Chapter 1

Hi I hope you enjoy my story. At the time this story happened my name was Ben, and no that wasn't short for Benjamin or anything else. On my birth certificate, it actually just said Ben. My name was Ben Tanner. I had just turned fifteen years old. By the time I was thirteen I had reached 6'-1". The other kids made fun of me. They thought I was odd, all except Stacy Myers. She couldn't have been any more different than me. I was tall and super skinny, and she was short and wasn't fat but she also wasn't skinny either. We became great friends though. We had so much fun for three months before her dad got a super secret, super important job out of state. We kept in touch with one another through email, postcards, and phone calls, although the phone calls weren't as frequent as the other ways of communication. But on the bright side, the other kids no longer made fun of me. With the help of Stacy, the others came to realize I was just like them, but much taller. Luckily I didn't grow an awful lot after that though. I later asked my parents what was so important about Mr. Myers' job that forced them away. All I got was that he was some kind of scientist, and his wife was a doctor as well as a scientist. I stopped asking but I never forgot about my best friend.

So back to before; I had just turned 15. My parents were super excited about something for a couple of weeks now. I admit I did have fun on my birthday, but I had failed to see what they were all excited about. They took me, my three older brothers, and my twin, younger sister out to the movies and to a concert. On the way back home my mom kept on checking her phone and then there must have got a message that she had been looking for. My mom grabbed my dad's hand and nodded, they said that they had a surprise for me. And when we finally got home, I had expected decorations or something different with or around the house. Except for the house being cleaned outside and inside recently, nothing was much different.

My parents did their usual lovey-dovey thing after a trip like this, and hugged and did a quick kiss on the lips.

My mom smiled and blushed like it was her first kiss and turned to me, "Ben your father left something in the back yard could you please go and get it and bring it inside?"

I nodded and ran to the side of the house and fumbled with the lock of the gate. Something was strange, though so I called out, "Hey Mom, Dad! Someone left the gate door unlocked. It's just hanging there. No wait, I think it's busted or something."

"We are changing the locks soon so that's no big deal," replied Dad.

I wanted to debate that it could be a big deal, especially if there was a burglar in the backyard or in the house at this very moment, but I let it go this time.

I cautiously poked my head through the partially opened gate and didn't see anyone there that shouldn't be. So I closed the gate and was just about to lock it from the inside when someone snuck up behind me.

"So you're still locking the gate from the inside I see," said an amused voice.

I quickly spun around and was about to attack when I saw a slightly familiar face, "Stacy? Is that you?" She nodded. "But you look so different. You look so..."

The wide smile on Stacy's face vanished, "Do I look bad? You know I changed for you. You were so excited about the sports you were involved in and the gym classes you took; it inspired me to get more active. I thought you'd liked it. Do you hate it? Or would you have preferred I'd stayed fat and ugly?"

Stacy went from a 4" 9' slightly overweight girl to something close to 5" 9'. She looked a lot like the Disney actress Zendaya with a little bit of Keke Palmer in there. But with darker skin and more muscles and slightly bigger boobs, but I didn't realize that until much later. She had short spiky hair that only covered 1/3 of her ears.

I was dumbfounded. But when she mentioned ugly I snapped out of my shock, "What? No! You look great as you are now. You're anything but ugly."

She smiled and giggled then jumped up and hugged me and kissed my cheek.

She quickly backed away and spun around in a circle, "I'm glad you like it. You have no idea how happy that makes me." She slightly stumbled and held her head for a moment. "So what do you think about my hair? Was it included in your 'anything but ugly' assessment?"

I looked at her; I just couldn't believe she was actually here, and on my birthday too.

"Beautiful! You look beautiful. Everything about you does." I exclaimed.

She quickly ran to me and embraced me as she kissed me. Then the backdoor to the house swung open.

"Wow that was quick! Barely home two minutes and you two are making out already. Why don't you just get a room," said my youngest older brother Jake.

"They had better not get a room. My daughter is a little too young for that kind of hanky panky," said Mr. Myers.

My little sister Angela tapped Jake on the shoulder, and once he looked at her; she called him stupid in sign language. My little sister has very excellent hearing but hasn't talked in years.

It wasn't until both of Stacy's parents were in the backyard, and her mom handed me a small present that I asked, "What brings you back here? It's not just for my birthday; I'm nowhere near that lucky."

Mrs. Myers smiled a smile that looked so much like her daughter's, "We were finally able to get a transfer back here. We loved this place so much we couldn't stay away. We got special equipment and new staff here so we're going to stay. Isn't that exciting?"

We talked a lot that night and ate way too much food. Every now and then, I'd turn my eyes away from Stacy and when I looked back she would be holding onto her head and had a funny look on her face.

Joe my eldest brother walked over to the CD player, and before he did anything else he looked to us cleared his throat and politely said, "In our family, we have a tradition to dance to music on birthdays. I would like to suggest a calming slow dance or even a nice..."

"Crazy dancing," shouted out Carl; the middle of my three older brothers.

