Chapter 14. Teamwork In Progress.
Liam and Amy switched their bodies. Once again.
But, unfortunately for them, this time it seemed like a permanent thing. A week had passed since Amy and Liam had quarreled after he had said Karma, by mistake, that he and Amy had slept together.
Given the tensions between the two, the coexistence and the formulation of a plan hadn't been easy, but after a few minutes it was clear that the only thing to do was to pretend to be each other.
To Amy, it was pretty easy, considering the fact that Liam's parents barely spoke to him (thing that Amy could still barely comprehend); to she, it was quite easy as long as she hadn't have to deal with Shane, who had noticed something strange in his friend and hadn't yet left duped by Amy and Liam's excuses.
Liam, instead, had had to memorize a series of useful information for interpreting Amy. He had to deal with her mother and Bruce (who had attributed her strange behavior at some lesbian-teen phase) but especially with Lauren, who was trying to obtain information whenever possible.
The only positive aspect of the whole situation was that neither of them had had to pretend to be someone else with the person who most knew them: Karma.
Karma hadn't responded to any message or any call, whether they were from Liam or from Amy. At school, she had concocted a plan to avoid them both and those few times when she couldn't help but facing them, she had simply ignored them.
Amy felt so bad for the way things had happened. She and Karma had finally found their way to each other and now Amy felt that she could loose Karma forever. She couldn't believe it, not after all that they had been through.
Liam, on the other hand, already suffering over Karma, felt guilty for having hurt her and for having created problems with her relationship with Amy. Sure, he hadn't yet entirely overcome it, but he was really trying to be a good person wishing the best to Amy and Karma and not putting a spoke in the wheels of their relationship. Obviously things didn't go as he had hoped.
"Why do we always have these super secret meetings at my place?" Liam asked, sitting down on his bed, where he didn't sleep for a week now.
Amy continued to walk back and forth across the room, making great strides with Liam's legs. "Lauren has seen us too many times at my place, she will start to get suspicious".
"When she finds out she will kill you, you let Liam Booker share her bathroom under the guise of his sister".
"Stepsister", Amy corrected him. "And that's the point, nobody has to know that you're under my guise".
"Are you sure?".
Amy sighed. "Liam please, do not start with the I hate lies whining".
Liam didn't get angry for the travesty that Amy had made of him, by now he was getting used to Amy's attitude. "It's not about that. We should tell Karma."
Amy struggled to hold back a laugh. "Karma doesn't want to talk with us".
"We can force her to", Liam replied.
"She'd believe that we're going insane", Amy retorted.
"It's a risk".
"The last time we took the risk and we told her the truth, it didn't go well".
"Actually", Liam reminded her, "we haven't told her the truth, she just discovered it. Maybe that's why she's so angry".
"Of course, if things had gone differently, she would have probably laughed about it" Amy replied acid and sarcastic.
"If we want to solve this thing once for all, we must understand how it works".
"Yeah, as if there was something logical in any of this", Amy complained, looking down at Liam's body.
Liam tried to concentrate. "God, my brow furrowed so much when I think?" Amy asked, watching him.
"Amy, you can at least try to focus, please?".
"Ok, but calm down. Jeez, I don't even have my period".
Liam shivered to the idea. That was something he definitely didn't want to experience, that's why they had to find a solution immediately.
"I think that this thing happens every time we feel strong emotions that involve us both, for example, when we had sex or when we fought about Karma".
"Don't you think it's a bit megalomaniac assume that sex with you is label-able as a strong emotion?".
Liam glared at Amy, with her green eyes.
"Okay Booker, you may be right", she allowed.
"And when we got back into our bodies ...".
"We were in Karma's presence", Amy concluded the phrase, surprised to have arrived at Liam's same conclusion.
"To go back in our bodies, we need to recreate that situation and to do that we need Karma", Amy reasoned aloud. "Small problem, she can't stand to see us right now".
"We can ask for her parents' help. You've been her best friend for ten years, I'm sure they adore you".
Honestly, Karma's parents adored anyone. But, actually, Liam was right, Amy had a certain influence on Karma's parents and if she had asked them to, they would have helped her.
"I think I have a plan", she decreed at the end.