“It’s been a week since you’ve taken off from work, man.” Andrea looked at Michael, who sighed to himself before he quickly wrote down what she should say next.
“But, Fredrick, I don’t feel so good. I don’t remember a few parts of my life, and lots of them are concerning work.” Andrea looked at Michael with disbelief as he shrugged his shoulders.
“Do you even hear yourself right now? That was stupid, and you sound fine to me.”
Andrea didn’t wait for Michael to write down a reply as she spoke up, “You idiot, of course I sound fine, nothing happened to my voice. I told you I can’t remember shit about work.”
Michael opened his mouth in disbelief before he slapped his own arm.
“Dude, are you okay, I’ve never heard you curse like that before.”
Andrea rolled her eyes before she replied, “Of course, I’m not okay. I’ve just told you the reason. You’re not so bright, are you?”
Michael hit his own arm again, but it was all futile. Andrea’s hands were so light and he knew his arms wouldn’t even feel a thing.
“Um, I’ll tell boss you’re not feeling like yourself, so just rest up, okay, dude.”
Andrea sighed in relief as she cut off the call without saying anything more to him.
“You could’ve at least said goodbye.”
“He’s an idiot, how do you even work with him?” Michael wanted to scold his daughter for calling a co-worker an idiot, but he could do nothing but agree.
Fredrick really was an idiot.
“We can’t keep doing this though.” Andrea nodded her head. “Yeah, I can’t deal with your idiotic colleagues.”
Michael shook his head with a frown, “I meant, we can’t just stay home and not go to school or work.”
Andrea shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “I like staying at home. School is such a hassle anyway. Too many bitches I want to beat up.”
Michael widened his eyes in disbelief.
“Don’t beat up anyone at school.”
Andrea smirked before nodding her head, “I said, I want to beat them up, not that I did. I know how you’ll have to go through a lot of shit because of me if I do.”
Oddly, Michael felt a little touched that Andrea would think about him even when she always fought with him over the most trivial of things.
“I think we should go from Monday.”
“Eh, lets just stay at home until all this passes by.” Michael sighed before he shook his head.
“I want none of it, we are going to each other’s respective places from Monday. You go to work, and I’ll go to school. Just make sure not to get any attention on you.” Andrea raised an eyebrow as she smirked.
It was like Michael had just told a cat not to purr.
“Just try, okay?”
Andrea just shrugged which was the most Michael could get from her. “You should also try to not care about anyone at school. Don’t listen to anyone, okay? Those shits say a lot of stupid things so don’t think much about that.”
Michael didn’t know why Andrea looked so worried as she talked to him, but he didn’t ask.
“Okay.”
And that was the how they sealed their fates to each other.
………………………………………..
Andrea was sure to wear a nice suit as she got out from the shower.
She was finally getting used to seeing her father’s hairy chest and how to shave his ever-growing stubble. And one thing that she enjoyed the most was that he had a really nice closet filled with smart-looking clothes.
Almost all of his suits were a nice dark color and made him look like a smart man.
Andrea smiled to herself as she wore a royal blue colored suit, and then looked at the tie with a frown.
She still didn’t know how to tie a tie, though.
On the other hand, Michael liked all of Andrea’s clothes, more than he should have.
“Andrea!”
Andrea, who had finally dressed herself rolled her eyes before going to her room to find herself standing in front of her closet.
“What is it?”
Michael looked back at himself before he admitted to himself that he looked quite clean and nice. But then he remembered what he had to say.
“Why are all your clothes so masculine?” Andrea raised an eyebrow before she frowned. “What’s wrong with my clothes?”
Michael frowned as well. “Well, they look like my clothes, just a tad bit smaller. Why don’t you have any skirts or dresses?”
Andrea rolled her eyes before she slapped her own nape. Michael stared at himself with widened eyes. “How dare you hit your father?”
“Well, technically, I hit myself.”
“Touché.”
“Daddy, it’s time to go.” Lisa came running into the room, but stopped herself when she saw that Michael wasn’t done changing yet. “You’re not dressed yet.”
“Did you know that Andrea has nothing girly to wear?” Lisa glanced at her father’s body before looking at her sister. “Well, yeah. Andrea hates skirts and dresses. She doesn’t even like makeup.”
Andrea looked at herself with a smug face as Michael frowned.
“Okay, I guess I was the only one that didn’t know then.”
“Just wear those pair of jeans with that ‘the 1975’ t-shirt. Ooh, and a pair of boots. God, how I’d love to be wearing boots right now.” Michael rolled his eyes as he went into the bathroom with all the clothes that Andrea had pointed out.
