SCRIPTUM | A Short Story Collection

Schoolgirl Swap

What happens when the popular girl and the geek swap places?

Brooke Wish strutted into school, causing students to step aside and clear a path through the crowd or be hopelessly ridiculed for the rest of their life. Among those students was Jazzy Smith, standing right in Brooke's path. As she tried to hurry out of the way, she tripped over her shoe lace and landed sprawled on the floor right in front of Brooke. She lowered her head as the rest of the school snickered.

"Ex-cuse me?" Brooke kicked the girl lightly with the toe of her pointy boot. "Move!"

"I-I'm sorry." The girl picked up her things and hurried into the bathroom. Brooke's cheerleader friends caught up to her as the girl disappeared from view.

"That was pure gold," Courtney snickered, holding up her video camera. "I'll send it to Ali right away."

Ali was the director of the school's daily newscast and had the power to get anything to show up on the screen during lunch.

"Yeah, like, who does she think she is?" Brielle added as they walked over to their lockers.

"No one messes with Brooke Wish." Brooke said, trying to shove the pile of red and white pom-poms that came tumbling out of her locker back in. "No one."

~~~

"Yes, and then you would find the second part by...'" Jazzy Smith, certified geek, was trying to focus on what the leader of the girls math club was talking about, but her mind kept drifting back to the incident of the morning. Jazzy sighed and stood.

"I'm going to use the bathroom, 'kay?"

The crew merely nodded and Jazzy hurried off. She ducked into the bathroom and promptly crashed into Brooke Wish, who for once, was alone.

"Whoa! I mean, uh, sorry," Jazzy muttered nervously, closing her eyes.

"Geek," Brooke huffed. Jazzy opened her eyes once she heard the sound of squeaking against the floor, assuming Brooke had left. She gasped at what she saw instead.

"What?" She breathed.

"What?" Brooke snapped back.

"Look!"

Jazzy's shriek must've scared Brooke because she whirled around, staring first at Jazzy, then the mirror. Her eyes widened and she let out the loudest scream Jazzy had ever heard.

"What did you do?" Brooke cried.

"Nothing!" Jazzy shouted back. The girls stared at each other, then each faced the mirror. Jazzy lifted a perfectly manicured hand to her lips but Brooke smacked it down.

"I don't care if this is real or not, but as long as you're in my body, you're not going to bite my nails."

"Sorry," Jazzy muttered. Jazzy looked in the mirror again. She couldn't get used to staring back at a perfect girl with a perfect body instead of her own usual frizzy mess.

"How do I get out of this?" Brooke groaned, reaching into her purse. Then she realized that she was no longer holding her purse, she was holding a thin tote bag.

"Oh. My. Gosh."

"Listen, Brooke." Jazzy fiddled nervously with Brooke's purse strap, causing Brooke to slap her hand again. "Brooke, um, I think we have to take care of this after all our after school activities. Because, um, they're going to notice me missing. And that's going to be bad for my track record."

"Seriously?" Brooke picked at an overgrown cuticle. "Fine. But you have to play sick for cheer. Promise me you won't destroy my life."

"Only if you do the same."