“Don’t worry about it,” the girl said. She picked up the rest of the books.
“My name is Lacie,” she told me.
“I’m Matt.”
“What’s the matter, Matt?” she asked. “Why are you in such a hurry?”
What could I tell her? That my whole life had turned inside out?
Then the school door burst open. Mrs. McNab stepped outside.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” I replied. “I’ve got to get home. See you.”
I ran down the street before Mrs. McNab could spot me.
I collapsed on the couch. It had been a terrible day. At least I made it home before that big guy beat me up.
But what was I going to do tomorrow?
I watched TV until Pam and Greg came home from school.
Pam and Greg. I’d forgotten all about them.
They were little kids now. And they seemed to expect me to take care of them.
“Fix us a snack! Fix us a snack!” Pam chanted.
“Fix your own snack,” I snapped back.
“I’m telling Mommy!” Pam cried. “You’re supposed to fix us a snack! And I’m hungry!”
I remembered the excuse Pam and Greg had always used to get out of doing stuff for me.
“I’ve got homework to do,” I said.
Oh, yeah, I realized.
I probably really do have homework to do.
High-school homework.
It’s going to be impossible for me.
But if I don’t do it, I’ll be in trouble tomorrow.
In more ways than one, I thought, remembering that big guy. What did I ever do to him, anyway?
When it was time for bed, I headed to my old room. But Pam was sleeping in there.
So I went back to the guest room. I climbed into bed.
What am I going to do? I worried as I let my eyes close.
I don’t know what’s happening.
I can’t do anything right.
Is this what my life is going to be like—forever?
8
I opened my eyes. Sunlight poured in through the window. It was morning.
Oh, great, I thought. Time for another fabulous day of high school.
I shut my eyes again. I can’t face it, I thought. Maybe if I stay in bed, all my problems will go away.
“Matt! Time to get up!” Mom called.
I sighed. Mom would never let me stay home from school. There was no way out.
“Matt!” she shouted again.
Her voice sounds funny, I thought. Higher than usual.
Maybe she’s not so tired for once.
I dragged myself out of bed. I set my feet on the floor.
Wait a minute.
My feet.
I stared at them. They looked different. I mean, they looked the same.
They weren’t big anymore. I had my old feet back!
I looked at my hands. I wiggled my fingers.
It was me! I was my old self again!
I ran into the bathroom to check the mirror. I had to make sure.
I flipped on the light.
There I was—a puny little twelve year old!
I hopped up and down. “Yippee! I’m twelve! I’m twelve!”
All my problems were solved! I didn’t have to go to high school!
I didn’t have to face that big bully!
The nightmare was over!
Everything was okay now. I was even looking forward to seeing Pam and Greg and Biggie as their crabby old selves again.
“Matt! You’re going to be late!” Mom shouted.
Does she have a cold or something? I wondered as I quickly dressed and ran downstairs. She really did sound different.
I practically skipped into the kitchen. “I’ll have cereal today, Mom—”
I stopped.
Two people sat at the kitchen table. A man and a woman.
I’d never seen them before.
9
“I fixed you some toast, Matt,” the woman said.
“Where’s my mother?” I asked. “Where are Pam and Greg?”
The man and woman stared blankly at me.
“Feeling a little off today, son?” the man said.
Son?
The woman stood up and bustled around the kitchen. “Drink your juice, honey. Your dad will drop you off at school today.”
My dad?
“I don’t have a dad!” I insisted. “My father has been dead since I was a baby!”
The man shook his head and bit into a piece of toast. “They told me he’d get weird at this age. But I didn’t know how weird.”
“Where are they?” I demanded. “What did you do with my family?”
“I’m not in the mood for jokes today, Matt,” the man said. “Now let’s get moving.”
A cat crept into the kitchen. It rubbed against my legs.
“What’s this cat doing here?” I asked. “Where’s Biggie?”
“Who’s Biggie? What are you talking about?” the woman said.
I was starting to get scared. My heart was pounding. My legs felt weak.
I sank into a chair and gulped my juice. “Are you saying that—you’re my parents?”
The woman kissed me on the head. “I’m your mother. This is your father. That’s your cat. Period.”
“I have no brothers or sisters?”
The woman raised an eyebrow and glanced at the man. “Brothers and sisters? No, darling.”
I cringed. My real mother would never call me “darling”.
“I know you want a brother,” the woman went on. “But you really wouldn’t like it. You’re just not good at sharing.”
I couldn’t stand this any longer.
“Okay, stop right there,” I demanded. “Stop fooling around. I want to know right now—why is this happening to me?”
My “parents” exchanged looks. Then they turned back to me.
“I want to know who you are!” I cried, trembling all over. “Where is my real family? I want answers—now!”
The man stood up and grabbed me by the arm. “Get in the car, son,” he commanded.
“No!” I screamed.
“Joke is over. Now get in the car.”
