"Okay Kiddo." Logan passed the purple vial across to Marcus, "We will call your parent's and let them know that you have been accepted last minute into a 2 part week long retreat. The scholarship is presented by the school's gifted program and you's was nominated by a teacher, it has a follow-up retreat, two weeks after the end of the first. The school has arranged for a driver to take you home to pack clothes as an apology for misplacing the award notice and the last minute invitation, pending dere approval of course. Den we drink up"
"When will we swap heads?" Marcus asked feeling like he was standing on a cliff preparing to jump as he took the liquid in his hands.
"The mental transfer stuff is all the serum and It needs an hour or two to go throughout our bodies to do it's thing... then we will swap heads and within a few days take each other's places fully. If we don't wait, the kid without a license will have to be the driver and that may slow us down."
They made the call, Marcus pretended to have been called to the office to receive an award and played his cards right. First he was happy that he was awarded, then he was bitterly disappointed that everyone else gets to go on a cool 2 part week long trip as part of school and although he's eligible, they're leaving this afternoon and it wouldn't even cost anything...
"Let me speak to someone there!" Logan heard as Marcus offered the cell phone to him. Logan smiled, "Hello Ma'am, this is Logan with North Bruxly High School, how can I help you today?" and thus the details came together... A letter with an illegible address returned as inbound mail, and by the time it was processed and moved its way back to the proper people... it was Saturday afternoon. "And so ma'am, we do apologize for the mix up and since this is our mistake, we can patch this call through to a recorded line and accept your verbal authorization for him to join the trip. Would you like that? We can even arrange for one of the drivers to take him home to collect some clothes and return before the group leaves."
Marcus watched unclear how the conversation was going, and unsure what outcome he even wanted. "I'm sorry Ma'am, I can assure you Marcus will have sleeping and food accommodations, that was verified before this offer was extended, but I don't have a full itinerary in front of me." Logan was working hard to keep his accent under wraps. "I can tell you it is an immersive excursion to explore and learn new life skills and that he will be dropped off back at your house once the trip is over. I do have to mention though, if he doesn't make this first trip, he won't be welcome on the follow up trip in 3 weeks from today."
A moment later Logan pretended to transfer the call to a recorded line and took a statement that Marcus was allowed on the excursion. After hanging up Logan pulled out his vial and downed the ACE in a shot, telling Marcus to do the same.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They went to a computer lab and forged an award letter, a letter explaining that Marcus will be out of school for this week and also in three week and any homework that he can do outside of class should be forwarded to his email, and a permission slip. After printing it all out, they gave the office the letter saying Marcus will be out of school, and headed to his house. Marcus packed a weeks worth of clothes and placed the fake letter and permission slip on the table, he wrote a hand written note thanking his mom and saying he loved her.
With these steps completed Marcus and Logan drove to the next town over to a small apartment complex. After getting Marcus in and settled was almost time for the swap...
Marcus realized while packing that his emotions were being dampened, presumably by the drug floating around in his system doing something to his memories and personality. He was no longer nervous, and just a tiny hint of excited, but that was fading too. By the time they reached the apartment Marcus was just watching and based on Logan's silence he was experiencing a similar effect.
"I'll need to grab a few days worth of supplies, we should avoid going out during the transition. Stay inside." Logan said robotically as he headed back out.
Marcus sat on the love seat unable to feel curious and thinking was growing more difficult. As he stared into oblivion he nodded off. He awoke to Logan returning with a few bags of supplies. "We need to swap now"
Logan sat on the couch and removed his head placing it on Marcus' lap. "Now you hand your head to my body." Marcus removed his head with a slight pop and handed it to Logan's body. "I'm going to attach your head, as soon as I do, you will loose control of your body and gain control of mine. Then place my head on your body and we can put the groceries away."
As expected, as soon as Marcus felt his head reattach there was a small thud next to him as his former body went limp. He placed Logan's head on his former body and the body became animated again.
"How long until I feel normal again?" Marcus asked knowing he will be disappointed about his first head swap experience having his emotions repressed.
"The drug takes around 3 hours for full mental effect, which is where we are now, then stops repressing emotions within an hour. The mentality transfer is entirely separate from this and from the physical changes, and it should be complete after half a day to a day and a half. Full swappers can build up a resistance over time."
They started making some macaroni and cheese and diced hot dogs. The fridge was empty except for the supplies just purchased. Initially this appeared to be a "safe" dinner that anyone would be able to stomach but as the drug began to wear off and Marcus began to look at his surroundings, he realized the next few weeks will be a substantial decrease in lifestyle.
The one bedroom apartment and everything in it was tiny, the couch was just a love seat and instead of additional seating there were several coffee tables with a smattering of envelopes, papers, and pictures on each. Dirty coffee cups seemed to sprout from random of places, on top of the fridge, on the small 3rd floor balcony, next to the TV, on a shelf intended for pictures, but holding stacks of envelopes instead... And Marcus hadn't even seen the bedroom or bathroom yet.
Though the smell of cigarettes clung to Logan's, err... now Marcus' clothes, the smell in the house was faint meaning Logan didn't smoke inside, thankfully. Marcus had been more than a little apprehensive about living with a smoker for two weeks, but the uniqueness of the experience was too much to pass up. At least after the first week Logan won't be living here and will be too young to smoke in Marcus' body.
Dinner was quiet as both of them were fully in their heads, a side effect after the emotional repression. As Marcus stared ahead he couldn't help but marvel at his young fresh, mid puberty body, with a weathered mid to late forty year old head sitting on top of it.. The line between his body and Logan's head was already beginning to blur, each hour representing the passing of what would normally take weeks... At the union between body and neck the difference in skin tone and texture was blurred and the difference in thickness was already being broken down, thinning Logan's neck to match Marcus' much scrawnier body.
"Should we watch a movie or something to pass the time?" Marcus asked realizing for the first time that he was trapped until his face could decently pass for being attached to this body.
"Sure, turn something on." Night came eventually and Logan insisted Marcus take the bedroom, saying he needs to get used to owning this space. Marcus could feel his brain had been working hard trying to process things and it was mentally exhausting, he didn't have the will to fight so he went to the bedroom stripped down and immediately passed out. He was excited to be an adult, despite being his dads age, and explore the muscular physique of this well built man who's body he now controlled, but he just couldn't right now. He drifted off to sleep imagining all the men worshiping his body with envy and all the women performing sexual acts on him. Normally, he's worrying about missed assignments.