by LM Wilson
“Dude, you are a chick.” I laugh, shaking my head in exasperation.
“Yeah well you’re going to ruin my reputation. I don’t call chicks babe or baby. That implies that I am in or want a relationship with them.”
“I only said babe cause that’s what you called me back in the bathroom.”
“Exactly.” Red spreads across his cheeks as I frown at him in confusion. We stand there staring at each other for a few moments, tension thick between us. Raine finally shakes his head. “Come on, we’ve got another three hours to kill, let’s play that game of truth or dare.”
“Fine, truth or dare?” I say sitting down on the floor with my back leaning on the side of his bed. I take the opportunity to study the body I’m in closely as he gets comfortable. The mirror hanging on the back of his open cupboard door across from me makes it easy to do. I really adore the darkness of his hair and the way it makes his skin look softer, almost pale in comparison. His eyes look almost too big for his face, giving him an ethereal beauty that suits him, but as with the first time I saw him, it’s his fascinating eyes that hold my attention the most. The colouring is such a deep shade of blue that they almost blend in with his pupils.
“Truth.” He finally replies sitting down across from me effectively blocking out my view of the mirror. His choice of truth shocks me out of my musings, I thought for sure he’d be the type of guy to pick dare every time.
“What was the last thing you searched on your phone?”
The long messy hair flopping into his left eye makes it hard to tell what he’s feeling most of the time, but he does have a couple of tells from what I’ve noticed. Like now for example, his blue-black eyes narrow as he studies me. I’m curious if he’s shocked or annoyed, then he grunts out, “Why would you ask such a stupid question?”
“You’re supposed to answer not ask a question. Besides you said it would help us to get to know each other so we could get away with no one finding out we switched and knowing what someone searches for on their phones gives you a good insight into who they are as a person.”
Raine’s face once again flushes red. “Fine, I’ll take the dare.”
“So, porn?” I laughingly ask.
“No! I don’t search for that shit.” He growls the words and I suppress a laugh.
“Protesting too much.”
“Fine, I googled you.”
I can’t have heard that right. I stare at Raine for so long that he starts to squirm. “Truth or dare Noob?”
“Truth.”
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
“No. Truth or –.”
“Dare.” Raine declares, cutting me off.
I think for a moment, running over ideas like, daring him to kiss me or other ways to make him as uncomfortable as I am right now, then it hits me, “I dare you to tell that girl the truth about why you don’t date.”
“No.” He clenches his fists in his lap and I instantly feel like pushing him more to see how he’ll react.
“That’s not how it works, you have to do the dare.”
He glares at me. “Fine, I choose truth instead.”
I groan in frustration. “Are you going to do this every time?” I’m sure my face is a mask of annoyance but he doesn’t even bat an eye at the look I give him.
“Only if you ask or dare stupid things. Truth or dare?” He smirks. The corner of my lips turn up and I find myself frowning, it’s not fair. I’ve tried many times to get my lips to turn up into that smirk and I never had any luck making them do it. Here he is smirking in my body and he makes it look effortless.
“Hey that wasn’t my question.” I growl.
“It was a question, I answered. Now truth or dare?” He quips.
“Fine, truth.” I say with a huff. He sits there in silence for a few seconds, then nods his head like he’s agreeing with something.
“Why are you here at Abaddon Academy?”
“Mum was murdered.” I whisper. Raine jumps to his feet and suddenly I’m engulfed in a hug. Which feels really weird considering he’s me and I’m him. Just as quickly as it started, he pulls away and leans down to peer under the bed. He pulls a box out from under the bed. Curious as to why he hugged me then stopped hugging me, but not game enough to question him, I peer into the box. It’s filled with board games, monopoly, backgammon, chess, mancala… “Let’s play scrabble.” I say snatching the game up. I study him while he thinks about it. I would never have picked him to be a board game type of guy. The way he looks – when he isn’t in my body – is more bad boy who you’d expect to be found smoking and drinking while playing poker or riding a motorbike.
“Fine but let’s make it interesting, you can only use words that are swear words, dirty words or words that have double meanings.”
Ahh now I get it. Bad boy who uses games to seduce girls….
♡
Chapter: Joey
Almost an hour later, my swear word vocabulary is increased and I now know more words for fetishes that I ever wished to know. I beat him by four points though so I can’t really complain. Both of us are smiling when another knock on the door interrupts our argument over what to play next. “If that’s another pissed off girlfriend, I’m going to let her kill you.”
“You like my body that much that you’d risk being stuck in it forever, huh?” He winks at me as the person on the other side of the door starts banging on it again.
“Asshole.”
“Aww you love me.”
Again, with the flirty winks. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he’s actually interested in me. “Eww, no I don’t.” I say blushing.
“Aww you’re going to hurt my delicate feminine emotions.” He tries to pout and I crack up as I open the door.
“Why the fuck aren’t you in class Raine?”
“Uh –.” I fumble, staring at a guy who is the spitting image of Raine but in much nicer clothes.
“Oh, I see.” The guy remarks blandly as he straightens the lapels on his jacket. “Not even in this school for a week and already jumping into my brother’s pants. I actually expected more from a Kale.”
