I still hadn’t been able to blink or turn my head. I tried to look down, and finally my eyelids blinked. I thought about opening my mouth, and my head looked down.
Every time I tried something, my body would do the movement I tried to do the minute before! I was always one step behind myself. Just attempting to move was making me sweat.
Now that my head was looking down, I realized I wasn’t seeing my spaghetti shirt.
I was staring at Chad’s clothes!
Oh, man!
It worked! The switch had actually worked!
I wasn’t me!
I still felt like me, but I was inside Chad’s body.
Chad’s body! Oh man, oh man, oh man. This was the biggest, bizarrest, most fantastic, whacked thing that had ever happened in my life.
But I was paralyzed! I was in the most excellent body in all of Shadyside, and I couldn’t get it to work right!
This was worse than being me!
What if I was stuck like this forever?
I tried to lift my hand. I blinked instead. I tried kicking the wall and my hand lifted. I tried to make a fist, and I kicked the wall.
I couldn’t live like this! I wanted my body back—and fast!
This switch was a stupid, stupid idea. Obviously, something went wrong.
Could it be made right?
With a whoosh a hole opened in the wall in front of me.
A tall, skinny, dark-haired dorky guy stood there grinning at me.
Spaghetti and chocolate pudding stains covered his red and white shirt.
It was me! I was looking at me!
Or at my body, anyway!
“Hey!” he said. In my voice! “Hey . . . Chad.” Then he grinned again.
I managed to open my mouth, but couldn’t make a sound. I tried to blink, and “Hey yourself” finally popped out—in Chad’s voice!
Oh, man!
“It takes a minute or two for your brain to adjust,” he explained, “unless you’ve switched before. Come on out!” Then he turned away and did a flip.
A flip! In my clumsy body! Never in a million years could I make my body do a flip.
“So now you know,” Chad said, grinning a big dorky grin. Light bounced off his—my—braces. “I have done this before. That’s how I know how safe it is. You’ll be okay in a couple of minutes.”
By thinking one thing and doing something else, I managed to get out of the change chamber. I didn’t even trip over the door sill.
“You have to open the door,” Chad said, pointing to the yellow-green circle on the wall. Even though I knew there was a door there, I still couldn’t see it. “It’s keyed to my body’s thumbprint.”
“Open the door?” I protested. “I can’t even walk yet!” But I could walk better. The lag time between my thinking of an action and doing it was getting shorter.
“It’ll get easier. Just don’t think too hard,” he reassured me.
I wandered around, getting used to the feel of Chad’s body. I checked out some of the weird machines. I was leaning over a little square yellow one with two big black patches on it when Chad yelped, “Don’t touch that!”
I stepped back. “Why not?” I asked.
“It’s not finished. It still malfunctions,” he explained. His voice squeaked just the way mine did when I was really nervous.
“Oops,” I said, and grinned.
“And keep away from the yellow circle,” he instructed.
“Fine, fine, fine.”
I went back to walking. Strolling. Then, okay, I admit it, skipping. Let me tell you, I was beginning to feel good. So this is what strong feels like, I thought. I can definitely get used to this!
“Come on, you’ve wasted ten minutes already,” Chad whined. “We only have an hour.”
It was weird. He was such a cool person when he was in the body I was using. But now that I was him and he was me, he sounded really irritating and uncool.
I bounded over to the wall and pressed my thumb on the yellow-green patch.
The door whooshed open.
I loved that door! I wondered if I could get Chad’s dad to install one at my house.
I jumped through the door, landed perfectly, then jumped again just because it felt great.
“Yesss!” I exclaimed.
“Close the door,” Chad said.
I pressed the yellow-green patch on the outside of the shed, and the door vanished.
“Listen,” Chad said. “I want to look around as you. You can go do what you want for an hour. Make that fifty minutes.” He checked his watch. “Let’s meet back here at four-thirty so we can switch back. What time do you have?”
I glanced at my watch. “Quarter to four.”
“Good. Don’t be late. Otherwise—big trouble!” Then he turned and dashed off.
My eyes followed him down the driveway. He moved like an athlete. He almost made my body look good.
I sneaked away from the house. I didn’t want to run into Chad’s parents.
For one thing, I wouldn’t recognize them.
But even worse—what if they told me to get inside and start on homework? Do chores? What a waste of my hour that would be!
I hit Fear Street running.
Now that I was used to this body, I could appreciate what a good deal I had gotten. Everything worked so well!
I ran fast and didn’t get out of breath. I didn’t trip over cracks in the sidewalk or fall over the curb.
I raced down Park Drive and up Hawthorne. My muscles pumped like a lean mean machine.
I cruised by Shadyside Middle School. Some kids were playing basketball in the school yard. “Hey, Chad!” they yelled. It took me a second, but then I realized they were talking to me! “Come on over and play!”
These were cool kids! The kind of kids who wouldn’t even say hello to Will!
I ran onto the court and someone tossed me the ball. I caught it like it was part of me. I threw it and it went right through the hoop without touching the rim. Swoosh! Right through the net.
