A/N -- you guys already know i'm hella late with this update haha APOLOGIES !! here it is, enjoy x.

-

[cara]

Five days.

It had been five days and no progress was made.

No leads, no minor leads, no clues- no Elena. And from the looks of it, they still weren't getting any closer to finding her.

So The Replacement Project was still in action.

And it was getting harder and harder to go through with.

"I'm trying, Emma!"

"The angle isn't right!"

"Nobody's gonna notice the angle, dammit!"

"Your head should be tilted to the right. And keep your back straight, you're slouching!"

"Why does it matter if-"

"Wait, wait, wait- what if we move to the bathroom? Isn't the lighting better in there?"

I groaned and tossed the phone onto the sofa. "Emma, it's just a selfie!"

"An Elena Morales selfie!" She pointed out, picking the phone back up and shoving it towards me. "You need to post something to let people know she's actually still alive, okay. Elena usually posts things every two days or so and it's been five. So take this, tilt your head to the right, stop slouching and smile."

I glared, reaching to take the phone from her hand only for the thing to start ringing. It was Elena's own phone, actually, that Mom and Dad discovered laying ontop of a table in the garage a couple hours after they had found out she was missing. None of us could guess why she would leave something as important as her phone here other than the possibility of her not wanting to be found. I'd been told to use it for the mean time until they found Elena, considering her friends and boyfriend would definitely still want a way to contact her. Or me, really. You get the point. I squinted and took it, groaning slightly once I saw Calum's name appear on the caller ID. "Dammit."

"You better answer it." Emma pointed a finger at me, raising an eyebrow. "You've been putting the guy off for three days now, Cara."

I sighed, placing the phone on my lap as it continued to ring. "I can't help it, to be honest. He's so sweet around me and it makes me wanna believe that Cara is dating him and not Elena. I'm just trying to keep appropriate distance, you know? I can't get too used to having an affectionate boyfriend around all the time- he isn't even my boyfriend.. He'll be gone once this is all over."

"But it won't matter, because you'll find someone way better than him soon enough." She said, a small smile playing on her lips as she stood up to walk behind the bar in the back of the basement to grab who knows what. "Plus, three days in my opinion is a little more than appropriate distance. He obviously misses you. Have you even been talking? Texting?"

I pursed my lips and looked back down at the phone in my lap which had just stopped ringing. "No, not really. I just.. I feel like a really shitty person. I'm playing around with him. I basically turned him into a cheater. He's pretty much cheating on his girlfriend with his girlfriend's sister, without knowing."

"I get what you're saying, I do," She threw a can of pepsi at me as she made her way back to the couch, sinking down next to me. "but so far, everything is going smoothly, I guess. Nobody suspects a thing. So.. Try not to overthink it. I'm sure they'll be able to find Elena in a couple more days. Just help them out by stalling everyone a little more so they'll have the time they need. Unless.. Unless you're thinking of just calling this all quits-"

I stared at her with a blank face. It'd only been about a week into The Replacement Project and I already felt like slamming my head into a wall. There was a certain way to take a selfie, a certain way to text friends, a certain way to do my eyeliner- everything in her life was so different compared to everything in mine. Everything was so planned out. Everything was so official. Her life moved to the rhythm of a song completely opposite of my music taste, and I was having trouble keeping it on beat. There was so much pressure to keep everything on track, and it shocked me when I realized that I really was beginning to consider shutting down the plan. Continuing to play the game would just unleash utter hell.

But.. aborting the project would unleash just as much hell. Maybe even more. It was in that moment I realized that I was legitimately beginning to play the victim card. I had agreed to this. I agreed to doing this for my family. There was no way for me to take back a bullet that had already been shot. I had to finish what I'd started. Plus, how much longer could this possibly take? I'm sure Elena was just around the town somewhere, I mean, she really had nowhere else to go.

"No, of course not." I shook my head. "I need to prove to everyone that I can do this, you know? This was my decision, and I'm capable of going through with it. Elena ins't the only one who can accomplish difficult things."

I was able to catch the quick flash of guilt and sympathy that crossed Emma's face, before she sighed and smiled lightly. "I believe in you, Cara."

I smiled back at her half heartedly and quickly pressed 'send', before I could look back and change my mind.

To: Calum

hey! can we meet at the park down klienn street in 15?

-

"Hey!"

