Switched

Sitting next to Ashley Knotz was the last person I wanted to sit with. But considering she was the only person that I knew on the bus that was from my class hour I sat down next to her and gave her a polite smile, but she didn’t even see it considering that she was too busy looking at herself in the mirror. Ignoring her, I waited for the bus to move. About twenty seconds later, she finally closed her handheld mirror, smacked her newly glossed lips and looked at the person who was sitting next to her, “Cammie!”

I smiled at her once more and allowed her to snake her arms around my shoulders, not necessarily a genuine hug. When she finally let go, she looked at me with her big brown eyes, “Aren’t you excited?!”

“For...what?”

“This field trip!”

“I don’t see why you would be excited about going to a museum when you clearly told me yesterday that you hated school and everything associated with it.”

“But this is going to take me out of school for a good two hours, meaning I’m going to miss Pre Calc and Western Civilization two!”

“Aren’t those the classes you’re failing?”

Ashley blinked at me, her smile still intact, “Your point?”

I shook my head and smiled, “Nevermind.”

“So how’s Kasey?”

“He’s...good. You know, being my boyfriend and all.”

“You guys are still together?”

“Yeah. Yeah we are.”

“Hmm.”

Sighing, I laid my head against the back of the seat and waited for this field trip to be over.



“So, you’re the Camilla Scott, aren’t you?” A voice said next to me.

I looked up from my worksheet, and smiled at the guy standing next to me, “Yeah. That’s me.”

“I would like to congratulate you on your success with every school dance you’ve planned out.”

“Thank you.” I mumbled, “Sorry, who are you?”

“Brian Haner Jr. But no one adds the Jr part.”

“Fascinating.” I said, not looking up from my worksheet.

“So, what are you doing tonight?”

“My Spanish homework.”

“Boring, what else?”

“My trig homework.”

“Dull. Next?”

“Sleeping...?”

“Naked?”

“What?!”

“Nothing. Nevermind.” He sighed, winking at me and walking away, “See you later.”

Raising an eyebrow, I walked to the Fountain of Equality and looked at the guy standing in front of it. He was rather concentrated, and he was friends with that Brian guy, yet, he didn’t act anything like him.

“Your friend's flirting techniques could use some improvements.”

He looked up from his paper and snorted, “His techniques are meant for girls with little to no self respect. Or virginity. Or innocence.”

I scrunched my nose in disgust, “Lovely.”

“Very.”

“You are his friend, right?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

I shrugged, “You don’t act like him.”

“He’s my friend, not my relative. Goes to show that we’re not all the same.”

“Never said you were.”

“Saying that I don’t act like my more than sexually active friend is kind of implying that we act the same.”

Sighing, I realized that I was being a bit stereotypical. “You’re right. Sorry.”

“None taken.”

“So you’re Zacky, huh?”

“That’s me.” He said smiling for the first time.

“I’ve never seen you around before. I’ve only heard about you.”

“I wouldn’t be able to see amazing people either if my vision was clouded by Barbie dolls.” I saw him smirk and in response, I flipped my hair to my other shoulder. “Sorry. I mean friends.”

“Incoming!”

Wide eyed with fear, I saw Andy Sickle running towards me at full speed, bumping into me. I wobbled on my feet and I grabbed the nearest thing next to me which unfortunately happened to be Zacky. We both fell in the freezing cold water. Spitting out the water and shooing the fish away from me. Zacky was the first to get up, he looked at himself and his face turned red with anger.

“What the fuck did you pull me in for?!” He yelled at me.

I flinched, not being used to such a loud voice. “You were supposed to be my anchor!” was the only thing I could spit out.

“Why would I waste my time trying to save you?” He hissed, stomping off to the bathroom.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Ashley Knotz giggling with Andy Sickle, her phone in one hand and her arm hooked around his arm. Tears welled up in my eyes and I quickly blinked them away, taking deep breaths as I steadily tried to get out of the water.

“Need a hand?” A voice said.

I looked over at Brian to see that he had a grimace on his face, I took his hand and gave him a weak smile. “Thank you.” I croaked.

“No problem.” He smiled back, turning his back as he walked off to the bathroom to check on his friend.

Taking my eyes off his back, I noticed that everyone was looking at me, my hair was wet, my clothes were ruined and I just wanted to go home.

“Are you alright, Miss Scott?” Mr Mullen asked.

Smiling again, I nodded and walked out to the sun in hopes that my clothes would dry just a tiny bit before we had to load on the bus again.



By the time the bus came back, my clothes and hair were still damp but not as much as they would’ve been if I hadn’t stepped out into the sunlight. Mr Mullen excused me from the assignment considering that when I attempted to turn it into him, the paper was smeared with red ink. But that wasn't as bad as loading up into the bus again. I was one of the last ones to get in, everyone stared at me and let out remarks as I passed, I looked over at Ashley who was sitting next to Andy, giggling and whispering into his ear. But her giggling gossip wasn’t as bad as the icy glare Zacky gave me. All the seats were taken except two, one next to Zack (not going to happen) and one next to Boogery Bruce.

“Just do it!” I heard someone hiss.

“No way!”

“Twenty bucks, dude. Tomorrow morning. I promise.”

“Fine. You owe me.”

I looked over to see that Jason Carrell got up from his seat next to Brian and he sat next to Boogery Bruce. Brian looked at me and smiled as he nudged towards the free spot next to him. I sighed and sat on the leather, almost slipping when my butt met the seat. He laughed and I looked down at the floor.

“How are you feeling?”

“Wet.”

“I can see that.” He smiled, “Don’t worry about Zacky, he’ll get over it.”

“Not sure about that. He gave me the death glare more times than I can count.”

“He gives everyone the death glare, that shouldn’t stop you.”

“Why are you being nice to me? I just pulled your friend into an icy cold puddle of water.”

“Because one, it wasn’t your fault, no matter what that grouch says and two, because you’re letting me be nice to you.” Brian said, a smirk tugging at the end of his lips.



When I got home that day, the first thing I did was take a shower and change into my pajamas. Once I had done so, I called my dad’s work number.

“Doctor Scott.”

“Hi Daddy,” I say smiling into the receiver.

“Hey pumpkin. How was school?”

“Good. How is work?”

“Slow.”

“That’s good news right? No one is getting hurt that much today?”

“None as much as I would like.” He said chuckling into the phone, “You sound croaky. Are you getting sick?”

“No, it’s just that it was a really bad day at school today.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Cam. You know, I’m coming home early tonight. You wanna talk about it then?”

“Yes please.” I sniffed.

When my dad had finally arrived from work, we ended up not talking about what happened today. Instead, we had watched a movie, listen to me cry, and eventually ended up sleeping.

“Goodnight, Cammie.” was the last thing I heard that night.