Switch:
They say having a twin is like having a best friend with you all the time. Too bad no one decided to tell these two.
Dan shook his head upon seeing his brother Reiki running up and down the stairs, trying to organize his things for school.
Glancing down at his watch he could estimate he'd been ready almost an hour ago.
He had no problem waking his brother up in the morning, it's just when he fell back asleep like four times was when he started to get angry at his irresponsibility.
"Do you need help?" Dan sighed, impatience clearly in his voice as he drummed his fingers along their kitchen counter.
Reiki sputtered out something he couldn't quite understand, a piece of toast in his mouth as he was cramming papers in his bag.
"You could try not talking with your mouth full." Dan grumbled. It must have been the 100th time he reminded him of that since they were like five. He always marveled at the fact of how much more mature he was than his brother.
"You could try loosening up." Reiki told him, finally intelligible as he sat on their couch, lacing his shoes.
Dan rolled his eyes having to bite his tongue on that one. The last thing he needed to worry about this morning was to get into another long winded argument.
Reiki seemed to find it hilarious though as he giggled uproariously.
"It's time we head out now, isn't it?" Dan pointed out, grabbing his twin by the back of his collar as he dragged him towards the front door.
"Cool it, hot head!" Reiki complained, wrestling from his grasp. "Do you get it? Cool and hot? He giggled as his own awful humor.
"Yes a clever pun towards our Beyblade, you must have spent the whole night thinking of it." Dan groaned, shaking his head.
"More like a week!" Reiki announced, a smug smile crossing his face.
Normally Dan would also have pointed out the inaccuracy to Reiki's logic but seeing how proud he seemed over his "joke" he decided to bite his tongue again.
With his luck it would probably start bleeding in the middle of class.
The loud screeching of wheels interrupted both as their faces simultaneously paled in horror.
"The bus!" They both cried, darting down the street as they attempted to flag it down.
Just another typical day.
Dan was mildly surprised to see Reiki plop down at his lunch table. They usually never sat next to each other, simply because their friend groups differed entirely. To Dan, Reiki's friends were obnoxious and to Reiki, Dan's friends were boring. So the only possible reason Reiki would be sitting near him would be...
"What do you want?" Dan sighed, rubbing his temples.
"What makes you think I want something? I can't hang out with my brother?" Reiki questioned, a sort of mock anger to his voice.
Dan looked at him with a like really expression to his face, arms folded.
"Fine." Reiki moaned slumping over the table.
Bingo. Dan couldn't suppress a smug grin. Reiki was so easy to crack.
Reiki seemed rather unhappy, tracing the cracks in their lunch room table with his finger before he finally admitted, "So there's this test..."
"And you forgot to study?" Dan moaned, shaking his head. He could read his twins character like an open book.
"Yeah..." Reiki laughed sheepishly, one hand behind his head.
"Well you should study next time instead of playing video games all night." Dan scolded, as he opened up a box of milk on his tray and began to drink it.
"I know. I totally learned my lesson, I swear! But if I don't pass this test I'm screwed! I'm going to fail that class!" Reiki panicked, waving his arms around.
"So what do you want me to do?" Dan asked, not quite following what he was getting at.
"Well, I want you to take the test for me." Reiki told him nonchalantly as he grabbed a pile of potato chips from Dan's tray and began munching on them.
Dan laughed awkwardly, "Your kidding right?"
"Nope." Reiki replied looking rather dead serious.
Dan stared at him, mouth agape before he spoke firmly, "No."
"You have to!" Reiki pleaded, flopping himself over the lunch table as he flashed puppy eyes.
"Could you imagine if we got caught?" Dan hissed, standing up to go dispose of his tray.
"I can imagine how much trouble I'll be in if I fail. Please!" Reiki moaned, grabbing on to Dan's shirt.
"People are staring!" Dan proclaimed in shock, realizing several people were staring at them now.
Reiki didn't seem to care at all, he was practically throwing a temper tantrum. And people were staring at Dan like he was some sort of bully.
"Fine. Just promise you'll stop embarrassing us." Dan grumbled,having grown self conscious.
