Switched // cake [completed]

nine

a/n: I cannot stop writing this fic I love it so much ALSO LOOK AT THE WAY CALUM IS LEANING INTO LUKE I CANT

Luke.

When Jenna arrived, the first thing she said was, "Oh honey, you better hope you two switch back soon, because we are getting a fuckton of work and you'll never be able to keep up."

I gulped, looking over at Calum as she pulled out some papers and dropped them on the coffee table.

"What do we do?" I asked, sighing. I ran my hand through my - Calum's - hair, trying not to look creepy as I marvelled at how soft it was.

"I'll go in your place," Calum simply said, a shrug accentuating his statement. "I mean, I'll probably have to ask Jenna for help constantly, but I'm only three years older than you. I couldn't have forgotten that much in three years."

Jenna looked over at me, and I shrugged as well, a cautious expression on my face. "Well, I mean, we really have no other option..." she murmured. "I'll keep an eye on him."

"It's cool," Calum shrugged, leaning back on the couch a bit more. "I've got nothing better to do, anyways."

I bit my lip and nodded, turning away when he tried to smile at me. It was weird. I didn't like seeing myself smile at me so fondly.

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

Calum.

It was my first hour back in high school and I already wanted to leave.

"How the hell can you do this everyday?" I hissed at Jenna, trying to muffle my yawn.

"We get used to it, now hush!" she hissed back from the desk in front of mine.

Currently, we were in History class, and I was bored out of my mind. Although the teacher was super sweet, I couldn't keep up with what was going on. I had scribbled some notes from the slides for Luke's sake, but otherwise, I really had no idea what was going on.

The next two classes were even worse. I had Spanish, and let me tell you: not speaking a language for three years takes its toll on you. I stuttered out incoherent sentences and blushed deeply when the teacher gave me a weird look and said she hadn't expected that from me. The third class of the day was art, and you'd think that would be easy. But no! Of course Luke had to be in AP Art. The advanced art class. The hard as fuck art class, in other words. I managed to get away with doing minimal work thanks to Jenna, but I had no idea how I would pull that off for the upcoming three days.

Thankfully, lunch came quickly, and we're allowed to leave campus for it. Jenna and I met up with Luke, Mikey, and Katie at a tiny, remote restaurant close to the school, and I silently hoped we didn't run into any fans. I was already having such a shit day, I couldn't watch Luke get mobbed by my fans.

"So, how was school?" Luke asked, a smug grin on his face once we had all bought our lunch and sat down at a small table, near the back.

"Shit," I stated, biting into my wrap. "I can't believe I'm back in high school. I thought I was done with all of this."

"Hey, cheer up," Jenna smiled, patting me on the back. "You only have three more days. Then we have break!"

"Oh joy," I grumbled sarcastically. "Break homework."

"You're starting to sound like 17 year old Calum again!" Katie laughed.

"I'm starting to feel like 17 year old Calum again," I muttered, turning my attention to my food.

We spent the next fifteen minutes listening to Jenna and Mikey crack jokes, constantly trying to one-up each other. However, just as Mikey was getting to the punchline of his Japanese golfer joke, I heard giggling behind us, and we all froze. Uh oh.

Luke immediately turned away, trying to look small, which was pretty hard. Katie brushed her long hair to the side, hiding her face, and Mikey put on his snapback.

But it really wasn't much use. Jenna looked over at the source and mumbled, "They've got phones out."

"Oh god," Luke groaned, hiding his face in his hands. "I don't know how you guys deal with this."

"I don't mind it," Mikey answered with a shrug. "Just... Right now seems like such bad timing."

"I'll go talk to them." Katie nodded and smiled. "That way we can get Luke out of here, and Calum and Jenna can head back to school."

With that, she got up, heading over to the smiling girls. I looked over at Luke, who was anxiously chewing at his lip. "It's not that big a deal."

"You do realise we have different accents, right?" he answered, raising his eyebrows. "Plus, you're - I'm - this body is supposed to be sick. So sick that they can't play on stage. People are going to start getting suspicious."

"Luke's right, you know," Jenna agreed, sighing. "I think it's just better if we sneak Luke out of here as soon as possible."

"I'll go distract them. Jenna, come with me," Mikey stated, standing up and gesturing for Jenna to come with. She shrugged, putting the lid back on her empty plastic bowl and tossing it out before getting up and following Mikey to the fans.

"Alright, come on," I sighed, standing up as well and swinging Luke's schoolbag onto my back.

Luke looked scared, to say the least. He stood up tentatively, one hand grasping the other arm. "I- I wouldn't be so scared, but I- I just don't want to say something and ruin your reputation," he murmured.

I smiled kindly at him, but once again, he turned away. My smile fell and I took him by the wrist, forcing him to let go of his arm and follow me. We snaked behind busy tables and quickly left the restaurant, staying close to the wall and walking quickly. Luke didn't say anything, simply allowed me to guide him back to school.

Once we were standing behind the school wall, I let him go, turning to face him. He still looked scared, but no longer trying to make himself seem small. "Luke, it's alright."

He just hummed in response, looking behind him to make sure we were alone. "I hope so. I just can't wait until we switch back."

"Yeah, me too." I bit at my lip ring and nodded. His shyness would've been endearing if it weren't for the fact that he was in my body. I wanted to see what he looked like in his own skin. Was that weird? Maybe. But I was sick of looking at him and quite literally seeing myself.

"You should get back to class," he mumbled. "Physics is next. You can sleep in that class, it's pretty basic stuff."

I nodded. "Jenna told me. What about you, how are you going to get home?"

"There's a shortcut around here," he explained, pointing to the park behind us. "I really doubt anyone's gonna see me. I'll- You'll be okay."

"Stop worrying about my reputation," I finally blurted out. "Stop, just... Make sure you don't have a mental breakdown. Being famous is hard."

He gave me a shy smile, shuffling his feet along the sidewalk. "I'll try."

I patted him on the shoulder, and he bid me good luck before beginning to walk towards the park. I sighed as I watched his - my? - retreating back, and silently hoped that we would switch back very soon.