This is a somewhat weird fic I wrote. It's a crossover with Perfect Body. It doesn't go anywhere and there's no explanation for what happens, but I figured I'd write it anyway.
Prologue"You are never going to guess what happened!" Kimberly was excited. Andie was almost disappointed. She'd been expecting congratulations on her latest medal and the invitation to visit Coach Blair in his gym. Instead, Kim had news of her own. Andie thought a figment of her imagination ought to be more supportive.
"What?" she asked. Slightly short, but Kim didn't seem to notice.
"Gunthar Schmitt has offered to train me," said Kim, "He's like the best coach in the world and he's going to train me for the Pan Global tryouts."
"Congratulations," Andie said, "I might get to train with David Blair."
"Oh wow! Well done."
"I'm going to Seattle to see his gym and meet some of the other girls he trains. It's so cool."
The two compared lucky breaks. Andie was sitting on her bed, looking at her mirror but not seeing her own reflection there. She saw another girl who looked just like her sitting on a different bed in a different room.
All kids have imaginary friends. Andie's parents had assumed that was what was going on with the sister in the mirror that Andie started talking about when she was little. As she got older, she realised she should have grown out of having imaginary friends, so she stopped talking about her. But she still saw Kim and spoke to her. Kim had a whole other life beyond the mirror, friends and school in a completely different place. Sometimes, Andie almost believed she was real.
Then she started talking about Power Rangers, and Andie knew she was just something her mind had created. Some part of her wanted to be a superhero.
But she kept talking to her. As long as she knew Kim wasn't real, she wasn't crazy. It was comforting really, talking to someone who was so much like her, but who could reply with what seemed like an outside perspective.
They sat and chatted. There lives were still so alike. Both got their chance for their dreams at the same time.
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"We're moving to Seattle," Andie said.
"I'm moving to Florida," Kim told her. She was still excited, but the fear was beginning to sink in. Leaving her home, her friends, her boyfriend. This was everything she'd ever wanted, but it still wasn't easy.
"I'm going to miss Josh so much."
"Yeah, I'm going to miss Tommy."
Andie was a reflection, in more ways than the fact she appeared in mirrors. Their lives were so alike, their feelings so much the same. When one had problems, the other did too. When one had triumphs, so did the other. Everything except her parent's divorce had had some echo in the world in the mirror. Kim guessed she didn't want to put a creation of her thoughts through that much pain.
Now the pair felt the same mixture of excitement and grief as they stepped onto the next part of their journey.
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"You're looking really thin," Kim said.
"Thanks," Andie replied, "David said I needed to lose some weight and, well, I'm definitely getting more lift now."
"No, I mean you're looking really thin."
"That's the point. No more extra weigh to carry."
"I'm doing just fine," Kim said. But Andie looked at her and saw the flesh on her arms and on her stomach. Kim might be doing fine, but Andie was going for gold. She needed to be thin. She saw the person she had been in Kim and she knew that she would be the better of the two when it came to gymnastics.
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"It's over," said Andie. She was crying.
Kim moved closer to the mirror, sitting, waiting for Andie to explain. Kim wasn't sure what was going on. There was nothing wrong in her life and usually things happened much the same on both sides of the glass.
"Josh has broken up with me," Andie went on, "And it's all my fault. I expected him to be there for me, but I was never there for him. I never called. I'd promised to write him letters, but I rarely did. I just didn't have time for him. How could I expect us to be a couple when I never saw. I was always at the gym. Always training. Even when he made time to see my, I blew him off." She gave a sob. "I guess I can't have a boyfriend and a gold medal."
Kim watched her cry. She didn't know what to say, but her mind was racing. When was the last time she'd called Tommy? When was the last time she'd written to him? How did she expect them to stay together when they weren't together? Ever.
He deserved someone who had time for him and she didn't. Perhaps Andie's break-up was her subconscious trying to tell her what was the decent thing to do. She had to split up with Tommy.
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"I thought you'd gone," said Kim, "You didn't turn up in my mirror when I expected you to." She sounded like she'd been crying. Andie recognised the sound from her own voice.
