Lola had to wear her new rock and roll outfit for an entire week. To say she was upset would be an under statement.

Her precious dresses had all been badly damaged by the rodents that got into the attic. Her sister Leni offered to help stitch up the dozen that could be saved but the rest were now just clothing scraps.

She spent the week sending Tatiana furious texts full of cuss words and angry emoji's. Tatiana would respond with single word put downs that cut straight to the point, which just made Lola even angrier.

The up shot is that her and Lana were friends again. The two of them went back to sitting together in class. Which is good because the entire class was giving her a wide birth now.

Lola's new look seemed to confirm everyones suspicions that she was going off the deep end. The girls stopped picking on her but they still spread rumours around the school about Lola's birthday tantrum. Even the older kids were noticing her and snickering behind her back.

Lola knew this because she overheard Lincoln tell a bunch of his classmates to knock it off. Adding in, "She wasn't THAT bad you guys. Come on."

As for Lola's friends? On Monday she only had two friends. Lana and Jenny the Rash Girl.

But then Lola made a mistake...

"Look Jenny, Your a nice person and I have nothing against you but, Roxie is my best friend and I can't get back with her if your following me around everywhere. So.."

"You don't want to be friends anymore." Jenny said, her voice full of disappointment.

"It's not that we CAN'T be friends Jenny. It's just that Roxie's getting the wrong idea about us and I want to try and set things straight. You know? So I'm going to hang out with her for a little bit and then we can play together sometime next week."

"Couldn't we all just play together? The three of us?"

Lola sucked in air between her teeth and decided to go for it. "It doesn't work like that Jenny. See, you and Roxie travel in different circles and it just...it would look weird. You can't just mix people together like that. I mean, unless its a birthday party then everyones' free to mingle but the rest of the time. I mean, you have to admit, you and Roxie are completely incompatible."

"But she's your best friend."

"Well yeah. We've been friends since kindergarten. We hang out all the time. Just like you have friends you hang out with all the time. And you and I, we...um....we're more like....part....time....friends?"

"You just feel sorry for me, don't you?" Jenny said

"No! I think your a lot of fun, I just have other friends I need to-"

"I get it Lola. Go play with your friends."

Jenny stopped talking to Lola after that. But Roxie had now been scooped up by Tina the Ballerina and was now constantly surrounded by other kids. Anytime Lola tried to get close enough to apologize to Roxie, Tina would step in and say, "can we help you?" in her most obnoxious tone.

So Lola got Lana back but now Lana was her only friend at school. One step forward. Two steps back.

After a week of this, Lola finally got fed up. Her birthday had been two weeks ago now and people were still talking about it. She needed to try and get her life back to normal. Fortunately, she had a big beauty pageant coming up and that would take her mind off of her troubles at school...

....

Tatiana had finally gotten things back to working order.

The last two weeks had been utter hell but she weathered it, just like she always did. The stuff that Lola bought was cleared out. Tatiana returned what she could and donated the other stuff to charity. Except for the earrings. Those were very nice. Expensive as hell but they went very well with Tatiana's other jewelry. She decided to keep them and went back to the store to give the owner a proper check.

That was awkward but somehow she managed to convince him that the whole thing had been an eccentric joke and that she had always planned to pay him proper.

Not wanting to lose such a valuable customer, the owner decided to accept this explanation and let the whole thing go.

Lola had been harassing Tatiana with text messages about her dresses getting ruined. Well, too damn bad. Tatiana had bent over backwards to do Lola a favour and even after making up with Lana this little brat STILL wasn't satisfied. It was times like this Tatiana wished corporeal punishment was still a thing because that girl needed a long spanking.

But she ignored Lola and put her off with quick one word responses to every text.

The plant rooms were back in shape but the disclosure of the self driving car prototype had almost been her ruin. Tatiana knew that there was friction on her board of directors but after the reveal of the car they suddenly turned hostile and tried to force her out of the company. As if they had been waiting for this for awhile.

It was a shock to be sure and Tatiana hated being shocked. But she recovered, and for the last two weeks she had been on the phone with the media telling them all about the car.

As a wise man once said, "Its better to give the appearance of strength than reveal yourself to be weak". So Tatiana acted as if she had been planning this move all along. She had never intended to keep the car a secret, she WANTED to be able to talk about it before the convention. In fact, Tatiana revealed she wasn't going to show the car at the convention. She said that had been a clever bit of misdirection to throw off her competitors.

And it worked. The media gobbled up the story and eagerly printed articles about the new self driving car that was so advanced it put google to shame.

Competitors were suddenly in a bad position as Tatianas car was now seen as the bar that had to be overcome at the expo and they all scrambled to make their presentations more exciting.

And Tatiana hired a private detective to investigate her board members. Eight of them had dirty little secrets that could get them kicked out of the company, three of those eight had secrets that could have got them investigated by the police.

A little weekend of blackmail and Tatiana had turned the tide and taken back control of her company.

As for the investors, Tatiana promptly told them to go to hell. Her companies profits spoke for itself and if the investors had a problem they can take their money elsewhere.

