Suefran took Adil's hand and shook it. "You must be the new exchange student. Arthur told me you were coming."

"I am pleased to meet you, Sue Alan," said the Turkish boy.

In the meantime, Alan and Beat were curiously examining Suefran's apparently healed left arm. "How did you get the cast off so quickly?" Alan asked in wonder.

Suefran dared not tell them the truth about the unicorn horn, so she made something up. "It's, uh, a new type of cast. A skin cast. It looks like skin. That's why there are no scars."

Adil widened his eyes in amazement. "American medicine is like magic to me," he remarked.

"Yeah, that's exactly what it is," Suefran answered. "Magic."

Beat ran her fingers over Suefran's left arm. "I've never heard of a skin cast," she said warily.

"I'm the first to get one," Suefran explained. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Fransue coming back into the room with a look of astonishment.

"I just talked to your mom," she told Suefran. "I don't know how you did it, but your arm is healed."

Before she had a chance to say more, Arthur grabbed her by the arm, pulled her through the crowd of kids, and led her into the guest bedroom. When he had closed the door behind them, he glared at her in outrage.

"Did you tell Sue Ellen about the unicorns?" he demanded.

"Unicorns?" Fransue appeared confused. "What unicorns?"

"You know what I'm talking about!" Arthur bellowed. "This is serious, Francine. We don't want another mess like the one with Greta and D.W. Guess what was lying on the bathroom floor next to all the little pieces of Sue Ellen's cast? A unicorn horn! I think she used it to unbreak her arm. And I didn't tell her about it, so it must have been you."

Fransue shook her head incredulously. "There's no such thing as unicorns, Arthur."

"What's the matter with you?" yelled Arthur, now angrier than ever. "You were there when D.W. turned into a unicorn. You were there when we all went before the Unicorn Council to change her back."

The two kids stared at each other for a few seconds, and then Fransue began to laugh uproariously. "Stop laughing!" Arthur growled at her.

"Okay, Arthur," Fransue choked out between giggles. "If you say unicorns are real, I believe you. But I want you to believe something too. I want you to believe that it's possible for two people to switch bodies."

Arthur's jaw dropped. "Wh-what?"

Fransue became serious. "I'm really Sue Ellen, and Sue Ellen is really Francine. Can you believe that?"

For several seconds Arthur's jaw remained frozen in the dropped position.

"Hello?" Fransue waved a hand in front of Arthur's face. "Earth to Arthur. Come in."

Finally Arthur began to chuckle. "Oh, I get it now. This is one of those personality switch things. Like when Buster and I started acting like each other. That explains why Sue Ellen has been such a grouch today."

"I'm telling the truth!" Fransue insisted. "Francine and I went out to this old barn, and a girl with a mask gassed us, and we woke up in each other's bodies. I swear I'm not making this up."

Arthur rolled his eyes, sighed, and reached for the doorknob. As he exited the guest bedroom with Fransue close behind him, he heard Adil relating a familiar story to the other kids: "During the battle of Gallipoli, a piece of, uh, sharpnel hit Ataturk over his heart, but the watch in his pocket saved his life."

"Your English is very good," Prunella complimented him. She and the other kids were seated in a circle on the floor while Adil stood before them, sharing stories of Turkey.

"Thank you, Prunilla," Adil replied. "I learned to speak English in the Turkish school. I wanted to come to America."

----

"Have you ever been to Turkey?" Suefran asked Fransue as the two girls walked down the street together after the meeting with Adil.

"Yeah, I have," Fransue replied. "We stopped at Ankara and visited the Ataturk Mausoleum. Not much there except for a dead guy."

They walked a little further, their feet splashing in the puddles of melted snow. Then Fransue could contain her curiosity no longer.

"Did you really use a unicorn horn to fix your arm?" she asked Suefran.

"Unicorns aren't real," the girl answered.

"That's not what Arthur believes," Fransue pointed out. "He says you two had some kind of experience with unicorns."

Suefran sighed. "It wasn't a pleasant one. Let's not go there, okay?"

"Okay," said Fransue somberly.

They walked in silence for a minute, and then Fransue had another idea. "If unicorns have magical powers, then maybe we can get them to switch us back."

"Forget it!" Suefran snapped at her. "I don't want to mess with unicorns anymore. Their powers are dangerous. For all we know, that girl in the mask might have been one of them."

"Maybe she was Greta," Fransue postulated.

Suefran froze in her tracks and gaped at Fransue.

"So that's what Fern was talking about," said Fransue confidently. "D.W.'s face changed so she looked just like Greta. It's because Greta's a unicorn, and she turned D.W. into one. That's it, isn't it?"

"Keep your voice down," Suefran admonished her. "The last time we told someone Greta's secret, we almost blew up the world."

"I think we should ask Greta if she can switch us back," Fransue suggested, "or if she knows how we got switched."

"I don't think Greta would be happy to hear from me," said Suefran gloomily. "Arthur and I had to betray her in order to turn D.W. back into an aardvark. It wouldn't surprise me if she switched us to get revenge on me."

"It can't hurt to ask her," Fransue insisted.

----

Later that day, as Fern watched a mystery movie on TV, Fransue and Suefran huddled together in front of her computer. They had just initiated a chat room conversation with Fern's mysterious cyber friend, Greta.

HI FERN, was the first line of text that appeared in the window.

Suefran began to type. THIS ISN'T FERN. THIS IS FRANCINE.

After a few seconds, during which Suefran imagined that Greta was probably fuming with anger, another line appeared: HI FRANCINE. NEVER THOUGHT I'D HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN.

Suefran smiled. "I guess she's forgiven me," she said to Fransue.

She then typed some more, and felt grateful that she now had the use of both hands. IS THERE A UNICORN SPELL THAT SWITCHES TWO PEOPLE'S BODIES?

The response came quickly: WHO ARE YOU THINKING OF SWITCHING?

Suefran giggled and typed back, NOBODY. TWO PEOPLE I KNOW HAVE BEEN SWITCHED.

Greta rejoined with, YOU AND WHO ELSE? A BOY, I HOPE.

"That wasn't nice," Fransue complained.

"It's an inside joke," said Suefran as she typed, ME AND SUE ELLEN.

There was a delay of about half a minute, while the two switched girls grumbled impatiently. Then an answer from Greta came: THERE'S NO UNICORN SPELL TO SWITCH PEOPLE'S BODIES. AND IF THERE WERE ONE, IT WOULD BE FORBIDDEN.

Suefran sighed with disappointment. DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHO WOULD BE CAPABLE OF THIS? she typed.

EVEN IF I KNEW HOW TO HELP YOU, I'M BARRED FROM VISITING ELWOOD CITY FOR THE NEXT ONE HUNDRED YEARS, Greta replied. YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN. SORRY.

Greta's name vanished from the list of chat participants. "Well, that was a waste of time," Fransue groused.

(To be continued...)