The Switch [COMPLETED]

Chapter 1

Paisley Monroe:

"And no matter what I dooooo, I just can't keep myself from wanting yooouuu!"

I groaned and rolled over in bed, pulling my pillow along with me to block my ears against the crooning rock song coming from my sister's room next door. It was probably the six-hundredth time I had heard the same song just in that morning alone, and I had ignored it for as long as I possibly could. Now, however, there was no denying the fact that it was thoroughly stuck in my head. 

I sat up in bed and flung the pillow to the ground in annoyance, my tangled brown hair sticking up in strange places from the static caused by the pillow.

"ASHLEY!" I bellowed, struggling to make myself heard above the noise. 

Nothing. 

With an exasperated sigh, I threw the covers off of my legs and swung myself out of bed, reaching for my fuzzy pink bathrobe on the way out of my room.

"ASH-UH-LEY!" I yelled again, emphasizing each syllable with a sharp knock to my sister's bedroom door. I stood with my hands on my hips until it opened a few moments later, revealing my sister, Ashley Monroe, looking perfectly put-together, as usual, despite the fact that it was only 8:30 in the morning on a Saturday. 

"What?" Ashley asked in an annoyed tone, dragging her eyes lazily over my bedraggled appearance.

"Could you shut that crap off?" I asked, angrily gesturing towards the stereo in Ashley's room that was still blaring the annoying pop music. "Some people are trying to sleep."

"Well, maybe 'some people' need to get a life," Ashley quipped, looking pointedly at my pajamas before tugging on her own neat blouse to emphasize the fact that she was decidedly more put-together than I was.

"It's Saturday," I grumbled in response, although I self-consciously reached up and attempted to smooth my hair nonetheless. 

Ashley rolled her eyes and slammed the door in my face. I stood there for a few moments, stunned, before I heard her music become even louder in response to my complaints. 

With a frustrated growl, I turned and stomped into the bathroom. After peeling off my pajamas, I stepped into the shower and cranked the water as hot as I could tolerate it, standing there under the downpour until I had washed my anger away. 

Once my temper had cooled off, I got out of the shower and quickly dressed before rushing downstairs. My family had a very strict Saturday ritual. Breakfast was always served at exactly 9:00, and I didn't want to miss the chance to get my hands on my mom's homemade biscuits and gravy. I had smelled the sausage the second I had set foot out of the bathroom, and I was practically salivating already. 

I skidded around the corner and into the kitchen at exactly 9:00. My family was already sitting at the table, looking at me expectantly. My mom wore a small frown when she saw my wet hair and  wrinkled tank top, but thankfully didn't comment on it. She, as usual, looked perfectly polished in a tailored dress and matching cardigan set completed with a delicate string of pearls around her slender neck. 

Next to her sat my dad, wearing pressed khakis and a coral polo shirt that coordinated with the flowers on my mom's dress. He was tapping his loafer-clad feet under the table, staring at the steaming pile of biscuits and pot of gravy like a hungry wolf. 

My sister smirked at me and adjusted her blouse - which somehow just so happened to also match my parents' coral color scheme - as I sat down. 

If someone were to take a picture of the three of them, they would look like some sort of Norman Rockwell painting straight out of the fifties. All three were tall, tanned, and blonde, with perfect skin and blindingly white, straight teeth. My mom never left the house without lipstick, and my dad could frequently be found on the golf course. Ashley was four years older than me and in law school, and was basically the living embodiment of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, successful future-lawyer boyfriend included. 

And then there was me. 

I was noticeably shorter than the rest of my family, and was somehow the only one who had missed out on the blonde hair gene. Instead, mine was brown. They all had blue eyes and I had hazel eyes. They were all porcelain-skinned and I was freckled. They all wore matching coral-colored floral getups and I was currently wearing ripped skinny jeans and a loose black tank top that had been stretched from the far-too-many times I had tried to yank it out of a half-closed dresser drawer. 

Sitting there in my seat at the breakfast table and looking at each of them in turn, I wondered not for the first time if maybe I was adopted...

"Paisley?" my mom said finally after a slight clearing of her throat.

"Yes?" I answered warily, reaching slowly for a piece of bacon while keeping my eyes on my mom. 

"I thought we agreed that it was time to throw that shirt out," she said lightly, scooping a tiny portion of gravy onto one half of a biscuit before taking a dainty bite. 

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes, and coughed softly instead.

"Yes, I, uh, remember." I glanced to the side at my sister, who was smirking as she cut her biscuit in half. "It's just that I was in a rush this morning to get dressed - Ashley's music kept me up all night and I didn't sleep very well," I said in a small voice that I hoped came across as piteous rather than whining. 

Ashley glared at me over her biscuit, and I smiled slightly in victory when my mom turned her eyes away from me and set them on Ashley instead.

"Ashley?" she asked.

"It was for a project, mom...for law school," Ashley said importantly, straightening up in her chair and dabbing the corner of her mouth delicately with a napkin. 

"What on earth does Asher Halen and his stupid band of punk-rock cronies have anything to do with law school?" I asked in exasperation, finally giving in to my urge to roll my eyes. 

"Rock music?" my mom asked incredulously, her small hand fluttering to her heart as if I had just revealed that Ashley had been practicing dark magic with a secret coven of witches. 

"Ten Minutes to Midnight are not CRONIES," Ashley spat in my direction. "Besides," she continued lightly, although her voice seemed a little more strained this time, "like I said, it was for a PROJECT. Ten Minutes to Midnight and their lead singer, Asher Halen, are very popular. It was for a case study. Paisley couldn't possibly understand. After all, she's still just in high school. Very confusing time for young women, you know. Figuring out who they are and whatnot...puberty or whatever..."

I glared at her with my mouth hanging open at her weak attempt to cover the truth. My sister was obsessed with Asher Halen and had been for years. It was a complete and total mystery to me how my rock-hating mother had never found out.

My mom looked back and forth between me and Ashley. Ashley smiled her perfect Monroe-family smile, and I just continued to gaze at her with narrowed eyes and an open jaw. 

My mother raised her eyebrows once and shook her head slightly with a little "hm" noise before returning to her breakfast, and it was clear to see which sister had won that morning's little battle. 

"Aren't you a little old to have a crush on a member of a boyband?" I asked Ashley discreetly out of the corner of my mouth, looking pointedly at the class ring on her finger signifying that she had graduated high school years ago.

"Aren't you a little young not to?" she fired back in a whisper, eying me up and down judgmentally. 

I rolled my eyes for what felt like the thousandth time that morning and turned my attention back to my food.

No, my age had nothing to do with my disdain for Asher Halen and his band. I just simply didn't like their music. Anyways, I had no time to spend pining away over some stupid rich boy who had probably never had to lift a finger in his life unless it was to summon whatever random woman he wanted for the day. 

Besides, I had bigger things to worry about...

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A/N: Hello, lovelies, and welcome to my second Wattpad story! The cover right now is definitely temporary seeing as I'm just super lazy and wanted to get some chapters out there before I started worrying about cover design and all that good stuff. If you're new here and haven't read my other book yet, then go check out The Thunder Rolls, my first ever completed story on Wattpad!

Xo, Adrienna