As I entered the dining room, I put Mr. Bunny down at an empty seat and put the Barbie doll on the table next to my plate. As she placed some of what I had to assume to be meatloaf, Mom smiled at me.

She said, “I see you found your new Barbie. I hope you like it. I held off buying extra outfits for now.

I laughed. “Of course I like my Barbie. I’d love to get more outfits for her. She’s the only doll I have”

Mom sat down at the other empty seat next to me and said, “Well, Christmas isn’t that far away. If you’re a good little girl, maybe Santa will bring you more dolls.”

I have to be a good little girl? I guess that squashes my plans for a fifth grade rebellion to take over the school.

As she took a bite of her alleged meatloaf, Mom asked, “So, squirt. Tell me about your first day! Did you make any new friends?”

I chuckled. “Well, it’s a given none of my old friends were there.” Her frown indicated I may have lost some good girl points on Santa’s list. To buy some time before I said anything else, I took a bite of my meatloaf.

I swallowed and said, “Actually, I met two friends. They’re both like me, Switcher victims. Though I think one of them is too messed up from the switch.” I then went on to describe Brandy and Emily.

Mom tsked tsked as she shook her head. “That poor girl. Emily? I bet she never gets her life straightened out. I mean I hope so. That Simon guy, whether he intended to or not, sure messed up a lot of lives.”

“I think after a while he started to enjoy it,” I said dourly.

Dede sighed. “I feel sorry for girls like Emily. But I have to say I’m so happy for you. You have so much to look forward to.”

I picked up my Barbie and started changing her pose. “I’m not so sure I like where I’m headed. Dede, you grew up in this world, with Mom as a role model to guide you. I’ve been dropped into the middle of things. Should you marry Oliver and have kids, that’s an expectation you’ve had all your life. That stuff to me, honestly, is horrifying.”

Dede reached over and took my hand. “Honey, I’ll do everything I can to help guide you. I cry every night about our mom not being here to help me… well, both of us. She would have adored you.”

I stared at my Barbie for a few silent moments. I looked up at Dede. “I don’t think there’s any way you can compensate for those lost formative years that I’ll never have.” I looked over at Dede square in the eye. “And you know what? It might not even matter. Every day I feel a little bit of who I am slip away. How soon before I’m excited over different colored panties or fawning over boys?”

Dede grinned. “Well, you have a year, maybe two before boys stop being icky.”

I shook my head. “That doesn’t really help, Mom.”

She reached over and ruffled my hair. “Honestly, I’m not worried so much about you starting to like boys. But going through being a teenager is going to be tough for both of us.”

That’s what I’m afraid of. I remember the last time I was a teen. And when Dede was a teenager. I don’t know about Dede, but there are things I now deeply regret saying to Mom. Are we headed for a repeat?

I finished off my meatloaf. “Well, I can’t imagine ever liking boys. So we can take that off the table.”

Dede downed what was left in her tea glass. “Yeahhh…”

I adjusted the position of my bag after Mom dropped me off at school. The air was a bit brisk this morning, but it didn’t bother me. Standing by a tree was Brandy. She waved and I hurried over to her.

Grinning, Brandy said, “Hey Chrystal. Ready for another exciting day?”

Laughing, I said, “Oh you know it.” We were both silent for a moment. I then asked seriously, “Are you starting to forget things? Or maybe don’t seem real?”

Brandy looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. “Some things. I don’t remember my husband at all. Of course, he started disappearing from my memory while I was a boy. Are you?”

I nodded. “Yeah. And it really bothers me. I had go find an old picture of my mom… my real mom to remember what she looked like. It doesn’t even feel like she was real.”

“I know what you mean,” Brandy agreed. “I have to force myself to remember that I actually have sons.”

Squinting at Brandy, I asked, “Do you think we’ll eventually lose it all? Just become typical little girls? Because I don’t want to forget who I really am.”

Brandy shrugged. “Who knows? The government doesn’t. I don’t know if you’re aware of this. I wasn’t until I found the latest one. The guardians are getting a newsletter with updates about what they think is going on. We’re not supposed to see it, but I managed a peek. Using their favorite switcher term, they expect the majority, if not all of us, will go native as ten year old girls with little recollection of our previous lives within the next few months.”