Brother? Well that makes sense. He turns to glare at me again. I take a good look at him and that’s when it hits me, this is the principal of this school. He can’t be more than a year or two older than Raine, how the hell is he in charge of this place?
“Oh, she jumped into my pants alright.” Raine laughs making his brother glare at him. And ask, “What?”
“Um, I’m Joey Kale, that’s your brother.” I point to my body that Raine is currently occupying. The principal looks from me to Raine then back again. His dark brows pulling down so far, they’re practically touching in the middle. “Yeah, cause that’s believable.” He turns his blue-black eyes back to Raine. “Get out!”
“Uh, no. Look River, we were going to come see you after school let out. I figured you could tell us what the fuck is going on with the whole body switch thing.”
“Look, I can take a joke as much as the next guy but this isn’t even funny.”
I growl in exasperation. “It’s not a fucking joke. We were arguing in Elemental studies and I took off. I ran to the girl’s bathroom and then a few minutes later this hot flash went through my entire body and when I looked into the mirror… I saw this face instead of my own.”
“I went looking for her and that hot flash thing knocked me on my ass, next thing I know I hear a guy’s scared scream and I’m bursting into the girl’s bathroom, only to find someone wearing my face. Then I look in the mirror and I find out I’m in Noob’s body.” Raine explains his part.
“You came looking for me?” I ask, genuinely surprised by this information.
“Well, yeah. You took off and Doc said I should go look for you, make sure you were okay.”
“Okay, while that’s sweet and all, are you two fucking serious right now?”
“You know, you don’t really talk like a fucking principal and while we’re at it, how the hell are you
even old enough to be one?” I ask glaring at River.
“Fuck, you really aren’t Raine.” His eyes go wide before he runs his hand over his face much the same way Raine did while he was losing at scrabble.
“How the fuck do you know?” I ask placing my hands on my hips.
“Well to start with, Raine knows I’m thirty-two. Secondly, no one talks to me so disrespectfully, not even my idiot brother.”
“Shit, sorry.” I hang my head in shame at snapping at the principal.
“Give her a break, she’s new and well, we are kind of having a bit of a bad day.” I could kiss Raine for helping right now. Wait, what? No. No kissing anyone.
“I’ll say. Have you tried switching back?” River asks.
“We don’t even know how it happened in the first place.” I grumble. River shuts the door and sits down on the end of Raine’s bed. He shakes his head then gets to his feet. Sits back down then gets up again and starts pacing. I glance at Raine but he just shakes his head and mouths, “No idea.” River stops, faces me then asks, “Have you tried shifting?”
“Raine tried but I shifted not him.”
“No, have you tried shifting?”
“Um, I don’t know how to shift.” I say the words so fast they almost blend together.
“Shit. What element are you?”
I hold my hand out forgetting for a moment that I’m not in my own body, at the same time Raine says, “Fire but she has this weird mark on her palm and the fire symbol is smaller and off centre.” He holds his hand out showing off my marks.
“Fuck!” River drops down on the bed and curses again while scraping his hands over his face then back up through his hair. “Fuck!” Raine and I exchange a confused look. “Neither of you are to leave this room. I’ll be back soon.” Without looking at either of us, he dashes out the door.
The second the door shuts I let out the breath I’d been holding, startling myself. “Uh, well, that didn’t exactly go to plan.” I deadpan as I take the spot on the end of the bed that River just vacated.
“I’ve never seen him look so worried before, maybe this is worse than we thought.”
I can’t even look at Raine in my body right now. Having the principal look so worried brought all my fears of being stuck like this back to the forefront of my mind. “Don’t say that, I don’t want to be a guy for the rest of my life.” A tear drops from my eye and Raine sits down beside me, awkwardly patting my back. His attempt at comforting me just makes me cry harder.
“We’ll figure it out, babe. I promise.”
♡
Chapter: Raine
“We’ll figure it out, babe. I promise.” I shift her up the bed as best I can and hold her against my chest. Any other girl and I’d have made her leave. I hate seeing girl’s cry, not that she’s a girl right now, but there’s something about Joey that makes me want to protect her. That makes me want to hold her close and comfort her.
Her sobs grow quiet, her body shifting into her own.
I feel bad that she’s still wearing my clothes, so I gently strip her and then think better of it. Putting her bra and knickers on her is nearly impossible and by the time I manage that, I’m too exhausted to bother with much more. I figure that we’ve been each other for so long she won’t mind that I saw her naked again.
I wake up on the right side of my bed, my arm slung across her waist. Her body curved into mine. I ease my hips away trying not to wake her but then, as with my luck lately, someone bangs on my door. “You answer it.” She grumbles, rolling over so she’s facing me.
I keep my eyes closed and grouse, “You answer it, you’re playing me, remember.”
“Uh, apparently not anymore.” I feel the bed dip as she sits up. I gulp as she asks, “Um, Raine, why am I undressed?”
“That skirt and shirt were too tight to sleep in.” My face heats up as I tell the lie. To hide my tell, I pull my shirt off and literally toss it into her face. It hangs over her head and halfway down her chest. Taking advantage of the moment, I quickly fix myself so my morning glory is not so obvious. Just as I turn around, I see her beautiful eyes raking me over from head to toe.