"Thank you Thank you!" Reiki shrieked, obviously elated.
"Uh-huh." Dan muttered seeming to feel quite the opposite.
"Eww." Both twins shook their heads staring n the bathroom mirror. They were now wearing each others colors and it felt like a cardinal sin being committed.
" I despise this immensely." Dan informed his twin, dark glare on his face.
"Wha-?" Reiki stared at him in confusion, clearly not understanding what he just said.
"Never mind." Dan sighed, shaking his head. "Just give me your schedule." He told him extending his hand.
Reiki's eyes went wide for a second as he began to tear through his backpacks many papers, searching for it.
"You couldn't be more organized?" Dan questioned, one eyebrow raised as leaned against the bathroom sink.
"Your face could be more organized." Reiki shot back, eyes still lowered to his bag as he shuffled trough it.
"What kind of comeback is that? It doesn't even make sense!" Dan looked at him in disbelief.
"Your face doesn't make sense." Reiki exclaimed, giggling over that one.
Dan just closed his eyes, not even wanting to deal with Reiki for the moment. Luckily school was almost over, they just had to make it through one period in each other's shoes.
"Found it!" Reiki shrieked happily, shaking Dan from his thoughts as he held his ears.
Could Reiki be anymore louder?
"Here you are." Reiki told him, handing over his schedule as they exchanged school bags.
"You owe me big time." Dan glared, arms folded.
'Yes, my savior!" Reiki teased, planting a wet soppy kiss on his cheek before running out of the bathroom.
"Gross!" Dan called out after him, anger written across his face.
Why couldn't he be an only child.
It was hell on Earth. The one thing Dan feared the most in the entire school. Remedial English. How in the world his brother was failing a remedial class he had no clue.
If he knew his brother was struggling so much with English he would have helped him. But the day Reiki stopped being stubborn and came to him for help every once in a while would never occur, he knew that much.
There was not a single thing he enjoyed of his situation. First being that he could barely hear himself think over the nonsensical chatter all these kids were screaming about. Secondly the fact that not a single student was listening to teacher, who didn't even seem to care, face stuck in a book.
What was this? Teaching fail 101?
It took him a several minutes to realize the kid next to him was calling his name, or rather Reiki's name, but being he was suppose to be "Reiki" he figured he'd have to play along.
"Yup?" Dan questioned, looking over at the other student. He wanted to try and keep his conversation down to a minimal to stand a better chance of not being found out.
"I've got those water balloons ready to stuff in your brothers locker." The boy grinned, holding up his hand for a high five.
Dan bit his tongue. So that's where those things were coming from. Reiki had sworn on his life he had no idea who was doing it. He would have a word with him when he got back home. Or a fist. It depended if he was still as steamed as he was now when he got home.
"Oh dude your tongue is bleeding, you should be more careful!" The boy pointed out, eyes widened.
Of course. Why did he always have to be right?
Before Dan could respond a paper was placed on his desk, the all important test. For half a second he considered circling the wrong answers on purpose. It would serve for good revenge over the water balloon thing.
Reiki was lucky Dan cared too much about academics to do so. With a sigh he zipped open Reiki's bag of horrors. He hoped he could find a pencil.
Reiki felt like he had been transported to outer space. What the heck was happening here? All the students were such... goodie goods. They all reminded him of Dan which caused him to shudder.
And worse of all the teachers mouth was running a mile a minute. He din't understand a word of it.
"Hey." He leaned over, whispering to a girl next to him.
"Shh!" She glared at him, one finger up to her mouth.
Geez she din't have to be so mean. Everyone was even as uptight as Dan. Creepy. He just wanted to know what was going on.
After a short while he stopped caring and pulled a notebook out from Dan's backpack and started doodling in it. He was so engrossed in his drawing it took his several minutes to realize the large looming figure of the teacher standing over him...
Freedom. The second the bell rang Dan was out of there, nearly skipping on his way to the bus.
He made it. He was able to get away with posing as Reiki. Now all he wanted was to head home and change back into his old clothes.
Sitting in his seat it took him a few minutes to realize someone wasn't on the bus. Where was Reiki?
