Mistaken Identity      
 

    “Have a good day Grace!” I step out of a car onto a school campus, I squint in the bright morning light, trying to focus. I look down and see that I’m in regular clothing except a backpack is on my left shoulder. Tucked under my right arm was a large, thick book and I could feel a phone in my back right pocket. “Got everything?” the voice said again. I turn around and look in the window in the direction of the voice. A middle aged women in a school uniform was sitting at the wheel of the car.
           “Um, I think so?”
           “Alright, see you tonight!” The women said with a warm smile.
           “Meet you at the theater after school, okay G?” Another girl was getting out of the backseat of the black Honda I had just stepped out of. She grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulder and proceeded to start walking into the large building in front of me. Letters on the front of the building read “HEMET HIGH SCHOOL”. I hear the Honda next to me pulling out of drop off leaving me alone. A hoard of people were hurrying into the building, all of them wore backpacks and carried large thick books like mine. What on earth is going on?
            “G!” I feel a hand grab my shoulder and yanked me into the flow of people. “Anderson’s gonna mark us late if we don’t move it, come on!” A tall girl about sixteen wearing khaki pants and a plain black T-shirt was pulling me into the building. I tried to keep up with the girl as she began to talk about some homework she was up all night doing and how she was looking forward to some practice after school that had to do with Christmas. I stare around the large room we had just entered. Tables were scattered around with some students still sitting and laughing. Others were walking briskly in a million different directions, flooding the place. I had to bob and weave my way to keep up with the girl. All the while I was trying to figure out where I was. I had no memory of this place. I didn’t know this girl who evidently seemed to know me, and I had no idea where I was following her to. “Um,” I begin. “Where are we?”
            “School.” she replied with a smirk and eyeroll. I nervously begin again, “Yeah, but where?” The girl stops and stares at me. “G, what kind of a game is this? We have grams to do and we gotta get to class.” She stops in her tracks. I turn to look in the direction she was looking only to see her staring at a table with four people sitting at it. Two of them, a boy and a girl with long brown hair had their arms wrapped around each other. “Okay, well they are a couple.” I thought to myself. There were two other were guys sitting there, one was blonde wearing a blue shirt and the other was wearing a plaid shirt and playing with a rubik's cube. The group were all laughing at each other, obviously having a good time.
            “Janae, G!” The guy who was hugging the long haired girl sat up and waved, motioning us over. The two guys who had been joking looked up “OH NO! You aren’t getting her this time!” The girl who had been dragging me all around, I guess her name was Janae, yet again grabbed my wrist and began to pull me away. The blonde guy quickly stood up and ran after us. He smiled as he gently grabbed my arm, and pulled me away from Janae and into a hug. I tensed at his embrace, I had no idea who he was, but he must have been close with whoever he is confusing me with. He relaxed his hug and wove his hand into mine and led me back to the table. I was frozen. I could not move. Whoever this guy was confusing me with must have been the luckiest girl in the world. He was tall, with the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen and a smile that made my heart skip a beat.
            “Caleb David Spencer!” Janae came storming over to the table, “You let her come right this minute, we actually have to get to class.” The blonde guy gave Janae a pouty face and sighed.
            “Fffffiiiinnnneee! You can have her, but just this once.” He winked at me and pulled me close and kissed my lips. I froze again, partly because I was just kissed by a stranger and who was thinking I was his girlfriend and partly because I was physically and emotionally unable to move. The others at the table howled and cheered at Caleb's move but Janae rolled her eyes and pulled me stunned out of the kiss and back into the flow of students.
    “Ick! Romance!” Janae pretended to puke all the way to class. I walked into what was evidently Chamber Singers, an advanced choir. To my knowledge, I had never sung in my life. They would discover that I was an imposter, this could not end well. I sat down in the only not occupied seat in the room and the teacher instructed us to take out Carol of the Bells. I knew that song! For the rest of the period I did my best to mimic their sounds. That is how I got through the day, however, but honestly, I really liked the classes. After school was the best too, I learned a dance for the Christmas parade that they do in town every year. I played the part of Grace all day, and found myself thinking that whoever’s life I had stumbled into was one that I wanted. I didn’t know that these were the things that I was interested in, ones that I actually wanted to do! I wanted to stay in the classes Grace took, be in the choir she was in, the theatre group, be friends with her friends and to be with Caleb….

And so I did….