~*~Brian’s point of view~*~

Sunday had been a long day. I hadn’t left my house, since I had no desire to be Nick in public. Well, I had some desire to do so. But so far my threat was an idle one. Maybe I’d be able to calm down enough before I saw him today to be able to keep from strangling him. And hopefully we’d be able to solve the switch issue today.

“Wow, you’re not the last one here for once,” AJ teased when I came in the studio.

For once, I remembered that he thought he was talking to Nick, so I didn’t give him a puzzled expression. I sat down across from him, already wanting this session to be over.

“We were just listening to a demo,” Howie said, coming back into the room with a cup of coffee. It appeared that we were the only three here so far.

“Oh, yeah?” I said, pretending to be interested. “What song?”

“It’s written by the Five for Fighting guy. Some great piano,” he answered. “It’s called Weird World.”

It certainly is, I thought, liking the title immediately.

Howie played it for me. It was a little more rock than our usual stuff.

“What do you think?” Howie asked. “I thought I should play this before Brian got here.”

“Why?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Well, you were the one wanting to go in this direction. I’ve already listened to two other songs, and they are a little more R&B.”

“No one said we had to stick with one sound,” AJ said. “You know we’ll record several dozen songs before starting the elimination process. I’m sure we’ll end up with a little bit of each.”

“Yeah, but we can’t have an album that goes in a million different directions,” I countered. And when had the sound of Backstreet become Nick versus Brian?

“Hey,” Nick walked in wearing my body, a pair of jeans, and a t-shirt. He seemed a little out of breath. “Sorry I’m late.”

Howie glanced at his watch. “Well, you still beat Kevin.”

“Only because he cut me off in the parking lot. Probably for that exact reason,” Kevin appeared right behind him, looking a little annoyed. “You and Nick switch bodies or something?”

Nick and I stared at him. Before I had any time to react, I heard AJ laughing. I let out a breath. Of course, them realizing that we had, in fact, switched bodies would make life a whole lot easier.

Howie played Weird World again. Nick loved it.

“Really?” Kevin asked, surprised at the smile on his face. “Well, we’re off to a good start. I didn’t expect you two to being able to agree on anything. One song down.”

“And a dozen to go,” I mentioned.

We spent the morning talking about songwriters and listening to demos. We could already start pulling out the ones we were sure that we did, or didn’t, want to record. The selection given to us, though, wasn’t as good as it had been last time around. I wondered how much faith the record company had in our next album. Like they were thinking our time as musicians had expired.

Today was only meant to be a short session, to get our foot in the door. So as lunchtime approached, we decided to call it a day. I was coming back from getting a Coke out of the drink machine when I heard Kevin talking to Nick.

“Remember that girl I’ve been telling you about?”

“Um… yeah,” Nick lied.

I groaned inwardly. Kevin’s girlfriend had a best friend who he was convinced was my “perfect match.” He had only met her once, but Kelly talked about her all the time. Kevin had been dating Kelly only for a few months, and they’d been trying to find a time for the four of us to get together.

“I just talked to Kel, and she said that her and Madeline are going to lunch. She was wondering if we could go.”

“Madeline?” Nick repeated. “Go out… like a double date?”

I smacked my forehead.

Kevin stared at him. “Yeah. Like we’ve been talking about all month.”

“Oh, right, right,” Nick responded, unconvincingly.

“Great, so you’re coming?”

“Well…”

I walked over to them. “N- Brian and I had plans today.”

“You two see each other all the time,” Kevin said. “Well, you will be now that we’re recording again. Can’t you guys push back your plans? Kelly is really excited about meeting Brian.”

“Sure,” Nick said. “Lunch sounds like fun. We can hang out later, right?” Nick turned to me.

Unbelievable. He was postponing the reversal of whatever the heck was going on for a girl. A girl he’d never even met.

A girl Kevin thought he was setting up with me.

I shook my head. “It’s kind of a pressing matter.”

“What is?” asked Kevin.

Both Nick and I responded “nothing.”

“Come on,” Nick said. “A few hours isn’t going to kill us.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know what? I’ll go by myself.”

He was the most immature person on the face of the planet. Like a date to him was any big deal. Like it was hard for him to find a date. I wondered if it was simply because Kevin was trying to hook me up with her. That probably added a thrill to going out with her. He’d probably tell her his 40 Year Old Virgin story, too. And who knows what else he’d said pretending to be me. Maybe by tomorrow, I’d have one week to live, be a long-lost brother of Justin Timberlake’s, or have an illegitimate child who lived in Bulgaria.

