HOME

"Where are you going?" Brandi asked as she buckled herself up in the driver's seat of her rusty blue truck.

"Uh," I stuttered out.

Where was I trying to go? Should I give up and get the body I'm in back to Anamosa? Her family might be worried...

"Home," I told her finally. "Take me to Imposter Sadie's house. It's on Creekside Drive."

She laughed again at the mention of the silly yet accurate nickname I gave her. "I think I know where she lives."

Brandi gave me a wide smile with all teeth. "Imposter Sadie," she snickered as she pulled out of the parking lot.

I couldn't explain why, but I found myself smiling too and actually enjoying myself.

What the hell? Never in a million years would I expect that I'd like spending time in a rusty old truck with Brandi Schumann. She was practically my arch nemesis and ever since the limbo competition, I've always felt obligated to hate her.

Yep, so that meant that I definitely was losing my Sadieness if was taking. Go figure.

But the ride home was fun. Brandi thought that everything I said was hilarious, so with that knowledge, I took it upon myself to make her laugh a record number of times. I counted nineteen times, nineteen more times than I would've ever expected. Yet, all of our fun and games ended when Brandi pulled up in front of my house.

"Here we are," Brandi said. "Imposter Sadie's estate."

"Uh huh." I exhaled.

"Why do you call her that anyway? I don't get the significance."

I played with my tongue before trying to think of a response. Sometimes in situations like this, the truth sounded nice.

"I call her that because I was Sadie first," I said a little too harshly.

Brandi twisted her mouth in a weird shape and stared out her window. "Is Imposter Sadie even home? I can't tell."

"I hope not."

"Why are you here then?"

"I needed to see Imposter Sadie for myself. The problem is I just don't like what I see."

"Why did you need to see Imposter Sadie? She was pretty rude for ditching you at the café," she said, drumming her fingers on the steering wheel.

I looked into Brandi's eyes. "I can forgive her," I said, knowing damn well that Brandy had a point.

"I couldn't," she responded, shaking her head. "I don't know about you, but Imposter Sadie has always been...distant...and only with me! I've heard that she and Nell have been close since they were babies."

"She's probably just jealous," I mumbled. Wow, I thought, The truth really is coming out.

"I don't get it, though," Brandi said, putting her hands in her lap. "Why would she be jealous?"

Because you took away my temporary cool status that I got from winning a goddamn limbo competition, that's why! Of course, if I had said that aloud, I would've sounded insane, and that was the last thing I needed. All I wanted was to keep my craziness on the down low with Brandi.

"Well," I started, making eye contact with Brandi. "It's cause you're awesome, like you payed for my meal and drove me here. You have this coolness vibe imbedded into your skin," I said, overdoing the flattery. Yikes Sadie, take it down like a bajillion notches.

Brandi smiled at me. "You're cool too. Can I have your number? We have to hang out again."

I looked at her sadly. "We won't be able to."

"Why not?"

I was a complete ass so I didn't respond. I unbuckled my seatbelt instead and didn't even look at Brandi. In one swift movement, I was out of her truck and heading to my house. Yes, I didn't want to see my imposter self, but I still wanted to see my parents.

I pounded on my front door eight times before anyone acknowledged me.

"I'm coming!" yelled a man's voice from the inside. Dad!!

The door opened a bit and my dad's face appeared, his face in true need of a shave. Hmmm, looks like Imposter Sadie wasn't reminding him to trim his face. Interesting.

I couldn't help myself, so I attacked him in a big bear hug. The only thing that pried me off him was the fact that I was a stranger to him, even though he was my own father.

"Can I help you?" he asked once we disconnected from our hug.

"Yes," I said, trying to come up with a reason to be here. Oh man, that's what you should've thought about earlier.

"Um, I'm an old friend of Sadie's," I told him. Hey, it wasn't even a lie.

"Well Sadie's out right now. I'm not sure when she'll be back." He started to close the door slowly and my eyes peered past him. There was something moving in there, it was my mom!

"Can I come in?" I blurted.

"Uh, sure," Dad said uneasy. He ushered me inside and left me in the kitchen where Mom was.

"Hello!" she said all cheery. "I don't know what my husband told you, but we're going on a diet so we can't buy any cookies darling."

"I'm not selling anything. I'm uh Tegan, a friend of Sadie's," I said slowly. My name was Tegan huh? If you stretch it far enough, I guessed that that was technically true.

"I'm Mrs. Arlo. Please, sit down," Mom ordered, patting the stool next to her. "I love all of Sadie's friends. Have you known her long?"

"Yeah, um we're pen pals and I wanted to surprise her." Brilliant right? I was a natural at lying about my identity. Man, I should've joined the improv club when I was in Middle School.

"Lovely!" Mom beamed. "I had a pen pal once, but we lost touch after a while. My husband had one who lived in Belgium, isn't that right, Lachlan?"

Dad poked his head in from the other room. "Yep," he answered quickly. "Do you know when Sadie will be back?"

"Well she has practice today and that ends at 1:30. I think she'll probably want to hang out with Nell so no, I don't know when she'll be back."

"Tegan," Dad said to me. "I'm heading out soon. I can drop you off with Sadie at her school. You can surprise her there."

"Nonsense!" Mom interrupted. "She'll stay here with me. It will be a much better surprise that way."

Dad clicked his tongue. "Suit yourself," he said and left the room.

After he left, Mom stood up to rummage through the fridge. She eventually resurfaced with a pitcher of lemonade and set it on the table along with two glasses. I poured myself a glass of that freshly squeezed heaven. Oh man, if there was something I missed from home, lemonade was definitely one.

