This new unsuspecting victim bent down and picked up the crumpled up note and then began to read it. "I wish the person who I bully the most would bully me."
Amber Levine looked at the note dismissively. That was the silliest thing she'd ever heard of. Who would bully a cheerleader...one of the most popular girls in the school? They were at the top of the school's social hierarchy. Someone's idea of a joke. She ripped it into little pieces and tossed it.
Amber had worked very hard to fit in when her family moved to town right before high school and part of that meant following the crowd and teasing those who weren't in the in-crowd. Most of the other girls had known each other since Kindergarden. And with a last name like Levine, everyone assumed she was Jewish and the Jewish community in town not being very large, tended to stand out. But one was only Jewish if one's mother was Jewish, and Amber's wasn't. Her father was, and he had rejected all religion years ago, and was a rabid atheist.
She'd been raised more by her mother, who if she claimed any faith, claimed Unitarianism, and even with that, didn't belong to any local church.
As she discarded the note, she suddenly felt dizzy. Then, probably due to the dizziness, although she had no way to be sure, she collided with someone and fell to the ground. She got to her feet. "Watch where you're going," Erika Webber said.
"Sorry, Erika," she said. "I got dizzy for a moment."
Erika's annoyance at being bumped into faded a bit. "Well, watch out. Maybe you should go see the nurse...Wait, you're in my history class, right?" She said.
"Yeah, funny. Hah," she said. "I'm going to go see the nurse," she said, leaving Erika to wonder if she should have left the stranger to wander around alone.
Amber was halfway to the nurse's office when she realized the bag she was carrying wasn't hers. It was a different sort of bag. And she wasn't wearing her cheerleading uniform, which she had been...or clothes she recognized from her closet. She rifled through the bag and found a wallet. "Is this some sort of joke?" She mumbled.
She find a school ID inside, issued to an Amber Donovan. Donovan was her mother's maiden name. It was a picture of her on it, but it wasn't the one she remembered taking. Where a picture of her and her parents was...was a picture of her and two other people. They looked like her parents...but not. The father looked like her mother, and vice versa.
She paused. The nurse would never believe this. She was either insane, or something was very wrong. A blonde girl ran up to her. "Are you all right? You look...confused," she said. Amber had seen her around, but couldn't place her. "Earth to Amber," she said after Amber just looked at her blankly. "You in there?"
"Umm...do I know you?" She asked, cautiously.
"Did you hit your head or something? I'm your best friend, Sarah."
Amber knew Sarah McMillan, and this wasn't her. "You aren't Sarah. You think I could forget her? Everyone in school knows her."
"That's Sarah McMillan," the girl said. "I'm Sarah Taylor. You know...the one with the twin sister? You and I are on Model U.N. together? The debate club? I slept over at your house last Saturday night." She frowned. "None of this is ringing a bell?"
"But...I'm not on any of those things. I'm a cheerleader," she said.
"I'm getting you to the nurse," this stranger said, clearly more concerned about her than a stranger would be. "Amber...you never were a cheerleader. You can't...they have games on Friday night."
"So...?"
Sarah began feeling for a lump on her head. "You're Jewish...you go to services on Friday night and on Saturday morning with your parents."
"But..." she protested. Her mother wasn't Jewish, and neither of her parents could care less about anything labeled religion. She definitely needed to lie down. The world had gone nutty.
She let this new friend of hers guide her away.
