Chapter Text
Clarke has to kneel to get the composition of the single white primrose with the scenic train window backdrop just right. She takes a few varying shots before taking the stem between her forefinger and thumb, twirling it mindlessly. This is one way to pass time on a train.
"So, you're the one who keeps taking my flowers." A voice from behind her says with a little bit of annoyance.
She doesn't turn around yet, because it's true. She's been finding these flowers since Portland. She fires back a response, "You're the one defacing public property." She bites back a grin when she turns around to find a terribly attractive brunette with soft green eyes in the aisle. Clarke simply hooks her camera strap over her shoulder. She continues to twirl the stem between her fingers, just to see the response.
The brunette huffs. "I'd hardly call it defacing."
"Would you prefer littering?" Clarke replies with a quirk of an eyebrow, a teasing smile growing on her lips.
The girl lifts her chin indignantly. "I thought I was helping the seats, aesthetically speaking."
"You know you could do that by sitting down, right?" There's a smile tugging even harder now, but Clarke still waits for a response from the stranger.
"I fail to see how that--" The brunette stops mid-sentence as she looks at the blonde in surprise. "Oh."
Clarke revels in the way her cheeks flush with a slight tint of pink. Before Clarke can act on it, the train car suddenly jerks, sending the blonde stumbling forward into the stranger's arms.
"Guess we're even now?"
It's Clarke's turn to turn an embarrassing shade of red. "Thanks." She collects herself internally, taking a seat by the window. She turns to the brunette, patting the seat next to her. "So?"
The brunette shakes her head with a small smile as she takes the spot next to the blonde. "You know, you're not so bad yourself."
Clarke smiles at that. "I'm Clarke."
A slender hand fits nicely within Clarke's smaller hand. "Lexa."
***
"Lexa, look, they could have pancakes!" Clarke points at the window with the 24 hour sign.
"How good are those pancakes gonna be, Clarke? It's 2AM." Lexa states dryly. "And who names their restaurant the 13 Coins, anyway?"
"But we're stranded until morning, and that's probably the only other place than the station that'll let us stay." Clarke argues plainly. "What else are we gonna do?"
Lexa doesn't have a response because they have been walking for at least 45 minutes since the station. So, Clarke just pulls her into the quaint diner before Lexa can change her mind. They stay until sunrise, especially after Lexa realizes these are probably the best pancakes she's ever had at a diner or otherwise.
When Clarke presses a sleepy kiss on her cheek after they find themselves on next train, Lexa falls in love just a little.
***
"Clarke, stop taking pictures, will you?"
Clarke pouts. "Why not? Not my fault you're a perfect subject." When Clarke places her camera on the mantle, she notices Lexa's hands are fidgeting and she's literally squaring her shoulders every few seconds. "Babe, what's wrong?"
Lexa shakes her head, simultaneously fighting a shuddering breath. "Nothing, I'm fine. I promise."
"Really? You look like you're gonna pass out." Clarke looks at her pointedly, slightly amused.
Lexa shakes her head again. "It's just…I think I'm in love with you."
Clarke can't help but laugh, but she plays along anyway. "Well, I think I'm in love with you, too, idiot."
Her girlfriend shuts her eyes, clearly exasperated, but Clarke knows it's not a personal thing. Lexa does this when she's struggling with her emotions. So, Clarke waits, placing a calm hand on her girlfriend's knee.
"Marry me." Lexa blurts out as she opens her eyes and exhales.
Clarke gapes at her for a second, her jaw slacking when she finds she can't make her mouth move. "What?"
"Clarke Griffin, will you spend the rest of your life with me?"
***
"You may now kiss the bride."
Lexa kisses Clarke like she's all she'll ever need.
Clarke believes it more than anything in the world.
***
12 years later
***
"Welcome to Camp Jaha! Grab your duffels and proceed to your designated cabins!" The camp director calls into a large megaphone.
