Walking in the house, Josh quickly went upstairs to drop off the bags he was carrying in Joe’s room. Then, going downstairs to the entertainment room, Josh started to look for Joe. After ten minutes, Josh finally came across Joe in Josh’s room. At first, Josh was ecstatic seeing his brother, but Josh’s smile quickly left his face when he noticed the console missing.
“Ah, Joe. Where’s the console?” Josh asked in a hopeful tone.
“Mr. Adams said he needed an extra day to finish repairing it.” Gloom filled the Joe’s words.
“But he said it would be fixed today.” Josh replied in a desperate voice.
“Well, it turned out the console was in worse shaped than he initially thought.” Hanging his head, “He said that if we come back tomorrow, it will be finish and he will even give us a discount for it taking him longer than he first thought.”
“But that mean that I have to continue being you. I have to do your exercise routine and eat that horrible food. I have to go back to your school tomorrow and go to football practice again.” At this point, Josh was almost in tears.
Seeing the state that his brother was in, Joe gathered himself. Moving over a little, Joe patted the mattress, “Come over here Josh.” Putting his arms around his former body, Joe comforted his brother, “Listen, I know that this is really hard on you, and that I’m asking a lot from you, but you are going to be okay.”
“How can this possibly be okay?”
“Because I’m going to start working out with you and eating the same food as you.” Seeing the surprise on his former face, “I think that if you have to do all this stuff for me while in my body, the least I could do was undertake the same things.”
“Really. You would really give up sugar and pizza and all that stuff. Not to mention doing all of the exercising.”
“It’s only fair. So no more crying. It looks weird coming from my body.”
Sharing a laugh, both brothers went to grab dinner, but while their mother had planned to order pizza for Joe in Josh’s body, he told her that he wanted the same meal as Josh. When asked why, Joe replied, “I want to get big and strong like my brother and maybe join the football team in a few years.” This sudden change in attitude surprised their mother, but she went ahead and fixed them their meals.
After they finished their food, Joe and Josh headed down into the basement where the exercise equipment was kept. For the next three hours, the brothers exercised together. Josh sometimes joked about how little Joe could now lift but never maliciously.
While they exercised, Josh told Joe about his day at Joe’s school and Joe told Josh about his day at Josh’s school. While there was very little for Joe to tell, Josh had many questions, so while they worked out, Joe explained as much as he could. However, when Josh went over the football practice, Joe said that he would help prep Josh to be ready for tomorrow.
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As Josh walked out onto the football field in his pads and gear, he could not help but send a silent thanks to Joe for spending over an hour discussing the different aspects of football Josh would need to know. From different plays to how to properly catch a ball, Joe had poured as much information into Josh’s mind before they needed to get some sleep.
“Okay you punks. Time to start with some jump-squats.” One of the assistant coaches called out.
Josh groaned along with the rest of the team. He had not liked having to perform this exercise yesterday. But then again, he would prefer not to have to even be at the practice.
The practice, after the initial exercises, went much better for Josh than the previous day. He only got fussed at twice by the coach when he made mistakes, and he wasn’t near as nervous that someone would figure out that he was not his brother. So when the practice had let out and Josh was gathering up his stuff after a shower, his anxiety returned when Mark one of Joe’s friends, approach him.
“Joe,” Rob said. “Some of the guys were going out to hang. Want to come?”
“I’m not sure Rob. I’m suppose to be home taking care of my brother.”
“He’s ten dude. I think he can take care of himself.”
Knowing there was no way that he could get out of the situation without raising suspicions, Josh followed Rob out to his trunk. Josh hopped into the passenger seat after throwing his bags in the cargo bed.
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Josh was really enjoying hanging out with Joe’s friends. Since he was not treated like a little kid, Josh enjoyed listening to the other guys as they talked about different classes, girls and the up coming games the team would be playing. Josh knew that he should try to leave as soon as possible; he just did not want to. Finally, as the street lights were starting to turn on, Josh got Rob to drive him home.
“Dude, you really need to get your own truck.” Rob said as he parked on the curb outside Josh’s house.
“I know man, but my parents don’t have the money yet. I’ve been saving some up, but it’s still not enough.” Josh was a little surprised that he could talk like his brother so easily now. At first too scared to open his mouth, Josh slowly started to speak, pretending to be his brother, and after a couple of hours, it was just starting to become natural.
“Well, good luck with that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“See you.”
Josh turned and headed for the front door as he heard Rob’s truck drive away. Opening the door, Josh called out that he was home. This instigated someone from upstairs to run over to the staircase and come running down the steps. Josh saw Joe then rush into the foyer.
“Where have you been?” Joe said in an accusatory tone.
“Out with the other players on the team. I got asked to hang out with them and I couldn’t say no without those guys asking questions.” Josh replied in an exasperated voice.
“You could have left after about an hour. It has been three.”
“We were almost half-way across town, and I didn’t have a car or truck to use.”
“Fine. Let’s just switch back.” Joe answered, sulking a little, almost like he was a kid again.
Heading up the stairs, Josh told Joe about his day again. Going over the various topics they teachers had discussed in classes to how football practice had went. By the time he was done, the console had been set up, so the brothers turned on the machine.
Josh and Joe repeated every action that they had done when first swapped, yet nothing happened. Trying a few more times but reversing the roles, the machine continued to simply sit on the shelf Josh had set it on. Trying a few other steps to see if the brothers could be put back into their original bodies, Joe and Josh finally gave up.
Josh looked over at his brother. Not knowing what to say and not know what either of them should do, the only words that came to Josh’s mind were, “Want to go and work out?