The Other Side of Me – Part Ten
by Limbo’s Mistress

When the alarm went off the next morning, I forced myself to get up, rather than lie there until Katie came in to yell at me.

I threw back the covers and padded over to the dresser to trade the nightshirt for a sports bra and pulled on a pair of pink leggings with the word “Princess” running up one leg in white lettering. Because, why wouldn’t Charlene consider herself a princess? Especially as I learned more and more about the life I’d been thrust into living.

Katie knocked on the door as I was tying my hair back into a ponytail. When she poked her head in to see I was up and mostly dressed, a really smug grin appeared on her face.

“Nice to see I didn’t have to come in and shake you out of bed this morning,” she said in a smug tone.

I decided that I’d have a little fun. I planted my hands on my hips and glared at her.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean? Since when have I needed prodding to get up and work out?” I shook my head. “What are you even doing in my room anyway?”

The smile dropped from her face and she looked like she wanted to scurry away.

“I just thought … I mean yesterday … I …”

Then I laughed and winked at her, sitting down on the bed to pull on my sneakers.

“Just messing with you, Katie-Kat. It’s still Charles in here.”

Relief swept across her youthful features before being replaced by well-deserved anger. She stepped fully into the room and stalked over to me. She stood there for a second while I finished tying my remaining shoe. Then she slapped me hard on my bare shoulder.

“That shit isn’t funny, Chuck,” she hissed. “I don’t want to have to remember some stupid code word to know if it’s you in the driver’s seat or Charlene.”

I rubbed at my stinging flesh, but couldn’t stop grinning. Pulling pranks on Katie had been one of my chief sources of entertainment since we were little.

“I figured it would give you a little energy boost, sis. You know, like a shot of adrenaline to get all your neurons firing.”

She shook her head again. However, I could see that she wanted to smile. The joke had caught her off-guard, but now it seemed as if she were starting to appreciate it. The sudden change made me wonder if perhaps her and Charlene used to tease each other. Had their mother’s death snuffed the life out of that particular sibling bond?

“Ha-ha,” she said. Then a smile did appear, but one of retribution. “We’ll see how funny you are in a couple of days.” She made a tick-tocking noise with her tongue, and turned around to stroll casually back to the door. “I suggest you Google ‘how to use a tampon’.”

My mouth dropped open just as she looked back over her shoulder at me.

“You wouldn’t,” I said, rising to my feet. With everything that had happened over the past twenty-four hours, I had completely forgotten Charlene’s oncoming cycle. “Would you?”

She winked at me and shrugged. “Keep pulling pranks that nearly give me a heart attack and you’ll find out.”

By the time I got into the workout room, Katie had cued up a Pilates video and put out two mats.

“It’s similar to yoga,” she explained, doing a series of warmup stretches. “Charlene likes to mix up the activities, usually based on her moods, but she always does Pilates on Friday.”

I shrugged and began warming up as well. Even though I’d been trapped in Charlene’s body for going on a second day, I still marveled at her flexibility. Her torso, shoulders, and hips had a limberness my old form couldn’t hope to match.

Katie started the video and a rather well-defined guy with a day’s worth of scruff on his face began with a short introduction to the exercises he was to be covering. Behind him were six other people, two male and four female. All seven of them were in great shape.

We began slowly, flexing and stretching in various poses that we held until our muscles trembled and sweat broke out all over our skin. Katie was correct in her comment that the activity was similar to yoga. Only the poses incorporated motions, rather than remaining still. When the forty-five minutes was up, I felt like every bit of my body had been put through a wringer.

Rising back onto shaky legs, I dabbed at my forehead with a towel and looked over at my equally perspiring sibling.

“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “But there is no way I can do an aerobics set right now.”

She laughed softly. “Not to worry. Pilates is all we do on Friday’s.”

I rolled up my mat and went back to my room. Katie asked if she could shower first, since she needed to get to school early to work with a friend on a group project they were assigned.

“What subject?” I asked.

“American History,” she said, draping her towel around her sweaty neck and walked down the hallway with me. “We have to make a mock radio newscast that discusses an important event. I wanted to do the Challenger explosion. But Meghan thought that was stupid. So we’re going to do it on attack on San Francisco Harbor in World War Two.”

