Life Swap

Eavesdropping

"She doesn't want to change back...does she?" I suggested, as soon as I got Felicity on her own, after persuading the twins to have a go on their swings. It was almost midday, and spring was in the air, so Caroline had been happy to let us go outside for some exercise. Felicity had been dropped off around ten, but her mother stayed for coffee with Caroline, and the girls really wanted to play with us, which was sweet but frustrating. But we prevailed in the end, and after Caroline got the three of us wrapped up in our heavy red duvet coats, and Felicity had put on her dark pink overcoat, the twins dashed off to the swings and we sat on the bench where I had told my new best friend who I really was, just forty-eight hours before. It felt like a lifetime ago already.

"She is so nasty...I couldn't believe it," Felicity groaned, looking really quite relieved that I had guessed Kelly/Olivia's negative response to our email, so that she did not have to break the bad news to me herself. "She told me exactly what she thought of me...and my mum...and even Auntie Caroline...who she was really horrible about...and then she just said that she had got precisely what she had always wanted from the Dream Stone?"

"Doesn't she miss her dad?" I queried, frowning at the news I had expected, because Felicity was describing even more bitterness than I had imagined from the sound of things. I had worked out, with the help of the dark shadows inside my head, that Olivia was very unhappy in her life at Broomwaters. Chloe had said that she was angry with everything and everyone, because her poor mother had died, and then her beloved father had found a new family, one that she did not feel any part of, and did not want to be a part of. So, I could see her rejecting Caroline, and the twins, because she felt like they were trying to replace her late mother, but I also knew that she loved her father.

"She thinks he chose Auntie Caroline over her...I think...and she also said something about no one missing anyone...because as far as he knows, she is still here...and your mum still has Kelly...if you see what I mean?" Felicity said, rather uncertainly. She was confused, and upset for me, I think, but she was not thinking about it all the time, like me. It had taken me a while to get my head straight, and decipher the remnants of Olivia inside it, but I was getting there. I really thought that I finally had a handle on things.

"I think I do...I mean, I worked that out days ago...there are only two people affected by the life swap...Olivia and me. Damn it, Felicity...Charles and Caroline really love the way I am behaving...because all they ever wanted was Olivia to be happy and join in with the rest of the family?" I sighed, trying to explain things I barely grasped myself. "You should see Caroline's face when I call her Mummy...or when I hugged your mum...and the twins have the big little sister they always wanted...and Charles has his little girl back...or so he thinks? So, even if they can see that Olivia has been somehow magically transformed into the nice daughter they always wanted, they are not going to worry about positive changes...are they? And my mum still has Kelly right there, where she should be. You won't really understand it, but mum and I don't really see a lot of each other. Not like you do with your parents, or we do here...she has to work shifts, and most days, we only spend an hour or two together...and if she has a day off her stupid boyfriend is always there...and I do avoid him like the plague. If Kelly/Olivia is different to me, I am not sure that mum would even notice...not unless Olivia does something really stupid? So, everyone else is happy...and they are never going to ask any questions...if Kelly/Olivia is happy with it, the only victim here is...me?"

"So...she wished for this? She stole your life...deliberately?"

"Yes...I think so..." I said, chewing on my lip again, trying to keep my emotions in check to avoid going into meltdown. That was not really news. I had been coming to that conclusion ever since I woke up in hospital, and there was no reason to get upset all over again, because I was already sure that Olivia was a life thief. I told myself to pull myself together. I really had to stop falling apart at the slightest setback, or we would never get anywhere. "But I am not sure that it worked properly...not on my side of the swap at any rate...and that has to be because she couldn't actually touch it properly in the middle of the rampage...or maybe not for long enough...when I can get to the Stone, I will be able to touch it properly...and then, my wish should come true? I will be able to reverse things?"