I looked up from my lap, and smiled brightly at the sight of an olive-toned boy with black fluffy hair that looked like it hadn't been touched in days, yet still looked incredibly attractive, walking towards me with a guitar case hitched over his shoulder. He smiled back just as brightly, leaning down to give me what looked to be a kiss until panic arose in me and I turned my face to the side, his lips landing on my cheek. "Hi,"

If I hadn't looked closely enough, I would've missed the brief frown that appeared on his face before he cleared his throat and smiled once again- this time, not as brightly. "3 days."

I narrowed my eyes in confusion and turned to stare at him as he sat himself down next to me on the bench. "3 days?"

"You haven't texted or called in 3 days." He said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. He unzipped his guitar case before pulling out an acoustic guitar that I was positive I'd seen before when we were thirteen and he still had interest in me and he would invite me over to his house to help organize his vinyl and CD collection. "Hope you don't mind, I have to finish writing the other half of this song."

I shook my head as an indication that I didn't mind, really, because it really would be cool to hear some of the band's new music, and smiled. "You counted?"

"Counted what?"

"The days I didn't text or call?"

"Yeah." He shrugged, grinning even from beneath the shade the tree above the bench we were sitting on casted upon the side of his face. "It's been months, El. I would've thought the minute I came home we'd spend a ton of time together to make up for me being away but so far we've only spent a couple of hours napping together and after that we stopped talking for 3 days."

"So why didn't you call or text me first?" I asked.

"I didn't want to be a bother." he replied, pulling his guitar out of its case and setting it on his lap. "I figured you needed space. I, uh, I figured it was probably better I didn't pry-"

"It wasn't that," I countered quickly, pursing my lips and looking down at my lap sheepishly. "it's just been hectic. A lot going on at home."

"Speaking of home, how's your sister? Haven't seen her in a while." He asked, surprising me and making me look back up at him from my lap in shock.

"Huh?"

"Cara. How is she?"

Shock consumed me at the mention of my own name. Calum was talking about me. Had he and Elena talked about me before? Did they talk about me often? What did they talk about? "She's um, she's doing alright, yeah, she's actually in Brazil right now doing charity work just to like, polish her college aps."

Calum hummed in approval and then looked up at me cheekily. "We should all hang out some time when she comes back, maybe set her up with one of the guys, yeah?"

I chuckled quietly and shook my head at him before encouraging him to play me what he'd written so far. It was overall just weird, foreign. Not the song, of course, no, that was pretty nice, actually. He was even thinking of calling it 'Jet Black Heart.' He was definitely frustrated though, not being able to think of the last couple lyrics towards the end. I thought it was pretty damn amazing regardless.

But I mean, I had thought that Calum had pretty much forgotten all about me, about Cara- until now. I grinned to myself. It gave me a little bit of hope. Maybe after Elena was found and everything had gone back to normal, Cara and Calum could become friends again.

We sat there as the sun began to fall and the wind started to pick up ever so slightly. Along with a couple others, Calum had played the last half of the song that he'd been working on, and promised to play the full version for me some time soon. And surprisingly, the past half hour had actually been.. okay. There wasn't any tension, and I didn't feel any knots in my stomach squeezing the hell out of me. It was rather peaceful, and I enjoyed it. It was the first moment I'd had with Calum where I'd truly felt comfortable.

He was in the middle of telling me a story about a fan who'd made him a playlist full of the 1975 and Mayday Parade songs he really wanted me to listen to when the sounds of footsteps and a voice cut him off halfway. "Cara?"

The two of us turned towards the voice in shock. I mean, we had been alone in the park last time we both checked and neither of us heard the sound of the person even approaching us. I squinted my eyes in thought as I stared at the girl in front of me. Mid-length blonde hair that had obviously been bleached to the fullest, brown eyes and insanely pale skin which confused me to an extent considering this was California after all, and it was indeed summer- so how the hell was this girl so damn pale?

She rang a bell, she did, and it took me a while to realize who she was exactly. Once it hit me, my eyes widened and I cursed to myself quietly. "Heather! Long time, no talk.." I turned to Calum who had already been staring back at me confusedly, and then back at Heather who was staring at me with a similar expression. "I-I'm Elena though, aha, you got the wrong twin."

In eighth grade, Heather Bellison was a gift sent to me from the angels. Again, I was a reject- even in middle school. Nobody had ever really taken interest in me, the little thirteen year old girl who chose vinyls instead of iTunes, studying over going to the mall, passing tests instead of boys- who would go for a buzzkill? Who the hell would go for Cara when there was always Elena on the other side?