I stopped in mid-stride and looked at her. “What attack?”

She tilted her head. “Uh, December 10th, 1941? You know when the Japanese navy attacked the American Fleet stationed in San Fran?”

I shook my head, feeling a round of vertigo pass through me. It had been all too easy to simply think of myself as being trapped in Charlene’s body. The fact that I was also stuck in her universe, a different universe, seemed to get lost in the shuffle.

“Pearl Harbor, Hawaii,” I said. “On December 7th.”

She crinkled up her nose. “Why would the Japanese attack Hawaii?”

“Because, in my world, that’s where the fleet was.”

Back in my room, I grabbed Charlene’s laptop from the nightstand, planted my butt on the bed, and used the time before my turn in the bathroom to do a little snooping. I avoided the various social media sites. And those focused on current events. Instead, I typed “key events in American history” into the browser. Then I settled in and looked down the list of items that appeared.

When Katie tapped on the door and told me that the shower, and whatever hot water might still be available, was all mine, I had seen enough. If I had to make a guess, I would say that it seemed that this dimension was about ninety-five percent similar to mine. Of the five percent that was different, only a few were major differences.

The Pearl Harbor thing was only one. Same reasonings for the Japanese to attack the Americans. Same time frame. The fact that President Roosevelt pulled the fleet back to the west coast seemed to be the only factor that initiated the change. If he hadn’t made that choice, the ships would have been in Hawaii.

The others were of a similar bent. A single choice was all that it took for something to go down a path that was different than it would have been if another decision had been made.

The thought stuck with me as I washed the dried sweat away. Since crossing over into Charlene’s life, I’d made a bunch of decisions. Many of which were probably vastly different than the ones she would have made. Telling Danny to go to hell. Ditching Rachel and the Kappas for staying at home. Even if I didn’t know there were choices, they still had an effect on the course of this life.

The water turned cold, but the chill didn’t match that which crept up my spine and turned my blood to ice.

If I was over here making choices based on how I thought things should be, was she doing the same thing in my world? What if she didn’t feel the need to rely on my Katie, if she’d even bothered to inform her of the switch, to keep my previous trajectory on track? What if I finally returned home to learn she’d quit the track team. Or had decided to start a relationship with someone I’d normally not be attracted to?

I mean, despite the occasional flash of attraction to a ruggedly handsome male, I would never deliberately fuck Danny Morris.

“You have to put that shit out of your head,” I said to my reflection as I combed my wet hair. “Otherwise, you’re going to drive yourself crazy.”

However, I couldn’t just shove those thoughts into a box and lock them up. Because I was starting to realize that I could ask people what they thought Charlene might do, or say, in a situation, but the only person who could answer with anything close to certainty wasn’t around. Which meant trying to second-guess her was a fools errand.

I wasn’t going to be able to live Charlene’s life as she would have. All I could do was try to live it the best way I could, so it wouldn’t be a complete mess when she took back over.

I got dressed and sat down at the desk. While I’d been in the shower, Katie had come into the room, pulled out the same cosmetics she’d used last time, and left behind a note.

“Thought this might help you become self-sufficient,” it read in a flowery script. “Remember: less is more. Love, K. PS. I borrowed your green sweater.”

I laughed and set the note aside. I spent a few minutes staring into the mirror, trying to recall the steps Katie had used to apply the makeup on me the previous day. Due to the shortened exercise period, I felt like I had enough time to give it a couple of tries.

Thirty minutes later, I looked at my reflection, feeling as if I’d managed to get it mostly right. A pile of stained facial wipes littered the floor around the wastebasket next to the desk. The discarded casualties of my two previous attempts.

I sighed and rose from the desk. If anyone made any sort of comments about how I looked, I resolved to head to the closest bathroom and scrub my face completely clean. Until that time, I was determined to carry myself with the confidence I really didn’t feel.

The house was eerily quiet when I got downstairs. I’d heard Katie leaving while I was trying to wipe off the way-too-dark lip liner I’d applied. However, I didn’t recall hearing Dad’s departure. It was almost eight-thirty, though, so I wasn’t surprised to find myself alone in the house.

I grabbed a pack of whole-bran muffins from the pantry, filled a mug with much needed coffee, and headed off to class.