He still was wondering about how he didn’t know what his oldest daughter liked and didn’t. It was embarrassing since Lisa even knew that Andrea didn’t like feminine clothes.
He was beginning to see how unaware he had been to her for so long.
……………………………………………….
“This is the time when I’m regretting putting you and Lisa in different schools.” Michael groaned as he parked the car in the parking lot of his office.
Andrea smirked from beside him as she tried to fix her suit jacket.
She was nervous deep inside since she didn’t know anything about numbers and stuff, and according to Michael; his job had a lot of math related stuff.
“And for the hundredth time, I’m an accountant.”
“Yeah, yeah, math shit.” Michael rolled his eyes. “Just don’t embarrass me or get me fired.”
Andrea rolled her eyes before nodding. “At least your building is nice to look at.”
“Also, Fredrick wears glasses and has a weird mustache so you’ll be able to identify him quite easily.” Michael ignored Andrea as he continued. “Usually people don’t come to me for anything but if they do today – I hope to God they don’t, but if they somehow do try to help them the best you can.”
Andrea nodded her head with boredom.
“Also, don’t cuss at anyone.”
Sighing to herself, Andrea opened the passenger side door to get out of the door. “Also, be nice.” Andrea didn’t hear anything else as she closed the car door and began walking over to the building.
Michael sighed to himself before he started the car up.
He was going to drive out of the parking lot when he found his body knocking at the passenger side window. Rolling his eyes, Michael rolled the window down to see what Andrea needed.
“What floor is your office again?”
“Hah, the 15th.”
“Okay, thanks.” Andrea smiled before she turned around to finally go inside the building. Michael watched his body enter the building before he sighed heavily. He was the one that was the most worried, since he was scared of how Andrea would act around his colleagues and how he would act in school.
Surely, he had lived through the hellish years of high school, but that was all as a boy. Sure, he was popular and he had friends, but school was always hell, and now he had to live through that hell again but in his daughter’s body.
This was all a new level of fucked up.
Putting the car in drive, he sighed to himself again before he drove out of the parking lot with Andrea’s high school building in mind.
…………………………………………
“Good to have you back, Mr. Hanning.”
“I hope you’re feeling better now, sir.”
“We missed you around here, big guy.”
“See, everyone’s glad that you’re back, buddy.” Fredrick hit Andrea’s back and she didn’t feel a thing which was quite useful but still annoying. She wanted to glare at the mustached man, but tried to control herself since her father had warned her not to act out of character.
Instead, Andrea smiled at the man.
“It’s good to be back.”
“Hey, that’s the spirit.” Andrea smiled as Fredrick guided her towards a cubicle. “Here’s your place, man.”
Andrea looked around the small cubicle with apparent distaste since it was small. She wondered how her father was able to work in such a small dump.
“If you need anything, just know that I’ll be here.”
Andrea turned to look at Fredrick with a frown, “Where?”
Fredrick smiled, “Here.”
Squinting her eyes at the man, Andrea felt her patience wearing thin as she asked again, “Here, where?”
There was a smirk on Fredrick’s place before he bent down to look under the small desk in the cubicle before he brought out a can attached to a very thin pipe. “Right here.”
“So, we’re nerds?” Fredrick frowned as Andrea frowned as well, before he burst out laughing. “You sure did become funny after that accident. I’ll catch ya later, and if you need anything just call me through this.”
Winking at the man, Fredrick left the cubicle.
Andrea looked around the place, before she looked down at the comfy chair as she sat down.
“I guess this is office life then.”
She sighed to herself because she was ashamed to even miss high-school right about now, but this surely wasn’t enjoyable.
She didn’t know what to do, except that she knew she had to do something regarding that small stack of files in the corner. But as her eyes moved away from the files, she found herself looking at a photograph just beside them.
It was a photo they had taken on their usual trips to the park, where she was piggybacking her father, who was stood beside her smiling mother with Lisa in her arms.
It was an attractive picture and the way that all four of them were smiling widely showed how happy they were in it.
Andrea felt a dull ache in her chest as she stared at the picture, an ache that had dulled over the years after her mother passed away.
It was hard for Andrea to accept her mother’s death and she tried to avoid it at best as she could. She’d not look at family photos or talk about her mother just to keep her mother’s death off her mind but it still snuck its way out sometimes.
This was one of those times.
She didn’t understand how he was able to work in such a small space everyday with the constant reminder that he had lost someone he dearly loved pasted on his wall.
It was something she found hard to understand.
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