The World Through Various Eyes

[17] Not a Spare Moment (Jade's POV)

The lunchroom was bustling as the freshmen and sophomores filed in. The two grades intermixed to converse with friends other than ordering their lunches and settling down in their respective areas of the room. It was a rule that the freshmen were to sit on the left half of the cafeteria, and sophomores on the right, but nobody followed that "rule". It made me wonder if even the lunch monitors were aware of the rule's existence.

The whole day up until the time of 11:30 had been a blur. I was still getting used to being Alex, and it sure took effort! Thankfully I didn't have the challenge of socializing with all his friends, as he didn't have many to speak of. The opposite was probably true for him in my place today, and I was anxious to check in with him about how things had gone.

It always bothered me that I was the more social one and for some reason, he was the self-proclaimed hermit. I never took my concern any further because his response had always been that he liked it that way. How someone could be pleased by solitude was beyond me, but I didn't want to push him into situations where he wasn't comfortable; which, ironically, had been the whole day for him.

I spotted him out of the corner of my eye and hissed quietly to get his attention.

"Alex!" I motioned for him to come towards me by the middle lunch table, and after a second, he got the message.

It must have been the most bizarre sight to see someone calling to themselves. Seeing as I was in Alex's body and he was in mine, me calling out for the person I appeared as probably projected the image that I had hit my breaking point and lost every shard of sanity I may have retained in the past. And maybe that much was true.

"Jade.." he whispered tentatively, glancing around to verify we didn't have company.

"How was the morning?"

He paused, as if reluctant to share.

"Nothing serious, right? Alex?"

"Yeah, it was okay. I'm drained, though. This 'Jade' business is tiresome."

At this, he sat down at the table closest to us, and gnawed away at his grilled cheese. Around us the cafeteria boomed with indistinct chatter and various outbursts from the largest tables, but we payed it no attention. We had other matters to settle.

Alex set down his sandwich and wiped his lips messily with a dirty, crumpled napkin.

"By the way, some girl named Mandy wants her book back."

"Oh, "Stolen Kingdoms. I'll get it to her by Friday. It's an incredible book though, you really should read more."

My best friend of nine years stared blankly at me, as if waiting for a realization to wash over me. It took me a bit, but I caught on.

"What?..."

The brunette raised a dark eyebrow at me.

"You're rambling again. How can you think of literature so much at this moment? Are you not the least bit worried about our current configuration?"

I glanced down at the outfit I had picked out this morning to wear. A burgundy hoodie and black Vans, straight from the closet in Alex's room, which I was to reside in until some miracle returned us back to our own bodies.

"Is there any way to fix this shit? We're in too deep, Jade. Can you think of any reason why this could have happened? What did we do to deserve it? Nothing, see?"

His face was red with rage and confusion, utterly overwhelmed. I wished desperately to help him, but I was in the same situation. We could only hope for the best at this moment.