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chapter
two
After the party was over and I had some time to think things over, I went to room to be alone. I had discovered that most things were still the same, except girls didn’t flock to my yard, and we didn’t have to go places all the time. It seemed great, but there had to be drawbacks I simply hadn’t discovered yet. The first thing I wanted to figure out was why I was back in time a couple of months. When I was famous, it was July, now it was March. Not that I really cared, it would give me more time to enjoy a normal life. There was a knock at the door.
“Come in!” I called. The door opened slowly. It was Zac.
“Hey,” I said absentmindedly.
“Hey,” he said, sitting down next to me. “So how do you like not being famous??” I looked at him.
“You know? Nobody else does.”
“Duh,” he said. “I’m the one who made you not-famous. I’m the only one who knows.”
“Oh,” I said. “So how’d you do that- Wait. I must be dreaming.” He shrugged.
“Believe what you like.” We sat in silence for a minute.
“Okay,” Zac said. “There’s some stuff I hafta tell you.”
“Okay,” I said. “So tell me.”
“First of all, you can’t tell anyone about me doing this or anything. If you do, you’ll be immediately returned to your old life. Second, I’m sorry to tell you, but this is only temporary. You will be returned to you old life in exactly a week. And last, here,” he said, thrusting a small box at me. When I looked at him dubiously, he spoke again.
“Open it.” I did, and found a small choker inside. It had a cross as a pendant. I looked up at him.
“Uhh…Zac? What exactly is this?” He smiled.
“If you ever get in trouble, or if you want to go back early, just squeeze it and I’ll help you. But you have to be wearing it for it to work.” I smiled and hooked it around my neck. If fell in place with the other chokers, including one that was almost identical to it, but normal. He grinned at me and left.
¢ ¢ ¢
For the rest of the day, I tried to figure out as much about my new life as possible. I looked through photo albums, finding most of the same pictures. I guess the reason we didn’t become famous in this life is because my parents never took us to Austin and we never sang for anyone. It’s freaky to think that part of the life I’m so familiar with in no way happened here. It scares me a little. Like maybe there’s two of me, and we switched places or something. If that’s true, I thought, the other me must be scared to death in my place by now! I mean, this compared to the hectic life I know, he must be overwhelmed. But I don’t even know if that’s the case, so I won’t go there! I wondered if other things would be different too, like maybe Mom will have more kids after Zoë. (AN. This story takes place in March-July 1999!) Heck, I could even predict the future! And they would be amazed to find, that after I had left, all my predictions had come true! Of course, I would still be there, but not ME, it would be the other Taylor. After about an hour of all this complicated thinking, I was exhausted. I went to bed. It was only 9:00. My family was amazed.