In My Shoes
Kara Porter was one of your average 17 year old high school seniors, average except for two things. One, she loved to experiment in the supernatural and witchcraft, and two, she was eight months pregnant.
Kara laid on her side on the bed looking at the poster of Nick Carter, one of the many that adorned her bedroom wall. She let her thoughts wander and was jerked back into reality when the baby she was carrying kicked. Kara put her hand on her stomach. She was wondering how she would be able to provide for her baby once it was born. Although she lived with her parents, she was still in high school, no job and her boyfriend, Ryan Dodds was also a senior at Kellogg High School.
"Boy, to have the money that Nick Carter has, I would be able to provide for my baby and never worry." Kara thought to herself. She opened her witchcraft book and looked for spells for wealth. "Maybe I can find something in here to be rich like Nick." Kara said to herself as she scanned the pages.
Kara found a spell for wealth. She placed four candles out that the spell called for. Once the candles were lit and everything was in place, Kara began chanting the spell. On the third time of the chant, Kara started to feel dizzy. She closed the book and laid back onto the bed and closed her eyes.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The alarm clock buzzed relentlessly until Nick reached out from under the covers and smacked it until it stopped. As Nick tried to drift back to sleep, a funny feeling in his stomach prevented him from doing so. Nick heard someone pounding on the door.
"Kara, you get up now, you've missed too much school this month, you need to get up for breakfast. Move it!" A female voice yelled from the other side of the door.
Nick was puzzled at the noise he heard at first, but shrugged it off figuring it was noise coming out from the hallway of the hotel. Suddenly, there was pounding on the door again.
"Kara Porter, out of this room in five minutes or I swear to god." The voice trailed off.
Nick decided that this person in the hallway was very rude. As Nick prepared to get out of bed, he realized that something was not right. His back was achy and his feet felt like lead. Suddenly, Nick felt a poke in his stomach. When he reached towards the area of the poke, Nick threw the covers back and sat up.
A shocked Nick looked down and nearly fainted from what he saw. Nick rubbed his eyes, blinked and shook his head, hoping to clear his mind. When he looked down again, he saw the same thing.
"Oh my god." When the words came out of his mouth, Nick heard a female voice, not his own. He covered his mouth with his hand and saw the image in the mirror do the same. "HOLY SHIT!" Nick started to panic.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god." Nick kept repeating over and over as he stood in front of the mirror. He was in complete shock and disbelief.
Suddenly, the door opened to the room. A middle aged woman with dark hair stood in the doorway. "Kara, what on earth are you doing? Get dressed for school this instant!"
Nick looked at the woman with his mouth hanging open, frozen.
"Kara! I said to get dressed!"
Thoughts were running through Nick's mind. If he told this woman that he wasn't who she thought, he would be committed for sure. He needed to call himself, Nick was certain that the girl that belonged to this body was already in his body and he couldn't do it by going to a school and spending the day there.
"Um, I don't feel good. I need to stay home." Nick pleaded with the woman.
"Nice try, Kara. Get your butt moving, now!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Kara stretched out in the bed. She was waiting for the alarm to go off, but kept her eyes closed thinking if she looked she would miss out on sleep time. She didn't want to go to school today, they had mid term exams and she had put off studying.
"Hey buddy, time to get up!"
Kara was startled when she heard a man's voice. She opened her eyes and turned to look in the direction of where it was coming from.
"Oh my god, you're Brian Littrell!" Kara said outloud thinking she was dreaming. Suddenly, Kara realized the voice she heard coming from her mouth definately was not hers.
Brian snickered at Nick's remark. "Yes, Nick, it's me, good ol B-rok. Hurry up and quit messing around, I'm getting hungry."
As Kara put her hand to her face, she drew it back quickly when she felt how rough it felt.
Brian could tell something was wrong with his friend. "Hey, Nick, something wrong? Don't you feel good?"
Kara grabbed the covers and quickly lifted them to look at her body. She realized then that she wasn't herself anymore. She looked back at Brian and burst into tears.
"Nick, what's wrong?" Brian knew that Nick only cried when he became really stressed out or was really sick.
"I'm okay, I'm okay." Kara kept repeating as she got out of bed to go look in a mirror. Kara was only 5'3", so when she stood up in Nick's body, she was shocked at how high up she felt. When Kara got to the mirror, she was shocked at having Nick Carter's face looking back at her.