Jake doesn't pay much attention to the announcements. He can't find his duffel-- the same yellow one that Ma and Octavia specially picked out so he wouldn't lose it.
He pushes his shaggy hair from his eyes. He spots it out of the corner of his eye, but it's buried under at least 10 more bags.
"Great." he mutters.
"Looks like you could use some help." A smaller boy with soft features and kind eyes approaches him.
"Yeah, do you mind?"
The boy shakes his head and helps Jake with pulling his duffel. After a few struggling tries, they're still unsuccessful.
"Monty! There you are!" A boy with oversized goggles calls from the other side of the pile. He makes his way around. He notices Jake. "Oh, and you made a friend."
"Yeah, I'm Jake." Jake says, waving. "He was trying to help me get my bag."
The boy with the goggles grins. "A friend of Monty's is a friend of Jasper's. How can I help?"
Monty speaks up. "Jas, hold up that bag a little bit." Then he turns to Jake, "Now, we pull."
It doesn't take much effort and Jake finally has his duffel by the end of it. Jake shares high fives with his new friends.
"Where's your cabin?" Jasper asks.
"Jake Griffin?"
"Here!" He waves his hand over his head to catch the director's attention.
The director, with the nametag Marcus, reads the paper on his clipboard. "The Ark!"
"That's where we are!" Monty grins at him.
Jake nods. "Sweet!"
***
"Aw…my boy is growing up so fast." Raven coos as she's suffocating Aden with an embrace.
He pushes her away. "Rae, come on, I can't breathe."
She gives him an apologetic look. "Sorry, bud." She ruffles his hair. "You sure you gonna be okay?"
He rolls his eyes, "Yes, Rae."
"You're positive? You don't want me to tory and pretend I'm still 12?" Raven says as she looks around, trying to look for an authority figure.
"Rae, you curse too much. " He says simply.
Raven glares at him. "As if you don't have the same vocabulary on the playground."
"And guess where I got that from?" He replies with an amused smile.
"Fine." She says, crossing her arms over her chest. "But, if you change your mind, you know how to reach me."
He's the one who hugs her this time. "Thanks for bringing me here, Rae."
"Aw, bud, you know I'd crash-land a pod for you." She reaches out her hand, "Put her there, champ."
He grins up at her as they go through the motions of their secretive and overtly complicated handshake.
"Boom."
She hugs him one last time before getting into the cab, leaving Aden to watch the car drive away in front of camp.
"Aden Woods?"
He turns around and says, "Here!"
"Polis!"
***
"Better luck next time!" Jake says, shaking hands with the poor boy that he practically tackled down in mere seconds.
He readjusts his head gear as Jasper and Monty hype him up.
Marcus is hollering into his megaphone again, "Come on, guys, any challengers?"
"Can I try?" Aden says as he walks back inside from playing a game of frisbee with his friends Roan and Lincoln.
"There we go!" Marcus throws some equipment for him to put on.
Jake doesn't bother to turn around to size up his opponent. Aden looks at the protective head gear and then throws Marcus a questioning look.
"We can't hold any sparring unless you wear the head gear." Marcus explains, shrugging, "Bad accident once."
Aden throws one more questioning glance at the funny looking red helmet before securing it onto his head.
"Alright, boys, meet in the center." Marcus takes several steps back until he's off the blue mat. "If either of you step off the mat, the match is over." He takes his whistle, then blows three times.
***
The match starts off even. Every thrown punch or kick is easily blocked and countered. It goes on for some time tiring minutes, but Jake starts to feel like he has the upperhand. One moment he goes for an opportunity to grab his opponent by the shoulder. The next thing he knows, he's on his back looking up at the ceiling. He's about to get back on his feet, about to counter this before his opponent takes advantage.
"Match!"
Jake cries out. "What do you mean? I wasn't out for long at all!"
