In the media box is Brynn/ Melanie, played by Kelli Berglund :)
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"This is so exciting!" I said setting bowls of snacks on the table in my living room.
"I don't feel excited." Melanie said quietly.
I pouted. "Come on, Mel! Turn that frown upside down! My friends will love you."
Tonight was the night that we were starting phase one of our swaping plan.
It was simple: I'd go to her school in her place and change her image a bit. I'd try to get the jerks that tormented her to back down and finally leave her alone. Then, while I did that, she'd go under the protective wings of my best friends and learn the ways of our group. With their help, I was hoping to get Melanie out of her shell a little more. That way, when we finally switched back, she'd be able to handle everyone on her own.
Tonight, though, was going to be the first night that she would meet my friends. They were crazy and fun, and they would probably intimidate her, but it was better that she get used to them right away. It was like ripping the band-aid off. They were a wild group of girls, but I loved them to death. Before Mel, they were the closest things I had to siblings.
We finished setting the snacks on the table and we sat down on the couch. They would be here any minute. We had already changed into our pajamas and I was bouncing with excitment for the sleepover to come. Since I met Mel I hadn't been spending any time with my friends, and I missed it. But now they were going to know. All three of them.
There was Clara: the girly-girl, Maeve: the artsy one, and Marina: the flirt. I was the 'spitfire', or so they say.
Melanie looked around the living room anxiously. I could see her try to mentally trying to calm herself down. Her eyes found the family portrait of my parents and I and turned sad.
"Do you ever feel lonely here?" She asked me.
I shrugged and gave a weak smile. "I got used to it."
Lonely had become a constant in my life, along with the absence of my parents. I loved them and it was hard to be without them so much, but they had a good reason for leaving. They'd been living this life since before I was born.
When I was just six months old I was adopted by a beautiful couple. The husband, Michael, was a neurosurgeon and the wife, Camille, was a registered nurse. The medical field was how they met, when Cammy was at the hospital applying for a job and she passed Michael in the hallway. They said it was love at first sight. Everything was perfect until they found that they couldn't have a baby. Then they found me.
That's the story they told me every night until I was nine, anyway. It was two and a half years ago when I was fifteen that everything changed. Michael was an excellent surgeon. One of the best in the country. So it was him who was offered a huge opportunity. The only catch was he had to travel to different countries for special cases and surgical emergencies.
So, of course, my mother decided to go with him, but they both agreed it would be easier to travel without me there until I finished school. They paid for the house I lived in, but I had to get legally emancipated so that I could live by myself. They got my approval of course, and they didn't just force me into this situation, but the house wasn't the same with only post cards and weekly phone calls to my parents.
And as it turned out, Mel's life wasn't too different. Though she wasn't emancipated, her parents were gone a lot of the time. They were business partners and travel agents. They'd become pretty well-known and their service was high in demand. Melanie and I grew even closer bonding over our similar lives.
Excessive knocking on the door disturbed the silence. I jumped up from the couch and ran out of the living room to it, with a giant smile on my face. I flung the door open and three figures charged at me.
"Hi guys!" I chirped happily.
"What the hell, B, you've been totally MIA for weeks!" Clara said accusingly. Her shoulder-length, blonde hair was pulled into a tiny bun on her head and her stern look was ruined by her fluffy pink pajama pants.
"I thought you died. I was waiting for a call from your parents telling me when the funeral was." Maeve said casually. Her short red hair was styled up in it's usual fashion and she wore red and black plaid shorts and a band t-shirt as her pajamas.
"Well, nice to hear that you care so much, Maeve." I said dryly.
She shrugged. "I knew your ghost would be back."
"Okay, enough with the small talk, you said you were going to explain why you've been un-reachable." Marina cut in. Marina looked ready for a fashion show. She had her long black hair curled and she was sporting some tight black leggings with a thin white tank top. This wasn't unusual for her though; she loved looking her best, even before bed.
I smiled widely. "Yeah, that's right." I bit my lip. "Okay, you guys are going to freak out. Just don't get too loud, or you'll scare her."
"Her? What are you talking about?" Maeve asked skeptically.
"Just follow me. Remember to stay calm, got it?" They all nodded.