"Ok, this can't be happening, this is just a dream." Kara said outloud.
"What can't Nick? what's wrong?" Brian was starting to worry about how Nick was acting.
Kara desperately wanted to tell Brian that something was wrong and she wasn't Nick, but the common sense in her advised her to keep quiet about it. She knew there was no way Brian would believe her. Wiping the tears from her face, she tried to make light of it. "I guess I'm a little bit homesick, I'll be fine." Kara took a deep breath in.
Brian looked at Nick suspiciously. "Okay, I'll drop it for now. Come on now, get dressed so we can go."
Kara nodded in agreement. She grabbed the jeans that were laying on the dresser. She took the jeans, a shirt and a pair of boxers and walked into the bathroom and closed the door.
"Wow, Nick, this is a first, you usually just strip in front of me." Brian called out.
With the door closed, Kara rested against it. After she heard Brian start to complain about Nick taking so long, she reluctantly took the shirt off. Looking in the mirror, Kara became intrigued by the shark tattoo on Nick's upper arm. She took in everything about Nick, his face, his arms, his chest and his flat stomach.
"Oh my god, my baby!" Kara remembered that she was pregnant. Now it was Nick that was pregnant. She started to wonder what Nick was doing.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Nick grabbed a shirt and a pair of jeans out of the closet. He sat on the edge of the bed to put socks on and struggled as he tried to reach his feet over his stomach. It took him 5 minutes of manipulating, but he got them on. Pulling the jeans on, Nick became frustraited when he realized he couldn't fasten the jeans up. He had to leave them lay open against his hips, the farthest they would come. He grabbed the shirt and pulled it on, only to find that it was tight and barely covered his stomach.
"Shit, this is just great." Nick muttered to himself. He went through the dresser drawers and found a sweatshirt. Putting the sweatshirt on, Nick discovered that it didn't fit well either. It was tight and hugged his body. He shrugged his shoulders and walked out of the bedroom.
Nick basically followed his nose to the kitchen. When he entered the room, a table was in the middle. It had a boy around Aaron's age and a girl that looked about 9 sitting there. The boy looked at Nick and instantly started laughing and pointing at him. This caused the mother to be distracted from the stove and turned around.
"Oh for crying out loud, Kara! Why on earth are you dressed like that? I know you're anxious for the baby to get here, but come on, you don't have that much longer to go."
"Oh shit, she's due?" Nick thought to himself.
"How much longer?" Nick was afraid to ask.
Kara's mother looked at Nick. "Kara, you know this better than anyone in this room, you have it counted down to the days and if you could, you would have it down to the very final minute. Now, quit clowning around, okay? Sit down and eat your breakfast."
Nick reluctantly pulled the chair out and sat at the table. The boy and girl were eating and didn't pay too much attention to him. As the mother put a plate of pancakes and sausage in front of Nick, she spoke. "Oh, by the way, before I forget, you have a doctor's appointment this afternoon, so I will be picking you up from school at 2:00."
"What the hell am I going to the doctors for?" Nick thought to himself.
Nick decided to take a gamble and ask. "How come I have to go to the doctors?"
"Honestly Kara, you are acting goofy this morning. It's your 9 month check up. Oh, and I would suggest wearing something easy to get out of, they will more than likely check to see if you're dialated."
Upon hearing that word, all sorts of thoughts ran through Nick's mind. He dropped his piece of toast.
"Oh, also, Ryan called and he would be here to pick you up for school in about 20 minutes, so you better hustle."
Nick got up from the table and walked back towards the bedroom. He was trying to figure out how he could get out of this mess.
Nick stopped in the hallway. "Mom, I need to make a phone call."
"Kara, you are late already, you can wait to call whoever it is after school. Let me pick out something for you to wear to school this morning, you must not have gotten enough sleep last night."
Nick followed the woman back to the bedroom. He looked at the walls and noticed they were heavily adorned with posters of his face staring at him as well as Brian's. Looking at the posters of himself, Nick wondered what was going on with this girl where he was.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
As Kara and Brian were seated in the restaurant, Kara rubbed her hands together.
"I'm starving, I hope this place is good."
The waitress came to take their orders. Both Brian and Kara decided to do the breakfast buffet.