"Your feet, Griffin." Marcus points to his right foot that’s hanging off the mat. "We have ourselves a new champ. All the way from Washington state, let's give it up for Aden Woods!"
Jake throws off his head gear before sitting up, crossing his arms over his chest. He can't believe he lost on a technicality.
"Hey, man, good spar." His opponent says, tapping him on the shoulder.
Jake doesn't want to turn around, but Marcus scolds them both. "Come on, guys. Let's shake on it."
Jasper and Monty help him to his feet and then push him towards his opponent. He doesn't expect he'd find a spitting image of himself staring back at him, wide eyed and frozen still.
Jake lets the initial shock wear off and scoffs at the kid who just beat him. "We gonna shake hands or not?"
Aden winces and reaches out to shake Jake's hand, not taking his eyes off him for a second.
"Dude, what's the matter with you?
"Don't you see it?" Aden asks.
"See what?" Jake deflects. If he doesn't acknowledge it, no one else will notice.
"As if." Jake scoffs more indignantly this time around. "I don't look like a loser."
"That's a lot of talk for someone who just got crushed in a sparring match, Griffin." Aden says, taking a step closer in challenge.
"Alright, boys, let's break it up." Marcus says, approaching them. He turns to Jake, "Aden." Then he turns to Aden, "Jake?" Then he just stops and steps back. "Okay, wow."
They glare at each other until their friends decide to pull them back to their cabins. But one thing's for sure. Just because they look alike, it doesn't mean they have to get along."
***
"Dude, how'd you even get that in here?" Lincoln asked intrigued.
Roan shrugs. "Not like they checked our bags. I'm sure other kids get away with far worse. Besides, you'd call a Nintendo 64 a contraband? They did give us a TV."
"They told us it was broken."
"Yeah, like I'd fall for that." Roan rolls his eyes and turns the 'broken' TV on.
Lincoln nods thoughtfully, then turns to Aden. "Yo, Woods. You in?"
Roan explains, "Super Smash Bros."
Aden grins and catches the green controller with ease.
He remembers how Mom had banned card and board games for years because Anya and Raven wouldn't go easy on him. He always ended up crying and Mom wouldn't have any more of it. Raven came home one day from the thrift store with this box and a bunch of gray cartridges. Mom had to relent because it was neither a card nor board game. But she did threaten to take it away, regardless. Luckily she didn't, and he was able to redeem himself all those years of lost games. Anya had never been more proud,and Raven had never been closer to tears.
It's not any different here. Word gets around about Roan's contraband that the surrounding cabins are huddled in their cabin. Soon enough, Roan and Lincoln let the others play to see if anyone can beat Aden.
News travels really fast around Camp Jaha. Before long, Jake Griffin walks in with a cocky grin. "Mind if I take a stab at it?"
Aden eyes the floppy-haired boy. "Take a seat, Griffin."
They play three rounds.
Aden dominates the first round; Link sending Fox off the edge in less than 30 seconds.
Jake dominates the next, Fox lasting Link away within a minute.
Before the last round, Jake hits pause and addresses Aden, "Alright, Woods, let's make this interesting. "
"I'm listening."
"Loser has to jump into the lake." Jake grins.
"Great."
"Naked."
"Even better."
"Alright, Woods. You're on."
Jake resumes the game and the match lasts longer than the other two combined now that they know how the other plays. Aden technically has the upperhand until Jake pulls a special combo that sends Link off the edge with little time to react.
Aden goes pale. And he thinks he probably blacks out because the next thing he remembers is coming to the surface. His clothes are gone. Everyone's run off.
Everyone except for Lincoln and Roan. They stand at the edge of the dock with a towel, averting their eyes until he can take the towel.
"Thanks, guys." He says, stepping forward and sighing. "You know what this means, right?"
Roan nods, but Lincoln shakes his head innocently.
"This is war."
***
"How come your rocket got so much height?" Jake pouted.
Monty grins, "Because I didn't rush anything unlike you."
