CHAPTER 3. EXCHANGE OF PLACES.
6:45
Diana.
That was the word he noticed when he looked at the palm of his left hand. Who had written that name on his hand without his noticing? It did not make sense. Also, he never wrote something like that to himself, and even less on his body, he was always cautious when he needed to use a pen and paper to write something important, so this was not possible.
His great doubt and curiosity increased shortly after when he saw that he was wearing the school uniform. How had he fallen asleep with his college uniform on? Maybe he was very tired, but even in those conditions he always put on his clothes to sleep. Now he would have to go to school without smelling quite right. Even though he wanted to know what had happened the day before to have done those things, he knew that this had to wait because he had to go to university first, so he got up quickly, put on deodorant, and wiped her face a little to remove any stain or grime that had remained. He had to look good.
He went straight to the kitchen and made himself a fried egg on whole wheat bread with a few fruits. He ate at normal speed, not too slow, but not too fast either. As he ate, he knew there was one way to check what had happened the day before to determine why he had written 'Diana' on his hand and why he had fallen asleep in his college uniform, and that was his electronic journal from his cellphone. At first, he didn't want to put it up, but his parents had told him that if he was gonna be the CEO of their company, then he would have to document everything that happened each day to be prepared for a sensitive business situation in which a tool like this was needed; At first, he had complained, but he had quickly gotten used to this routine, after all, he was very good at writing on his cell phone.
When he saw what he had written the day before, he yelled a 'What?' fairly tall. He couldn't believe what was written in the past day.
"Today I had a pretty good conversation with Miss Zatara thanks to my feminine side."
That was all that was written, along with emojis that he never wanted to put. The confusion only increased more, it was not possible that he had taken to using emojis yesterday, unless he was drugged or they had forced him, which was impossible.
"What's going on?" He asked more calmly. Yet again, his mind reminded him that he couldn't stray and he had to go back to school. Fortunately, these mental lapses would not be a big deal.
He was so wrong.
XXX
11:00
He had thought that everything would be normal, but all the classes he had entered to finish his degree in architecture had started very strangely, with each teacher pointing out that now he had deigned to attend classes when he had not attended the day before. This surprised him even more, so he tried to defend himself by saying that he didn't remember skipping class, to which the teachers told him that, it was okay to do it once, but not to do it again, and they all added in different answers that his status did not give him impunity to skip classes just for the fun of it.
After those reprimands, he went to the seat he occupied in each respective room, and the strangest thing was that none of his classmates had spoken to him after that, although this was due to how intimidating he could be when they bothered him. But, seeing that he still could not get an answer to what had happened the day before, he decided to focus on classes, since he was one of the most attentive in this type of thing, he was one of the most outstanding students, despite that many believed he was just pretending to pay attention. His commitment to the classes was further demonstrated when, before leaving the classrooms at the end of those classes, he asked the teachers to email him the content viewed the day before, which was sent to him shortly thereafter.
He couldn't understand why he had missed class the day before, but that only made his curious all the more to know what had happened yesterday to make all of this happen to him. Besides, the only thing he had dreamed was that he was a girl from a town quite far away, it was not possible that something else could have happened, or not without him knowing.
Fortunately, he had his routine lunch with his friends Dick and Tim. He decided to keep what had happened to him on his cell phone and in his hand a secret, since he couldn't keep it a secret that he had missed school the day before because Dick quickly mentioned it. He simply replied not to remind him and that he was going to retrieve the content he hadn't seen yesterday. Other than that, everything was fine.
During their conversation, Dick and Tim saw that their friend was behaving in the traditional way, not at all like the nervous, somewhat cheerful, careless and amnesiac version they had seen yesterday, especially when he took his sandwich out of his backpack and began to eat it accompanied by a bottle of water.
When they finished eating, Tim didn't hesitate and asked again if they wanted to go to the coffee shop, but his friend answered quickly:
"No, I have to work, Tim" He said starting to get up.
That comment didn't come off as normal for Dick, considering what had happened the day before, so he let out a gleeful laugh.
"Ha, now do you remember where you work?" Dick asked rather amused.