I wanted to stay in Chad’s body forever!
We played Horse for a while. I put the ball through the basket every time. Without even trying!
I was having so much fun I never noticed the time.
“Chad! Chad!”
I glanced toward the familiar voice and saw Chad in my body. His face was red. He was waving frantically at me.
“Come on, Chad! We’re going to be late!”
“Late for what?” asked David Slater. “Where are you going with that dork?”
“Gotta go,” I said. I heaved the ball at him. Hard. It caught him right in the chest and knocked the wind out of him.
That will teach him. I grinned and strode off the court.
I gazed at Chad in my body. My tall, thin, lanky body. My face was red, my mouth half-open, showing those stupid braces, and panting from running.
For a second I thought about not going back to that mushroom shed and the purple change chambers.
For a second I thought, No way, buddy. I’m staying right here.
I looked at my watch. It was four twenty-five.
I sighed.
I had to go back. We had made a deal. I don’t back out on a promise.
I raced over to Chad.
“Hurry! We’ve got to hurry or we may be too late!” he urged.
“Too late for what?” I asked.
“If we don’t change back right now,” he told me, gasping for breath, “we could stay like this forever!”
4
“Come on, come on, come on,” Chad muttered as we ran.
Amazing! I could run faster than he could. That’s never happened before.
He sure was sweating!
We snuck around the house again. “Open the door, open the door!” he hissed at me. I pressed the yellow-green patch, and the door whooshed open.
“Close it. Hurry!”
You’re pushing it, bud, I thought. Don’t forget. I’m the one with the muscles right now!
I punched the yellow-green patch inside, and the door closed.
“Now do exactly what I tell you,” he said. He led me over to the control panel with the colored patches on it. He told me which ones to press and in what order.
Chad hurried over to one of the chambers and stepped in. I punched patches the way he had told me to. I tried to memorize what I was doing. It seemed like a good idea.
I hesitated for just a second before climbing into the chamber. What if I didn’t go through with it? But the machine was already humming. What would happen to Chad if he made the switch and there was no body in the other chamber?
It could be horrible!
I jumped in just before the door closed.
Colored lights flashed in the slick black walls, and that weird perfumed mist flowed out again.
My skin tingled, the floor pulsed with noise, and there was a lurch in my stomach.
And then it was over.
I blinked. My eyes worked right away. I glanced down at my stained shirt, my long skinny hands.
I was me again. Will.
Bummer.
Chad must have run really hard in my body. I had trouble breathing, and I had a stitch in my side.
The wall opened and Chad peered in.
“Come on,” he ordered, pulling me out by the arm. “We’re really late. You okay?”
“I guess I am,” I replied in my own voice.
I followed him to the door and stumbled over a little blue box. Yep. No doubt about it. I was back in my own clumsy body.
We left the shed and snuck by the house. I got on my bike and rode as fast as I could back toward home.
I pedaled past the school yard where sinking baskets had been a breeze when I was Chad. Where kids wanted me to join their game. Those kids were still playing basketball, but nobody called out to me. One or two of them even gave me dirty looks, as if they were mad that I had dragged Chad off.
If they only knew.
After being Chad, I hated being me even more.
* * *
After dinner that night we took our regular places on the couch. Mom on the left, Dad on the right, and me and Pepper in the middle.
Pepper is nine. She has short curly brown hair and a lot of freckles, and her eyes are green. She’s still short, especially compared to me, but Mom says we Kennedys are late bloomers. Pepper might turn into a giraffe sometime soon.
As usual, she clutched one of her creepy porcelain dolls. She has a lot of dolls. She collects them.
Dad had rented a couple of action-adventure videos. He was looking for ideas for the Judo-Jabbing Coyotes.
I usually love those movies. Only tonight I wasn’t into watching them. Tonight I was thinking about how it felt to be Chad. Jumping up and dropping the ball right through the hoop.
Looking at the other kids. Seeing they wanted to be like me.
I was thinking about being Chad when I carried the stainless-steel bowl of popcorn back to the living room.
I wasn’t watching where I was going.
I tripped right over our basset hound, Dumbbell, and spilled popcorn across Mom, Dad, and Pepper. Not to mention Dumbbell, who didn’t mind eating it off the floor.
“Wow, Will! Takes talent!” Pepper said.
“You okay?” Dad asked, staring at me as I sprawled on the floor.
“Sure. Sure,” I muttered.
He looked at me a little longer, his face concerned. Then his expression changed. His eyes sparkled the way they do when he gets an idea. He scribbled some notes on his yellow legal pad.
I knew I would be seeing another Judo-Jabbing adventure featuring Rocket Riley, the clumsy jackrabbit who kept spilling things, tripping over things, and messing everything up for the Coyotes.
When Dad puts Pepper in a cartoon, he calls her Paprika, the super-snoopy chipmunk.
Paprika always does cute things.
Riley always does dumb things.
Sometimes I hate Dad’s job!
I bet this kind of thing never happened to Chad.
If I could just be Chad again for a while, maybe I could figure out how to move without tripping.
