Chapter XVI

Unlike the previous days of the week, Lilly Harper made her way toward the library on that early Friday morning with a feeling of determination. The situation with Jay had stressed her out quite a bit, but now that it was resolved, she was prepared to deal with Brad the way she had initially intended to. She was going to use the stone to swap bodies with him and take the test in his place. Her earlier fear had been settled down by both Jay’s rational reaction to the stone and Eric’s confidence that the plan would work. She simply had to hope that Brad had as cool of a head as Jay wound up having.

Lilly rounded a corner and found herself just down the hall from the library. Much like the previous mornings of tutoring, there weren’t any students in the halls so she made it to the doors without any problems. When she pushed them open, the room was relatively empty aside from the old librarian and Brad sitting at their usual desk in the corner.

Good, he’s already here, she thought with anticipation. Then let’s get this show on the road.

The large boy looked up at her arrival and smiled before giving her a half hearted wave. Unlike the previous days, Lilly smiled back as she approached the desk, wanting to seem as comforting as she could be. She wasn’t exactly sure why she suddenly had such a burst of confidence but she was determined to take advantage of it.

Though if I had to guess, it probably has to do with Jay, she realized.

Even though she had known that she should have been furious at Jay for stealing the stone, she actually found herself relieved to have finally talked things out with him. She was forced to face the fact that he wasn’t as obnoxious or irritating as she had initially believed. He had simply been worried about her and she had been pushing him away the whole time. Even if his actions had been idiotic, his heart had been in the right place. So talking it out with him and being able to set everything straight lifted a weight from her shoulders that she hadn’t even been fully aware of.

That was most likely the main reason she found herself confident enough to face Brad the way she intended to. The stone was currently in her skirt pocket and so, she was ready to go through with her albeit slightly insane plan.

“Morning, Lilly,” Brad greeted as she took her seat across from him.

“Morning, Brad,” she replied.

He must’ve already noticed the shift in her mood because he was looking at her a little hesitantly.

“A-are you okay?” he inquired with a cocked eyebrow. “Did something happen?”

The girl nodded firmly, forcing as confident a smile as she could, wanting to mimic the way Vinny and Eric always grinned when she talked to them. However, she got the feeling that all it accomplished was confusing Brad even more since she wasn’t one who typically smiled in such a fashion.

“Yeah, you could say that,” she replied. “In fact, I think I’ve found a way for you to pass this test today.”

The boy frowned with obvious skepticism. “Oh really? Well, I hate to break it to you, Lilly, but I doubt anything’s gonna work at this point. I’ve done my best but math just isn’t my thing.”

“Maybe not,” she said. “But it is my thing, apparently.”

“Yeah, thanks. Rub it in a little harder, why don’t you?”

She brushed his comment aside and pressed on. “What I mean is that I’ll just take the test for you. I’ll most likely ace it again and then you’ll be good to go.”

At that, the boy seemed to go from confused to irritated as he scoffed at her. “Look, do you really gotta kick me while I’m down? I’ve had a hell of a week so I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t screw with me. If you don’t want to tutor this morning then just say so.”

Lilly knew she should’ve probably come into the conversation a bit more blunt but also couldn’t help having a little fun with him.

God, maybe the club’s rubbing off on me, she suddenly realized. I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Deciding that she should get to the point, she stopped smiling and instead faced him with as serious of an expression as she could muster.

“I’m not joking, Brad,” she replied sternly. “I’ll take the test in your place. I have a surefire way of getting away with it so that nobody will ever know I did it. As long as you’re not opposed to a bit of…academic dishonesty.”

Brad went to scowl again but, seeming suddenly taken off guard by her serious expression, he refrained. The boy then sighed.

“Whatever. Fine. I’ll listen. What genius plan do you have that’ll get me to pass this test, huh? How are you going to get away with taking it for me?”

Lilly glanced over her shoulder to see the librarian still at the front desk, reading a book. She didn’t seem to be paying them any sort of attention but Lilly decided it might be better to be as safe as possible.

