Charlie just managed to prise open her eyelids the next morning. She wasn't quite sure what time it was (the jet lag had completely thrown her body clock out of whack), but she was certain that if she didn't get up now, she would never get up, and her stomach was already starting to protest at the thought of even another minute laying in her bed.
No, not her bed. This wasn't her bed. These weren't her sheets, or her pillow, and the light streaming through the curtains was coming from completely the wrong direction.
As reality hit her, she began to feel a bit overwhelmed by what had happened. She wasn't still at camp, discussing and training for some wild scheme her and Annie had concocted. She was living it. She was sleeping in her sister's bed, in her sister's room, and living her sister's life, whilst Annie was living hers. And her mother and aunt Lydia were downstairs.
Once she'd put on her (Annie's) dressing gown and slippers, she followed the smell of cooking and made her way downstairs into what she knew to be the kitchen from the diagram Annie made.
"Good morning!" Lizzie smiled as she moved to the side to reveal that she was frying something.
"Is that bacon?" Charlie tried to peer into the pan.
"Indeed it is. I imagine you've probably had quite a lot of bacon in the morning at camp, so I thought I'd make that for you, with scrambled eggs."
Charlie cringed inside at the thought of scrambled eggs; she only liked them fried or hardboiled. No matter though, because she would just try and mix it up with loads of ketchup and bacon and hopefully it wouldn't be so bad then.
"That's great, thanks mum!" She sat down on one of the stools by the counter. "So what have you got planned for me today?"
"Who says I've got anything planned for you? You're a big girl now Annie – you've just spent eight weeks alone on a different continent. I can't make you do anything. Well, not unless you need a lift or something." Lizzie turned off the heat and started piling the bacon strips and egg onto their plates. "No, I was wondering what you were planning on doing today."
"Well, I was going to finish unpacking_"
"Sounds like a good plan. Give me your washing before I leave for the office at 12 and I'll be able to get some on the go. Sorry, you were saying?"
"Then I was going to just…follow you around for a while. I've missed you mum! Can't I just spend some time with you? Even if you are working?"
At this, Lizzie couldn't help but smile, even if her mouth was a little bit too full for smiling. "I like the sound of that especially! I've missed you tons so I don't mind at all if you come with me to the office. Though I imagine it will get kinda boring for you after a while."
"What kind of stuff do you do in the office then?"
"You know what I do!"
"Yeah, but I don't know all the details. What's your schedule like? What will you be working on today? I've been out of the loop for eight weeks, mum. You might have filmed and released a huge hit since I've been away."
"I haven't! Though we are filming today. You could come with me to watch for a while, if you want."
"I'd love it. That would be awesome! What are you filming?"
"You know that!"
"I've forgotten. Eight weeks is a long time when you've only been alive for 11 and a half years."
To this, her mum pursed her lips before replying, "it's a modern web series adaptation of Anna Karenina."
"What's that, Shakespeare or something?"
"No!" She smiled. "It's Leo Tolstoy. A 19th century Russian writer."
"Ah! Do you like it then?"
"You know it's one of my favourites! Have you forgotten everything about me since you left?"
"Not everything! I know that you love to give your sweet, innocent daughter a rough time. And I know that you absolutely LOVE Chinese takeaway. Especially honey and walnut shrimp!"
To this, Charlie thought she saw her mother flinch slightly. She shifted in her seat, the corner of her mouths twitched, and her eyes flicked up to hers briefly before focusing on her breakfast again.
"I do tend to order Chinese a lot, don't I?"
"You should get some kind of discount card."
Charlie knew she was playing with fire again, bringing up something mentioned so heavily in her videos, but it was a good way to see whether her mother still thought about dad. She took the flinching as something of a positive sign then. She wasn't going to run off to her phone, call Annie, and tell her that it was time to unswitch…but it was something, she thought. Plus, this was only just the beginning of her and her mom's numerous epic adventures together.
It was the sound of laughter from outside her window that awoke Annie the next morning. The jet lag she was feeling now was nothing compared to that on the first day of camp, but this wasn't exactly a walk in the park, especially as her father and aunt Gigi had insisted they stay up and watch loads of repeats of old Family Feuds (Charlie had warned her about this – apparently the obsession started in their childhood).
Once she'd carefully rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she pulled back the thin veil curtains and peered out into the garden to see who she was going to have to murder tonight. It seemed the person in question was not someone she'd seen in any pictures. They were tall, blonde, wearing a sleek black dress that hugged their figure and a wide brimmed hat to match, and though Annie knew better than to assume someone's gender, they were most likely to identify as female to some extent (unless they were in drag, she thought). They also seemed to be standing very close to her father.
She opened the window ever so slightly to try and hear some of the conversation.
"Oh William, when are you planning on telling her? You can't hide me from her forever."
"No," Annie thought she saw a corner of his mouth tilt upwards slightly. "I was thinking about introducing you as soon as she's awake."
This was all she needed to know for now. She didn't want to hear any more. She either wanted to know everything, or know nothing, and this was certainly somewhere between everything and nothing. She jumped off her bed by the window, slipped into her slippers, put on a thin dressing gown, and shuffled her way out of her room, downstairs, and out to the garden as quickly as she could.
"Here she is!" William smiled as he met her and put a comforting arm behind her back. "Charlie, I want to you meet Madison Blair. Madison is a friend of Caroline Elton, who you might remember as Bing's sister. We met over the summer and…"
"…and, dad?" Annie's eyes were staring widely up at him.
"...and, we've begun…a relationship." He swallowed back the words.
There was a long pause, before Annie widened her eyes even more, and spoke in all seriousness. "Dad, you can't be dating so soon! You're still in rebound! You know that's always a bad idea!"
"Rebound?" He stared at Madison; shifting awkwardly. "Darling, I haven't dated anyone since_"
"_since mom? I know, but that was pretty recent. I don't think you should be dating so soon. It will only end with tears and heartbreak." With that, she stomped back inside the house.
"That was…twelve years ago, Charlie." William looked back at his daughter returning inside with confusion painted all over his face
Annie pounded up the stairs to her room and dialled the number under the name "Marian" and waited as it rang.
"Annie? How are you?!" Her sister's voice rang down the phone with a loud squeal. "Oh my god, mom is incredible! She cooked me bacon and scrambled eggs this morning and I know I hate my eggs scrambled but she was so nice to do that, and then we just talked and talked all breakfast, and then she took me to the office with her and we watched_"
"Charlie."
"_them film some web series of Anita Kranina or something_"
"Charlie!"
"_and we're going to go and watch a musical tonight and it's going to be about that kid in the chocolate factory_"
"CHARLIE!"
"Yeah, that's his name, but there's no need to shout!"
"No, Charlie you've got to stop yacking for a moment and listen to me! Dad has a girlfriend."
"Get out of here! Dad doesn't date. He's too socially awkward for that."
"Yeah well, not too socially awkward for her, clearly. She was practically all over him and it was gross. If dad's dating again, this is getting serious. We need to unswitch, right now."
"No, I won't! I simply won't. It's not that serious, and I've only just begun to get to know mom."
"But_"
"Annie, I'm not doing it. Talk to you soon."
With that, Annie was left hanging.