The answer was Heather. I met her in the vacant study hall one day while studying for an algebra test when she had walked up to me and offered to quiz me using her own flashcards. Since then, she'd gone over to my house, we watched an endless amount of movies together, we walked to school and back with one another- she was stuck to me. She had become my only friend who actually cared about me. And I was stuck to her. And neither of us would've had it any other way.

..Until freshman year rolled around and I caught Heather pouring two powder white pills out of an orange container, and popping them into her mouth. She'd been diagnosed with something, I just never found out what it actually was. But it was.. it was bad. Since then, she started to become more clingy. Every two minutes I got text messages asking if I could hang out, asking how I was doing, asking when I was free to come over- it felt as if I had no more time to myself. It got to the point where I didn't even feel as if she were my friend anymore, she treated me as if I were her boss, and as if she were my maid. She did everything I asked just to please me and sometimes over Skype, she'd stay on the line as I slept just to quote on quote 'watch over me.' Everything in our friendship just started to feel so.. creepy. I knew the smartest and probably safest choice would probably be to drop her as carefully as I could manage- she was a lightweight.

I had distanced myself from her and ignored most of her phone calls and texts, and it seemed to be as if she had received the hint. From time to time, she'd give me a self-pitiful look in the hallway as if she were trying to guilt trip me back into a trap of never-ending Skype calls and constant 'where are you? can i come over? can you come over? when are you free?' texts. I stood with my instincts, though, and stayed away. Did I ever miss her? Yeah, plenty of times, keeping in mind that she was practically my best friend, or my only friend. Did I need as many friends as I could get? Yeah, but to be honest, I didn't need friends like Heather. I wanted friends, but I also didn't want to feel tied to her. So in the end, did I regret making the decision? Not really. Soon enough, the two us had mastered the art of brushing past one another in the hallways without even glancing at the other's face. We'd faded.

She rose her eyebrow at me and her hand moved to prop up on her right hip. "You're not Elena, you're Cara."

"What are you talking about?" Calum spoke up, and I instantly felt my blood run cold. "Sorry, I'm confused, do you two know each other?"

"Yes." I coughed, staring hard at Heather but smiling anyway. Be calm, Cara. "She was my sister's friend in like, middle school, right? I remember you. I don't think you know what you're talking about, though."

"Are you smoking? I know what I'm talking about." She snorted. "If you're Elena, why'd you turn around when I called for Cara?"

I opened my mouth to reply, and then stopped when I realized that I had nothing to reply with. It was just then in that minute that I realized what I'd done- I'd turned around when someone called for Cara, not Elena. I basically blew my damn cover!

In the corner of my eye I could see Calum staring at me with his lips slightly parted and his eyebrows drawn tightly together- he was suspicious.

Shit. Come on, Cara, think of something. Say something!

"Well I mean, if someone just randomly called out your sister's name wouldn't you be curious to see who it was too?" I cleared my throat, lifting my chin up with hopes of appearing more confident. "We're twins, Heather, it's easy to get us both mixed up."

"How do you even know me, then?" Heather challenged, raising both her eyebrows. "I was Cara's friend. Not yours."

"She used to talk about you a lot." I fired back, internally sighing in relief as I watched her face soften for a moment. She bought it. "Told us all about how she made a new friend and whatnot.. She even showed us a couple of pictures off your facebook- I just happened to memorize your face. And you've come over to our house a couple of times in the past years."

"I'm Elena. Cara's in Brazil doing community service work right now.' I explained, trying to sound as convincing and natural as I possibly could. "Um, did you want me to like.. leave her a message or something?"

The way her face began to soften for a moment shocked me. She bought it. Had I really just pulled that off? I practically made all of that up on the spot. She quickly regained her composure and sniffed out of her nose.

"Sorry. I don't know, it's just the meds that I've been taking lately, I swear it." She pressed her lips together. "Just tell her to text me some time. We hardly talk or see each other anymore."

I nodded once. "I will."

She looked me up and down once more, before looking me back in the eye once again. She smiled, almost apologetically, and then nodded once at Calum before brushing past the two of us to the parking lot.

I exhaled loudly and dropped my head into my hands. My heart was racing, and my hands were sweating. I was tense, I really was. That was terrifying.

It had only been a couple days and one person was already suspicious. What would even happen if someone were to find out the truth? How much trouble would our family be in? How much trouble would I be in? Colleges would hate to see that a student applying to attend their school was the lying daughter of the mayor.

I know it probably would have been best to stay here with Calum for a little more, just to keep him happy, but at this point, what I needed was to get home, take a nap, and talk to my dad about The Replacement Project and other damn alternatives once he got home from the office. This was a lot more risky than I'd originally thought it'd be. I was scared, I was worried, and I was feeling awfully stupid.