Panicked he tapped on the kids shoulder in front of him and questioned, " Where is Rei- err Dan?" He almost forgot Reiki was dressed as him.
The kid shrugged in response, not really caring. Dan slumped back in his seat. Oh god. Reiki was missing. And worse everyone thought he was him.
His mind was a whirlwind of thoughts. Where could he be?
Five hours. It had been five hours since school ended and Reiki still hadn't come home.
Dan had ran out searching the streets earlier to find him as it poured. His brothers safety was more important than his getting wet. But now his brother was still gone and all he was left with was a small cold coming on.
Oh how that would figure. This was easily turning into the worse day of his life.
It was when he was just about to head up to bed when the door finally flew open and Reiki nonchalantly strolled inside.
"Your okay." Dan breathed a sigh of relief, a look of concern in his eyes.
"Why wouldn't I be okay?" Reiki giggled, staring at him like he was crazy before heading over to rummage through the fridge.
It was probably the most short lived concern Dan ever felt. Instantly it turned to anger.
"So where have you been all this time?" Dan snapped, shutting the fridge door.
"Chill out. Ha get it?" Reiki laughed.
"It's not funny I'm serious! Dan growled, clearly enraged.
Reiki put up his hands, motioning for him to calm down. "Geez. I was at a party."
"A PARTY!?" Dan shouted in disbelief.
"Yeah you see in detention-" Reiki started but Dan quickly interrupted. "You got me a detention?"
"Well your teacher was being a jerk so I told him to go jump off a building which is apparently frowned upon." Reiki frowned, rolling his eyes.
"So I got a detention and all the kids in your class were like woah your super cool. And after detention they invited me to a party. It was kind of lame but what can you do?" Reiki exclaimed with a shrug.
"Unbelievable." Dan muttered, shoulders shaking.
"Yeah, I know. Your friends are lame." Reiki laughed lightly.
"No it's unbelievable that I spent all day helping you. Taking your test, changing clothes, running out in the streets for an hour through the rain because I thought you got kidnapped. And you managed to destroy my entire social reputation and get me labeled as a delinquent." Dan muttered, not even looking at him.
"Well umm..." Reiki wasn't even sure what to say. He never seen Dan so upset before. Normally when Dan was mad he'd blow up and yell at him but this time he just looked absolutely miserable. He reached over to put his hand on Dan's shoulder but he quickly pulled away.
"I have nothing to say to you." Dan declared flatly and started to head up to his room.
"I'm really sorry!" Reiki called up at him, trying to follow.
Dan just turned to face him, a dark expression on his face before he promptly walked into his room and slammed the door shut.
He was so done with it all. He climbed into his bed and shut his eyes, wanting nothing more to sleep and get this day over with.
It was pitch black in the middle of the night when he felt his eyes flutter open, feeling movement across his bed.
"Reiki?" He mumbled, barely awake.
"Don't be mad at me. I am really sorry," Reiki whispered, wrapping his twin in a hug.
Dan sighed. Being mad at Reiki was like being angry at a puppy. He didn't realize how selfish he had acted.
"I guess." Dan mumbled, feeling his eyes getting heavy. Soon enough both had drifted off to sleep.
Morning. "I can't believe we had to walk to school again." Dan muttered shaking his head as he and Reiki climbed up the stairs to their school building.
"Hey it's because you overslept!" Reiki pointed out smugly.
A sweat drop formed on Dan's forehead as he explained, "That's not something to be happy over." And I wouldn't have overslept if you didn't wake me up last night. Dan thought to himself but didn't feel it was worth bringing up.
It was a brand new day, Hopefully he could establish his previous social status.
"Dan!" A rather gruff looking kid called out as the twins entered the school building.
And then in a fashion Dan had never seen before, kids began to chant his name, whistling and clapping.
He looked over to Reiki who just shrugged knowingly.
"You were awesome at the party!" A few kids shouted at him.
Dan sighed knowing only one thing. Today was going to be anything but normal.
Whee twin fluff... that's all I have to say. XD Hope you enjoyed!~ lily