Charlene’s first class was Psychology, a class I was no enrolled in back in my world. My nine o’clock on Friday’s was Chemistry.

“This should be interesting,” I said to myself as I pulled into my assigned parking spot and climbed out of the Jeep. I slung my purse over one shoulder and grabbed my backpack from the rear seat. I’d never even considered taking a psych course. “I wonder if I could get the prof to start a discussion on the mental stress of having to cope with living in two different dimensions?”

The class was in the same hall where my sociology class was held. Only, according to the campus map I’d found on Charlene’s phone, it was on the other side of the building. As I walked down the path, I hoped I could skate through the lecture without getting blindsided by an unannounced quiz. Otherwise, Charlene was going to earn a big, fat zero.

It wasn’t until I was almost to the steps where I’d had the unhappy introduction to Rachel that I saw Shelly. She was staring at me as I walked up to her. At least I thought she was staring at me. Her eyes were hidden behind dark sunglasses, but there was a little smirk on her face.

“Hey,” I said, stopping next to her. “Are we in psych together, too?”

She laughed and shook her head. “No. I actually don’t have any classes today until eleven.”

“Then why are you hanging around. Were you waiting on me?”

She nodded. “I barely got any sleep last night. Everything going on with you, with her, just kept running around in my mind.” She tilted her head to peer at me over the tops of the shades. “You’re going to need a lot of help if you plan on pulling this off.”

I forced myself to look angry for a second, as if insulted that she would dare claim that I couldn’t fool people into thinking I was Charlene without assistance. Then I stuck my tongue out at her and grinned.

“Don’t I know it. Katie’s been a real asset on the home front. But her advanced knowledge of Charlene’s life outside of that is seriously lacking. I don’t think she even knew that her sister and Danny were acquainted.”

“Acquainted isn’t exactly the right term,” she said, her jovial mood darkening some as she was reminded of her friend’s indiscretions. “However, I think you’re a pretty decent guy, Charles. So that’s why I’m going to do everything I can to help you.”

For a second, I just stood there and looked at her. Then I leaned in and gave her a huge hug. A second later, she returned it.

“Thank you,” I said softly. “I really mean it.” I pulled out of the sisterly embrace of Charlene’s best friend and shrugged. “I know I won’t be able to do everything the way she would have done it. Mainly because it turns out we don’t think exactly the same. But I want to do my utmost to live her life the way I guess she would.”

“That’s all you can do, Charlie,” Shelly said, giving me a warm, sympathetic grin.

I felt a tiny bit of the burden I’d been carrying since waking up in Jackson’s lab fall away. Not a huge amount, though, I had to admit that some was better than none. I’d made the decision to make Charlene’s life the best I could to my abilities. Perhaps when we finally resumed our proper places, she might be mad, or disappointed, that I made choices she wouldn’t have.

However, I couldn’t drift through the next couple of months second-guessing myself.

“So, where do we start?” I asked her.

She nodded her head up the steps to the entrance of the building.

“You go to class. I’m going to head to the library and start compiling a list of things that I think we should try to work on first. Things I knew she already had on her agendas. Meet me there and we’ll go over it together.” She looked at me for a long moment, then put her hand on my arm. “We can do this, Charlie.”

I nodded, feeling something inside me pulse, making my chest ache and my vision grow watery. I reached up and started to wipe at my damp eyes with the heel of my hand. Before I made contact, though, I felt Shelly grab my wrist.

“Here,” she said, reaching into her purse to pull out a tissue. “I mean, you went a little heavy on the eye shadow, but if you start rubbing, you’re going to look like a bandit wearing a mask.” She put the tissue in my hand. “Blot lightly.”

I did as she instructed, happy that the initial wave was a solo act. I didn’t know what had sparked that reaction, but the last thing I wanted to do was sit in class and weep makeup streaks down my cheeks.

“Thanks again,” I said, sniffling.

She nodded. “I’ll be sure to add makeup tips to the list. Now, get to class before you’re late. Charlene says that Professor Mueller is a real asshole to anyone coming in after he’s started teaching. See you in an hour.”

I watched her walk off, then turned around and bolted up the steps into the building. The door of the auditorium was just staring to close as I pushed through it and stopped just inside. The student on the other side, who had obviously been in the process of closing it looked at me as I stood there.