With that question, he turned to Dick. For a few seconds, he began to think that Dick could have been responsible for what he had written in the journal on his phone. So he quickly asked:
"Wait, Dick, are you the one who's been playing with my phone?" He asked quite annoyed.
This only confused Dick, who replied: "What are you talking about, Bruce? Yesterday you didn't even remember the password for your cell phone and I had to tell you, and you didn't even lend me the phone all day, as always" He responded quite indignantly.
Even though he wanted to believe that Dick had written that to him on his phone, he saw that he was telling the truth. Dick and Tim were playful, but they'd learned what he didn't like done to him, and Dick's face told him that he had, in effect, only told him the password to his cell phone, but that again heightened his confusion. How had he forgotten his cell phone password for Dick to tell him? This was getting more and more worrying, but he knew it was better to try to remember what had happened, after work, so he got up from the chair.
"Forget it" He said grumbling. "See you later" He said as he walked away.
After watching him disappear from sight, Dick and Tim saw that they could talk now that he couldn't hear them.
"Well, I think we can say that he's back to normal now" Tim said. But even though his friend was back to normal, Dick said something very out of the ordinary.
"Don't know. I think yesterday… he was acting cute" He said pinching his nose.
"What the hell did you say?" Tim asked, looking at him in disbelief.
XXX
18:00
If he thought that school was the only thing where what had happened to him because of what he couldn't remember what he had done the day before made no sense, then he already had something too terrible going on in his brain, because, when he got to the agency where he was an intern (because his parents wanted him to gain professional experience in a company different from his, it was only preparation; after all, money was not a problem for him), now dressed in his suit, he was received by the angry looks of the other interns.
"What's happening?" He asked his companions. He hoped that this wouldn't make the situation worse, while at the same time hoping that it would give him an answer to what had happened the day before.
"Don't play, I thought we were friends" Said one of them.
"Yeah, now you're trying to win her over with that detail to her father, right?" Asked another.
With those sentences, he was even more confused with what had happened the day before, although it was easy for him to see who they were talking about, because if they were referring to a girl with a father in the agency, there was only one.
"What are you talking about? Me and Miss Zatara?" He asked, confusion evident on his face.
"And what did you do?" The four inmates asked in unison, still angry.
He knew that everyone wanted to date Miss Zatara, including himself, and since she was the boss's daughter, they knew it was dangerous to woo her so freely, that or until she wanted to, if that happened, so they all agreed not to woo her until that time came. Therefore, it was so strange that he had violated that agreement, with an action that he didn't even remember doing.
"It will seem strange to you, but I don't remember anything" He said moving his arms to emphasize his phrase. Unfortunately, this did not help him.
"Stop lying and tell us" Said one of them.
Misfortune turned to fortune when the female voice of the girl they wanted to woo was heard.
" Zatanna Zatara reporting to work" She said very cheerfully, dressed in her traditional suit and skirt. When she arrived, all the boys straightened up so she wouldn't notice the fury they had against the boy who had helped her the day before. "Work hard guys. Today is going to be a great day. Isn't it, Bruce?" He said the latter turning to the boy winking before entering the bathroom.
Fortune turned to misfortune again when this action caused the other interns to turn on the person she had spoken to with angry glares.
"What I needed" He thought to himself.
The rest of the day was a little better. Being the chief's assistant, whose position had been achieved thanks to the influence of his parents, he was with him almost all the time, although there were times when he had to be away from him for a job he was commissioned to do, which caused them to always give him a glare because of the matter with Miss Zatara.
Apart from that, John Zatara had told him at the beginning that "Now you did come with your suit and not with the school uniform", which had added that to the confusion he already had over the matter with his daughter. He asked him what he meant, so the boss asked him if he was feeling well, he answered yes, so the boss told him that yesterday he had been somewhat careless with his work and had come to work in his college uniform, not his formal black suit, but that he thanked him for what he had done for his daughter.
He thought about asking his boss more, but the work increased, so he had to postpone it. When there was time to rest, he saw that Miss Zatara was calmly eating some cookies. He thought it would be a little more useful to ask her what was the detail he had done for her the day before.
"Hello, Miss Zatara" He said something nervous.
"Hello Bruce" She said very happily.
"How is everything?" He asked trying to get started without feeling too rushed.
