Jake’s breathing was shallow, his chest rising and falling against fabric that no longer fit right. The baggy PE shirt hung loose around his—Raven’s—frame, sleeves brushing arms that weren’t his own. Every time he shifted, the unfamiliar weight on his chest and the way his hips brushed the waistband of the shorts reminded him in stark, unrelenting detail: he was Raven now, at least on the outside.
Across from him stood Raven, her black dress torn from their scuffle, clinging awkwardly to a body that wasn’t hers anymore. Jake’s narrow shoulders filled out the fabric all wrong, his pale, skinny legs sticking out beneath the hem. She looked down at herself with an expression halfway between disgust and amusement, tugging at a loose strap that had slipped down her borrowed arm.
“This is a fucking joke,” Raven muttered, her voice coming out in Jake’s familiar, nasal tone. She turned from side to side, inspecting herself with his bony arms akimbo. “I wanted Billy’s body. Or maybe Tyler’s. At least one of the jocks. Someone with muscles, with height, with… something. And instead I get this.” She slapped Jake’s scrawny chest, making the ripped fabric ripple. “This pathetic excuse for a body.”
Jake flinched. “Hey! It’s not that bad.”
Raven raised one of Jake’s eyebrows at him, her expression sharp and mocking. “Not that bad? Look at me, Jake. I look like a stick figure wearing a trash bag. You really think anyone is impressed by this?” She pinched the thin muscle on his forearm with disdain. “Thirteen-year-olds have more meat on their bones.”
Heat rose to Jake’s borrowed cheeks. “Not everyone has to look like a jock. Some of us are fine being… normal.”
Raven barked a laugh that came out of Jake’s mouth in a way that made Jake’s stomach churn. “Normal? No, you’re invisible. Weak. Forgettable. But…” Her expression softened into something sly. “…I guess it’ll do. For now.”
Jake’s stomach dropped. “What do you mean, ‘for now’?”
Raven smirked. In his body, with his crooked teeth showing, it made Jake feel like he was staring at a warped reflection. “I mean I’m keeping this. Your body. Your life. For a week. That should be enough time to figure out what it’s like being a guy, even if it’s not the guy I wanted.”
Jake’s voice came out high and panicked in Raven’s rasp. “You—you can’t do that! That’s me! You can’t just decide to steal my life!”
“Steal?” Raven said, rolling Jake’s eyes. She adjusted the torn neckline of the dress, then gestured at him with one thin, pale hand. “You’re standing right there in my body. You’ve got my voice, my face, my everything. What’s the problem? We swap lives for a week, then switch back. Easy.”
Jake shook Raven’s head, long black hair swishing across his face. “It’s not easy! I can’t go out there like this! What if someone sees me? What if they realize—”
Raven cut him off with a snort. “No one’s going to realize shit. You think people are paying that much attention to you well me now? Please. You’re background noise, Jake. I could walk out there right now, act like I don’t care, and nobody would question it.”
Jake’s borrowed throat tightened. She was right, and she knew it. His classmates already barely noticed him unless they wanted someone to pick on. If Raven walked out there in his skin, nobody would blink twice.
“What about me?” Jake asked quietly.
Raven grinned with Jake’s mouth, a crooked, too-wide smile. “You’re going to live my life. Consider it a trade. You get to see what it’s like being me, with all the crap that comes with it. My body, my clothes, my reputation. You think it’s all fun having people stare at my tits and whisper behind my back? Have fun with it. Maybe you’ll learn something.”
Jake looked down at himself again. The gym clothes sagged off Raven’s frame, but there was no hiding the shape beneath—the swell of her chest, the curve of her hips. He pulled at the hem of the shirt, trying to cover more, but it was useless. He felt exposed, like the world could see through the fabric to everything he wasn’t supposed to be.
“This isn’t fair,” he said weakly.
“Life isn’t fair,” Raven shot back, tugging at the hem of her ripped dress until it tore further. She hissed, then gave a careless shrug. “Fine. Guess I’ll borrow your PE clothes. You’ve already stretched them out anyway.”
Jake’s eyes widened. “Wait, what are you—”
Before he could stop her, Raven stripped the dress over her head. Jake turned away instinctively, only to remember with a shock that he was looking away with Raven’s eyes, in Raven’s body looking at Raven on in his skinny body mostly naked. That made the whole thing worse somehow.
Raven—wearing his body—stood there in ripped black underwear showing of his well boy parts what she now has, and now her bony shoulders and pale legs jutting out awkwardly. She didn’t even flinch at the exposure. She just tugged his PE shirt off, with Jack going into shock with now having well the two tits hnaing from his chest with well wanting to yell but just covers them with a arm, hearing Raven larth at him, and pulled it over her borrowed frame, the loose fabric hanging naturally on the body it belonged to. The shorts followed leaving Jake in Ravens girls body only in a pare of boxers, and when she was done, she looked exactly like Jake always did: lanky, awkward, but passable.
She turned to the mirror and tugged the shirt straight. “There. Not great, but good enough. No one’s going to look twice.”
Jake’s chest clenched. He stared at her—at himself—wearing his own clothes, moving like him, talking like him. She’d taken his life as easily as putting on a costume.
Raven smirked, Jake’s lips curling. “And there’s nothing you can do about it. You’re stuck. So here’s the deal: I keep this body for a week. You live mine. We meet up next Monday, switch back, and no harm done.” She slung his bag over her shoulder like it already belonged to her. “Simple.” throwing her drass right at his legs.
Jake’s borrowed fists clenched. “You can’t just—” he siad looking well complete out of his depths mostly naked in a well well developed girls body now only in boxers with Raven seeming to find this all to fun.
“Shh.” Raven held up a hand, silencing him with his own gesture. “You don’t want people hearing you argue with yourself, do you? You’ll sound insane. Better keep that pretty little mouth shut.”
Jake froze. The thought of walking out there and trying to explain—no, he couldn’t. People already thought he was weird. If he started ranting about body-swapping to Raven in the middle of the yard, he’d never live it down when he is back in his body.
Raven seemed to know exactly what he was thinking. She gave him a wink with Jake’s eye. “Good. Glad you see it my way. Now, I’ve got a life to live. Your life. Try not to ruin mine too badly, okay?”
And with that, she walked out of the locker room, shoulders hunched just enough to mimic Jake’s usual posture, blending into the stream of students outside.
Jake stood alone in the silence that followed, Raven’s long black hair tickling his neck, the gym clothes hanging loose on his borrowed frame. He looked down at the ripped black dress crumpled on the floor near his now small feet, at the thin straps and torn seams.
With a long, weary sigh, he picked it up. “Guess I’m Raven now.”
And there was nothing else he could do.