"Thanks, go ahead and help yourselves to the bar." The waitress smiled as she took the menus from Brian.
Kara followed Brian to the buffet table. She grabbed a plate and piled the food onto it. When she came back with her plate and sat down, she noticed Brian giving her a funny look.
"Nick, what happened to the diet you were on?" Brian asked.
"Diet? What diet?" Kara asked with a mouthful of food.
"That's what I figured. Don't go crying to me when you find the 10 extra pounds back on then." Brian replied.
"What are you talking about, Nick looks fine." Kara said as she got up for another trip to the buffet.
"Nick looks fine?" Brian laughed. "You're talking about yourself in the third person now." Brian's smile left his face when Nick came back from the buffet with the plate piled with more food.
"Seriously, Nick, you gotta slow it down, you're scaring me here." Brian suggested.
Kara suddenly realized that she was still eating for two and that Nick certainly didn't need that. Feeling awful about doing that to him, Kara burst into tears.
Brian started to worry again when Nick started crying. "Nick what is wrong with you?"
Kara replied in a whiney voice, "Oh, nothing, it's just that you said I was fat and I eat too much."
Brian's mouth dropped open as he listened to Nick whining like a hormonal girl would.
"Nick, I never said that, I just told you to watch what you do a little closer." Brian scrambled to find the words. "I'm sorry if it sounded like that, I really didn't mean it to."
Kara wiped the tears from her eyes. "I just don't feel like myself today, I'll be okay Brian, sorry."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Nick paced the living room floor back and forth as she waited for this girl's boyfriend to come and pick him up. Nick sat down on the couch and the baby immediately kicked hard into his ribs to protest the position he was sitting in. Nick put his hand on the side of his stomach where the jab came from. He pulled it back when he felt the lump of the baby's foot sticking out against his skin.
"Holy shit, this is too weird." Nick said quietly to himself. He was dressed more appropriately for his new condition, thanks to the woman that was this girl's mom. He had on maternity jeans and a huge purple shirt that hung loosely over his expanding stomach.
"Hey, Kara, Ryan's here." Kara's mother called out.
As Nick attempted to stand up from the couch, he found that he was unable to. The girl's brother started laughing at Nick.
Nick glared at the kid. "Don't just laugh, HELP ME." Nick sputtered.
A young boy entered the room, smiling. As he reached his hand out towards Nick, he snickered. "Kara, you knew better than to sit on the couch."
Nick accepted the boy's help. When he stood up, the boy kissed Nick on the mouth and put his hand on Nick's belly.
"God, you look beautiful this morning."
Appalled, Nick wiped his mouth off with the back of his hand. "God, what the hell did you do that for?"
"Are we a little moody this morning?" Ryan asked Kara.
"NO I am not moody!" Nick shouted back at Ryan.
Kara's mom entered the livingroom when she heard the exchange going on between Kara and Ryan.
"Ryan, don't worry, Kara's not herself this morning. I am taking her to her prenatal appointment this afternoon, I wouldn't be suprised if they say she's thinned and dialated."
Nick looked down at his stomach. "Thinned? Honestly don't you think that's a bit mean to say about me?"
"Kara, you told me you read the birthing manual or have you forgotten? Thinned means your cervix is softer."
The word cervix flew right over Nick's head. He looked at Ryan
"It means you could go into labor very soon."
"Isn't that great news baby!" Ryan smiled at Nick.
Nick grabbed the backpack and walked towards the door. "Yeah, just peachy. Comeon, let's go and get this day overwith."
When Nick sat down in the car and put his seatbelt on, Ryan looked at him.
"Baby, are you mad at me? Come on and sit next to me like you always do."
"Ryan, I'm not mad at you, I just feel uncomfortable with it today and please quit call me baby." Nick sputtered. He stared out the window as he spoke.
When they pulled into the parking lot of the high school, Nick felt sick to his stomach. He remembered how much he hated school before he was tutored. He then realized that he had no idea where this girl went during the day and what classes she took.
Nick realized that there were payphones in the school and that he could call his cell phone and talk to the owner of the body he was in.
"Hey, Ryan, can you walk me to the phones when we get inside, I need to make a call." Nick asked sweetly, trying to be pleasant to the boy.