"Everything is going well. Busy, but good" She replied looking at him.
"Everything okay after the day before?" He asked trying to get to that point.
"Yes, all ok. Much better after what you did for me" Zatanna said without looking away.
"Yes, what I did for you, I think I cheered you up a lot when I bought you that" He said that thinking that he had given him a rather expensive little gift. He never imagined that she would say the following.
"What are you talking about?" She asked. "You didn't buy me anything, you sewed me the skirt that that dumbass cut for me when I took care of him for you" She said something annoyed, but not for him, but for thinking about that guy who had cut her skirt.
Nothing made sense now. How had she sewn Zatanna 's skirt? He didn't know anything about sewing, he never did anything like that, not even with his parents, for that they had a butler who was an expert in everything. The strangest thing to him was that he couldn't handle a guy, he had picked up enough character over the years to let someone else handle it for him.
"Excuse me, did you say that I sewed your skirt?" He asked, still with a confused and stunned face.
"Sure, don't you remember?" She asked him, still cheerful, but somewhat confused by the amnesia of the guy she had told that she had worried about him the day before. "Look, you sewed me here, and now it looks much prettier" She told her, turning around and pointing with her finger to the area that was adorned with green, yellow, and red threads, forming a grass with flowers.
He thought about telling her that he didn't remember anything, but decided against it. After all, he liked Miss Zatara, and this could be the beginning of what he wanted to have with her. Furthermore, the source of her confusion over what everyone had told her he had done the day before had dissipated when, due to what was happening, he began to have a vague recollection of being a village girl who braided threads, for which, once he got home, would really confirm if what he was thinking was true, not without feeling a great wave of anxiety, because he hoped he was wrong.
Luckily for him, the rest of the day was normal, except for the angry faces of the other interns, and he went safely to his apartment, not without saying goodbye to Miss Zatara and his father in a friendlier way than usual, something good out of all the confusion.
XXX
6:45
If his day had been strange and difficult because of what he had been told he had done the day before, hers started in a somewhat similar way, as she was alarmed by what was written on her left hand and part of her forearm.
"DIANA? WHO ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU?"
That was what was written on that part of her body. This was stranger to her than the question that was written on that page in her notebook. And with this, it was clear that Barry couldn't be responsible. His style is always more to tell you once you fall for the joke, but it's a very small one, most likely someone was really following her.
She couldn't think anymore because Donna's voice snapped her out of her thoughts.
"I see you're not touching your boobies today" She told her from the door. She turned to the little girl, with a confused face, one that the little girl didn't notice, since she spoke again. "Breakfast is ready. Fast!" She yelled at her before closing the door.
What she was trying to figure out about the writing on her left hand and forearm was replaced by what her younger sister had told her. This took her longer to process, she never did that, so hearing that someone else might be touching her was just terrifying.
"My breasts?" She asked to herself, looking scared and wrapping her arms around her breasts as if to take away the fact that someone else could have touched her.
XXX
8:00
Breakfast with Donna and Aunt Antiope wasn't as alarming as she thought it would be. She thought her little sister would bring up something strange she had done yesterday, apart from touching her breasts over and over again, but she didn't; and, Antiope did not mention anything relevant about the previous day either. Therefore, she thought that that action was the only remarkable one she had committed the day before, even if she didn't like it; but she was wrong. Not even ten seconds passed when she entered the room that received a totally strange response.
"Good morning" That's what she had said when she arrived. The strange thing was how all of her companions either backed away or gaped at her. She noticed this and her jaw dropped as well, but only for two seconds, as she was focused on going to her desk in the corner, where Iris was already.
"Is it me or is everyone staring at me?" She asked Iris as she put down his backpack and sat down.
"How could they not do it after the show you did yesterday?" Iris asked quite cheerfully, letting out a small laugh.
She responded with a small groan, since she did not remember anything. She thought about asking Iris more about the 'Show' she had done yesterday, but, the teacher came, so she had to wait until recess for her to tell her what she had done.
XXX
RETROSPECTIVE SCENE
It was art class. Everyone was busy with their respective drawings, but, like in every class, at some point, a certain group of teenagerss would start talking about a certain topic when they started to get bored with the work they had to do. The ones who were talking were the same group of obnoxious kids who couldn't stop making fun of the situation of Mayor Princeton and his daughter.