“Follow me,” she whispered to Brad before getting to her feet and heading deeper into the library, past various lines of bookshelves until reaching the back of the room.

The big boy wordlessly obliged, following behind her as she ducked behind the furthest shelf where there wasn’t any sign of other students. Once she was certain they were alone, she turned back to face him, reaching into her skirt pocket as she did so.

He’s already skeptical so it’s probably best to just be quick about this. Trying to explain it first would just piss him off. Starting off with the demonstration is probably the better choice.

“So, what’s going—?”

Before Brad could finish his sentence, Lilly pulled the gem from her pocket and pressed it against his forehead. He never even had a chance to react before the world of white engulfed her. Having swapped numerous times already, Lilly no longer panicked at the phenomena and remained perfectly calm until returning back to the library. When she did so, she was met with the now strangely familiar sight of looking upon her own face.

She didn’t even have time to register the sensations of being in Brad’s body before she reached out and placed her now much larger right hand over Brad’s mouth, preventing him from crying out in shock. She then used her left hand to catch the stone as he released his hold on it. His eyes were wide as he looked at his own face and Lilly could tell that his mind was racing just based on how fast his eyes were moving as he took in the scene before him.

“Don’t panic, Brad,” she whispered. “Everything’s perfectly fine. This is reversible. You’re in my body and I’m in yours. It’s as simple as that.”

In reality, she knew it wasn’t simple in the slightest but she knew pointing that out and trying to explain it would both waste time and only confuse him more. It was best to keep Brad as calm as she possibly could.

“Now, promise you’ll hear me out?” she asked.

Despite the obvious panic he was going through, Brad still managed to nod. Trusting that he wasn’t lying, Lilly removed her hand from his mouth and took a step back.

“W-what the fuck, Lilly?” Brad uttered. “H-how…w-what…?”

Lilly laughed softly, realizing that he was going through the same attempts to understand it as she had a back at the start. Since she had a feeling that she knew what he wanted to ask, she decided to save him the trouble of finding his words and started to explain.

She lifted her left hand up and showed him the gem.

“Magic,” she said simply. “Compliments of the Magic Club. This thing causes two people to swap bodies whenever they’re both touching it.”

He stared dumbfounded at the stone. “M-Magic? You mean…are you trying to tell me that dumb fucking club isn’t full of it?!”

Well, at least not as of two weeks ago, she thought to herself. However, once again, she kept it to herself, deciding it would probably be in the club’s best interests if Brad thought they’d always had magic.

“Nope,” she said. “Believe it or not, they aren’t completely crazy. Eric said I could use this stone to help with your test later so I figured, since I was a really trashy tutor and just wound up wasting your time, I’d make it up to you by taking the test for you.”

Brad opened his mouth to reply but still seemed unable to process everything. Luckily, his focus was more set on the stone rather than his current body so he hadn’t made any moves to touch anything she didn’t want him touching. She figured she owed that to the adjustments the gem did on the brain whenever a swap occurred.

“But…I don’t get it?” he stuttered finally. “Why me? Why would Eric Reiner ever want to help me? I mean…is this really something he trusts me with?”

Lilly nodded. “Oddly enough, he does. Now that doesn’t mean the others do. Vinny was very much against it, but Eric left the decision to me and I decided to trust you with both my body and this secret. Don’t let me down, yeah? Gotta prove Vinny wrong, after all.”

Brad shook his head in exasperation. “Fucking hell. And so you want to switch before fifth period and you’ll take my test?”

“Basically,” she said. “Since I don’t have to do the retake, you can just sit around doing homework or whatever. Oh, and also,” she added, “this is a one time deal. I’m not going to do this for every test! Just this one since I promised I’d help you and…well, my quote-unquote teaching was abysmal.”

“N-no, you were fine, Lilly,” he assured. “Really, I appreciate everything. And I wouldn’t want you to cheat every time either. This…is more than I could’ve asked for.” Brad smiled, the tone in his voice sounding purely genuine. “Thank you. I mean it. And I swear to god, I won’t tell a soul about this. I’ll take this secret to my grave.”