"I was in hospital," Andie said, "I fell at the try-outs. Nearly broke my neck falling from the bars. I guess I'm not going to make the Olympic squad." She struggled to hold back the tears. And failed. Everything she'd worked so hard for. Everything she'd sacrificed for. Everything she'd hungered for, in so many ways, was gone.
"I'm sorry," Kim said.
"What about you?" Andie asked. She half-expected to here a similar story. Their lives seemed to follow each other. They'd sobbed together about the loss of boyfriends. The only thing they hadn't shared was the anorexia. Andie really had seen a fatter person staring out at her from the mirror.
"Tommy's with Kat," Kim said, "Jason turned up and told me. I know I left him. But did it have to be her? It's like she's taking over my entire life. She became the pink Ranger after me and now she's taking over where I left off with my boyfriend."
Andie couldn't believe she was making such a fuss about a guy she'd dumped months ago. It wasn't like she'd nearly died. It wasn't like she'd just had her dreams snatched from her grasp.
Andie glared at Kim, wishing that she'd get over it and stop being so self-centred. She didn't know what real suffering was. Not like Andie did.
"I wish this wasn't my life," Andie muttered. At exactly the same moment as Kim.
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KimKim blinked. She saw herself in the mirror. Not her reflection, but the image that hovered over it. She saw herself the way she usually saw Andie.
The her in the mirror looked as surprised as she did.
"Kim?"
"Andie?"
"What the hell just happened?"
"I don't know. Maybe we should try wishing ourselves back."
"OK. On three. One, two, three."
"I wish I was me," they both said together. Nothing happened.
"What do we do now?" Kim asked.
"Andie! It's dinner time." A voice called up the stairs. Kim had heard the voice distantly a few times before. Andie's mother.
"You've got to go," Andie said from Kim's body. "Mum's been watching every bite I eat."
Kim hesitated. But Andie's mum called again. Kim wanted to panic, but she was a former Power Ranger and, damn it, she would face this challenge like every other she'd faced.
She headed for the door, noticing as she did so the ache in her back which sent sharp stabs of pain through her with every step. Andie hadn't been kidding about getting hurt. Down the stairs and then it was obvious from the noise of plates being set on wood which way to go to the kitchen. There were two places set, so Kim sat in the one that the woman, Andie's mum, wasn't already sitting in.
She stared at the plate in front of her. Stir fry, with lots of vegetables and hardly any meat or carbohydrate. All very healthy. It was a fairly small portion too. Trying to convince Andie to eat a little at a time, to get her used to eating at all.
Kim realised she was expected to start eating. Andie's mum was watching her closely. So she picked up the fork and stabbed it into a carrot. She felt full before being even half-way through the small plateful. She guessed the stomach shrank when it went empty for too long. Still, she'd been telling Andie for a couple of months that she needed to start eating more. She could hardly go against her own advice.
She fought her way through the rest of the meal, wondering what had just happened. Alternate dimensions? She wished Billy were here to ask. But he wasn't there to ask either, from what Jason had said. He'd gone off to live on another planet!
"You've done really well," Andie's mum said when the plate was empty. "I made fruit salad for desert."
"I can't," Kim said. She felt stuffed from the stir fry. She realised this must be even harder for Andie, who was fighting the mental blocks as well as the way her body had become accustomed to starvation. For ages, she'd felt that Andie was just being stupid. Of course it was easy to eat. Now, as Andie's stomach was complaining it was full, her back ached and her ankle throbbed, she had her first glimpse of what Andie must have been going through.
"Andie, you promised."
"If I eat any more now, I don't know if I'll be able to keep it down," Kim said, "Give me an hour or two and then I'll eat the fruit salad. I promise." There was a long silence. Andie's mum was staring at her, considering. Kim would eat. She knew she would because she'd been telling Andie to, but of course Andie's mum wasn't to know that it was someone else sitting here in Andie's body.
"OK," she said at last.
Was this what Andie had been going through for months? This constant pain? Topped off with the shattering of her Olympic hopes, it must be a nightmare for her. Kim should stop being so self-centred. Tommy was happy, which was what she'd wanted. And she was still on track with her training and try-outs. Her dreams were still within reach. Poor Andie. Kim wished it were possible to give the girl a hug.