Mom turned to me. "So Tegan, do you have a boyfriend?" She raised her eyebrows and had a dopey grin.

"No," I said softly, which was the truth.

"Oh, well Sadie doesn't have one either," Mom said and I choked on my lemonade. Who knew my mother would be so open about me? Remind me to never tell her anything ever again.

The front door slammed and there was a lot of stomping coming from the hallway. Those were things I did when I was upset, so that could only mean that Imposter Sadie was home.

"Wait here," Mom whispered to me. She walked out to the hallway and out of my sight.

"Hi honey! How was your day?" she said to my imposter self in the same cheery voice she had greeted me with.

"Ugh," I heard Imposter Sadie groan. "So this fucking creep-"

"Watch your language young lady!" Mom scolded.

"Fine. So this creep came to our house when nobody was home and-"

"If nobody was home, how do you know they were here?" Mom questioned.

"Because Nell was here!" Imposter Sadie shouted.

I heard Mom sigh. "Sadie, watch your tone."

"Can you please let me finish at least?"

"Yes, go on."

Imposter Sadie took a deep breath and continued her rant. "This girl showed up at our house while we were out. She started talking to Nell and for some reason she claimed to be me. Can we like call the cops on her?"

"Honey, we can't call the police." Mom said. "It's not a crime to say you're someone else."

"What about identity theft?" Wow imposter self, that's not a bad point.

"That's not identity theft," Mom insisted. "Come on, I have a surprise waiting for you in the kitchen."

I wasn't much of a surprise, and I was seriously confused why Mom didn't connect the dots then. Didn't she realize that I was the creep that showed up here earlier?

My heart pounded at double the speed it was meant to. I couldn't let Imposter Sadie see me again, so on an impulse decision, I sprinted to my bedroom. After locking the door behind me, I sighed and collapsed on my bed.

It felt great to be back in my room. From the familiar clothes in my wardrobe to the posters on my ceiling, everything just felt nicer. At that moment, all I wanted to do was reminisce of the life that was taken away from me so suddenly.

The doorknob wiggled and I held my breath. "Mom," Imposter Sadie groaned. "My door is locked."

"It is?" Mom asked and there was more jiggling on the doorknob. "Tegan, are you in there?"

"Tegan?" Imposter Sadie asked. "Who's Tegan?"

"You know, your pen pal."

"I don't have a pen pal."

"I'm sure that there is a reasonable explanation for this," Mom insisted, but I could hear how freaked out she was getting. "But anyway, I think I have the skeleton key in my closet. Let me check." I heard her footsteps move away.

So I was in the clear, at least for now. All I had to do was lay low and keep quiet, certainly I could do that. However, Imposter Sadie wasn't just going to let that happen.

"Hey," a voice called from the window. Surely enough, there was my imposter self with her face pressed against the screen. "Why are you in my room?"

I kept up my oath of silence and tried to ignore Imposter Sadie. That didn't turn out to be easy, why couldn't she just leave me alone?

"This is my house," she said. "I think I have the right to shoot you."

"Be quiet," I muttered.

"You're not me," she growled. "Get that through your head and get out of my room."

Several minutes later, the bedroom door was unlocked and in came my Mom. "Tegan?" she asked. "Why'd you lock yourself in here?"

Imposter Sadie pounded on the window from outside. "Mom! This was the creep I was talking about."

Mom turned to me. "Tegan, what's going on?"

"I'm not Tegan," I said slowly. "I'm Sadie, your daughter."

Imposter Sadie intervened. "See? I told you so." She took off running, probably so she could torment me from inside the house.

"I'm your daughter," I told Mom calmly. "I am Sadie."

I spilled my entire story to my mom and she listened thoughtfully, and once Imposter Sadie came back inside, even she shut up.

Yet, it wasn't long before Mom started to butt in with annoying questions. All were simple and easy to answer except for this one:

"How are you Sadie if Sadie's right there?" She pointed at my imposter self, who was sitting on the floor.

"I don't know," I mumbled. "Just believe me, please. Say you believe me!"

Mom stared at me blankly. "Undeniably, you are my lavish, sumptuous, exceptional girl."

"Mom! How could you say that?" Imposter Sadie scoffed from the ground.

Yeah, how could she say that? Lavish? Sumptuous? Exceptional? I would never describe myself using those words. Big words like that were a bad sign.

"Sadie hush!" Mom scolded. "Not another word from you."

"You're lying," I said, squinting at Mom.

She looked back at me with pain in her eyes. "I don't know how to help you," she mumbled.

"You're lying to me!" I shouted, the waterworks making an appearance. "And you know how I know you're lying?! It's because I'm your daughter and I've lived with you for fifteen fucking years!"

Mom bit her lip and glared at me. She didn't speak and it was driving me bonkers.

"What?!" I shouted at her. "You're not going to tell me to 'watch my language' or anything!?"

"No," she said calmly. "I would only tell my own children that, I don't raise other people's kids. You, well you must have been raised by sailors with that awful mouth of yours."

Mom pulled Imposter Sadie off the floor and held her close. What was she doing? I thought. You should be cuddling me!

"I'm going to ask you to leave," Mom spoke again. "If you ever approach me or my family again, I will not hesitate to call the police. Is that clear?"

This was complete bullshit, I was her family! What was she going to do? Call the police on me for being myself?

"Is that clear?!" Mom screamed louder.

I nodded my head. "I understand," I mumbled even though I didn't, I didn't understand a goddamn thing.

"Good," Mom said coldly. "Now get out of my house."

I stood up and left my house with my tail between my legs. I lost the ability to hold in my tears so they rolled down my face freely.

I hated this. It wasn't fair, none of it was.