"Did you see the election propaganda?" Asked one of the girls.
"No matter the campaign, nothing is going to change" The boy answered. "Except who gets the bribe" He added.
" Shhh, someone's dad is counting on it," the girl said. They both let out a knowing giggle. They both knew that the person they were referring to was listening to them, but they didn't think she was going to do anything.
"They're talking about me, right?" She asked Iris.
Iris hesitated for a moment, but responded with a quick nod. With this, she stopped drawing the sketch of a skyscraper along with other landscapes and placed her hand on the edge of her desk.
"Wait, Diana!" Iris yelled at her to stop her from doing something terrible, but it wasn't enough. Her friend hit the desk with the palm of her hand and it fell to the ground with a loud thud, scaring everyone, including the obnoxious boys, who had stopped smiling and were now surprised by the girl's reaction.
Then, the girl crossed her arms and gave them a serious look, looking like she wanted to set them on fire, and this gesture was easy to notice when her hairstyle was a simple ponytail, so her face was not overshadowed by her hair.
END OF THE FLASHBACK.
XXX
Again, she was stunned when Iris finished telling her the story.
"I…I…did what?" She asked very hesitantly, while Iris was staring at her and Barry was more focused on his comics.
Iris just nodded again. This was terrifying. Despite the fact that she often wanted to do something to somehow attack the boys who always bothered her with it, her aunt Antiope had taught her self-control very well, so this was more than alarming. But, that brought to her mind a speculation, one that she hoped was not true, but she decided to wait until the end of the classes, because it would alarm everyone if she left like that, and they were not going to let her go like that so easily, unless she had to pretend she was sick, but she wasn't good when it came to creating lies; the only bad thing was that this day progressed slower than it usually did and she was distracted at various times, although it wasn't as serious as when they told her she couldn't remember her name.
When school finally ended, she said a quick goodbye to Barry and Iris and ran to her house, where Donna and Aunt Antiope were already there, who heard her open the door and run up the stairs; even Donna asked if it was her, but she didn't answer anything, she had to make sure she was wrong.
Unfortunately, when she opened her notebook, she saw that some notes from the past days were written in a very orderly manner and in block letters, which was not her style, she preferred cursive.
"No, no, no" She said as she turned the pages. "Could it be that…?" She asked to herself, faltering in the process.
XXX
At his apartment, he was checking his cell phone, seeing that Dick had told him that he had to tell him his password because he hadn't remembered it the day before, and he wanted to see if there was anything else out of the ordinary besides what was written in his diary. What he had found was a photo of a dessert that he didn't even remember eating.
"Oh, no" He said when he began to say what he already suspected.
"Could it be that… we are…?" He asked to himself.
XXX
"…are we in our dreams that boy and I?" She finished the question.
XXX
"…That we are…in our dreams, that girl and I?" He asked out loud to himself. "Swapping places?"
XXX
"Swapping places?" She asked out loud to herself.
XXX
And that's how they realized what they had been slow to notice: they weren't dreaming, they were in a body swap, which happened two to three times a week, it happened when they fell asleep; although, the cause, motive, reason or circumstance for this to occur was not known.
The most insane thing of all is that the memories of what they had done in each other's bodies faded quickly upon awakening. However, it was clear that they were in an exchange of places, this from the reaction of all the people close to them.
The reactions of those people made them realize that this could jeopardize each other's lifestyle, like when she skipped his classes, or what he had done in art class. For that reason, they decided to set rules, a list of actions that they could or could not do during the trade, though that number increased after they did something that forced them to write those new rules. Added to this was writing messages or small notes on some visible part of their bodies, such as the face, forearm or hand every time one asked the other something; to this was also added leaving messages on their phones (in his case, he wrote the new password that he had put on his cell phone, because what Dick had told him had forced him to change it, from 91939 to 71808; and the weekly schedule of his classes so that he would not miss again or be late, again).
Some of the rules she had set were:
Don't you dare lift your skirt.
Do not wear the blouses very open.
Never be late with Aunt Antiope.