"Hey," Calum's voice had softened as it whispered into my ear, rubbing gentle circles into my back as he knelt down in front of me and attempted to pry my hands off of my face. "you alright? What happened?"

I blinked as his voice brought me back down to reality and quickly stood up, nearly knocking him over by accident. He looked extremely confused and I felt extremely terrible. "Cal, I'm sorry, I-I really have to go. I don't really feel good right now."

His face dropped and he drew his lips into a straight line. "El, I'm serious, are you alright?"

"I just told you I don't feel good." I snapped, sounding a lot harsher than i had intended to sound. He looked taken aback, and slightly hurt, and I sighed. "I'm sorry, I don't know I just don't feel very good at the moment. Headaches and all.I'd rather just go home."

Calum looked as if he were about to protest, but eventually just sighed and nodded himself. "Can I drive you home?"

"I drove my own car." I forced myself to smile lightly and apologetically before reaching for my bag that I'd placed down on the bench. "Can we do this again another time when I'm feeling a little better?"

He pursed his lips into a smile and nodded lightly, leaning in to kiss me and close the distance between us. The nerves inside of me ignited and I quickly turned my head so that his lips met my cheek, and my heart broke a the expression on my face. I don't know why the hell I did that. The least I owed the guy was a kiss.

"I don't want you to catch my fever, you know.. If I am sick." I cleared my throat, tapping his nose lightly with my index finger.

He didn't look enlightened at the slightest, yet he smiled again anyway and took my hand, rubbing his thumb over the top of it before letting go. "Are you gonna call me later, Ms. Morales?"

"Yeah," I breathed out, corners of my mouth twitching, before I smiled at him once more and turned to follow Heather's steps into the parking lot, feeling like the worst fake girlfriend to exist in the human race.

I wanted to slice myself in half.

-

The aggravating beeping of the Apple ringtone on my, or rather Elena's phone, rang out loudly, the light of the screen illuminating the dark room. The blinds were down, the lights were out, and all I could remember was coming home from the park, parking my car, peeling my skinny jeans off and sliding into bed for a very much needed nap- and that was around 5 pm.

As I squinted and reached out for the phone which was laid across my nightstand and quickly tapped the 'accept call' button in order to get rid of the annoying ass ringtone, I was pretty shocked to see it was already 10 at night- how the hell had I slept for 5 hours straight, I didn't know. The real question was who was calling me was 10 pm, and why. As well as why I had't used my common senses to check the caller ID before picking up the call.

"Hello?" I muttered into the speaker, sitting up in bed and scratching at the top of my head.

"Elena! Fuck, finally you picked up!"

I blinked in shock at the swear word and rose my eyebrow at the unfamiliar male voice. "Who is this? And why the hell are you calling me so late?"

"It's Michael, dumbass." I could practically hear the boy on the other end roll his eyes. "I called you 8 times! Why are you picking up just now!"

It took me a little while to realize that Michael was one of Calum's friends and that he was apart of the band, as well as the fact that this wasn't my phone- it was Elena's. And it only made sense for Elena to have Michael's number, I had to act natural. "It's 10 pm, Michael, I was asleep. What do you want?"

"Yeah I know it's 10 pm- I was trying to sleep too. But your boyfriend over here locked himself in the bathroom and is crying his ass off and he's loud as shit and he's had 2 bottles of beer. Infants in China can probably hear him wailing."

My eyes doubled in size and I quickly scurried off my bed. "What?!" I whisper-shouted, quickly running across my room to the light switch and flicking the lights on, before pulling my dresser open and grabbing a pear of leggings and a t-shirt along with my flip flops. "What did you do!"

"What do you mean what did I do?!" He yelled into the phone in an offended tone and I had to pull it away from my ear for a minute as I winced. His sleep schedule was definitely not to be messed with. "What did you do! He keeps saying that you don't- you know what? Just come over. You're the only one who can fix him right now, and I need my sleep,"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming."

"Thank you." He said, sounding exasperated. "And Elena?"

"Yes, Michael?"

"Bring whatever you need. You're staying over tonight. He's annoying the shit out of me right now but he's my best friend and I don't know why but he needs you right now."

I was on my way out the door when I stopped in my tracks and shut my eyes, letting out a large exhale. Calum was crying. He's had two bottles of beer. Michael needs sleep. This was probably my fault.

"I'm on my way."