When I woke up that morning I felt something was wrong. But it was a Saturday, and my parents were out for the day, so I wanted to try to sleep in. After 10 minutes of futile tossing and turning, I cracked open an eye towards where my clock was. Or rather, was supposed to be. What greeted me instead was a dresser. And blue walls, and an entirely different room than the one I had fallen asleep in.
My brother's room.
I bolted upright and looked down to find myself wearing his PJ's too. What the heck?!
"Bill?" I called out. He almost always was up early, hopefully today was no exception. "Bill?!"
I saw myself run out of my room and into the doorway. "Em, what's going on?"
I covered my eyes. "Dude, please, pull up that pajama shirt a bit. I can see your bra."
"Why do you wear a bra at night, anyway?! It's really uncomfortable!"
"I just do, okay?! Old habits from when I'd forget to put it on in middle school. Now! Shirt! Up!"
"Okay, okay!"
I peeked through my (well, Bill's) fingers to see nothing I didn't want seen was seen. We were quiet for maybe a whole minute before Bill asked, "Why does my stomach hurt so much?"
I laughed. I couldn't help it. Bill had found my period. I was spared this month. If nothing else good came out of this, at least it had perfect timing. "That is what is known as a period. Take some Aleeve, it'll help. Oh, wait, you never bothered to learn how to swallow pills, did you?!" My laugh turned into that high, screechy thing Bill does sometimes. "Wow, for your voice deepening, you still can laugh high."
"Thanks."
I get out of bed. "Not a compliment."
Bill and I make a list about all the weird things that come with swapping bodies during puberty.
1. Breasts and bras
2. Deepening voices
3. Certain male parts changes
4. Periods (Still giggling about that)
5. Mood swings
6. The merits of actually taking my antidepressant medicine, and I don't care if it's not chewable, I'm not letting you get in the mood to scratch my arm off!
7. Bill's squirrel 'stache
"What do you mean, I can't shave it off! I shave my pits every 2 weeks or so, and my legs every few months! I know how to do it, I wouldn't give you any nicks!"
"I don't care, you're not shaving my face!"
I groan. "Fiiiine. You'd look better without it, though, and then I'd have less reason to tease you."
"You'd find something, though..."
"Yeah, like your pudginess!"
"Shut up!"
I raise my hands in surrender. "All right, all right. Now, onto more serious things, how to we body-swap back?"
Bill stares at me. "How should I know?"
I sigh. "I don't know. But I guess we should find out."
"To the internet?" Bill asks.
"To the internet." I really don't want to be stuck in my brother's body any longer than I have to. I mean, any boy's body would be uncomfortable for me, being cis, but this is my brother. That's just...ew. We need to fix this ASAP.
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