“In the proverbial nick of time,” he said quietly, flashing me a rather flirtatious smile.

“Thanks,” I whispered back, then swung my gaze around for an empty seat. Or, more specifically, an empty seat next to anyone who might look like someone Charlene already knew.

Unfortunately, everyone was turned to look in my direction, even the man standing at the front of the room.

“Is there some grand announcement you wish to make to the class, Miss Miller?”

I shook my head, feeling my face grow warm. “No, Professor.”

He nodded. “Then how about taking a seat and allow me the opportunity to impart substantial wisdom to you and your classmates without further interruptions.”

I quickly minced over to the nearest unoccupied seat and planted my butt in it. I didn’t even bother pulling anything out of my backpack. I was too scared that any motion on my part would only serve to draw more of the teacher’s ire.

The lecture seemed to just drone on and on. Professor Mueller’s cadence and style more than conveyed a sense of superiority that he believed he had over the rest of us. As well as a couple of famous psychiatrists that I had heard of. I mean, it takes one hell of an ego to announce to a classroom full of freshmen that “Freud would have been better off working a butcher’s shop and jerking off to pictures of his mother” than imparting his theories on the world.

When the hour finally ended, I jumped up from my seat and headed for the door. My eagerness to meet with Shelly and actually do something productive was overpowering. Not that I didn’t accept that, like him or not, I was going to have to accept being in Mueller’s class. If I wanted Charlene to pass it.

I had just put my hands on the bar to open the glass door leading outside when I heard someone yelling for me.

“Charlie! Wait up!”

I turned to see a pair of girls walking toward me at a brisk pace. Both of them were smiling at me as they closed the distance between us. Both were also complete strangers. As far as I could recall, I’d not seen either one of their pictures in the ridiculous number of images stored on Charlene’s phone.

“Hey,” the girl with the shoulder-length brown hair curled into tight spirals said. “What’s the rush?”

I shrugged. “Meeting Shelly at the library to, uh, do some research.”

The other girl, a short redhead with bright blue eyes and freckles scattered across her cheeks gave me a confused look. “Shelly?” Then her expression changed as it seemed that her brain had managed to find the answer all on its own. “Michelle. Of course.”

I smiled and nodded, wondering what the two of them wanted. Hopefully not to join in on my plans. Turning around, I pushed out the door and held it as they followed.

“What are you wearing tonight?” The brunette asked, gliding down the steps next to me.

“Tonight?” I asked, flipping open my mental calendar to see if there were any entries in there of which I was aware.

Before I could do that, however, the redhead snickered maliciously. The sound made me feel like slapping her.

Across the face.

Hard.

Multiple times.

The other girl shot a look to her amused companion that told her to shut up. Then she looked at me, smiling as sweetly as before.

“To the mixer.”

Right. The Mixer. With the … some frat. I vaguely remembered Rachel’s comment about it the day before. It had slipped my mind until just then.

“I haven’t decided,” I said, smiling back at the chocolate-tressed girl. “I figured I’d just stand in front of my wardrobe and wait to be inspired.”

The grin faltered a bit. “Oh …” she said in a tone of voice that hinted at hardship and woe. Then that overly-friendly smile returned. “That’s okay.”

Alright. Something weird was taking place here, and it wasn’t all female related. I mean, yeah, even though my life up until recently has been all about being a guy, that didn’t meant that I was completely stupid. One thing I’d learned in my years of dealing with the fairer sex was that what someone wore to an important social event was a big deal.

However, I’d also learned that there was no set rules to the issue either. Girls would coordinate, matching each other almost perfectly, for one occasion. On others, they would be ready to claw out the eyes of someone who dared show up in an outfit that appeared even grudgingly similar.

I figured it was best to get ahead of the curve in a situation like that.

“What are you two going to wear?” I asked, flashing my own saccharine saturated smile.

I kept my eyes on the brunette’s face, but clearly noticed her shorter friend’s look of panic. The girl walking down the steps beside me didn’t even flinch.

“Something hot,” she said. “But classy.”

Okay, not exactly helpful.

“I was thinking the same,” I answered, knowing I sounded completely superficial and petty.