Jake sighs, "I just wanted it to blast off."
"At least your evil twin wasn't glaring at your form across the lake." Jasper says. "I think he's got issues."
"I don't want to think about evil twins right now." Jake walks faster, following Monty into the cabin. "I just want to sleep until dinner."
He bumps into Monty, who just states, "That looks highly unlikely, bro."
Jake pushes past him."And why not?"
Monty gestures around to the entire room being covered in saran wrap before poking his pillow. "This is why not."
***
Aden is always the first one to wake in his cabin. Roan likes his sleep, and Lincoln doesn't sleep until 3 in the morning. He stretches and gets out of bed. He accidentally trips on something that sends water balloons all around him.
Lincoln and Roan are awake now, being hit by water balloons in their sleep.
"What's going on?" Roan grunts, glaring at Aden.
Aden says flatly, "Can you guess?"
"If you don't kill him, I will." Roan replies simply.
Aden is ready to agree when a huge balloon falls on his head. "That moppy haired jerk belongs with the wolves."
***
It happens in a blur, really.
Jake tried to stop Marcus from walking straight into a trap of honey and feathers. But, Aden might as well have dragged him in with his innocent act.
Next thing they know, they're packing their bags to be sent to Polaris, the Isolation Cabin.
It's where they'll be spending the remaining 5 weeks of camp. This is the alternative to phone calls home. Aden glares at Jake like he's going to kill him in his sleep the first night.
Jake can only sigh.
It's going to be a long 5 weeks.
***
A week passes. A week full of glares and avoiding any contact at all. They really just want to survive the rest of camp without starting a war or killing each other.
It's stormy out so Jake figures Aden can't go outside to bond with the trees or whatever it is he does. Not that Jake really cares. It's just Aden's current presence in the cabin makes him feel a little lonely.
He just misses home, misses the freedom. This is some cruel and unusual punishment having to be stuck with his worst enemy. To make matters worse, his nemesis shares his face. Even if said nemesis keeps to himself and the only time they ever butt heads is when Jake wants to go to sleep while Aden is writing or reading.
Okay, so maybe it's really not that bad, but they're essentially still in solitary confinement together. And it makes Jake feel a little trapped, makes him miss home.
The windows rattle against the frail frames of the old cabin, which they assume is older than many of the cabins in camp. It actually seems forgotten, if anything. If camp was a space station, Polaris would've been that sector left behind. So, the windows rattle and Jake's still trying to put up pictures from home on the wall.
It gets colder as the wind starts to pick up with determined force, but the two inhabitants of Polaris are still decidedly not speaking to each other.
Another gust of wind slams against the already rattling windows. This time, it's triumphant in getting past the cracked window and blowing away most of Jake's hard work. Pictures go flying as Jake leaps forward to shut the window. To his dismay, it's stuck. He's tugging but it still doesn't budge.
Aden notices right away and hops off his bed to aid his cabin mate. After a few tries, the window slides shut.
Everything in the room settles, including the tension and the remaining animosity between them. All that's left is relief, calm and curiosity.
Jake laughs, looking at Aden. "Thanks, man."
Aden shrugs, offering a small smile in return. "No problem." He glances at the letter of paper next to the wall. "Anything ruined?"
"Thankfully, not." Jake sighs as he picks up the pictures. "Except, I'm sure this picture of Octavia and Artemis has seen far better days."
Aden tilts his head. "Who?"
"Oh," Jake shows his cabin-mate the picture-- a brunette smiling with an equally smiley Alaskan Malamute. "Octavia's my Ma's best friend, and Artemis is our dog."
Aden nods and waits for Jake to place the pile of pictures in a cluttered mess on the table. Aden wants to arrange it for him, but he refrains. Instead, he simply listens to Jake blabber on; it appears Aden's opened a floodgate.
"Hey," Jake says, suddenly tilting his head. "How old are you?"
"I'm turning 12 on October 11th."
