Accidentally Tasha

Chapter 5

Quote

It is not true that life is one damn thing after another. Life is the same damn thing over and over. (Edna St. Vincent Millay)

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Tasha's room is exactly like I expected. Everything seems to be pink! From the duvet to the curtains and the Barbie doll collection, the whole room screams of quirky girlishness. I hate it. I head over to the miniature book shelf next to the desk and find a stack of novels. I have to admit that I am quite surprised. I expected Tasha to be the kind of girl who gets a migraine simply by reading the spine of a book. Although her taste in books does not quite match mine, I have to applaud her for her loyalty to the same writers. Most of the books belong to Sophie Kinsella, Lauren Myracle, and one I'd not heard of; Lori Foster.

There is an English textbook on the desk and a pen and notebook stuck in one of the pages. It seems like the family has not touched her room since her disappearance. I open the textbook and study her handwriting on the notes she'd made on the notebook. It seems like she was studying Wordsworth. At the edges of the page I notice small writings that she had made probably when her attention had began to wear out. She had written the name 'Cal' over and over again accompanied by love hearts and words like 'forever' and 'ily'. I smile at that. Girls like Tasha seem to be constantly in love.

I head over to her closet and gasp. There seems to be clothes enough to last me a lifetime. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to have as many jeans as I'd like to have. Most of the clothes are short dresses and skirts. Most of the shoes are high heels too. I am confident that I can impersonate Tasha in most of the things, but heels I am absolutely unsure that I can.

I hear a knock on the door and shout, "Come in!"

Mom comes in and stares in surprise at the mess I've already made.

"Wow," she says.

I shoot her a charming smile and say, "kids."

She laughs and opens the door a little wider to reveal a girl my age. She is of medium height and has a toned athletic body. Her face isn't exactly what I'd call pretty; she has plain features and an equally plain stance. In fact nothing about her makes her stand out.

"I'm going to leave you girls." Mom says.

I look at the girl and wait for her to say something. She doesn't. Instead, she looks at me with an almost awed expression, like she can't believe it's really me. She must notice my discomfort because she suddenly adopts a mortified expression.

"Oh my gosh! I must be freaking you out!" she says.

At first, I don't think I should answer because really, what do you answer to that? She continues looking at me as though she's expecting me to say something so I say,

"Um, not really. I just don't remember you."

"impressive." She mutters beneath her breath.

"What?" I ask.

"Nothing." She quickly dismisses.

"So, what's your name?" I ask.

"Of course!" she slaps her forehead with her palm "How stupid of me, you don't know anything."

"I know everything there is to know, it's just that I don't remember." I say, somewhat put in the defensive by her nonchalant tone.

"Sorry." She says and then walks towards me smiling "I'm Kathleen. Well, Kate to you. I'm your best friend."

"Olivia didn't mention you." I say.

"She doesn't like me much." She says.

I notice what she doesn't say aloud, that there's a story behind her and Olivia not clicking, but don't say anything to that effect.

"Tell me what I'm like at school." I say.

"There's so much to tell!" she squeals as she scrambles for the bed and makes herself comfortable.

Once I've got Kate talking, it's hard to put an end to her. One story leads to another and so on. At some point I stop listening but she doesn't even notice. Somewhere in the middle of a Tasha breaking some poor guy's heart mom knocks on the door to announce dinner.

"I have to go!" Kate exclaims.

"No, don't. I'm having so much fun!" I lie.

"I can't. I'm sorry."

I pretend to look disappointed and say, "Okay."

I follow her downstairs and see her out. She gives me a goodnight hug and asks,

"I'll see you on Monday?"

"What's on Monday?" I ask.

"School, duh." She smiles and heads out.

"School." I repeat to myself.

I had seriously not thought about that. How am I going to cope? I don't plan on staying here long but there is a difference between lying to four people and lying to hundreds of others. The spotlight is obviously going to be on me. I can already see the school's newspaper headline. HEAD CHEERLEADER RETURNS WITH AMNESIA. Ugh, I cannot handle all that attention.

"Tasha! The food is getting cold!" mom calls.

"Coming!"

I hurry to the dining room and see dad and mom already seated.

"Hey!" I grin at dad and kiss him on the cheek "I didn't know you were home already."

I pretend not to see him and mum grinning at each other.

"I arrived while you were in your room," he says.

I notice that he speaks to me while smiling. That kiss was to deliberately mellow him, which it did perfectly. He has already let his guard down. I sigh inwardly and congratulate myself for overcoming my biggest obstacle.

Now, about those mashed potatoes though...