The vibe I was getting from these two was causing my Masculine-Sense to tingle. If there was such a thing. I didn’t know who they were, but one thing I was sure of was that these girls were not Charlene’s friends. Not by a long shot.

We reached the bottom and stopped. I looked from the pair to the six-story structure of the Wilson Library and back. The more brunette followed my gaze, then looked back at me. “Have fun in the library, Charlie,” she said, reaching out to lock her arm in with her associate’s. “See you tonight.”

The two of them strolled off across the manicured grass, heading in the opposite direction of the one I needed to go. Their heads were bent together, obviously in rapt communication, but neither one of them bothered to look back at me. I watched them for a few minutes, then shook my head.

“That was really fucking weird,” I said to no one. “Really fucking weird.”

Shelly was at one of the tables sitting near the door. When I walked inside, she lifted her arm and waved it at me. I cut across the carpeted floor and sat down across from her.

“Hey,” she said, smiling at me and lowering her voice. “I actually started wondering if you were going to show up. I mean, if you and Charlene had changed again, she wouldn’t know about our plan.”

I shook my head. “Nope. As much as I would have enjoyed skipping Professor Mueller’s ramblings and the after class grilling by some of my classmates, I’m afraid that I’ve remained in place since we last saw each other.

She nodded and pointed at her phone. “I’ve been making a list of things that I think we should focus on first.”

“Such as?”

She made an extremely apologetic face. “Cheering.”

“Seriously?” I huffed. Of all the things in Charlene’s life, why did Shelly think jumping up and down while rhyming took the top spot?

Her condolence-filled expression shifted to a more perturbed one. “Yes, seriously. Did you think you could get by without having to do it? You are aware that she’s on athletic scholarship, right?”

I held up one hand defensively. “Whoa. Yeah, I know. I just wasn’t expecting that to be the number one thing. I thought memorizing who her friends were would be the most important one.”

“Well, yeah,” she said, softening a bit. “That’s up there as well. It’s just … learning who Charlene hangs out with and who she doesn’t is something we can work on this weekend.”

“But we need to work on cheering now? Can’t I just miss today’s practice and then you can put me through the paces on Saturday and Sunday?”

“You already skipped practice yesterday. And let me tell you, Coach was completely pissed. Especially since she saw you walking toward the complex right before time to start.”

I felt a flare of defensiveness surge within me.

“Correction. Charlene skipped practice. I was actually on my way to suffer through it when she hopped back in and took over. She was the one who decided bouncing up and down on Danny Morris’ dick was a more valid use of her time.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Well, how about we just let Coach know that? I’m sure she’ll understand that Charles didn’t deliberately skip practice. It was all Charlene’s fault and she should yell at her as soon as she comes back.”

I made a face at her. “Now you’re just being argumentative.”

“True. But that doesn’t change the fact that you need to learn some of the basic moves before this afternoon.”

“How the hell am I going to do that?” I asked, making sure my voice didn’t go up to a level that would attract attention. “There isn’t enough time between now and then. I have Bio at one.”

“Funny enough, Josie’s in that class. She can take notes for you.”

I sighed. “Still, I can’t learn a whole lifetime of doing something in a couple of hours Shelly.”

“You don’t have to learn everything, Charlie. Just a couple of the moves. Plus, didn’t you say tell me last night that some of Charlene’s motor skills came with the body?”

“Walking and a few unconscious mannerisms is not the same as backflips and twirls.”

“Maybe,” she said leaning back in her chair. “But I’ve also noticed that you sit like Charlene, add the same inflections in your words that she uses, and exhibit a lot of similar gestures. Like the way you keep pointing around with your left hand in random directions when you’re getting passionate about something.”

I blinked and looked down to see that my left hand was angled at a way that my index finger was slightly extended, aimed at the counter on the other side of the room.

“I …” I looked from the hand to Michelle. “I didn’t notice.”

She shrugged. “Maybe guy you does it as well. I don’t think Charlene really notices when she’s doing it either.”

I sighed, lowering my traitorous limb. “I don’t know …”

“Trust me, Charlie. I really believe we can get you through practice without anyone being the wiser.”

“Fine. But we need to find some time to go through Charlie’s photos. I need to be able to start putting names with faces. Not that it would have helped a little while ago.”

