All Chapters of The Switch: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

53 Chapters

Let's Switch

ARIA'S POV.I literally had three panic attacks this week and while I stared at my empty medication bottle, my hands shook. Two hundred people were sitting in the hall because the Spring showcase was about to begin in twenty minutes. My mom was also present and sitting in the front row.“I don't think I can do this thing". I doubted myself. I literally looked like what everyone said about me. ARIA CHEN, the perfectionist and the one that never makes mistakes.My mom sent me a message after five minutes for the third time. I gasped when I saw the text.“Where the hell are you, this girl? People are asking of you and don't even dare embarrass me". My mom said, over the phone.My breath seized and I held the toilet sink trying to remember the exercises my therapist taught me recently but I was still suffocating.The door knob clicked and Victoria walked in gracefully."Oh, So you are here!" Victoria said harshly She was wearing a silver dress with her blonde hair falling freely behind

The Switch

SAGE'S POV"Aahhh" I covered my nose with my fingers as soon as I stepped into the apartment. The smell of whiskey was strong. The kitchen counter was the only surface in the entire place, so I dropped my helmet there. I shook my head in disgust when I saw the empty bottles lined up near the trash bin. "Dad is getting worse". I said, in my mind. "Sage? Is that you?" My dad said with a slurred and thick voice from the living room. "Yes, Dad. It's me". I found him passed out on the couch with the TV playing some late-night infomercial. There was a cigarette burned down to the filter in the ashtray, inches from his hand. Another fire hazard. Another reason social services would take one look at the place and ship me straight to juvie. I thought, frowning. I grabbed a blanket from his bedroom and covered him. He stirred slightly but didn’t wake. His face looked older than it should. That was what five years of drinking himself to death looked like. "I'm trying to save us, Dad,"

Trapped

SAGE'S POVThe men were finally getting closer to us and I backed away from Julian. My heart was beating fast. "You said that you were going to help me and you didn't say anything about..."Julian interrupted me."I...I didn't know they'd follow me here, Victoria must have sent them". Julian stammered.The two men were huge. One had a scar that ran down his cheek. The other had tattoos crawling up his neck. "Julian St. Claire," the scarred one said. "Victoria wants to talk to you.""Tell Victoria I have nothing to say to her."Julian waved him off."That's not how this works." The tattooed man's eyes shifted to me. "And who's this? A new girlfriend? Victoria's not going to like that."My mind raced. They think I'm some random girl. They don't know I'm supposed to be Aria. I can use that."I'm nobody," I said quickly. "I was just leaving…""Nobody leaves until we say so." Scarface stepped closer. "Victoria has questions about money, secrets and certain arrangements that aren't being ho

The Guy in the Dark

ARIA'S POV. I stood in the hallway outside my room with suitcase that was packed and hidden in my closet, listening to my mom's breath from the room by the next door. She finally slept after the fight she had with me and after she had called me ungrateful and slapped me for the first time in my life. My cheek was still aching. "All I've done is sacrifice for you," she had screamed. "And you repay me by lying? By taking pills behind my back? By being weak?" ‘Weak’. That word echoed in my head like a death sentence. I found her going through my things an hour ago. She'd discovered the medication, the therapist's notes I'd hidden, the rejection letter from Juilliard I'd been too afraid to tell her about. "You were rejected?" She questioned in shock. "You told me you got in." "I said they were still deciding…" "You lied to me. My daughter is a liar and a failure." She wailed. That was when I told her the truth about everything. About the anxiety, about the panic attack and about

Hidden Identity

ARIA'S POV Cole Morrison stood in my sister's bedroom doorway like a ghost."Get out," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "Get out or I'll scream.""Scream if you want. Your dad has passed out drunk and he won't hear you." Cole stepped inside and closed the door behind him. "And I'm not leaving until you tell me everything Sage knows about my brother's death."I backed toward the window, searching for an escape but we were three floors up and I'd break my neck if I jumped."I don't know what you're talking about." I said, in a shaky voice."Don't lie to me." His voice was sharp and dangerous. "I know Sage kept notes and I know she was at the party two years ago. I know she saw something the night Cameron died." He moved closer. "And I know you're not really Sage."My heart stopped and I widened my eyes in shock. "What?""You heard me. You're Aria Chen. The perfect twin. The one who goes to Ashford Academy." His dark eyes bore into mine. "I've been watching Sage for weeks, learni