They didn't. The thing about making a lot of money off of someone else's effort, is that you become terrified that you'll lose a lot of money if you change your bet. The investors were greedy and cowardly, Tatiana had no problem controlling them.

Now the science expo was right around the corner. Tatiana could breath easier and sit back and watch the competition crawl all over each other to try and top her car prototype.

Easy sailing....

.....

Tatiana awoke to a familiar alarm going off and her blood ran cold. She jolted up to find there was a blindfold over her eyes again and after tearing off the blindfold she was confronted by the smiling face of Lana Loud who was petting her snake Diablo.

"Morning Lola." She said cheerfully.

Now, Tatiana isn't quite sure what kind of face she made in that moment but she did feel her facial muscles contort in some way. Whatever face she made, Lana responded by backing up in alarm and clutching her snake for dear life.

"I need to borrow your cell phone. Now." Tatiana said with Lola's voice.

Lana handed over her phone obediently and left the room as fast as she could.

....

Lola awoke with big noisy yawn and a stretch. Then she noticed she was in a hotel room. Then she saw the front of her body and screamed at the top of her lungs before grabbing the cell phone by her bed.

both women called at the same time but since Tatiana was using Lana's phone she got through.

"Tatiana!"

"Lola..."

"Why is this still happening!?"

"If only I knew."

"This can't happen today! I have something really important I need to do. Quick! Lets go back to bed and maybe we'll switch bodies."

"okay."

"Because it...wait what?"

"I said okay. I'll try anything by this point."

Both girls jumped back in bed but after thirty minutes they called each other again.

"It didn't work!"

"No Lola. but it wasn't a totally inane idea."

"Tatiana! What do we do!?"

"It seems that....god help me...your going to have to...." Tatiana made choking noises over the phone.

"I don't want to go back to work. It's boring and I don't understand anything anyone says."

"Lola. I'm supposed to go to a technology expo today."

There was a knock at the door and Lola heard Sally yelling, "Tanya! Are you alright?"

Lola excused herself and quickly brushed Sally away with a phoney story about stubbing her toe on the bed. Then Lola looked out the window to see crowds of people milling around outside. Important looking people. Lots of fancy suits and expensive cars. Lots of old people with glasses.

"Tatiana." Lola said back into the phone, "What...What do I..."

"Just give me a minute."

Tatiana's mind raced furiously. Going over her entire schedule to figure out exactly what Lola was going to have to do and how difficult it was going to be. Then she did something she hadn't before. She tried being kind.

"Lola, I want to tell you something. Are you listening?"

"Yeah, just tell me what to do. What illness do I say I have? Should I break one of your arms?"

"No. Lola, there's is nothing I have to do today that you cannot handle."

"....Re...really?"

"Really. In fact, I daresay this is right up your alley."

"What do I have to do?"

"Perform. Shmooze. Walk into a room full of people, shake hands and look confident. Tell me you can't do it."

"I...I could do that. But I don't understand what your job is."

"Maybe you don't need to. Lola, let me try to explain the current situation to you and you tell me what you would do in my place."

"Okay."

"The car that you took from my garage was supposed to be kept secret for this expo but you let the cat out of the bag. I have now spun this to make it seem as if I revealed it on purpose. Now my car is the talk of the town. I have nothing to show at this expo, but all the other companies are competing to try and make a good impression and upstage my car. What do you do in this situation?"

"I...see what they have to show me?"

"Exactly. Walk around, see what they've got. There will be lunches where people congregate, you will talk to them. Everyone will be wearing a badge. The only real effort is during dinner tonight. I'm supposed to give a speech. You will have to memorize it and perform it in my place."

Lola thought about this for a moment. It sounded almost too easy. "Is that all?"

"That's all. Just be confident and polite."

"What if they ask me hard questions?"

"Use your best judgement. I trust you."

This last part was a lie, but Tatianas life was in this girls hands.

"Now, lets talk about your schedule. What is this very important thing you have to do today? A play date? School project? or... is it a family event of some kind?"

Lola told Tatiana about the beauty pageant. Tatiana's arm went numb.

....

"you're sure your all right?" asked Sally

"Of course I am. You know how much it hurts when you stub your toe. It goes away really quick." Lola said while going through Tatiana's clothes.

"It sounded like you were being strangled."

"Oh Sally, you're such a kidder. What kind of clothes do you think I should wear to the science tech thingy? More of a fancy boss look, or a casual "I'm too awesome" kind of look?"

Lola held the different outfits in front of the mirror.

Sally coughed into her hand. "Um... those are my clothes. You brought the business suit. Remember? We argued about this and you were adamant that you stay professional."

Lola looked over at the boring black jacket and slacks hanging up in the other half of the closet. She sighed and began to change.

.....

"Here you are Lola! A brand new dress, just in time for your pageant today." Leni exclaimed as she pulled out a bubble gum pink pageant dress. Tatiana looked at the sickenly sweet dress with disdain. It was so childish, so babyish, so...

"You don't like it?"

Tatiana looked up at Leni's sad face.

"I tried to get it as close to normal as possible. I didn't really have a lot of time because you said you needed it right away."