Re-adjusting my book bag, I said, “Holy shit. That sucks. Like I said, I don’t want to forget the real me.”

Brandy laughed without humor. “This is the real you. I keep trying to force remembering what I remember. So far it helps for some things. The newsletter suggested to guardians that they shouldn’t try to keep our past alive. That going native is more merciful and allows us to grow up better adjusted.”

I shook my head. “Well, I don’t know about that.” I looked at all the kids heading towards their classes. “We should probably get to class. Oh, here comes Emily.”

Brandy said, “Hey Emily. Ready for another day?”

Emily shrugged. “My head hurts.”

And with that, we all hurried to our class room.

All the kids walked noisily into the classroom. On the chalkboard was written “Today’s lesson: Science.” Several minutes went by as kids hung up coats and jackets despite it not being particularly cold yet. Then everyone jostled for access to the bins lining the wall with the outside windows. Each bin had our name written on a piece of masking tape. Inside the bins were our workbooks. Stacked on top of the bins were our text books. We all grabbed our workbooks and a science text book.

The teacher, standing by her desk, said, “Please hurry and be seated, class. We have a lot to cover today.”

I deliberately bumped Brandy who was standing right in front of my bin. “Would you please hurry up?”

Brandy turned and stuck her tongue out at me. I wacked her on the head with my workbook after I finally retrieved it. Yes, there are perks to being a kid. All the kids were giggling and fooling around as they got their stuff for class and sat down. Except Emily. She wore a dour expression as she silently gathered her workbook and sat down.

Everyone then fumbled with their bag to retrieve pens or pencils and a spiral notebook

Holding the teacher’s edition of our text book, Ms. Roberts said, “Okay class. Everyone turn to page forty-two.” She then wrote the number forty-two on the chalkboard. Looking up from her text book, Ms. Roberts asked, “Now. Can anyone tell me what an amoeba is?”

A boy whose name I think is Tommy grinned and said, “Yeah. Susie’s brain!” The boys all laughed.

Ms. Roberts frowned. “Now Tommy, that wasn’t very nice.”

Frowning, the girl named Susie sneered, “At least I have one!” A lot of kids looked at Tommy and laughed.

Looking upset at losing control of her class so early in the day Ms Roberts said, “Alright everyone. Settle down and focus. Does anyone know what an amoeba is?” There were a few giggles around the class.

Staring furiously at the top of her desk, Emily hissed in a low voice, “Baby!”

Smiling slightly, Ms. Roberts asked, “Did you have something to contribute, Emily?”

Emily suddenly pounded on her desk with both fists, causing her workbook to fall to the floor as she shouted, “Baby!” Looking wild-eyed about the room, Emily shouted, “Where’s my baby?” She tried to stand, but couldn’t as she violently rocked her desk back and forth. “They took my baby!”

The kids in the class just stared at Emily with shocked expressions.

Ms. Roberts took a step towards Emily. “What’s wrong Emily?”

Her face twisted in raw anger, fists pounding her desk, Emily screamed, “They took my baby!”

Ms. Roberts said, “Everyone stand back from Emily.” She turned and picked up the receiver from the wall phone behind her desk. I couldn’t hear what she was saying.

Emily finally managed to turn her desk over, but she still couldn’t get out from it. She screamed, “They took my fucking baby! I want my baby!”

A moment later, the school nurse and the security guard rushed into the room. The security guard shouted to Ms. Roberts, “Get these children out of here!”

Ms. Roberts, trying to sound calm, said, “Class. Let’s all go out to the playground.” At first, no one moved. Then everyone started to file out of the classroom.

Emily tried to bang her head on the floor, but was restrained by the security officer. The nurse looked to Ms. Roberts and said, “I called for an ambulance right after your call. I can’t give her anything to calm her. Please leave the room.”

Emily screamed, “Baby!”

As we left the room, I turned to Brandy, “What the hell’s up with Emily?”

“Remember? She never fully adjusted to her changes,” said Brandy matter-of-factly. “She still had the mind of a boy child when the woman he switched into became pregnant. They must have taken her baby from her when she became a ten year old.”

We heard her continue to scream as we ran out onto the playground. We saw two paramedics rushing to the room with a gurney. A few moments later, we saw a subdued Emily being rolled away. We never saw Emily again.

To be continued…