“Quit drooling and put it on or whoever is at the door is going to see more than they should.” The second the shirt is covering her enough, I pull the door open a fraction, snapping out, “What?” In a harsh tone.
“Don’t what me, I have some information about your little problem.” River snarls trying to push the door open wider.
“Uh, yeah about that, it seems to have worn off while we were sleeping.” I rub the back of my neck, hoping everyone buys my little white lie. Truthfully it wore off the moment she fell asleep, not both of us.
“Oh, well good. Where’s Kale now?”
“Um, still here.” I open the door to let him see her, hoping he’ll take the hint and leave.
“You’re a split shifter.” River grunts staring at Joey.
“No fucking way. There hasn’t been a Split-shifter in hundreds of years.” I can’t take my eyes off her. If she really is a split-shifter then she’s the most powerful shifter at this school, possibly even in the entire world. It’s rumoured that Split-Shifters are able to shift into multiple forms and possess all of the elemental magics, not just one like us normal Shifters.
“Okay, someone needs to explain because I have no fucking clue here.”
River sits down on the end of my bed, not looking at her. I glare at him and he glances over to her before coughing and averting his gaze.
Yeah, you better not be looking at my girl Brother!
“A… uh… A split-shifter is a rare shifter who is able to shift into the forms of his or her uh… um….”
“Mate.” I spit the word out like it’s burning my throat. River should not be having so much trouble explaining this.
Shit, she’s my mate! That means… Oh hell no. I am not being tied down when I’m only seventeen. This can’t be happening.
“Excuse me?” She growls. “Shifter’s having mates is a myth. My mother told me that when I was little.”
“Well, I thought Split-shifters all died out.” I’m not sure who I’m angrier at. Her for putting me in this position or myself for wanting it to be true. No, I’m angrier at her. I don’t want a mate. I don’t want…
Joey flicks the blanket off, forcing River to turn his back, I don’t bother, I’ve seen everything she has to offer and despite not wanting to mate with her, I can’t help admiring the body she has. She snatches her skirt off the ground where I dropped it and shimmies her curvy hips into it. I watch, too afraid to move as she opens the door and walks away as though it’s just that easy to deny being my mate.
I won’t let this happen; I can’t be mated to anyone. I have the princess to worry about. If she ever shows up….
I watch her run off, but I don’t bother chasing her. There’s really no point. I’m not her friend. I’m not her boyfriend and I sure as fuck am not her mate.
“You know if I’m right, you won’t be able to deny it. You’ll switch back and forth until you complete the mating ritual.”
“You’re wrong. There’s no such thing as mated shifters and that ritual is just something our ancestors told as fairy-tales.” I snap.
The old stories said that mated shifters had to go through this ritual where they were tested to prove their love and devotion to their mate. According to the myths, the tests were so dangerous that most of the shifters died trying to prove themselves to be true mates.
“Look, I know you hate getting close to anyone, but if she is what I think she is, then you’ll have no choice. You can’t fight fate Raine. No matter how much you want to.” I glare at my brother, but he just shrugs and opens the door. “Just do me a favour, try not to kill any of the other guys who hit on her, a pretty thing like her is going to be really popular.” He throws over his shoulder as he leaves.
I glance at the clock and groan, it’s two in the morning and as much as I’d love to go back to sleep, I’m too wire
d to even try. After pacing for a good ten minutes, I grab my workout bag and head down to the gym.
♡
Chapter: Angel
I jolt awake from a nightmare about faceless people chasing me. After nearly ten minutes of tossing and turning, I finally get up and grab my swimming gear. It only takes me a few minutes to make it to the pool and as soon as I’m submerged in the water, I start to relax enough to shake off the lingering fear from my nightmare.
I swim a few laps before stopping and laying with my head against the side of the pool. A soft gasp comes from my left. The girl of my dreams is quite literally slipping into my life, right when I need her the most. Her foot comes out from under her and I use my air powers to catch her before she hits the tiles.
“Thank you.” She whispers, her cheeks turning slightly pink.
“Any time.” She walks down the steps, her pink bikini shimmering with each step. The girl looks good in her short skirt and white blouse uniform, but with nothing more than a bikini on, she’s a porno model. Curves in all the right places, legs that go on forever and that slim waist.
I’m going to cum right here in my swim shorts if I don’t find a distraction soon.
“I’m Joey Kale.” She holds out her hand and I grasp it within my much larger one. Her skin is so soft that I forget for a moment that I’m supposed to say something in return.
“Angel Leones.” She shakes my hand gently before letting go and sinking further down into the water.
I swim closer, trying to think of an excuse to keep her talking. “What was the name of the poet you were going to suggest in English Lit this morning?”
“Yesterday morning.” She yawns. “Sir Thomas Wyatt.”
“Ah the sixteenth century poet who rhymed ABBAABBA style.”
“You know what that is?”
“Of course, the first octave rhymes the last word of A lines and the last word of B lines with the same. While explaining a problem from the era, while the Sestet rhymes CDDECE style, explaining the solution to the problem.” Thank you google.