“Good,” she said with a laugh. “Then I guess we have a deal, yeah? I pass your test and you keep this secret?”

She stuck out her hand and Brad immediately went to shake it. Lilly couldn’t help but to smirk at the feeling of how small her hand was when in his.

Man, I didn’t realize how much bigger Brad was when compared to Eric and Vinny, she realized, looking down at her significantly broader chest. Those two need to put on some muscle.

“So then…should we switch back now?” Brad asked hesitantly. “I mean, you said it was reversible, right? Or is there, like, a time limit or something?”

Lilly shook her head. “Nope, not as far as I know. We can switch back now. All you have to do is meet me at lunch right before fifth period so we can swap for the test. Sound good?”

She held the stone out as she asked the question.

Brad nodded firmly. “Absolutely. Thanks again, Lilly.”

He then placed his hand overtop the stone.

But nothing happened. Lilly wasn’t engulfed in the world of white nor did she find herself back in her normal body.

What the hell? Why didn’t it work?!

She saw Brad open his mouth to speak but, before he could say anything, Lilly suddenly found herself submerged in the formless realm once again. The panic that something had gone wrong dissipated and after a moment, she was back in her own body, putting everything as it should be.

“That was odd,” Brad mumbled as he looked down at his now normal body. “What was with the delay? It didn’t do that the first time.”

Lilly furrowed her brow in confusion as she stared at the stone clutched between her fingers. In all the times she had used the stone, there was never any sort of delay.

Damn…only makes me realize how little we truly know about this thing. Is its power limited or something? Is that why it was delayed? Or is it something else? Maybe there is actually a time limit and it’s just so short that we never noticed?

“I’m not sure what that was?” she admitted. “But I guess I’ll just ask Eric in first period.”

Not like he’ll know either but Brad doesn’t need to know that. It’s probably better for him to think Eric knows everything.

“Yeah, Reiner,” Brad grumbled. “Man, don’t I feel like a real dumbshit now. Does that mean that every time he threatened to attack me with his magic, he wasn’t lying?”

Lilly quickly shook her head, knowing that giving Brad that impression would be giving Eric and Vinny too much power over him.

“Oh, no,” she assured him. “They can’t hurt you. Most of the time, Eric’s just making things up. Don’t worry about them.”

Brad grimaced. “Still. I can’t believe he’s willing to help me given how much he seemed to hate me. I guess I owe the guy an apology.”

“Yes, an apology would be quite welcome, dear Fischer.”

Both Lilly and Brad jumped at the sudden third voice as they turned around to see Eric standing a few feet behind them, just at the edge of the bookshelf. He was grinning mischievously and it was immediately clear to her that he had overhead a significant part of the conversation.

“Eavesdropping much?” Lilly grumbled, eyeing the boy with part irritation at part exasperation.

Eric shrugged. “Well, I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d drop by. Anyway, back to that apology. I will gracefully accept it, Mr. Fischer, if you bow your head and declare before me how wrong you were for claiming that I was full of falsehoods.”

Brad eyed Eric with a look of disgust that told Lilly that, regardless of Eric’s willingness to lend them the gem, their relationship was never going to be a friendly one.

“Like hell, Reiner!” Brad snapped. “Look, I’ll admit that I was apparently wrong about magic but that’s as far as I’ll go! You’re still annoying as shit!”

Eric clicked his tongue as he enjoyed his moment of superiority. “That’s not what it sounded like a few moments ago. You were saying something about you being a dumbshit and owing me an apology?”

“Fuck off!” Brad growled. “Look, thanks for lending us the gem but that’s as much as you’re getting from me! Now stop being a creepy little eavesdropping fuck and get lost!”

The lankier boy laughed in what was obviously a fake maniacal laugh. “Oh I would be nicer to me if I were you! After all, it would take a mere snap of my fingers to wipe you from the face of the earth! After all, now that you know my secret, I may have to kill you!”

“Eric, stop messing with him,” Lilly interrupted.