Maybe I could practice and learn not to fall over things.
At that moment all I wanted was to be Chad one more time. . . .
* * *
The next day at school Chad seemed to be everywhere. He was always surrounded by adoring fans, or answering some teacher’s question, or doing handstands in the school yard. Just for the fun of it.
I didn’t have a chance to talk to him until we were on the sidelines together halfway through gym period. He was playing an awesome game of basketball. And he wasn’t even sweating. Me? I was gasping for air.
“You look like you could use this,” Chad said, offering me his water bottle.
The words popped out of my mouth. “Chad, can we switch again? Please? Even if it’s only for another hour?”
Chad gazed at me. Then he shook his head. “I almost got in trouble yesterday. You didn’t watch the time. I was late!”
“It won’t happen again.”
“You bet it won’t, because you’re not going to get the chance!”
He picked up a spare ball and spun it on one finger.
That could be me, I thought as I watched him.
Before I got to be Chad, I didn’t realize how good I could feel. I had gone along being Will the Spill because I didn’t know there was an alternative.
Now I knew. It made being me seem so much worse.
I tried to think of something to convince Chad to make the switch, just once more. Then somebody yelled something.
I turned and saw a basketball heading straight for my face.
5
The basketball zoomed toward me, getting bigger and bigger.
Yesterday, when I was in Chad’s body, I could have stopped that ball from hitting me. No problem.
Today? No way. If I tried to do anything, I would either make a fool of myself or get hurt even worse. Besides, it didn’t matter anyway.
So I just stared at the ball speeding toward my face.
A hand shot out in front of me.
Chad’s hand. He deflected the basketball.
“Hey!” Chad yelled at someone on the court. “Watch where you’re throwing that, you dope!”
Since it was Chad, the kid actually apologized.
I just stood there.
“What’s the matter with you?” Chad asked me in a low voice.
I shook my head.
“You got a death wish or something? That ball almost creamed you!”
I shook my head again. How could I tell him I was too bummed about being me to bother? Instead, I muttered, “Thanks.”
He squinted his eyes and gazed at me for a moment.
He turned and watched the kids running around the court, dunking, throwing, jumping. Then he looked me up and down. “It’s the body-switch, isn’t it?” he finally asked.
I hung my head and nodded.
Chad sighed. “Listen. If it means that much to you, we can switch again.”
My head popped back up.
I was going to get to be Chad again! If I didn’t think I’d fall over, I would jump for joy.
This time I was going to figure out how he moved the way he did.
This time I would remember what it felt like. And then I would take all that coordination, strength, and skill and bring it back with me to my own body.
Yes! This time everything would be different!
* * *
That afternoon Chad and I snuck around to the silver mushroom shed in his backyard. Chad stopped before the entrance and gazed at me. “Listen,” he said finally. “You’re not so geeky. All you need is a little more practice in a body that works better.”
Then he made an incredible offer. “Do you want to switch for the weekend?”
“Awesome!” I yelled. Yes! Two whole days of being Chad!
“Shh!”
I put my hands over my mouth.
“You c
an’t tell anybody, do you understand? Nobody.”
“I won’t!”
“We switch now, then we meet back at the shed at seven-thirty Sunday night. That’s after dinner at my house. When do you guys eat?”
“Six. We should be finished by then.”
“Okay. We can switch then. That way we won’t have to be each other at school.”
“Can we really get away with this?” I blurted. “Won’t your parents notice?”
“Nah,” he assured me. “You’re going to look exactly like me. Don’t worry. It will be fine.”
“So where do you live?” Chad asked.
I told him my address over on Kent Place. “My sister’s name is Pepper and my dog is Dumbbell,” I said. “My bedroom’s the first one on the left up the stairs.”
“Mom and Dad are just Mom and Dad,” Chad said. “My room is the second door on the left from the top of the stairs.”
We compared watches. I changed mine to match his.
Chad opened the shed door, then yanked me across the threshold. The door whooshed shut.
“I think my parents are home,” he explained as he crossed to the control panel. “We have to be extra careful to not get caught.”
I stepped into the purple chamber while Chad hit the colored patches. It was just like the first time. The weird stinky smell, light show, pink mist, and the pulsing noise under my feet, revving faster and faster.
When the sideways lurch came, my stomach turned over again. For a minute I felt paralyzed, but this time I was calmer. It only took me a couple of seconds to be able to move. I looked down. I was inside Chad’s body again.
Oh, man! This was great!
The door whooshed open, and I jumped out, feeling how strong and springy my legs were.
This time would be even better. This time I would remember how Chad’s body worked. I had a whole weekend to figure stuff out!
Chad acted strange as we headed for the shed door.
He stopped in the center of the round room. He gazed at all the stuff in the shed, as if he were trying to memorize it.
He frowned for just a minute as I touched the yellow-green patch with my thumb and the opening appeared in the wall.
Then he smiled.
I wasn’t used to watching my own expressions. I was especially not used to seeing my face looking like that.
His smile looked almost, well, mean.