I took a deep breath and walked slowly back into the living room with them following closely behind. Melanie was sitting on the couch where I left her, staring at her folded hands resting in her lap. She looked up slowly through her bangs.
"This is Melanie. My twin." I said calmly. I looked at them to see their reactions. They stood in the doorway with their jaws dropped.
"Guys?" I asked after a couple of seconds.
"Are we on punked?" Clara asked in a breathy voice.
"What the fuck is that? A clone?" Maeve was almost yelling.
She watched way too many Sci-fi shows.
"Maeve! Don't be rude, it's sitting right there!" Marina scolded her.
Oh, Marina. Always thinking of others. I rolled my eyes.
"Okay, that's enough. Melanie is a 'she' not an 'it'. And yes, she is sitting right there. She is not my clone, she's my twin." I said.
They were silent for another minute before Marina spoke up.
"Why the hell didn't we know you had a twin?" She yelled at me.
"Calm down Mari, I didn't even know I had a twin." I explained.
"That's so awesome! How did you meet?" Clara asked excitedly.
I smiled and looked over at Melanie. She looked slightly uncomfortable as they crowded around and examined her but I saw a small smile on her face. I dove into the story of how we met as we got fat off of junk food.
We spent the rest of the night talking about anything and everything. My friends interrogated Melanie about her whole life, and when they were done we filled the silence with funny stories about our past. No one kept track of the time but, soon enough, we were all asleep.
The next day we all decided to go to the mall to start what we liked to call "confidence lessons" with Melanie. We went to one a little farther from her town to be sure that we wouldn't be seen by her classmates. We walked through the doors into the cool air conditioned building.
"Okay let's get started." Clara placed her hands on her hips and turned to Melanie. "This is going to be a piece of cake."
"It is?" Mel asked with uncertainty.
Clara nodded. "This group is the epitome of confidence; in different ways, of course. This is going to be like one of our regular days at the mall, and all you have to do is follow our lead. Sounds easy right?"
"No." Mel sighed. "But, fine."
I smiled and linked my arm through hers and the group walked towards a clothing store. I looked down at Melanie. She was wearing some of my clothes that I picked for her: a lavender sheer top, white ripped jeans, and some black ankle boots. I tried getting her to leave her hair down this morning but she fought me before settling on a side braid.
We separated and walked around the clothing racks. We only took a minute or two before we decided that the store had nothing good.
"Come on, let's go to the one over there." I pointed to a small clothing shop with alternative music pouring out of it.
My friends followed me but Maeve stopped at the jewelry rack.
"Wait guys." We paused and looked at her. "Hey, Mel, you want a belly button piercing?"
Mel's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. We all laughed.
"No! Definitely not." She crossed her arms over her chest.
"Why not? We all have one." Maeve grinned.
Mel turned towards me. "You have one?"
I shrugged and nodded. "Yeah. It's really no big deal. You should get it. Maybe not today, but sometime."
"I don't think so." She said nervously.
We had walked around for about two hours before we all agreed to get something to eat.
"Why do I need new clothes?" Mel asked again as we made our way to the food court.
Clara rolled her eyes.
"Because, you only own jeans and plain t-shirts. You need to change it up a little." She replied.
"I want Mc Donald's." Maeve said.
"So, go get some." I said simply.
"You want me to go by myself?" She stared at me.
"You're a big girl, Maeve. You can do it." I talked to her as if she were five.
She smacked me in the back of the head before walking away and I glared at her.
When we were all sat around the table, Marina immediately dove into her story about the guy at Panda Express 'totally flirting with her'. It made me happy seeing Melanie interact with my friends. She seemed so natural.
"Those guys keep looking over here." Marina said suddenly.
I glanced over to where she was looking. Sure enough, a group of guys around our age were looking at us with smirks.
"Yep." I said without interest. They looked like wannabe jocks with bad attitudes. Nothing I wanted to associate with.
"I don't know how you do that." Marina said.
"Do what?" I asked.
"Hot guys are checking you out and all you say is 'yep'. Is there something wrong with you?" She asked.
"No, Mari, I just know that those guys probably just want a quick hook-up."