Jake's eyes widen. "Dude, me too!'
"Whoa, that's weird." Aden says, a little confused. He's never met someone with the same birthday, nonetheless someone with the same face.
"Totally." Jake agrees. "Where you from again?" He realizes they haven't really had a chance to be on good terms, and now is better than never.
"Outskirts of Seattle."
"Whoa, that's cool."
"Yeah, Mom owns a huge property and experiments with landscape design when we're not looking." Aden turns to Jake. "What about you?"
"DC."
"Now, that's cool."
"Oh, yeah. For sure. Ma's a self-proclaimed art-junkie so we practically live down the street from her art gallery."
Aden nods. "My mom probably would've done the same thing with her office in Seattle if she didn't love the idea of having a backyard."
Jake takes a seat next to Aden on the bed. "What are your parents like? Are they the type to be like 'talk to you later, hon' but never do? Ma's not like that, of course. But you'd be surprised how many people's parents are, you know?"
"No, Mom's not like that either." Aden sighs as he's not particularly fond of this conversation whenever he makes new friends. Luckily enough, he got to avoid it with Lincoln and Roan. "I don't have a dad."
Jake nods, tilting his head, but Aden doesn't feel any judgment or pity, like most people do. It seems like he's thinking, like he understands. So Aden continues. "I mean, obviously, I had a biological one, but he was never in the picture."
"Oh, definitely. For sure." Jake says . "Same with me and Ma."
The other boy looks up in surprise. "So, do you ever get curious about your biological father?"
They're both silent for a few moments. They'd be lying if they said they weren't curious about the other half of their genetic makeup.
Jake breaks the silence first, shaking his head. "No, actually. Ma sat me down when I was little with Uncle Bell and Octavia. She told me about the whole turkey baster thing, though I'm not really sure I know exactly how that works." He pulls his knees up to his chest, resting his chin on top of his knees. "Ma explained she had me with another woman and the sperm donation was anonymous."
Aden goes incredibly quiet. He had a scarily similar conversation with his mom and Anya. That was when his mom showed him a picture of who was supposed to be his other mom- blue eyes, blonde hair and a smile that lit up his world in a way that only Mom was capable.
"But you know," Jake pulls him out of his reverie. "She's really beautiful."
Aden looks up at Jake, who kind of has this dazed smile on his face. "How do you know?"
Jake doesn't seem fazed, probably because he doesn't know what Aden knows about these startling coincidences they've just shared about their respective childhoods. He just keeps talking. "Oh, Ma had this photo of her that I was obsessed with. I kind of begged to keep it. The rain suddenly stops and Jake takes the moment to listen to his stomach. "Oh, dude, let's get lunch." This boy and his priorities.
Aden doesn't follow him out the door, but instead stares at his trunk.
Jake notices he doesn't follow so he turns back around. "Hey, come on. Rain's stopped, and lunch is calling." He's grinning until he notices how solemn Aden looks all of a sudden. "You alright?"
"I dunno." Aden admits and he finally asks the question that's been eating at him since they met. "None of this feels strange to you?"
"Should it?" Choosing to remain oblivious and nonchalant, Jake then suggests, "Maybe you're like me when you're hungry. I get kind of weird when I'm not fed."
Aden's mind is just reeling at this point, frustrated that this could be the most important moment of their lives to date and Jake's choosing to his stomach. So, he starts pacing, a trait he picked up from Mom. She does this when she's thinking, except she's more calm about it. Right now he's panicking and probably wearing tracks in the floor. "You grew up without a dad, and so did I. All you have of your other mom is a photo, but your picture's probably a lot better than my torn one" The moment he mentions his own picture, Jake pushes past him and goes directly for his trunk. This causes Aden to stop his rambling. "What are you doing?"
Jake finally finds what he's looking for, turning around with bright, scared eyes and a picture clutched to his chest. He takes a deep breath. "I need to find this. It's a picture of my mom- my other mom- also not a full picture."