Threats

SAGE'S POV Victoria Ashford circled us like a predator. Her expensive heels clicked against the pavement and behind her were at least ten people who stood in the shadows. Some I recognized from photos in Aria's room, Ashford students. Others looked older, dangerous and professional. "Did you really think I wouldn't know?" Victoria chuckled. "Did you honestly believe you could fool me?" Julian stepped in front of me protectively. "Victoria, this isn't what it looks like…" "Isn't it?" She laughed. "It looks like you're helping Sage Chen pretend to be her sister. It looks like you're betraying our arrangement and it looks like you're choosing some nobody over your future." Her smile vanished. "Over your mother's life." Julian flinched. "Don't bring my mother into this."He warned. "Your mother is already in this. The moment you shook hands with this girl, you signed her death warrant." Victoria pulled out her phone and smirked. "One call. That's all it takes. One call and the ho

Run!

ARIA'S POV. The gun didn't move and my father's hand was too steady for a man who was stumbling drunk five minutes ago. His eyes were clear and focused. "Dad, please." My voice shook. "Put the gun down." "I can't." His finger rested on the trigger. "I'm sorry, baby, but you weren't supposed to find that notebook. You weren't supposed to know anything about Cameron Morrison." "I...I don't understand..." I stammered. "Cameron Morrison came to me two years ago. He had questions about the drug operation, the money being funneled through Lincoln High and about who was really running things." Dad's voice was hollow. "I told him to leave it alone and stop asking, but he wouldn't listen." I widened my eyes in horror. "What did you do?" "What I had to do. What they paid me to do." He said looking down. A tear slid down his cheek, but the gun didn't move. "The Ashford families needed him gone. They paid me fifty thousand dollars. It was enough to cover my debts, my drinking and ever

Save Aria

SAGE'S POV The knife was cold against my throat "Smile for the camera," Victoria whispered in my ear. "Let your sister see what happens when people don't follow my rules." I tried not to move or breathe too hard. The blade pressed deeper, and I felt a warm trickle of blood slide down my neck. We were in the old Ashford chapel. Dark wood pews. Stained glass windows that look black in the nighttime. Candles flickered everywhere, making shadows dance on the walls like demons. Julian was tied to a chair ten feet away with a gag in his mouth. His eyes were swollen shut from where one of Victoria's men hit him. He struggled against the ropes, making muffled sounds, but it was useless. "Your boyfriend tried to be a hero," Victoria says, lowering the knife. "Tried to stop my men from grabbing you at his car and didn't work out well for him, did it?" She took us thirty minutes ago right after we got Julian's call about his mother crashing at the hospital. We were heading to his car whe

The Devil Wears Ashford

SAGE'S POV Victoria's knife was still warm from my blood. I sat in the chapel pew with my hands partially free behind my back, the glass pieces hidden in my palm cutting into my skin. I didn't move. I just allowed the pain to hurt me while Victoria paced in front of me rehearsing the next day's plan like it was a school presentation. "You'll stand at the podium," she instructed, consulting her notes. "With a clear voice. Don't cry until the end because crying at the beginning looks fake." She looked up at me. "Are you listening?" "Every word," I said, nodding slowly. "Good. Because if you miss one line, if you deviate from the script by even one sentence, my man outside would make a phone call." She held up her phone. "One call and your father's apartment would catch fire while he's sleeping inside." Julian made a strangled sound from his chair. His face was destroyed by grief, his eyes were red and swollen from crying about his mother but underneath the grief, I saw some

The Bomb In The Room

ARIA'S POV. My father had a bomb strapped to his chest. I kept repeating that sentence in my head, trying to make it make sense but it didn't because the man I grew up with made pancakes on Sunday mornings and sang badly to old songs on the radio and cried at animated movies when he thought nobody was watching. That man didn't strap bombs to his chest. "We need to move. Now." The lead officer, a stocky woman with short grey hair and sharp eyes was already on her radio calling for backup. "Both girls come with us. Everyone else should stay here." "We're not going anywhere without them," Cole said immediately, stepping beside me. "Sir, this is a police matter......" "That's my brother's murder being discussed in that school right now. I'm going." The officer looked at him, me and Sage, then at who was Julian hovering protectively near Sage's shoulder. She made a decision fast, the way people do when time is running out. "Fine. Everyone can come out but you do exactly w

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