CHALLENGE THREE: IT'S MY BODY, I'LL DO WHAT I WANT TO

"Here's the situation: been to every nation. Nobody's ever made me feel the way that you do. You know my motivation given my reputation.

Please excuse me, I don't mean to be rude."

THREE

CORY RANOVER

We walk into the carnival air and I'm all grins. There's a lot to be proud of, and I'm especially happy that my bro was able to step up to the plate so well. Good kid, and he's earned his time to rest. Ryan is quiet, Toby is quiet, and Ipod is trying to sign at me. I put my hands over hers to stop her.

“I'm not T hon, I'm sorry.” I say quietly.

“I'll tell him later.” She says. “So what now?”

“I need to unwind,” Toby says. “And eat something. My stomach hurts.”

Ryan's chewing on her lower lip. I remember this look. Ryan and I met a lifetime ago, once, and only once. She was just as uptight then as she is now. Obviously she doesn't recognize me because the last time we saw each other, I wasn't in T's body. I was in my own. As much as I want to say something to her, that she's not as alone as she probably feels, that she isn't with complete strangers, I keep it to myself. The last time I saw her, I'm pretty sure she wanted to make sure it was the last time. Our relationship is definitely a story.

“Some down time would be nice.” I agree with Toby. I nudge her, trying to get her to bend a little, but I'm nervous. I don't want to give myself away. Though, she doesn't remember my name, so that could be a good sign.

She looks at me and raises an eyebrow. “Did you just touch me?”

I poke her shoulder, “I've touched you twice now. Yes.”

“Don't.”

I back away from her and scowl. Maybe she did. Maybe I should ask her?

“Sorry,” I mumble. “Loosen up a little though okay?”

She rolls her eyes. “Go play. Let's meet at the entrance in about two hours. Then we can figure out where we're going to sleep for the night.”

“Awesome!” I pause. “Can I huge you first?”

“Why?” She raises an eyebrow. “I don't like being hugged by strangers.”

That answered that question.

“When we get to know each other better then,” I say. “You get a hug. Go ahead and give it when you're ready. I just think you could use one.”

“I like your brother better.” She says and walks away from the group. Toby bolts in the opposite direction as her and Ipod looks at me while scratching her chin.

“You're weird.” She says with a smile. “I like hugs.” She comes up and gives me one, and I can't help but laugh. “You going to be okay or do you need a chaperone?”

“I should be asking you if you want an escort.” I wink.

“I'm a tough cookie. But I'll be at the bouncy castle if you need me.”

“Cool,” I nod and watch her leave. Not gonna lie, both her and Ryan are hot. Ryan is more petite in size, and definitely more curvy and sultry. Ipod on the other hand is bubbly and adventurous. She's got long legs and good proportions. You can tell she works out a lot too. I watch her go and shake my head. They can go on my to-do list for later. I need to focus on the now.

Two hours is a lot of time to kill on my own. Yes, I understand why everyone wants their own space right now, but this would have been a good time to really get to know each other. Whatever right? I start by getting a corn dog and watching the locals. I win myself a few liters of pop: Coke, Fanta Orange, Mountain Dew, and Dr. Pepper. Should be good for while we're traveling right? I'm thinking practically, though I'm devouring the Mountain Dew now.

I make eyes with a local girl. She's an itty bitty blonde thing, cute as a button, and she's doing the flirtatious smile thing too. After about two different booths of her practically stalking me, I finally approach her coolly. It was easy for me to become confident in my brother's body. He's a good looking guy. Shorter than me by about five inches, but he has a charming smile and he takes care of himself. We both have the same blue eyes too, so the adjustment wasn't difficult or traumatizing for me. If he had been a fat slop, or a twig, that might be a different story. He is a little thinner than me as well, but the muscle tone makes up for it. I don't feel weak. I don't feel pathetic. I've almost always felt like myself. It's made the whole situation easier to manage for me.

Her eyes roam over me and she smiles. “Hey there.”

“Hello, I kept noticing you were looking at me. Was wondering if I got something in my teeth,” I tease her.

“I didn't mean to stare.” She says with a blush. “I just notice strangers pretty fast. We don't see a lot of them come through here. I've seen a lot of them tonight, but I especially noticed you.”

I can tell she knows how to play the game, which is good. I don't like girls who are oblivious in the ways of 'hooking up'. I avoid them actually because I don't want to be one of those 'assholes' who manipulates and then runs. I want my fun, sure, but I don't want to devastate anyone to get it. We walk around the carnival, looking for something fun to do, or a good place to go and connect.

Yes, I realize I'm in my brother's body. This has always been a stress relief for me,among many other complicated factors. I'll leave it at I have some baggage I'm dealing with, you know, just like everyone else on the planet does. It's not a big deal. When it comes to T and I? We have a don't ask, don't tell sort of policy. I don't go out of my way to tell him what I do in my free time beyond vague details. He has yet to ask for specific ones.