Aden blinks rapidly before grabbing his journal and fishing out a similarly sized photo. "This one's mine."
Jake lets out a shaky breath as he takes a step in front of Aden. "Okay, on the count of three we'll show them."
Aden nods, starting off the count, "One…"
"…two…"
"…three!"
They hold out their respective pictures next to each other. A unified gasp escapes them as they stare at the reality they hold in their hands.
"That's my Mom!"
"That's my Ma!"
There they are: Clarke and Lexa. While Lexa's in a white blouse, wearing a smile and raised eyebrow, directly staring at the lens, Clarke's in ablack dress wearing a cheeky smile and her gaze just missing the lens.
Jake shakes his head. "And to think, I wanted food." He laughs. "But, I got this instead!"
"What? A full picture?" Aden asks dryly.
"Aden," Jake says with a full grin. "We're twins!"
They share a hug, laughing with pure joy. Neither of them could have ever predicted this in a million years.
***
With their beds pushed up next to each other and the picture of their moms on the wall above their heads, the newly discovered twins spend the evening chatting away about their lives.
"What's Mom like?"
"She owns a landscape design company with Anya. They've been getting more popular. She's been doing weddings and stuff lately."
"Really? That's cool."
Aden nods but then turns to face his brother. "Hey, Jake. Has Ma ever gotten close to getting remarried?"
"She dates, but they never last very long honestly." Jake admits.
"Same with Mom."
Jake suddenly bolts upright. "I have an idea!"
Aden hesitates. "Please tell me this isn't about food."
"No, silly." Jake turns back to his brother. "Even better, I promise-- Just don't freak, okay?" He waits for Aden to sit up. "What if he switch places?"
Aden stares at him incredulously. "What? Are you crazy?"
"For wanting to meet Mom?" Jake fires back. "I mean, aren't you even a little curious about Ma?"
Aden would be lying if he said he wasn't. He tries to make sure his brother has fully worked this out. "How are we going to pull this off?"
"Easy." Jake says without a beat. "I teach you to be me and you teach me to be you. Tell each other everything about our lives and at the end of camp, you go back to DC as me and I'll go back to Washington as you." Jake brings out puppy dog eyes. "Come on, bro. I gotta meet Mom."
Aden's resolve starts to crumble, especially as his twin is practically begging and whining about not being able to meet Mom. Aden feels a little bad that Jake's never met Mom-- the picture he's been coveting for half his life doesn't do her enough justice. Now he's sitting here wondering the same about Ma. Then, something occurs to him. "Well, you know, if we switch places. They're going to have to switch us back eventually."
"And they'll have to meet again." Jake says it like it was an obvious answer to begin with. He holds out his fist so Aden can deliver a fist-bump. He grins. "Told you I'm a genius."
Aden shakes his head. "Raven's gonna love you, you know."
"Of course she will! I'll be you, remember?"
They decide to sleep on it after that. Tomorrow marks the beginning of a month's worth of preparation for the big switch.
***
They spend the first day clearing out Jake's pictures and replacing them with drawings and pictures of their homes and the people they live with.
The Griffin penthouse in Downtown DC takes up half the wall while the Woods 3-acre property in Washington takes up the other half. Pictures of Clarke, Grandma Abby, Octavia, Uncle Bell, and the Griffin's Alaskan Malamute named Artemis are pinned up under the Griffin half. Pictures of Lexa, Raven, Anya and Grandpa Gus are located under the Woods half
Once they complete the Recon Wall as Jake calls it, they agree to go over all the details every morning at breakfast for the remainder of camp.
They're committed.
***
They learn a great deal about each other's childhoods, except finding there was a significant resemblance in how they were raised.