Remember that you have thread braiding sessions.
Never call Barry or Iris as 'mates' or by their last names.
All those rules were accompanied by their classic emoticons.
On the other hand, some of the rules he had set were:
Always wear a suit when you are in the agency, never wear the uniform there.
Don't skip class again, or you'll regret it.
Don't call anyone 'Sir' except Zatara.
Don't shave, you won't want to after trying it.
Prevent Dick from seeing the new password.
This had been the beginning of a routine, he in her body, and she in his body. He always started waking up suddenly in her room, and compulsively touching his breasts, always getting caught by Donna, and then combing his hair with his distinguished ponytail; while she woke up falling out of bed, because she wasn't used to her alarm being on the desk, far from the bed, before going to the bathroom and having to relive that experience over and over again for the rest of the day. Added to that was having to go to each other's school, interacting with the usual people like Dick, Tim, Mr. Zatara and Zatanna in his case, and Barry, Iris, Aunt Antiope and Donna in her case.
It was a mutual agreement, where two complete strangers had to help each other through a situation that was completely out of the ordinary, a situation that Barry would be happy to hear about, but they would never tell him. But, this did not prevent them from having some difficulties during the exchange of places. These difficulties arose either because they took too many liberties while being in the other's body, or simply because they forgot they were in the other's body.
One day, he was the best player when he played basketball in her body, they said they had never seen her play so expertly; while she dedicated herself to embroidering all the garments that had a hole or damage. Another day, she ended up doing a test quite badly because she had only been able to leaf through a few pages when he warned her that a test was coming through a written note (Something that ended up forcing him to repeat the test already in his respective body, although he told her that she must be a better student to sit in the back of the class in a note written on her body); while he had gotten an outstanding grade, because the class he was in had all the knowledge memorized. Another day, he didn't know how to braid threads in front of the girl named Donna and Aunt Antiope (he was even late once because he got entertained with Barry and Iris); while she couldn't do the complicated math that architecture demanded. On another day, she would sing pop music in front of Dick and Tim, unlike alternative genres that he never wanted to sing in front of anyone; when he surprised Barry and Iris by creating a table out of tree trunks lying in the woods (benefit of studying architecture). On another day, he had gone directly to the village lake to be able to soak his face in its water, because it was crystal clear, and he wanted to feel it, since he couldn't do it in his city; while she went out with Dick and Tim, where they ended up in the park playing catch, and she ended up being adored by all the dogs in the park for how nice she was to them, which left perplexed her two friends, because the animals were not entirely to her liking, so this was paradoxical.
Among the main complaints they had were her asking him to be careful with the skirt, since he sat with his legs wide open from time to time; They were him ordering her to stop spending her money on desserts, to which she told him that she earned that money and that it stayed in his body, not hers; that threads could not be entwined (despite his recurring practices with Antiope, he could not weave any); her telling him that he worked too much, to which he told her that it was none of his business and she was to blame for spending too much money; or that he ordered her not to interfere with their relationships (mainly his relationship with Miss Zatara, which was progressing quite well, thanks to her, they had even seen each other a few times leaving work, but they weren't official dates). She had even asked him why a girl had confessed her love to him on one of those days, but he had replied that it was because he was more interesting when he was her, omitting that a blond boy had also confessed his love to her when he was in her body, but he had rejected him, he would never accept anything for her, that was the agreement he respected.
Because of that answer, she had said to him "How conceited you are, you don't even have a girlfriend".
He counterattacked by replying, "You don't have anyone either".
In the end, the two ended up saying that they didn't have a partner because they didn't want a relationship, or not with her, in his case, due to his attraction to Miss Zatara.
They both believed that this routine, which they were getting fed up with, and the disagreements they had seemed to constantly escalate, would continue unchanged. However, eventually, there is always something that breaks any routine, and that would happen in a very, very calm way, fortunately for him.
Obviously, you already saw that I left Bruce's parents alive in this fic. Yes, believe me I would have done the same with them, but, I'm saving them for a purpose that I'm not going to tell you what it is until I get to that chapter. And, I think it's good to give Bruce at least one life in which he doesn't lose them, just once.
Well that's it. See you the next chapter.