Oh my gah! Another chapter for a story I really wasn't planning on working on. But I was having trouble getting wording I liked for Blindfolded, so I figured I would work on this. And the words just flowed right out.

Blindfolded is going to take place somewhere in the eighties, if you were wondering...but I'm still having trouble deciding on things, which may be why I couldn't get wording right. So, hopefully, this will tide people over for the time being.

Identity Crisis

Six

"She's still sleepin'?"

"She was up awhile ago. She didn't look like she got a lot of sleep though. She ain't botherin'-"

"Yeah, nobody but her mom. She's been spittin' fire at me for not bringin' her 'poor baby' home. Pretty sure she was as wasted as I was when I got back from that party."

"You went back?"

"Fuck, of course I did. What else would I have done? Skip out 'cause my kid sister is hung over? That ain't the way I work an' you know it. It's her fault an' I ain't payin' for it."

I groaned as someone kicked my leg. Well, I shouldn't say "someone". I knew exactly who it was. "Lay off, Tim," I muttered, rolling over. "I'm tired."

"Spare me the tears," Tim said sarcastically. "Get off your lazy ass and say goodbye to your sleep over buddies. I'm s'posed to get you home. Maybe your mom'll stop throwin' things at me every time she sees me."

"She's your mom too," I said as I looked up at him, before rubbing my eyes with my hands. He scowled at me and made a disdainful sound.

"She ain't my mother any more than Curly's a straight A student. That woman ain't done a damn thing for me s'far as I'm concerned. But one night without you and she just drowns herself in any form of booze she can get. Still her little princess, ain't that right, Angel?"

"Oh yes, of course, how could I forget? Mommy's little princess sits around lookin' beautiful and avoiding love sick boys, while her less than gorgeous brothers go off stealin' hub caps," I bit out, standing up and straightening my clothes.

"Last I checked, I was scorin' more than you Angela, so you best watch what you say," Tim warned, glaring at me. I rolled my eyes but kept my mouth shut. I was tired, I didn't feel like running if I had to. "Jus' get in the car."

"Yeah yeah," I muttered, walking to the door. I paused, turned and gave Tim a mock salute before I pushed open the screen door and walked outside. He gave me a salute of a different kind, of course, in return. Honestly, if he hadn't done anything, I would have thought he was sick, so I wasn't offended by it in the least.

I sat in the car for awhile, gently running my fingers over the dashboard a bit lost in my thoughts. I was thinking how much my Dad would have loved to have a car like this back in my own time. He and my mother were always looking for classic cars. They even entered a raffle (twenty dollars a ticket) to try and win an old '66 mustang. I'm guessing they never won, because I never saw the car again.

I liked cars like that too, of course. Everytime my friends and I would see one on the street or parked somewhere, we'd stare at it for awhile, or ask if we could sit in the car if it was at a park or something. I thought they were better looking than the normal cars I saw around on the streets. It was weird seeing these old cars everywhere I turned.

"You been real jumpy lately."

Startled, I jerked my hand away from the dashboard as Tim started up the car and tore away from the Curtis house.

"An' you're startin' to get more spacey than that little Curtis kid."

"Ponyboy."

"Yeah, what ever," Tim said, whipping around a corner. I noticed he wasn't heading back towards home, but I didn't say anything. "You never space out, unless you're thinkin' about some boy. Is that what's been goin' on?"

"Please, I wouldn't lose myself that bad over a boy," I said, pulling the seat belt across the seat and buckling myself in. I had the feeling it was in my best interest.

"...You wanna know what I think? I think that Curly is gonna be able to concentrate better than you if you don't stop whatever you're doin'. You ain't tryin' those drugs that those hippies been usin' are you?"

"Oh, come on! I'm not stoned, Tim, never was an' never will be! I got better stuff to do than sit around like a vegetable and not shower," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. Tim stopped the car near a field and turned up the radio. I stared out of the windshield, confused. Why would he stop at some random field?

"You used to come here a lot, before they tore the park down. You remember that?" Tim asked, lighting a cigarette and looking rather relaxed.

"...No."

Tim slowly exhaled. "It was only a month ago. I didn't believe Soda when he told me, but I guess you really ain't my sister."

I stared at him, my mouth hanging open like I was some sort of idiot before I closed it. "You knew?"

"It made sense. I started watchin' you more... few days ago I noticed your hair was lighter, but there wasn't anythin' layin' around that you could have colored it with, so I asked Soda about it. He wouldn't tell me at first, said the sun did it to his hair, so maybe it was doin' it to yours."

