Better Late Than Never

straight into a restroom. She needed time alone to think.

'Who was this guy? And what did he want from her? He had to be pulling some kind of scam, but why? It wasn't as if he could kidnap her and ransom her for money.

Mr. Jackson claimed there was evidence that this Stuart Kelley really was her father. But why would he come looking for her? So he could claim her and get the welfare allowance the state gave her mother? But it wasn't much money--hardly worth the effort. None of this made any sense at all.

She was almost relieved to hear the bell ring. At least class would be a distraction. She left the restroom and practically collided with Amanda Beeson.

'There you are!' Amanda exclaimed. 'I've been looking everywhere for you!'

'What do you want?' Jenna asked, knowing her rudeness would have no effect whatsoever on Amanda.

She was right. Amanda practically shoved her back into the restroom. 'I have a favor to ask you.'

The door to one of the stalls opened, and a girl Jenna vaguely recognized came out. She was Nina something, a friend of Amanda's.

'Hi, Amanda. You're Jenna Kelley, aren't you?'

'Yeah, so what?'

'So nothing. I just didn't know you two were friends.' Nina sauntered out of the restroom.

The color drained from Amanda's face. Despite everything she'd just been through, Jenna burst out laughing. Clearly, poor Amanda was devastated at having been caught talking to notorious bad girl Jenna Kelley.

She almost felt sorry for Amanda--but not quite. 'Why would I do you a favor?'

Amanda recovered from her shock and faced her squarely. 'Do you want me to tell everyone you still sleep with a teddy bear?'

'I'll just call you a liar,' Jenna replied.

Amanda grinned meanly. 'I have a photo.'

Jenna doubted that. When Amanda had been Tracey and they'd slept in the same room, she didn't recall ever seeing a camera. And with everything else on her mind now, and her reputation not exactly squeaky clean, did she really care if people knew she slept with a teddy bear?

But she had to admit--she was curious to know what Amanda could possibly want her to do. 'What kind of favor?'

'I want you to read Ken's mind. I've been flirting with him like crazy, and he's totally not responding.'

Jenna cocked her head to one side. 'Did it ever occur to you that maybe Ken just doesn't want to be with you?'

'No,' Amanda replied. 'There's got to be another reason.You have to find out what it is.'

It was so annoying--the way Amanda just assumed that every girl wanted to be her friend and every boy was madly in love with her. And there was something else about this that bugged Jenna.

'Weren't you listening when Madame said we shouldn't use one another to exploit our gifts?'

'Since when do you do what the teachers say?' Amanda retorted.

She had a point. But Jenna shook her head. 'Look, Amanda, if he's not interested in you, then he's not thinking about you. What difference would it make if I found out that he was thinking about--I don't know--football, or soccer, or macaroni and cheese? How would that help you?'

Amanda was momentarily at a loss for words.

'I've got a better idea,' Jenna said. 'You're a body snatcher. Why don't you just take over his body? Then you could fall in love with yourself. It shouldn't be too difficult, considering how conceited you are.'

And she walked out of the restroom, pleased that for two whole minutes she hadn't thought about the mysterious Mr. Kelley.

Chapter 7

AS JENNA LEFT THE restroom, half a dozen girls entered, and several of them greeted Amanda. But she was barely aware of them. She walked out in a daze, with Jenna's words still ringing in her ears. Not the part about being conceited. She didn't care one little bit what Jenna thought of her. It was Jenna's idea that was stuck in her head.

Would it work? Could she really take over Ken's body and make him fall in love with her? Of course, if she was inside Ken, her physical self would be that robotic Other -Amanda who took over when she was elsewhere. But so what? That Amanda-robot-thing acted just like her. And once she-as-Ken asked Other-Amanda out, she'd get back inside herself and charm him on their date. It was just a question of getting him alone, of having his full attention.

There was only one problem--but it was a big one. How could she take over Ken's body? Body snatching worked only when she felt enormous sympathy for someone. How could she ever feel sorry for Ken? He was good-looking, he was popular, and she was pretty sure he had no problems with schoolwork. She didn't know much about his family, but she'd seen them all together at a restaurant recently. Thinking back, she recalled two parents and a little sister. They had seemed okay--a normal, ordinary family.

But maybe his parents weren't getting along-- maybe they were even heading for divorce. There'd been no evidence of that when she'd seen them, but you never knew what went on behind the scenes. She'd have to ask her mother-- she kept up to date on community gossip. Amanda knew it wasn't very kind of her to hope that Ken's parents were breaking up, but at least it would give her something to pity.

Or maybe the whole idea was absolutely stupid. First of all, she didn't have that kind of control over her gift. She could avoid body snatching by not feeling sorry for someone, but could she actually initiate a snatch? She'd never tried because she'd never wanted to, and there was no reason to think she had the ability.

On the other hand, since she'd never tried, she didn't know if she couldn't.

So what if she could make this happen? What if she could take over Ken's body, ask out robot-Amanda, and then get back inside herself just in time for the big date? Would Ken even remember that he'd asked her out?

She thought back to her time inside Tracey's body. She'd never really talked to Tracey about it, so she wasn't sure how much Tracey remembered after she got her body back. But after she'd been inside Tracey for a while, she had felt some sort of connection, like Tracey knew what was going on.

So what if Ken did remember and he wasn't happy about what Amanda had made him do? She could make things even worse than they already were.

Not to mention the weirdness of being inside Ken's body. It was one thing to act like Tracey Devon; how could she possibly act like a boy? No, it was insane--she could never pull it off. She'd have to come up with something else.

But what? This was so frustrating--it was driving her crazy.

'Hello, hello, is anyone home? Earth to Amanda! Come in, Amanda.'

She turned to see Nina, Sophie, and Britney walking alongside her. She had no idea how long they'd been there, but they were all giggling.

'What's so funny?' she demanded.

'You,' Nina said. 'You look so out of it! Have you been taking lessons from Emily Sanders?'

'Don't be stupid,' Amanda snapped. 'I've just got something on my mind, that's all. Honestly, can't a person think about something? And don't ask me what I'm thinking about, because it's none of your business!'

Now all three girls were staring at her, and she wanted to kick herself for going all postal like that. Why had she sounded so annoyed? Getting upset like that--it was so uncool.

'Don't bite off our heads!' Nina exclaimed. 'I don't know what's happened to you lately, Amanda.'

Sophie nodded. 'You're just not yourself.'

Britney chimed in. 'Ever since you got stuck in that weird class, it's like you've changed.'

'I have not!' she declared indignantly.