"Sure Kara. Who do you have to call this early?" Ryan asked as he helped Nick out of the car.
"My grandma, mom said she was sick last night." Nick lied, he couldn't think of what to tell him.
"Your grandma? Kara, both your grandparents are dead." Ryan replied, confused.
Nick tried to think of a quick cover. "I didn't say grandma, silly, I said my Aunt Nanna."
"Oh, I've never heard about her before." Ryan commented as he led Nick to the phones.
"God, Ryan, I swear sometimes. Thanks, I'll be fine, you don't have to hand around me." Nick turned his back to the boy hoping he would leave so he could make his phone call.
Looking into the girl's purse, Nick pulled out her billfold and opened it up. As he looked into Kara's billfold, he found two dollars and some loose change. Nick realized then and there that he would not be able to make the telephone call he desperately needed to.
"Something wrong, Kara?" Ryan asked Nick.
"I don't want to talk about it right now, okay?" Nick said as he turned around and slung the backpack over his shoulder. He was hoping that this girl would call the school and get him out of classes.
"Whoa, Kara, where the hell are you going, chemistry class is this way." Ryan steered Nick by the shoulders in the opposite direction that he was heading.
Nick gave a put-on laugh. "Oh yeah, oops."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"So, um, Brian, what's the schedule like for today? And where are we again?" Kara asked.
"Nick, did you forget your schedule again? Man, if your head wasn't attached, you would have lost that years ago, I swear." Brian sighed.
"Okay, well spare me the lecture, just tell me, okay?" Kara replied angrily.
"Whoa, Nick, a little defensive this morning, eh?" Brian said.
Kara could feel the tears well up in her eyes again.
"God, Nick, what's wrong with you? I have never seen you cry so easily in my life." Brian was worried.
"I'm okay, I just asked a simple question and you go weird on me. Can you tell me now?" Kara asked, her voice breaking.
"Okay, we're in Memphis, Tennessee. Our schedule is as follows: 10 am radio interview, noon lunch and interview with local TV station , 2pm children's charity photo session, 4 sound check, 6 at venue for show and backstage fans, 7:30 show, 10pm bus onto New Orleans." Brain ran down the list. He had happen to have a copy of the itenerary in his pocket.
Kara's thoughts ran together. She never realized how busy Nick's life actually was. With all of the stuff they had crammed into one day, that left her little to contact Nick and try to figure out how this happened and how it can be fixed.
"What time is it right now?" Kara asked Brian.
"Um, 8:35. You have about an hour before we meet up for the ride to that station."
"Good, I have a few things to take care of." Kara said as she put the card to the room in the door slot. Brian was right behind her. "Thanks Brian, I'll see you in about an hour, okay?"
"Nick, this is my room too, can't I come in?" Brian asked with a funny look on his face.
"Shit." Kara said outloud.
"What?" Brian asked.
"God, I just needed to make some phone calls in private, can't a girl have some privacy?" Kara sighed.
"A girl?" Brian laughed when he pointed out Nick's mistake of calling himself a girl.
Feeling defeated, Kara sat down on the edge of the bed and burst into tears again.
"God Nick, what is wrong with you?" Brian was starting to worry again.
Nothing, just leave me alone for a bit, okay?" Kara begged as she wiped the tears from her cheeks.
"I'll go down the hall and check on Kev. Are you sure you'll be okay?" Brian asked as he walked towards the door.
"Yes, I'll be fine Brian." Kara replied.
Kara breathed a sigh of relief when Brian left and the door softly closed. She went directly over to the phone and dialed the number to her house. Afer three rings, her mother answered.
"Hello?"
Kara was about to blurt out and say Mom, but remembered that she would be hearing Nick's voice and not hers.
"Hi, is Kara home?" Kara asked, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach.
"Kara is at school, who is this?" Her mother asked.
"Um, could you tell her that Nick called and she can reach me at 901-659-4532?" Kara replied.
"Okay, I have the number written down, but who is this?" Kara's mother demanded.
"No one important. Thanks, bye."
Kara hung the phone up and immediately picked it back up. She dialed the number to Kellogg High School.
"Good morning, Kellogg High School, how may I help you?" Janice, the school secretary answered.
"Yes, could I speak with Kara Porter please, it's an emergency, she's in Mr. Gilbert's chemistry class." Kara asked.