He paused and took another drag from his cigarette, glancing over at me. "Then last night, when you were sittin' in Dally's car...I asked him about it again. Soda was still stickin' to his story, 'till you looked completely different. He said your name was Lauren... and that you switched places with my sister somehow. Prob'ly thinks some sort of magic deal did it," Tim said, shaking his head.

"I kinda pieced it together. The way you was actin' and how you didn't know who anyone was. Guess you weren't kiddin' after all. You really had no clue. S'plains why you look so lost all the time."

"Why didn't you tell me you knew?" I asked. "I've been actin' like Angela this entire time for no reason? I'm starting to turn into her and you knew the entire time that I wasn't her? What if I can't get back now?" I said, my voice rising. "I'll be stuck in this place forever, having to lie about everything I am, because you couldn't tell me you knew the entire time!"

"I didn't know the entire time...I was guessin' before, but I didn't realize I was right until yesterday. I still don't really know what's goin' on either way, so you can't pin this all on me."

I let out a sort of choked sob and hit my fist against the car door in frustration. "I just want to go home! This is fuckin'," I paused, hitting the door again. "Ridiculous!"

"...Look, maybe if you start thinkin' like yourself again-"

"I can't! I start thinking more and more like Angela, remembering all of these...random things and forgetting the things I'm supposed to know...I can't even remember my old address anymore. It's like it was never there."

"...Tell me what you can remember then."

"What?"

"I got a pretty good memory. If you forget somethin' I'll remember it."

"...Why weren't you this nice before?"

"I feel bad for ya, kid. Consider it a pity favor."

I laughed and unbuckled myself, getting comfortable in the seat, before I started telling Tim everything I could remember. He asked about a lot of things and I found that describing some of the things to him made them more vivid and clear and I forgot little things that Angela knew. Like, her last boyfriend, what clubs she could get into and how many times Tim and Curly had been in a reformatory or in jail.

About an hour later and I was having a rather normal conversation with Tim. I think that was the first time I had ever seen him laugh about...well, anything. I wondered if Angela would remember it later. It always bothered her that she had never really seen any of her family happy.

xxxx

"Hey, Jessica?"

"What?" Jessica snapped, not looking up from the book she was reading. Angela pasued for a moment to read the title. "Stargirl".

'Weird name for a book,' Angela mused. "I'm really sorry for how I've been acting...It wasn't fair and I guess I was just frustrated with how off my game has been. It's just been a lot of stress, ya know?"

Jessica slipped a piece of paper inbetween the pages and closed her book, setting it on her lap and looking up at her. "But I was kinda upset with you too," Angela added. She had been sitting around when she had suddenly remembered what had happened at a dance Lauren had gone too.

"Why?"

"You remember that end of the year dance don't you?"

"...Oh. That."

"Yeah. That. That wasn't something a best friend should do, ya know. That wasn't something anyone should do. That was low."

"Well...I mean...I had a few drinks before I got there so-"

"But you shouldn't be drinking Jessica!" Angela almost died. She never thought she'd be saying that. Ever. "You're only in highschool!"

'And I know people who have been drinkin' long before you even knew what it was,' Angela thought to herself as Jessica looked down, embarrassed.

"I know. It's just...well, with Melissa and all..."

"I warned you about her...her and Danny. But you didn't listen."

"I know and I've felt really bad about it. But since you never brought it up, I thought everything was fine between us."

"...So...I guess we're both to blame for this one," Angela muttered. She had really been hoping that it would just be Jessica's fault. But Lauren was such a wimp that she couldn't even confront her friend about something.

"Yeah..." Jessica said, sighing. It was quiet between them for a minute, before Jessica put her book in her bag on the grass. "Well, how about we fix up your game and then do a good old fashioned mall crawl after that?"

Angela felt the corners of her lips turn in a tiny smile. "Sounds good to me."

"Good, because, you've really been sucking major doo," Jessica said with a laugh, lacing up her gym shoes and leading Angela back to the soccer field.

Angela laughed. "'Major doo'? You need to work on your insults."

"Fine, you play like shit and we need to fix it. Now," Jessica said, giggling with Angela the rest of the way.

'Lauren really does have it easy," Angela thought to herself, wishing she were back with her own friends, where they could be giggling about other things. Like things that mattered.

Wahaha. Yesh. Oh, made more Sims. Jennifer and the Curtis brothers and Julie and Leann. Mhm. I'm very good with that sort of thing. I feel like such a clod though, I forgot when Jennifer's birthday was.