I had no choice. I followed him to a car—a shiny new one, not my real mother’s old piece of junk. I climbed in.
The woman ran outside. “Don’t forget your books!” she called. She pushed a backpack through the open window at me. Then she kissed me again.
“Ugh!” I cringed. “Stop it!” I didn’t know her well enough to let her kiss me.
The man started the car and pulled out of the driveway. The woman waved. “Have a good day at school!”
They’re serious, I realized. They really think they’re my parents.
I shuddered.
What was happening to me?
10
One day I’m a normal twelve year old. The next day I’m suddenly sixteen.
Then the next day I’m twelve again—except I live in a completely different family!
I stared out the window as “Dad” drove. We passed through a neighborhood I’d never seen before.
“Where are we going?” I asked in a tiny voice.
“I’m taking you to school. What did you think—we were going to the circus?” the man replied.
“This isn’t the way to school,” I said.
The man just snorted and shook his head. He didn’t believe me.
He pulled up in front of a junior high school—but not mine. I’d never seen this place before.
“Okay, son. Have a nice day.” The man reached across me and opened the car door.
What could I do? I climbed out of the car.
“Dad” drove off.
Now what? I thought. I’m twelve again—but I’m at a totally different school.
Am I awake?
I kicked myself in the shin to test it. Ow! That hurt.
I figured that meant I was awake.
Kids poured into the school bu
ilding. I followed them in. I didn’t know what else to do.
Ahead of me I saw a girl with a long, thick blond ponytail. She turned around and smiled at me.
She looked familiar. Where had I seen her before?
“Hi,” I said to her.
“Hi,” she said back. Her blue eyes sparkled at me.
“I’m Matt.” I was still racking my brains trying to figure out where I’d met her before.
“I’m Lacie.”
Lacie! Of course. I’d crashed into her the day before—outside Horrible High.
I started to say, “I met you yesterday—remember?” But I stopped.
Did she recognize me? I couldn’t tell. But why should she? I looked completely different from the day before. How could she guess that the twelve-year-old kid standing next to her was also the clumsy teenager from yesterday?
“What’s your first class?” she asked me. “I’ve got lunch.”
“Lunch? But it’s eight-thirty in the morning!”
“You’re new here, aren’t you?” she said.
I nodded.
“This stupid school is so crowded, they can’t fit everyone into the cafeteria at lunchtime,” she explained. “So I’ve got lunch now.”
“I’ve got lunch too,” I lied. Or maybe it wasn’t a lie—what did I know? I had no idea what was going on anymore. School was beginning to seem like a lot more trouble than it was worth.
I followed her to the cafeteria. They really were serving lunch there. The powerful smell of brussels sprouts stank up the air. I gagged.
“It’s too early in the morning for brussels sprouts,” I noted.
“Let’s eat out on the playground,” Lacie suggested. “It’s a nice day.”
We slipped out of the cafeteria and settled under a tree. Lacie sipped a carton of chocolate milk. I rummaged through my backpack for some lunch. I figured my new “mom” must’ve packed me something.
She did, all right. Baloney and ketchup on white bread. A little plastic bag full of carrot sticks. Vanilla pudding for dessert.
Everything I hate.
Lacie held out a chocolate cupcake. “Want this? I can’t face it this early in the morning.”
“Thanks.” I took the cupcake.
Lacie seemed like a really nice person. She was the nicest person I’d met since my life became a nightmare. She was the only nice person I’d met since then.
Maybe she would understand. I really wanted to talk to somebody. I felt so alone.
“Do I look familiar to you?” I asked her.
She studied my face.
“You do look kind of familiar,” she said. “I’m sure I’ve seen you around school….”
“That’s not what I mean.” I decided to tell her what had happened to me. I knew it would sound weird to her. But I had to tell somebody.
I started slowly. “Were you walking past the high school yesterday?”
“Yes. I walk past it every day on my way home.”
“Did someone bump into you yesterday? A teenager? In front of the high school?”
She started to answer. But something caught her eye. I followed her gaze to the school door.
Two guys were walking toward us. They were tough-looking guys in black jeans and black T-shirts. One wore a blue bandanna around his head. The other had ripped the sleeves of his T-shirt to show off his beefy arms.
They had to be at least sixteen or seventeen. What were they doing here?
They headed straight for us.
My heart began to pound. Something told me to be afraid of them.
Maybe it was the nasty looks on their faces.
“Who are those guys?” I asked.
Lacie didn’t answer. She didn’t have time.
One of the guys in black pointed at me.
“There he is!” he shouted.
“Get him!”
11
The two guys ran straight for me.
Who were they? I didn’t know.
But I didn’t stop to think. I jumped to my feet and ran as fast as I could.
I glanced back. Were they chasing me?
“Stop him!” one of them shouted.
Lacie stepped in front of them, blocking their path.
