Life Swap

Doubts and Brain Bruises

"Olivia...this is really good...really great research, well written up...and you are evidently very interested in the subject?" Caroline commented, leafing back through my project on the Dream Stone, as if she could hardly believe her eyes. It was the Saturday morning three endless days after my difficult sleepover with Felicity and Louise, and she had absolutely insisted on two quiet days at home since then to make sure I was not sickening for something, because she was so worried about me. So, I had insisted on finding out as much as I could about the Dream Stone, which she had to admit was not going to overexert me, whilst keeping my promise about writing it all up to send to Miss Cooper, my class teacher at Deepdene. My eagerness to turn it into a school project had evidently impressed her, and the finished article seemed to be going down well with her too. "I can scan this and email it to Miss Cooper...I am sure she will really appreciate it, darling...and I am actually quite looking forward to seeing this silly stone thing in the flesh, myself, now!"

"Did Daddy book the day off on Tuesday, Mummy?" I asked, rather pleased that she thought it was a good piece of work, but still rather more concerned about confirming our trip to London and the Victoria and Albert Museum. The research had not taught me anything new. Randolph Hoyte said it worked, if the wisher was truly righteous, and there were quite a lot of newspaper reports, all from the very end of the nineteenth century, claiming that the Stone had changed the lives of some of the people who had touched it, but the scientific community did not seem to take them seriously, unsurprisingly. It was really just a strange curiosity, and no one thought the magical possibilities were true.

"Darling...Daddy owns the business...he doesn't have to book his days off...but amazingly enough, he did remember to rearrange his diary...which is why he is working today...mainly because you nagged him, I believe?" She grinned, ruffling my hair. She was sitting at the huge kitchen table, enjoying a quiet cup of coffee, which I had interrupted by hurrying downstairs to show her the finished report. I had spent all of Thursday and Good Friday being good little Olivia, which pleased her immensely but made me feel a bit helpless, really quite pathetic and extremely little. However, it was all part of my plan to ensure that nothing stopped me getting to touch the Dream Stone again, and I was just playing a part, like an actress, I told myself. I was definitely not feeling increasingly comfortable in Olivia Montague's own skin, or enjoying being Mummy's little girl, who rather liked being looked after. "I must admit that it is amazing what you can find on the internet, if you look hard enough...and you've done a really good job in writing it up...it's really very neat, and the spelling is just about perfect...which is a huge improvement for you, Olivia...I do hope this is the sort of work we can expect when you get back to school, darling?"

"I'll try, Mummy...I promise?" I assured her, although I really hoped she would have her real stepdaughter back by then, and Olivia would not be happy about that, so I doubted if she would be working as hard as me to please her parents. I felt a huge pang of regret about that as the thought hit me, because Caroline would be really disappointed, and the girls would miss their cuddlier sister, but it was still the right thing to do, and Charles deserved to have his real daughter back, even if she was nasty as hell, as far as I could tell, to everyone. I was like a little cuckoo in their nest, just pretending to be part of their family, whilst Kelly/Olivia was doing goodness knows what with my real life. She clearly had some fairly serious problems, but they were all her problems, not mine. I cared about them all, except for Olivia herself, who I could not help seeing as the enemy, and I wanted them to be happy, but I had to look after number one. It was not my job to heal their family. I had my own life to worry about.

"I know you will, Olivia...this new leaf you have turned over is incredible, especially with everything else you have had to put up with in the last two weeks...I am so proud of you, my darling?" She sighed, taking my hand and drawing me in for a cuddle. She lifted me up as if I weighed nothing at all, resting me on her lap and wrapping her arms around me. "I love you so very much, Olivia?"