The boy sighed. “Fine. As the mistress commands. You’re lucky, Fischer. You’ll live to see another day.”

Brad grimaced, glancing back at Lilly with a cocked eyebrow. “How do you stand him?”

She shrugged. “It doesn’t take as long as you’d think to get used to him.”

“Well, good luck, Lilly,” he grumbled. “Anyway, I think I’ll take off. I need to walk around for a bit and try to process everything. I’ll see you guys in first period.”

“Okay, see you,” she replied with a smile.

Brad turned and walked past Eric, hardly sparing even a glance at him as he moved by.

“And don’t forget,” Eric called after him. “Tell anybody and I’ll cast a spell on you that’ll make your balls fall off!”

“Shove it, Reiner,” he snapped back, earning them both a “shhh” from the librarian.

Lilly and Eric watched him go for a moment, neither speaking as they fell into their individual thoughts. However, the silence only lasted a minute at most before Eric broke it.

“So, everything seemed to go alright then,” he muttered. “It doesn’t seem like Fischer has any intention of telling anybody about the stone. So, I think we’re in the clear.”

Lilly frowned, eyeing the boy suspiciously.

“I mean, I guess. But I still don’t see how you can be so confident about it,” she replied. “I mean, you and him didn’t seem like you’d ever get along so…why did you trust him with a secret like this? It makes no sense.”

Much like when he first suggested the idea, Eric merely shrugged, as if it weren’t really all that weird.

“To be honest, it’s hard to explain,” he replied. “Even the other club members don’t really take it all that seriously but…I have this sixth sense, if you will. I can just look at somebody and know that they’re somebody I can trust. Fischer might be a bit prickly but I can feel more than anything that he’s a good guy at heart. I truly believe we can trust him with this secret.”

As Eric spoke, she didn’t sense any of his usual performance. Instead, his words sounded genuine and she realized that, whether his sense truly existed or not, he wholeheartedly believed that it did.

“So…” she began hesitantly. “If you don’t mind my asking, what do you sense when you look at me?”

It was an awkward question and she immediately regretted asking it but, much to her surprise, Eric didn’t bat an eye as he turned and smiled down at her.

“You’re one of the purest people I’ve ever come across,” he replied. “I would trust you with my life, Lilly Harper.”

His words were so direct and ridiculous that she almost laughed, but she was stopped yet again by the sincerity with which he spoke them. She could only chuckle in embarrassment.

“Uh, I think your sense is a bit off,” she stuttered. “You’re giving me way too much credit. I’m nothing special, Eric. I’m just…me.”

“Good,” he said. “Because I think ‘just you’ is more special that you’re giving yourself credit for.”

This time, she didn’t have a response for him and, before she knew it, he was walking past her, beckoning for her to follow him.

“Come on, my friend,” he continued. “Let’s go for a walk. We’ve still got plenty of time before school starts.”

For a moment, she stared after him, almost in awe of him. He was such a unique person that Lilly couldn’t help but wonder what she might see and experience if she did stay beside him. It was nothing like how Eric described his sixth sense, but she had a feeling that if she stayed close to Eric Reiner, her life would take even crazier turns than it had already. There was still a part of her that was hesitant since she had always been one to go about her normal life alone, perfectly content. Yet even so, she couldn’t help but to follow after his beckoning, walking side by side with him as they left the library and headed out into the halls.

***

Damien Clark couldn’t help but to narrow his eyes in a mixture of irritation and nervousness as he listened to the excited tone of Brad Fischer a few seats behind him as the larger boy talked with his buddies. Evidently, he had gotten a fairly high “B” on the math retake which, according to his friends, was one of the highest math grades he had ever received. Normally this wouldn’t be something that Damien would pay any attention to and, if he did, he would have been happy for the guy for doing well in a subject he struggled with. The problem was that the “B” wasn’t a result of his own skill but rather through somebody else’s.