She shrugged and turned back to bat her eyelashes at them. I rolled my eyes.
We finished eating and decided to leave. Mel now had practically an entire new wardrobe and she was begging us to stop buying things for her.
"Wait, I have to pee." Mel said.
I laughed. "Then go pee."
She blushed and nodded before turning and racing toward the bathroom. The girls and I looked at a cell phone case cart while we waited for her. I heard giggling behind me, but ignored it until there was a sharp tap on my shoulder. I turned to find two girls standing in front of me with their hands on their hips.
I raised and eyebrow. "Yes?"
She looked surprised but composed herself. "Wow, Melanie. I never thought I'd see you in a mall. Did you finally decide to buy yourself a new personality? It's about time."
My eyes narrowed. "Yes, actually. It sucks though, they were fresh out of snobby bitch. You must have gotten the last one."
Her eyes widened even more, as if she wasn't expecting me to retort. She thought I was Melanie, which meant that they probably went to school. I tried to keep my face neutral as I turned to Maeve.
"Hey, can you go check on Brynn?" I asked stiffly. Which really meant 'can you go make sure that my twin doesn't walk out of the restroom right now and ruin the whole plan?'
She immediately understood and speed walked toward the bathroom.
I turned back to the girls in front of me.
"I see you learned how to use daddy's money and bought yourself some friends." The girl said. The anger in her voice was growing.
"Actually I don't have to spend any money. My sparkling personality is payment enough." I shifted my weight. "Is there something you needed or did you just want an excuse to talk to me?"
She scoffed. "Please. As if I'd actually look for a reason to talk to you." She took a step toward me. "And I don't know who you're trying to be, but it isn't working. You're still the same pathetic piece of trash that you have always been. That isn't going to change any time soon."
I was fuming. How dare she talk to my sister like that! I knew that technically she was talking to me, but her words were still meant for Melanie. I was about to pounce when Clara grabbed my arm and kept me back. I turned to glare at her and tried pulling my arm away but she shook her head and gave me a stern look.
The blonde seemed satisfied with my silence and flipped her hair before walking away. I angrily turned toward Clara. "What the hell, Clara? That girl deserved to get knocked down!"
"You aren't thinking clearly. Do you honestly think a fight would help the plan at all?" She said calmly.
I took a deep breath. She was right, of course. Clara was always the voice of reason. We balanced eachother out well. I nodded at her in agreement before going into the bathroom. I grabbed Melanie and dragged her out of the mall before anyone else saw us.
On the way back to my house I told Maeve and Melanie the rest of what happened while they were gone. Melanie looked like she was going to throw up when I got to the part about the barbie girl's threat. Apparently, her name was Hanna and the other girl was Tasha. They were the worst of the bullies.
"What are we going to do?" Melanie asked in a shaky voice.
"Stop worrying, Mel. We're going to do what we planned." I said simply.
"What do you mean?" She asked.
I gave her an 'are you serious?' look. "We're going to swap places."
"Are you sure we still should-"
"Of course I'm sure, Melanie. I've never been more sure. Those bitches do not get to treat you like that and walk away with smiling faces. They're going to regret everything." I said. My anger started to build again.
"Brynn, you promised this wasn't going to get us arrested." She said in an almost teasing tone.
I smiled. "No, I just promised that the plan was legal. And it is-I think. But I didn't promise that I wouldn't do illegal things outside of the plan. I have free range."
She laughed and I smiled.
"I'd hate to interrupt this truly fascinating conversation but, what are we doing now?" Maeve asked from the back seat.
"Well tonight, we start preparing. We've got three days." I said.
"Three days?" Marina asked.
"Three days." I confirmed. "The plan is going down on Monday."
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Hey, so here is Chapter One!
Thanks so much for reading :) I would love to hear what you think so pleassee LIKE and COMMENT
I will try to have chapters up kind of frequently.
I am actually very excited for this book, I already have each chapter planned out. Also I will very likely be updating My Best Friend Is A Player by Monday :) The beauty of a three day weekend! So there's that.
As always this is un-edited so if you see any mistakes that are bugging you, please comment them and I will fix them right away :)
Thank you for reading! Until Next Time..
~Lori~