Stacy jumped up and shouted, "Crazy dancing! Woo hoo."

She grabbed my hand and pulled me into the yard, and we started dancing. I laughed thinking back to before she moved away; she even loved dancing like this back then. We did all kinds of dancing. My mom danced with my dad, and she even danced with Mr. Myers. When it started to rain, there was even lightning and thunder, so we all decided it was time to head in for the night. Then Stacy cried out in pain, fell to her knees on the deck. Her father started to run towards us but then lightning struck hitting the tree near us. It broke off a limb hitting both Stacy and I. It didn't take me long to come too. But when I did there was shouting. I got up and saw them trying to lift the tree limb off the deck. Then I got a closer look; it was crushing Stacy, and she wasn't moving. I quickly ran over and joined in trying to get the tree off of her. When I lifted there was a sharp pain in my arm. I looked down, it was bleeding, and I was pretty sure there was some of the tree in my arm. But I did what I could to help.

When we finally got the tree off of Stacy, she still didn't move. When I got closer, I saw that there was a lot of blood. I tried getting even closer, but I was warned by Mrs. Myers to stay away. They needed all the space to help her.

I reached inside my pocket and pulled out my cell phone; I called the police and called for an ambulance. There was a lot of shouting and crying for Stacy not to leave us. I started to get scared I panicked and started to run. And before I knew it, I tripped over a piece of the tree that I hadn't noticed. I fell into the railing, and it collapsed, and I fell down into a hole that was being dug for an addition to the house. The last thing I remember seeing was my sister and mother's faces.

I think I may have woken up a few times, but the images didn't really make sense to me. So later on I just convinced myself it was all a dream, or rather a nightmare. I saw Stacy as I had seen her when she greeted me at my party, then I saw her again but all in pain and then in bandages almost like a mummy. Then the next time I saw her; I knew I must have been dreaming. She was in perfect health, but she had a frown on her face. All she said was, "I'm so sorry. I'm so very sorry. Please forgive me. Try to forgive them. Take care of my parents and try to love them. I loved you from the moment I first saw you."

I tried to reach out to her, but she vanished before I could even move a muscle. I didn't have much thought after that. At least none that I can remember any ways.

The next thought I could remember is opening my eyes. My head felt a little foggy kind of like I was on very strong pain medication or someone had given me some strange drugs. I must have made some noise or something because soon a lot of people were surrounding me. At least, I think there were a lot of people. Someone was flashing lights in my eyes and then someone else touching my head all over the place. People came and went asking all kinds of questions, but nobody let me ask any questions of my own, let alone answer any. Finally, Mrs. Myers came in to see me.

She just looked at me with tears in her eyes and quietly asked, "How are you feeling? Do you need anything?"

My mind was still a little foggy it kind of hurt to talk, "What happened?" I paused. My voice sounded weird. "Where are my parents?"

For some reason, when I mentioned my parents, Mrs. Myers looked hurt. Her voice cracked, "Do you remember the night of your birthday? How the tree fell onto," she paused and looked like she was about to cry, "Onto you and Stacy?" I tried to nod but that hurt so I said yes. "How about when you fell off your deck and into the hole in your backyard?"

I choked out, "No." Then some things came back to me. "Oh my God! What happened to Stacy? Is she okay?"

Then Mrs. Myers really did cry. She momentarily turned around until she was under control.

When she looked at me again I said, "She didn't make it. I'm so sorry."

I wanted to cry but for some reason, I couldn't.

"There is something I need to tell you." She said as she sat down near me. "Even if this hadn't happened to Stacy, she was still going to die. It was her brain. For now, I won't go into specifics, but I'll tell you now. That's the major reason we moved back to Utah. She wanted to spend the rest of her life here with you." More crying, "As for your injuries, your body was severely broken. You had so many internal injuries that your body didn't make it."

"My body didn't make it? What are you saying?" I was feeling a panic attack coming on. I didn't like this joke.

"By some miracle, your brain was mostly left undamaged." Seeing that I was very confused Mrs. Myers moved closer and held onto my hand. "Listen you know how my husband and I are doctors and scientists don't you? When we moved away we were assigned to help with a new medical breakthrough. And we finally figured it out. However, until you and..." she choked again, "Stacy we never had an opportunity to test it out on humans. It's a miracle it even worked on you."

"What was it? What did you do to me? What does Stacy have to do with this?" My mind was starting to clear up. And a pain ran from the top of my head and down my neck and heart.

Mrs. Myers moved away and grabbed an item.

She held onto it tightly, "You are the first successful patient of a brain transplant. We took your brain and put it into a different body."

"You're joking. That's impossible. And even if it was whose body could you have put my brain into?" I cried.

Mrs. Myers took a deep breath and handed me the item she had been holding, which turned out to be a mirror.

I couldn't lift it, so I had help. As soon as I saw a chin Mrs. Myers answered, "My daughter Stacy. Your mind is now in her body."

Before she was finished with the last sentence, I screamed as loud as I could. And before I knew it, more people were in the room. And then I fell asleep again.