She arched a brow, looking at me. “What happened a little while ago?”

I told her about the two girls from my psychology class who’d escorted me down the stairs, and their very strange behavior. As soon as I described them, Shelly rolled her eyes.

“Oh, yeah. That would be Katrina ‘Trina’ McAvoy and Cindy Spencer. They’re a couple of seriously snooty bitches.”

“Why were they concerned with what I was going to wear to the mixer?”

She gave me a short-lived stare, then shrugged. “Probably because they want to one up you in front of Rachel. They are Kappa pledges, too.”

“So, I’m rushing Kappa Omega with them?”

“We,” she said. “Charlene and I were both rushing the Kappas.”

“What about Josie?” I asked. After all, if the three of them were as close as it seemed, it only stood to reason they would want to join the same organization.

“She’s going with Lambda Sig due to being a legacy.”

I arched an eyebrow at Shelly. “So, I guess Charlie doesn’t get along with Trina or Cindy?”

An amused smirk appeared on her face. “That’s sort of an understatement.”

Leaning forward, I put my arms on the table, looking at her.

“Okay, just remember that I’m a semi-clueless guy in here and tell me the deal in terms you think would make sense to a male who isn’t exactly hip on competition between females.”

She laughed softly. “Alright then. Trina and Cindy are Kappa legacies, so they’re automatically going to be inducted. They like to look down their noses at the other pledges, and make little snide comments about them not having what it takes to be members. Well, during the first pledge meeting, Trina was giving me crap and Charlie really jumped her shit.”

“She beat her up?”

Shelly blinked in surprise, then shook her head. “This isn’t a bunch of angry frat boys, Charlie. Girls are much more subtle. I honestly can’t remember everything that she said to her, but by the time the sarcasm and insults stopped flying, Trina’s face was beet red and tear-streaked.”

“Oh. Well that certainly explains the thinly-veiled hostility I encountered.”

She shook her head. “No. That was just the main event. The delicious dessert was the fact that Rachel found it hilarious. She walked over and threw her arm around Charlie’s neck and announced to the rest of us that any pledge who could sling words like a samurai was definitely Kappa material.”

I nodded. “They’re mad because Rachel thought Charlie’s actions were noble?”

She shrugged. “Well, that is part of it. The rest is because that’s when Rachel took Charlie as her little.”

“Little what?”

“Little sister. I think Trina was sure it was going to be her. And it might have been, since the two of them are remarkably similar in personalities.”

The metaphorical lightbulb went off in my head. “So, when Rachel decided to take Charlie under her wing instead of her …”

She nodded. “Trina didn’t appreciate it. Since then, she’s been trying to tear Charlie down to the other pledges, and some of the sisters. She’s got to be cool about it though.”

I smirked. “No dissension allowed in the Kappa ranks?”

“That and deliberately crossing Rachel Bostwick is tantamount to social suicide for a Kappa. Everyone knows that she’s going to end up being the chapter president.”

I sighed, dropping my head down onto my arms. Just when I thought trying to live Charlene’s life couldn’t get any more complicated, another wrinkle appeared. No wonder she had been so pissed to find herself back here. My life on the other side of the multiverse was pretty much devoid of these complex social interactions and chess maneuvers. The most complexing thing in my life was occasionally getting a random hard-on in public and trying to not have it noticed by anyone.

“So, in summary,” I said, lifting my head up just enough to look at Shelly. “I’ve got a one sorority sister who wants to groom me in her image, one who wants to put a knife in my back, classes that are not what I planned on taking, a boy I’m fucking who happens to be in a relationship with a good friend, and boyfriend who is too nice to mention that being around a guy in a girl’s body actually arouses him. Does that about cover it?”

Shelly nodded, then shot me an apologetic grimace as she held up one finger.

“You forgot the fact that you’re supposed to be really awesome at a sport you have no real knowledge about.”

I groaned, feeling like I just wanted to go home and cry. “Oh yes, how could I forget that one?”

She shrugged and rose to her feet, shoving her phone into her back pocket. Then she walked around the table and held her hand out to me.

“Well, Charlie, let’s go somewhere and work on that last one. Because something tells me that Charlene getting kicked off the squad is going to make the rest of your problems seem like a Sunday picnic.”