Damien glanced across the classroom to where Lilly Harper was sitting, chatting with Eric and Vinny. The three were joking around and it was clear that Lilly was growing more comfortable around them by the day, something he did find a certain level of joy in. The problem was that he was now realizing that she was almost dangerously similar to the two boys in the risks she was willing to take.

The fact of the matter was that, without Damien’s knowledge, a lot had taken place and he only got wind of it once it had all ended. Without even running the idea by him, Lilly and Eric went through with a plan to help Brad Fischer pass his retake by having Lilly use the gem to swap with him and take the test in his place. Even ignoring the ethical problems of doing what they did, it had been a huge risk to tell somebody as potentially dangerous as Brad Fischer about the stone’s existence, let alone allowing him to experience its power firsthand. Damien was of the mindset that it was smartest to tell the fewest people about the gem as humanly possible—a task that was proving far more difficult than it should have been.

In addition to the situation with Brad, Lilly and Vinny also revealed to the rest of the club about an incident revolving around two students from their grade: Alice Mendez and Jay Brooks. According to them, after stealing the stone from Lilly, Jay and Alice accidentally swapped bodies and in doing so, caused Vinny and Lilly to scramble to prevent everything from getting worse.

With the two incidents combined, it now meant that there were three people outside their group who knew about the stone and its properties.

God damn it, Damien thought irritably as he turned to stare blankly at his own graded retake on his desk. So much happened…and all without me knowing. What are we supposed to do now? How do we know for sure that those three are people we can trust?!

He clenched his teeth when suddenly, his paper was swiped off his desk. He looked up in surprise to see his girlfriend sit down on the surface and stare at his test with a smirk.

“An A, huh?” Liz mused. “Yup, that’s more like you. I was getting a little worried. It’s not like you to get a B.”

Damien sighed, always amazed by how easily she could calm his nerves just by being near him.

“Yeah, well, I had a lot on my mind,” he replied grimly. “Oddly enough, math wasn’t my biggest issue at the time.”

Liz chuckled, handing the test back to him before sliding back onto her feet.

“Fair enough,” she said. Then, most likely noticing his sour mood, she cocked her head in curiosity. “You doing okay?”

He shrugged. “I’m fine, I guess. I’m just a little on edge though after everything that apparently went down last week.”

“Oh honestly,” Liz grumbled. “We really missed all the fun, didn’t we. I never thought Lilly of all people would be at the center of the chaos while we’re chilling on the sidelines.”

“She’s more like them than I think even she knows,” Damien said. “And while obviously I trust them all, I really wish they wouldn’t treat that stone like it’s some sort of toy.”

“What do you mean?” Liz asked. “I mean, I know the whole Brad situation was questionable, but they couldn’t have prevented Jay and Alice from getting involved. Hell, if Lilly hadn’t begged me not to, I’d be kicking the shit outta that curly haired loser myself.”

Liz narrowed her eyes, glancing to the back of the class where Jay Brooks was sitting alone, reading a book.

“I know that wasn’t their fault,” Damien admitted. “But I don’t think we should take this Brad thing so lightly. Eric and Lilly were far too quick to rely on the stone. This isn’t something we should use as a crutch to solve problems as benign as a test!”

The bespectacled girl seemed to consider his point for a moment. “Yeah, you’re right. They were a little quick to give in and bring Brad in on the secret. But Eric did say he was relying on his sense.”

Damien snorted. “As if that means anything.”

“Well, maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t,” Liz muttered. “But at the end of the day, this club wouldn’t exist without it so there’s at least some merit to it.”

The boy sighed. “I guess so. I just…”

“You’re scared,” she finished for him. “You’re scared of that stone and you’re scared of what it’s existence could mean.”

Damien scowled, irritated by how easily she could read him. “Yeah, I am. We don’t know the first thing about that gem and we don’t even know where it came from. It terrifies me, Liz. I really do think we should just hurl it into the ocean.”

The girl frowned, turning to glance back to where Lilly and the guys were hanging out.

“Maybe…” she whispered. “But you know Eric won’t ever part with the stone…no matter what you say.”

“I know,” he growled. “That’s…what worries me the most.”