made me more and more uncomfortable with each passing second. I eventually managed to let out a greeting.
“Hey…”
“Hi, Ray.” The mystery girl spoke in a deadpan voice.
Another uncomfortable silence began to set in.
“Alright, I should get going, see you all later.” Not wanting a repeat of a few seconds ago I hastily let my voice out.
“Alright, both of you try to have fun on your first day!” Ray’s mom announced.
“Goodluck you two!” The girl who I assume is Ray’s sister also announced as we both left the door.
Since I had no idea where the school was, I made sure to walk slightly behind her. I thought as soon as I left the house I would have a chance to calm my anxiety but if anything, it only got worse as we were walking. Who is this girl? Given we were the same age and the fact she had brown hair I doubt she’s his sister. She must be one of his friends. Still, this is making me uncomfortable… Why is she so quiet? Is this normal or did she notice Ray is acting strange and this is a response to that?
Although I was looking forward to a moment alone to calm my nerves, at least now I don’t have to worry about finding the school. I wasn’t originally planning on going to school but now that I have a guide I might as well go. The school is sure to have a library with computers I can use to get info on where I am. I probably won't get a chance to go there until lunch but it beats my original plan of just skipping school and wandering around like an idiot questioning random people I could find.
Along the way I made sure to take notice of the scenery, trying to get any clue as to where I was. But as much as I tried I couldn’t get a reading on it. Maybe I’m just stupid but none these houses gave me any clue as to what my location was. I did notice that these houses were nice, almost all of them seemed to have 2 or more floors which made it stranger that they were strangely close together with not much room for a lawn or backyard like in America, but that info didn’t really help much as I had heard that big lawns and backyards are a strangely American thing.
“Ah..”
As we finally arrived at the school, something dawned on me. Since I didn’t plan on coming here, I didn’t think of the fact that I had no idea what classes Ray had. This is starting to become a pain in the ass. Maybe I should just skip school.
“Is something wrong?” The girl responded to my accidental blurt.
“No, I just realized I don’t remember what rooms my classes are in. I guess I’ll go ask the main office.”
“I don’t know if you remember, but we’re are in the same class, we can go t-together you want...”
“All of them?”
“W-we only have one class…”
“Right… Lead the way then.”
We began walking when the girl must have finally noticed something off about Ray.
“Ray, are you feeling ok?”
Ah, crap. Alright, keep it cool.
“Of course, what makes you say that?”
“I-its just that you’ve been acting strange all morning. On the way here, you were so quiet and had such a serious expression on your face. You also kept looking back and forth while we were walking…”
“Ah, I was just nervous on the way, sorry if I worried you.”
At this time, we finally managed to make it to the classroom and I separated myself from the girl so that I could find my seat. Just when I thought I would get an opportunity to relax I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned around and found myself greeted by a blond man. It must be one of Ray’s friends. Great…
“Yo Ray, how’s it going man? Haven’t seen you in a while.” The man cheerfully said as he patted my back.
“Great, great, and you?” I responded with a generic response.
“Never better! But enough about me, tell me a little bit about what you’ve been doing. *wink”
“What”
“I’m talking about that girl you came here with. Who is she? How do you know her? How can I get to know her?”
This dude is annoying. How the hell should I answer these questions? He doesn’t know her either? Did Ray just barely meet her? Or this dude not even close with Ray.
“Not important, not important, no.”
“Ah don’t be like that man. Isn’t it normal to be interested when my best friend is showing interest in girls for the first time in his life?”
“Is that so… I’ll tell you later then, the teacher is here.”
“I’m going to hold you to that”
The class started and I could finally relax. The classes themselves were boring but I did learn something interesting about schools here. Apparently, students stay in one classroom mostly and the teachers are the ones who move around to teach. It reminded me of the way schools are set up in Japan. I had no idea any European schools did things like this.
Lunchtime finally arrived and I bolted passed the door and began marching through the hall to look for the library when I was stopped by blondie
“Dude where are you going, it’s faster to get to the cafeteria this way.”
“Sorry man I gotta go print some stuff out at the library, ill be late to lunch.”
“Alright, if you’re ok with leaving me afraid and alone in the cafeteria go right ahead.”
“You seem nice, I’m sure you can make some friends.”
“ ’Seem’, huh.”
“I know what I said.”
With that note, I left blondie to face the awkwardness of the first day of high school alone and proceeded to look for the library.
I got to the library and the first thing I could notice was just how crappy these computers looked. Big fat gray CRT monitors with equally gray desktops. You would think that such a nice school would have nice computers, but I guess schools cheap out on computers no matter where you go.
The computers interface was familiar and different at the same time. I was able to navigate to what I assumed was the internet and it unfortunately confirmed the nagging suspicion that had been growing all morning.
This definitely isn’t earth. At least it isn’t my earth. I had been too focused in the whole body switching thing that I didn’t pay attention to all small details that were off. My non-working phone number, the strange language, even the strange way this school is set up. Maybe I had subconsciously realized this already and had stopped myself from thinking too much about it back then so that I didn’t have a bigger mental breakdown this morning than the one I already had. Well I guess I gotta face reality now.
I let out a deep sigh.
“Damn, I’m hungry.”