Chapter 2

The next morning I got up at six, two hours later than usual.

On the table were the hash browns my own parents had never once let me eat.

Mrs. Morton dunked the hash browns in the orange juice and pushed them in front of me.

"Becca, this is your favorite way to eat them. Go on, eat up, and then your dad will take you to school."

It was the first time I'd ever eaten hash browns and orange juice this way. The hash browns had soaked up the juice, soft and savory.

After breakfast, Mr. Morton drove me on his little scooter.

As far back as I could remember, my own parents had never taken me to school themselves. They always had one more research project, one more business trip.

Once a teacher had actually assumed our driver was my father.

Now, sitting on the back of the scooter, all I had to do was open my eyes and I could see Mr. Morton's broad shoulders.

In that moment, for the first time, I felt like a kid.

At the school gate, Mr. Morton pressed a crumpled twenty-dollar bill into my hand.

"Becca, buy whatever you want for lunch, don't skimp. If you don't get something, don't force yourself to learn it. As long as you're healthy, that's all that matters."

I nearly cried.

Allowance with no KPIs attached. No tightening headband of "you must be number one."

Twenty dollars felt heavier than the eight thousand that used to hang over my head.

Rebecca climbed out of the Mercedes and strutted over to me, chin high.

"Well, well. Came on a little scooter? How'd that feel?"

"Wasn't a room with no AC and no private bathroom just disgusting?"

I glanced at her. The skin under her eyes was clearly dark and bluish—obviously she hadn't slept enough.

I smiled. "Four hours—was that enough sleep?"

Her face went stiff and she glared at me hard. "So what if I can't sleep in a strange bed?"

With that she stuck out her neck and stalked off.

Sitting in Rebecca's seat, I flipped through the textbook.

A true underachiever's book, all right—cleaner than a brand-new one.

Rebecca and I had swapped souls, and our brains had swapped too. Not one bit of the knowledge I'd learned before had come with me.

Rebecca's foundation really was terrible. The only reason she'd gotten into an elite college-prep high school was that her parents had thrown money at it.

They only wanted her to get into a good university.

But instead of working, she racked her brain over cozying up to rich kids and poured all her energy into her looks.

When she ran short of money she conned her family for tutoring fees, stole her classmates' cosmetics, ranked dead last every single year, and had a reputation that stank for miles.

With less than a year until the SATs, getting into the university she wanted was no easy thing.

I couldn't understand a lot of what the teacher was saying, so all I could do was take careful notes.

At the break I borrowed the class rep's notes to copy. Rebecca walked over and looked down at me.

"Ooh, everybody come look! The underachiever's studying now? Who are you kidding with this hard-work act? You even understand functions?"

Snickers broke out around us.

A few classmates who usually lumped themselves in with me as the good students spoke up scornfully.

"Rebecca, you've got a screw loose. Studying won't help you. Don't waste your life."

"No matter how hard you try, you're a joke. If you get into college, I'll walk backwards."

"She always used to try to keep up with the top students. They took piano, so she took piano; they danced, so she danced—drove her parents into picking through trash, and she never learned a thing."

"Too funny. Not pretty, not smart, and poor on top of it—what does she have to compete with the top students?"

I didn't argue. These were all facts Rebecca had made true in the past.

I kept my head down and went on copying. Then Rebecca slammed her hand down on the notebook, her tone insolent.

"Can't you understand plain words? I told you to quit studying. Your brain's dumber than a pig's. Stop embarrassing the whole class!"

With that she ripped out the notes I'd copied, tore them to shreds, and flung them in my face.

"Quit the show. People like you only belong rotting in the mud. You'll never claw your way up!"

When she finished, the classroom went silent.

I looked at her long and hard, and said nothing.

She seemed to feel the stunned stares around her too, and for a second panic flickered across her face.

You can change a person's face, you can change their figure, but you can't change what's in their bones.

She thought that putting on my skin made her me. She was used to throwing her weight around, and this was just her instinct showing.

Joshua's brow furrowed, and the way he looked at me was different from before.

Rebecca gave herself an out.

"Fine, fine, let her study if she wants. It's not like it embarrasses me. Lunch is on me, everybody—order whatever you want from the cafeteria."

A classmate chimed in at once. "The top student gets eight thousand a month for allowance and never once treated us. Going all out today, so we've got to show up for her!"

Amid the cheering, Rebecca was carried out of the classroom like a star surrounded by her admirers.

I watched her smug back and smiled.

She thought that eight-thousand allowance was hers to spend however she liked.

I hoped she'd still be able to laugh in a little while.