"I would have to send a messanger down to reach her, could you hold or would you like to leave a number that----"
"I'll hold." Kara cut the secretary off. As she waited for Nick to come to the phone she started to realize that Nick was taking her chemistry mid term exam. "Oh, shit, I will flunk that class for sure now."
After waiting for several minutes, Kara finally heard a girl's voice shyly answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Hey, is this Kara?" Kara asked. She thought her voice sounded funny to her.
Nick instantly recognized his voice on the other end of the phone. "What the hell is going on? How did this happen? When can you fix this?"
"Calm down, Nick!" Kara tried to soothe Nick.
"Calm down? How the hell can I? I look like a beached whale for one thing." Nick started out.
Upon hearing Nick's description of her own body, Kara started to cry again.
"Hey, quit the crying, you got to stop that, people are going to wonder if I'm weird or something. Are you alone?"
Kara tried to regain her composure. "Yeah, Brian went down to talk to Kevin."
"Good. Alright, let's fix this right now." Nick insisted.
"It's not that simple. It's going to take some time to figure this out." Kara replied.
"Time? I have to go to the gynecologist at 2:00 and you mom says he's gonna see if I'm dialated for crying out loud!" Nick said with an angry tone in his voice.
"Oh, god, I'm so sorry." Kara replied. "I'm thinking and I'm working on it."
"So, can you fly home and fix this?" Nick asked Kara.
"You have a pretty full schedule today." Kara started out.
"Cancel it." Nick replied.
"How?"
"Tell Brian you're not yourself today, you wouldn't be lying, that's for sure. Go to the airport, get a ticket with on of the credit cards in my wallet."
"Ok, I'll try." Kara wasn't too sure it would work.
"I have just two questions for you before you hang up." Nick stated.
"Okay, what?"
"When are you due?" Nick asked hesitantly.
"Oh, not until the middle of next month, that's over two weeks from now, October 16th." Kara replied.
"Ok, second question, what does labor pain feel like?" Nick quizzed.
"How should I know, this is the first time around for me too. I guess, well, people say it feels like cramps from your period but only sharper."
"That info was absolutely no help to me at all." Nick sighed.
"Just don't worry about that, like I said, I'm not due until the middle of next month." Kara tried to reassure Nick. Deep down, she was worried about him.
"Ok, well hurry up, this situation you got me into is freaking me out. OUCH." Nick took a quick breath in.
"Oh my god, Nick, are you okay?" Kara started to worry.
"Yeah, this baby just shoved something in my ribs." Nick replied.
"Just try and calm down, when you get upset, it makes the baby go hyper. I will try and hurry, okay?" Kara tried to sound calm even though she was getting nervous.
"Yeah, okay. Bye."
"Goodbye." Kara hung the phone up. She suddenly felt alone.
Kara picked up the phone and dialed the front desk. She told the clerk she needed a taxi ASAP. Hanging the phone up, she picked up Nick's wallet and shoved it in her right back pocket.
Kara winced at the feeling of the thick wallet in the pocket. "God, how can guys stand this?"
Kara left the hotel room and took the elevator to the lobby. Without even considering what could happen, she walked out the front doors of the hotel to wait for the cab on the sidewalk in front of the building. Kara was startled as she heard screams and looked towards the direction from where they were coming from. She saw a group of approximately 50 girls running at her. Before Kara had time to react and brace herself, she was rushed by the crowd and knocked down onto the sidewalk.
Kara let out yells for help as the girls were clawing at her, ripping her clothes off her body and pulling at her hair. By the time BSB security and hotel security to to Kara, her clothes were completely torn and her pants were barely hanging on her.
Once Kara was safely inside, a big, muscular black man looked her directly in the eyes.
"Nick, what were you trying to do, man?"
Kara immediately assumed that this was Nick's personal body guard. She was frightened by how tough he looked.
"I just wanted to go out." Kara replied.
"Nick, how many times do we have to go over this? You can't just up and walk out into public anywhere, ther are psychos out on the streets, you're lucky you weren't hurt worse." The man lectured Kara.
"I'm sorry." Kara's lower lip quivered as she tried to keep from crying.
"Man, Nick, what's wrong with you today? You're acting screwed up."
That was all Kara needed to hear. She immediately began to cry.