“Thanks, Lacie,” I whispered. I hurried out of the playground. I raced through the strange neighborhood, trying to remember how to get home.
A few blocks from school I stopped to catch my breath.
No sign of the two guys. No sign of Lacie, either.
I hope she’s all right, I thought. They didn’t seem to want to hurt her.
They wanted to hurt me.
But why?
The day before, a bully had said he wanted to get me after school.
But today, in my new, weird world, I hadn’t seen him. Neither of the guys in black was that bully.
Just two new bullies.
I’ve got to get help, I realized.
I don’t know what’s happening. But it’s all too much for me. And it’s too frightening. I hardly know who I am.
I drifted through the streets until I finally found my way home. “Mom” and “Dad” were out. The front door was locked. I climbed in through the kitchen window.
My real mother was gone. My brother and sister and even my dog were gone.
But there must be someone else I know, I thought. Somebody, somewhere, who can help me.
Maybe my real mom went somewhere else. Maybe she’s visiting relatives or something.
I decided to try Aunt Margaret and Uncle Andy. I dialed Aunt Margaret’s number.
A man answered the phone.
“Uncle Andy!” I cried. “It’s me, Matt!”
The voice said, “Who is this?”
“Matt!” I repeated. “Your nephew!”
“I don’t know any Matt,” the man said gruffly. “You must have dialed the wrong number.”
“No—Uncle Andy, wait!” I shouted.
“My name isn’t Andy,” the man snarled. He hung up.
I stared at the phone, stunned. The man didn’t sound like Uncle Andy at all.
I guess I did dial wrong, I thought. I tried the number again.
“Hello?” It was the same man again.
This time I tried a new approach. “Is Andy Amsterdam there, please?”
“You again! There’s no Andy here, kid,” the man said. “Wrong number.”
He slammed the phone in my ear.
I tried not to panic. But my hands were shaking.
I dialed information. “What listing, please?” the operator asked.
“Andrew Amsterdam,” I said.
“Checking,” said the operator.
A minute later she said, “I’m sorry. We have no listing under that name.”
“Maybe if I spell it for you,” I insisted. “A-m-s—”
“I’ve already checked, sir. There’s no one listed under that name.”
“Could you try Margaret Amsterdam, then?”
“There’s no one named Amsterdam listed at all, sir.”
My heart started racing as I hung up. This can’t be happening, I thought. There must be somebody I know, somewhere!
I won’t give up. I’ll try my cousin Chris.
I called Chris’ number. Someone else answered.
It was as if Chris didn’t exist. Or Uncle Andy, or my mother, or anybody I knew.
How could my whole family disappear?
The only person I knew was Lacie. But I couldn’t call her.
I didn’t know her last name.
The front door opened. The woman who called herself my mother bustled in, carrying shopping bags.
“Matt, darling! What are you doing home in the middle of the day?”
“None of your beeswax,” I snapped.
“Matt! Don’t be so rude!” she scolded.
I shouldn’t have been rude to her, I guess. But what difference did it make? She wasn’t my real mother, anyway.
My real mother had disappeared off the face of the earth.
I shuddered. I realized I was totally alone in the world.
I didn’t know anyone—not even my parents!
12
“Bedtime, honey,” my fake mother chirped.
I’d been sitting in front of the TV all evening. Just staring, not even really watching it.
Maybe I should stop thinking of these people as my fake parents, I realized. They’re real enough now. I might be stuck with them forever.
I’ll find out in the morning, I thought as I trudged upstairs. My old room was a sewing room now. I went back to the guest room to sleep.
“Good night, darling.” “Mom” kissed me goodnight. Why did she have to keep kissing me?
She turned out the light and said, “See you in the morning.”
The morning. I dreaded the morning.
So far, each morning was weirder than the last. I was scared to go to sleep.
What would I wake up to?
It would be great if these fake parents of mine were gone. But who would take their place?
Maybe I’d wake up and the whole world would be gone!
I struggled to stay awake. Please, I prayed. Please let everything be normal again. I’d even be glad to have Greg and Pam back, if everything could only be normal….
I must have fallen asleep. The next thing I knew, I opened my eyes—and it was morning.
I lay perfectly still for a minute. Had anything changed?
I heard noises in the house. There were definitely other people here.
A lot of other people.
My heart started pounding. Oh, no, I thought. What am I in for this time?
I heard someone playing an accordion. That was a pretty sure sign my old family wasn’t back.
But first things first. How old was I today?
I held my hands up in front of my face. They looked a little on the small side.
I got up and went to the bathroom, trying not to panic. I was really getting sick of this routine.
The mirror seemed higher than usual. I stared at my face.
I wasn’t twelve anymore, that was for sure. I looked about eight.
Eight, I thought, sighing.
That’s third grade. Well, at least I’ll be able to do the math. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my back. Ow! Claws! Tiny claws digging into my back! The claws dug deeper. I screamed.