Kim stood up, planning on heading back up to Andie's room and the mirror to try and sort this mess out. But she paused at the doorway, thinking. This was a chance to say the things Andie wouldn't, the things Andie had whispered in their secret conversations. And the things she hadn't said, but Kim had been able to guess.
"I'm sorry about the way I've been," Kim said, "I know you've only ever tried to help me and all I did was push you away. I want you know that I love you and I appreciate all you've done for me. I will get through this. I will get better. I promise."
"Oh, Andie." Andie's mum crossed the room and hugged her. Kim hugged back, imagining for a few seconds that it was her mum stood there. She missed her family so much.
Then she walked up to Andie's room and back to the mirror.
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AndieThere came a knock at the door almost the instant Kim had left. Andie stood up to answer it and immediately felt the difference in Kim's body from her own. The change had been gradual for her, so she'd not really noticed it. Now she could feel how much stronger she was. She felt warmer too. She'd spent weeks shivering with cold when everyone else was perfectly fine.
Whatever had just happened, she was glad of it. Walking across the room in a body that wasn't half-dead from hunger, she knew she needed to start eating again. She'd known it in the hospital bed, but not in this way. This was something in her soul telling her this was how she should be.
She opened the door and saw a guy outside, tall and good-looking. "Hi," she said and wondered whether she was supposed to recognise him.
"Are you OK?" he asked. No introduction or anything, so she supposed Kim did know this guy. Which was crazy. Since Kim was a figment of her imagination. It was utterly impossible for her to be standing here in Kim's life talking to one of Kim's friends.
"I'm fine," Andie answered. And she was. She was used to saying that when she was shaking or tired or aching all over. But she actually felt fine, for the first time in weeks. Months.
"You don't look fine. It's about Tommy, isn't it?"
Andie stepped aside to let the guy into Kim's apartment. She tried to work out what to say, wishing she'd been paying more attention to Kim's rant earlier.
"It's like Kat's replacing me in every way," Andie said.
"That's not true. You were an awesome Ranger, Tommy loved you so much that I wasn't sure he'd ever get over you leaving him, and now you're on the way to a gold medal in the Olympics. Kat could never replace you." Andie wished the real Kim here, listening to this.
"Besides," the guy went on, "I thought you'd found someone else."
"I lied," Andie said, remembering what Kim had told her through tears of regret, "I felt like I was being unfair to him, asking him to wait for me when I was so busy. I didn't have time to be his girlfriend and I thought that he deserved better. I just didn't think it would be Kat."
"You left him because you thought he was unhappy being with you?"
"But he wasn't with me," Andie said, this time remembering Josh's words, "I was here, training, so far away from him. I didn't even have time to call him. It wasn't just a long distance relationship, it was nothing. He was putting his life on hold for me without any hope that I'd have time again to go back to him." She realised it wasn't Tommy she was talking about.
Maybe Josh would want her back now. If she tried to spend time with him. If she stopped snapping at everyone she cared about. If she noticed there was a world outside the gym. He'd said he wanted to be with her. And she wanted to be with him. She had to rest up anyway after her back injury. She could spend time with him, make up for all the things she'd said and done over the past months.
She had a chance to patch things up with him. But Kim was all alone. She'd lost her chance with the guy she loved and now he was with someone else. Didn't that mean more than gymnastics?
"Come on," the guy said, "I'm going to take you somewhere fun so you can put Tommy out of your mind for a bit."
"OK," Andie answered, "I'll just get my purse."
She headed back into Kim's bedroom, looking for wherever she kept her purse. Then she saw her own figure appear in the mirror.
"Your friend's here," Andie said, "he wants to take you somewhere fun."
"Your mum wants you to eat some fruit salad in an hour or so."
Andie stared at Kim for a moment, seeing her own body so pale and thin, but knowing that she still had hope. She could recover, she could go back to training in a few weeks and she could talk things over with Josh. Kim had no such hope of fixing things with Tommy.
"Maybe my life isn't so bad," she said, at the same moment as Kim.
And then she was back in her own body and her own bedroom. She started to laugh with relief, then realised even that hurt. But not forever. She would get through this.
She looked at Kim and wondered whether that had been real, or just some trick of her brain caused by hunger and exhaustion with a side-order of pain.
"Thank you," Andie said.
"You too," Kim replied.