Of course, that would counteract his virgin story, but Nick didn’t seem to think his pranks through. And heck, I’d rather be a virgin with a Bulgarian child than be related to Justin Timberlake, I thought with a wry smile.

I pulled out the business card AJ had given me and headed to downtown Orlando, hoping that I’d be back in my own body by nightfall.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

I found the store without too much difficulty. It was on the corner, with a huge, glass window depicting the store name in colorful, painted letters.

Mystic Illusions.

Well, that sounded about right. I was sure there’d be someone in here crazy enough to at least believe my story. I headed inside and scanned the store. There was a display case with wands, huge crystals tied to the end. The wall was lined with book shelves, with topics ranging from crystal healing to voodoo dolls. Some tapestries were hanging above them on the wall. I looked up to see a spiral staircase leading to a loft area.

What in the world? I thought.

I wondered who would buy a wand expecting it to wield magical powers; then I remembered why I was here. Who was I to judge what was possible?

There was a girl standing behind the counter. She must’ve been into the story, because she didn’t seem aware of my presence. She wasn’t too tall, with shoulder-length brown hair falling in layers around her face.

I walked up, expecting the book to be something like the ones sold here. Or maybe Lord of the Rings or The Chronicles of Narnia. Something in the fantasy genre. When I leaned forward to look at the cover, though, it said Emma by Jane Austen.

She let out a cry of surprise, dropping the book on the counter and jumping back. Putting her hand over her heart, she said, “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize anyone had come in.”

“Oh, no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snuck up on you,” I said, with a smile on my face. “Good book?” I picked it up and handed it back to her.

“Huh?” she seemed to be attempting to get her heart rate back to normal. “Oh, yeah. You can’t beat Austen.”

I simply nodded, having never read any of her works myself. Although I was fairly familiar with the Pride and Prejudice storyline.

“What can I do for you?”

“Well…” I said, suddenly realizing that I didn’t really know where to start. “I’m friends with the guy- AJ- who just ordered a skull through you all. From South America?”

She thought about it for a moment. “Yeah, I remember what you’re talking about.”

“Well… I was wondering if you could tell me anything about its origins?”

She tilted her head, not understanding my question. “What about it?”

“Like… he mentioned that it was rumored to have magical powers.”

She laughed. “Oh, sorry,” she added quickly. “I keep forgetting where I am.” She motioned to the store around her. “I think those are just legends, though. It seemed like it was just a skull when it came in.”

“So you don’t really believe all this stuff?” I asked incredulously.

She looked like a child caught with a hand in the cookie jar. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that…”

“No, it’s okay,” I responded, although disappointed. So maybe I wouldn’t find someone here who would believe me.

“Um… I’m Kate,” she introduced herself. “My grandmother is the one who owns the store, and who’s usually running it. I’m filling in while she’s on vacation. She’s actually in South America, although not the part where the skull came from.”

“I’m Nick,” I said. I didn’t even stutter with my own name. That was a sure sign that I’d been walking around as him too long.

“I can see if we’ve got anything here about skulls,” she offered, trying to make up for her lack of magical interest.

I nodded. “That would be great.”

Kate scanned the bookshelves by the door, but didn’t find whatever she was looking for. I followed her up the spiral staircase.

There were white Christmas lights strung in circles along the stair rail and then the banister in the loft. Some bean bag chairs of different colors were on the floor, surrounded by more books.

“Wow,” I said. “This is like a library.”

Kate laughed, and she pulled out several books for me. I sat in the beanbag chair, while she returned to the counter, to continue reading Austen or to help other customers.

“Hey,” she came up much later. “Sorry, but we’re closing in a few minutes. Monday is our short day.”

“Oh,” I said, looking up. I hadn’t realized it had gotten so late. “Okay.

“Did you find what you were looking for?” she asked.

“Not really,” I said, honestly. “But there are a lot of books I haven’t checked yet.”

Kate gave me a sympathetic smile. “Well, then I guess I’ll see you again sometime? I’ll try to find some books with more information. Those didn’t have too much about skulls. We get a lot more requests for crystals and love potions,” she laughed.

I managed a laugh, too, and thanked her. I’d really been hoping to find some answers today. I simply felt lost now. I told her goodbye, and left the shop, trying to figure out what to do next.