Maya's POV
My hand was huge.
I stared at it in the dim morning light, my heart starting to pound. This wasn't my hand. My fingers were small and thin, with nails I always kept painted. These fingers were thick and strong, with calluses and short, chewed nails.
"What..." My voice came out deep and wrong.
I shot up in bed and immediately hit my head on something hard. Pain exploded through my skull as I fell back, groaning. That voice—that deep, male voice—was coming from my throat.
My room was wrong too. Posters of hockey players covered the walls. A pile of dirty clothes sat in the corner. The smell of old sneakers and body spray filled the air.
This wasn't my dorm room.
With shaking hands—those huge, terrifying hands—I threw off the blanket and looked down at my body.
Muscle. Everywhere. A flat chest. Long legs. I was wearing boy's boxers and a tank top that showed arms I definitely didn't have yesterday.
"No," I whispered in that horrible deep voice. "No, no, no, NO!"
I stumbled out of bed, tripping over my own big feet, and crashed into a dresser. The mirror above it showed me the truth I was trying to deny.
Jake Morrison's face stared back at me.
His messy dark hair. His strong jaw. His brown eyes that were currently wide with terror because they were MY eyes looking out from HIS face.
I screamed.
The door burst open, and a man rushed in—Jake's dad, I realized. "Jake! What's wrong?"
"I'm not—" I stopped, hearing Jake's voice come from my mouth. "I'm not Jake!"
His dad frowned. "Are you feeling okay? Did you hit your head at practice?"
"You don't understand!" I grabbed his shoulders with Jake's strong hands. "I'm not your son! I'm Maya! Maya Chen! Something happened and I'm trapped in Jake's body and—"
"Okay, okay." His dad gently pulled away, his face full of concern. "You're having a panic attack. Just breathe."
"I'm NOT having a panic attack!" But even as I said it, I felt Jake's chest heaving, felt his heart racing out of control.
Jake's phone rang on the nightstand. His dad grabbed it and answered. "Hello?"
A pause.
"Yes, this is Jake's father. Who is this?" Another pause, and his face went pale. "What do you mean Jake is there? He's right here in front of me!"
He put the phone on speaker.
"Mr. Morrison, this is Emma, Maya Chen's roommate." The voice was panicked. "Jake Morrison just woke up in Maya's bed, screaming that he's trapped in her body. He's completely hysterical and he's saying the craziest things and—"
"Tell him I'm here!" I shouted. "Tell Jake that Maya is in his body! We switched! We somehow switched!"
Silence on the other end.
Then Jake's voice—my voice, the voice I'd had my whole life—came through the phone: "Maya? Is that really you?"
"Yes!" Tears burned in Jake's eyes, which felt so weird. "I don't know what happened! I woke up and I was you and—"
"This is insane!" Jake's voice was high and scared. "I have your body! Your hair, your clothes, your—" He made a strangled sound. "How is this possible?"
"I don't know!"
Jake's dad looked between the phone and me, his face completely lost. "Is this some kind of prank? Because if it is, it's not funny."
"It's not a prank!" Jake and I said at the same time.
"We need to meet up," Jake said through the phone. "Right now. We need to figure out how to fix this."
"The coffee shop on Main Street," I said. "Fifteen minutes."
I hung up and looked at Jake's dad. "I know you don't believe me. But I swear I'm telling the truth. I'm Maya Chen, and somehow I'm in your son's body."
He studied me for a long moment. "The way you're standing. The way you're talking. You're not like Jake at all."
"Because I'm not Jake!"
"Prove it." He crossed his arms. "Tell me something only Maya would know."
My mind raced. "Yesterday at the ice rink, Jake—the real Jake—humiliated me in front of everyone. He laughed at my card and called me a stalker. His friends recorded it and posted it online. Last night, I got in a car with a woman named Victoria Laurent who said she could help me get revenge."
Jake's dad's face went even paler. "The missing girl. You're the missing girl."
"I'm not missing! I'm right here! Just in the wrong body!"
He sat down on the bed heavily, like his legs wouldn't hold him anymore. "This is impossible."
"I know." I looked at Jake's hands again, flexing the fingers. "But it's happening."
---
I threw on Jake's clothes—jeans that were too big and a hoodie that smelled like him—and ran out of the house. Jake's body was strong and fast, and I made it to the coffee shop in ten minutes.
Jake was already there, sitting at a corner table. Seeing my own face, my own body, from the outside was the weirdest thing I'd ever experienced.
He looked up when I walked in, and I saw pure panic in my own eyes.
"This is a nightmare," Jake said in my voice. "Tell me this is a nightmare."
"I wish it was." I sat down across from him, and we just stared at each other.
"How did this happen?" Jake whispered. "What did we do?"
"I don't know. I went to sleep in Victoria's hotel room—"
"You WHAT?" Jake's voice got loud, making people turn to look. He lowered it. "You got in a car with a stranger? Are you insane?"
"You're one to talk! You humiliated me on camera!"
"So this is my punishment?" Jake gestured at my body. "Being turned into you?"
The words stung, even coming from my own mouth. "Being me isn't a punishment."
"That's not what I—" Jake stopped, rubbing his face with my small hands. "Sorry. I'm freaking out."
"Me too."
We sat in silence for a moment.
"We need to find Victoria," I finally said. "She's the only person who might know what happened."
"The police are looking for you—for Maya," Jake said. "They think you were kidnapped."
"Great. So now I'm a missing person in my own body." I laughed, but it sounded wrong in Jake's deep voice.
Jake's phone buzzed. He pulled it from his—my—pocket and showed me the screen.
A text from an unknown number: Having fun in your new skin? This is just the beginning. You have 48 hours to learn what it's like to walk in each other's shoes. Fail the test, and you'll stay switched forever.
My blood—Jake's blood—ran cold. "What test?"
Another text appeared:Jake must survive as Maya. Maya must survive as Jake. You'll each face your worst fear. Pass, and you'll switch back. Fail, and you'll live each other's lives forever. The clock starts now.
"This can't be real," Jake whispered.
But it was real. And we had 48 hours to figure out how to be each other.
Or lose ourselves forever.