I think deep down he knows what's going on, and he doesn't want it to be confirmed. In his mind, he's still a virgin, and I suppose if we go based on the fact that he hasn't had sex yet, yeah, that's true. I know it's important to him to fall in love and all of that sappy mushy stuff. I've been there, done that, and it had its ups and its downs. It was a good life experience, and I'm sure some day he'll have it. If he knew some of the things I did in his body, he would probably have a meltdown though and he might stop believing in it himself. I don't want to see that kind of destruction happen. Naturally, whatever I do, I'm extra, extra careful.

I have rules in place. One is no sleep-overs. Two is no psychos. Three is going out of my way to go to a place where I will for sure never see anyone during the daytime. The morning hours are his, and I don't know if he'd have any clue how to handle a run-in with a girl he's never met before. Like I said, meltdowns, and T is an expert at those.

“How about this one?” I point to the tunnel of love. She puts her hands on her hips and raises an eyebrow at me. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“If you're thinking you're going to have all the fun, you've got another thing coming.” She says matter of factly, and I'm amazed by her boldness.

“Then let's just focus on you,” I say with a shrug. She raises both her eyebrows this time. I think I confused her, especially since my tone was nothing near sarcastic or mean. I nod at her encouragingly and take her on the ride. I'll keep this PG and just say she had a good time. That's kind of all you need to know right? She's clinging to my arm when we get off the ride, almost like she's afraid of letting me go.

I look down at her and give her a big, toothy, smile. “Thanks for indulging me.”

“Night's still young.” She says with a wink. “Are you sure you want to say goodbye so soon? I'd really like to return the favor.”

I glance at my watch and think this over. I'd say I have about another hour before I need to meet up with the others. There were a few other things I want to do too of course. One of them is get something for T. He did well. He needs some kind of positive reinforcement. I know I shouldn't get too much stuff because the space is limited, but there are a few things essential for traveling. If there's one thing I know, it's road trips.

“If we keep it quick, I have a curfew in half an hour.” I say.

“Then let's go play in the mirror maze.” She smirks and starts to drag me towards the fun house. I don't move a muscle. There were parts of that adventure I wasn't present for, stuff I'll hear about later, but the stuff I was around for was enough to scar me from going into mirror mazes for life. “Something wrong?”

“I already went into the fun house, it was kind of lame.” I say, trying to stay cool and not let on that my knees are shaking. “What about the bouncy castle?”

“Too many kids.” She pouts at me. “Did you see the princess fun house, or the haunted one?”

“The haunted one.” The fun house certainly didn't look anything like a princess castle to me.

“Did they finish remodeling it? I was told it was closed.” She shrugs. “Sad that it's lame. It used to be so cool! I'll show you the princess one. Trust me, you'll like this.”

I sigh and let her take me. The outside of this house is like a castle, pink is everywhere, and it's not exactly what I would call sexy. Still, she's a local, and they tend to know more about what's cool and what isn't better than anyone else I've ever met before. She hands the clerk a ticket and a twenty, and we waltz in.

“What was that for?” I ask. My paranoia is starting to warm me that maybe this isn't such a good idea because the clerk shuts the door behind us.

“Just insuring we'll have some privacy.” She says and drags me through a tunnel, over some shaking steps, and down a slide. She kisses me at the bottom of the slide and plays with T's trademark cowlick. I've tried I don't know how many times to get rid of it. It's near impossible. For whatever reason, his bangs just want to fly up, ya know?

I close my eyes, trying to relax. I have nothing to be so paranoid over. We're on a break. We have some time off. I'm fine.

“You're so tense.” She says. “Let me help you loosen up a little.”

“Please,” I whisper. I just want to be lost. I don't want to think about any of this stuff, about life, anymore. I want distraction. I want to be happy. I want to be me, or as much of me as I can.

With another kiss, she helps me up off of the slide, and takes me into the mirror maze. While the other had been dark, with smoke, and trippy lighting affects. This one was bright with neon pink and green brightening up the world. Day and night difference, let me tell you. I actually feel safe for the first time since I entered the attraction. She pushes me up against a mirror and kisses me, hard. Her fingers are flying over the buttons on my shirt and then over T's ripped abs and then down....

I have about ten minutes to kill when it's all said and done. We go our separate ways, and I start to search the games to see if there's any other cool prizes I can win. I'm at the entrance with about five minutes to spare. In my arms I have a large duck pillow-pet thing for T which should help with his motion sickness. I'm the first one there, Ryan is next and she's walking with Ipod oddly enough, and Toby is late by about ten minutes.

“What is that?” Ryan asks, and points to my goods.

“Snacks for the ride,” I gesture at the candy and soda-pop I've won. “Pillow.” I hold up the toy. “Do you got a problem with it?”

She stares for a moment and then shakes her head. I notice Ipod has a small plush, pink, unicorn in her hands that she's wringing the life out of. Toby also has something, but I can't quite make out what it is.

“Let's get going,” Ryan says at last. Then I see she has a small stuffed banana. Hilarious right? We go back to our car and see an envelope taped the windshield. “Looks like we have our next set of instructions.”