"Of course I like it Leni. You can hardly tell it was damaged. Satisfactory." Tatiana said with a smile.

"I didn't send it to a factory silly, I made it here."

"Well, it looks so good it might as well have been factory made." Tatiana said with a smile.

Then Leni gave her a big hug and Tatiana had to clamp her teeth on her lip. She hated to be touched by strangers.

"You are totally gonna kill it today Lola. Your gonna be miss cute and mean for the third year in a row!"

"Yes...that's me....miss....cute and mean..." Tatiana struggled to even say the words

....

Lola and Sally left the hotel after a big breakfast. It was a hotel after all, Lola wanted to splurge. The two of them walked down to the back of the hotel where a massive showroom had been set up for the technology convention.

Lola and Sally got their badges from the front entrance and began walking around. There were twenty five podiums set up around the room showing off the prototypes of the different companies. Lola stopped by one of the exhibits and watched as a small robot floated off the ground in front of the crowd of people. The man in control of the robot pressed some buttons on the remote control and the robot activated some laser guns. The man tossed a plate and the robot turned and shot the plate in mid air.

"Cool." said Lola, but then she recovered herself and said, "Very impressive sir but why isn't this floating robot voice activated?"

The crowd turned to her with a look of disgust and the man smiled. "Because voices can be imitated. This robot uses facial recognition software and responds to visual commands rather than verbal ones. That way the enemy won't hear it coming."

To prove his point, he made eye contact with the robot and pointed towards the ceiling. The robot went upward and began doing figure eights in mid air. The crowd applauded. Lola's face went red and she quietly sunk away.

...

The royal woods community playhouse was a humble little place with a nice big stage with black curtains and about two hundred and fifty seats. Backstage, the contestants were all warming up. A five year old girl was powdering her face with enough blush to make her almost look like a mime. Two seven years olds were talking gossip, mentioning some other girls latest commercial and how fat she looked in it. one girl was throwing a tantrum because she couldn't find her violin. And way in the back of the theatre, a little girl was in absolute hysterics while her mother lectured her about not being a quitter.

"Dear god in heaven....I'm in hell....it actually happened....I am literally in hell." Tatiana mumbled to herself in horror.

Tatiana always prided herself on being a feminist. A real one. Not the bratty teenagers who demanded equality without even knowing what that means or the sacrifices that the women of the past have made to get it. She survived and thrived in an industry dominated by men, as an equal, without having to sleep her way to the top or buy her way in with nepotism. She did it all by herself, with a little help from her friends and employees who respected and believed in her.

This...this was a flat contradiction to everything she believed in. Girls who can barely read emaciating themselves in order to look prettier than the girls standing next to them, all for the amusement of drooling jackasses, psychotic parents and...lets face it, more than a few borderline pedophiles.

"I can't do this." she thought to herself.

"Here we are sweet heart, your favourite spot." Mr Loud pointed to a private little table near the end.

"Thanks daddy." Tatiana smiled.

"Sure thing pumpkin. We'll be watching you from the crowd." Mr loud then kissed his daughter on the cheek (so he thought) and left her at the table with her stuff.

"God, If I ever needed a drink." Tatiana thought as she looked in the little mirror.

....

Meanwhile, Lola was continuing to browse around while looking big and important. She would stand in front of a display and put her fingers to her chin and say, "hmmmmmm.." in a really smart grown up way. It didn't help her understand what was being said but it made her FEEL like she understood what was being said and in her mind, that was half the battle. She called it her "Lisa Face" because it was the face her little sister would make when examining something.

"Let me know if you get thirsty." Sally whispered.

"Actually I am a little dry." Lola replied.

"There's an open bar near the entrance. Do you want me to see if they have your brand?"

"Oh. On second thought, I'm good. Thank you sally." Lola waved her away and went back to watching the display.

After a few minutes though, Lola started to get bored. The robotic stuff looked neat but after the tenth robot they all looked the same. She thought about Tatiana's cool car and sighed. "How come no one has anything REGULAR people can use? I bet this place would sell a lot more tickets if someone invented a microwave that you could fit in your purse. Or a pair of roller skates that can fly."

Lola went over to another small display full of little gadgets. One of them was a fancy hairdryer.

"oooooh." she said to herself as she picked it up and aimed at her hair. A laser beam shot out, went through her hair, set fire to the banner above, which fell down on top of the hover drone which proceeded to malfunction and start destroying everything close by.

People ran screaming in terror as several men in rubber suits came out of nowhere with fire extinguishers. Lola rushed to the farthest corner she could find.

....

"God...its me, Tatiana. Look, we don't have much time so I'll be blunt. I have no idea what's happening to me. But I'm beginning to come to terms with the fact this might be happening for a reason. A reason I don't understand."

Tatiana took a deep breath.

"But if I must come to accept the concept of the divine, so be it. If it gets my life back I am willing to become a believer again. God, I'm sorry I didn't go to church more often. After my parents died I just lost faith that you were out there...or that you cared. I'm sorry about the things I said against you while socializing with others. Please understand, those comments weren't really about you, its just I find religious zealots to be vile and I like to provoke them by insulting you. But from now on I'll speak about you with more respect."