Octavia and Uncle Bell had helped Ma raise Jake as Grandma Abby worked as a full-time doctor. Grandpa Jake, who he had called Pop, could only help so much before he passed away from cancer a number of years ago. The Blakes, being their roommates, were his babysitters and taught him how to fight. ("so, that's where you learned your subpar sparring from.") They had to stop the self-defense lessons when Ma found out.
Raven and Anya were fixtures in Aden's childhood for as long as he could remember. While Anya taught him kickboxing, Raven taught him how to pick locks in case he ever got kidnapped and needed to escape. ("Washington's that hardcore, huh?") Anya, Lexa's sister, lives in the city but visits often primarily for game nights, primarily to kick Raven's butt, but also to talk business with Lexa. Raven lives above the garage so as not to disturb Grandpa Gus when she's working all night.
***
"Artemis is a rescue we got when I was around five or six. O and Bell thought I needed a guard dog. So, Ma went to the pound and came back with her. They say she's a mix, but we're pretty sure she's full Malamute. There's no other way to explain why she looks like a bear." Jake shrugs. "Ma said it was pretty much love at first sight or something."
***
"Now, An can be seriously intimidating, but all you have to do is hold her glare for more than ten seconds." Aden grins triumphantly. "She might be tough as nails, but she has a soft spot for me…and, you, for that matter. But don’t call her aunt. She hates that."
***
"Don't be alarmed when O and Bell practically smother you, okay?" Jake warns Aden. "They always wanted a younger sibling. But if you need them to crack, go for Bell first. He's a sucker for puppy dog eyes. He's a big softie."
***
"Rae and I have a secret handshake." Aden informs his twin as they're sitting on the dock on the lake.
"Okay, sounds simple enough." Jake muses, nodding eagerly and getting himself pumped.
"It's kinda complicated." Aden warns him, giving his brother a worried glance. He's never had to teach anyone the handshake before. It's supposed to be secret for a reason.
"Well, I'm clearly the more coordinate done out of the two of us. How hard can it be?" Jake says, standing up to face his brother.
"Griffin, shut up and follow along, alright?" Aden snaps, "Before I shove you into the lake."
Jake immediately shuts his mouth and watches with sharp determination as Aden goes over the series of hand movements. It's kind of like a dance, something he can jive with for the most part.
"Okay, I think I got it, right?"
"You forgot the boom." Jake blinks at him, but Aden explains. "You have to end with a boom. She made that part up!"
Jake refrains from rolling his eyes and instead asks to go over again a few more times.
They keep at it for the rest of the afternoon, until the sun sets and confidence settles between them.
***
They soon find out Aden has Ma's fiery temper, while Jake can be as stoic as Mom. When they come to this realization, they find they have about a week and half before the big switch.
***
"We have to cut your hair, " Aden notes one day.
"Aw, Bell's gonna be upset when he sees you."
"So that's where the floppy hair comes from." Aden rolls his eyes. "Hair does grow back, ya know. I hope you two are aware."
"Don't tell him that." Jake tells him, taking a seat in a chair in front of the mirror. "He's a sensitive guy."
Aden ignores him and rummages through his trunk. He emerges with a hair trimmer. "Ready?"
Jake's eyes widen. "What? Are you crazy?!"
Jake is pretty sure that hair clippers aren't exactly one of the permitted items to camp. Then again, neither was an Nintendo 64.
Aden nods in approval. "You sounded just like me!"
"That's the plan, remember?" Jake huffs, glaring at the trimmer in Aden's hands one last time. "Come on, get rid of my beautiful mane."
Aden shakes his head, and holds his breath until he turns off the trimmer. They look in the mirror and grin at each other. Aden smiles, "I'm thinking we can really pull this off."
All they have to do now is switch.
***
It's the last day of camp and they're both nervous they're about to travel to opposite sides of the country to meet their other moms. This is huge. Potentially dangerous. Absolutely crazy and risky, but they've argued again and again that it'll be worth it in the end.
They walk side by side to the entrance of Camp Jaha, nerves settling between them.
"So, you're going to find out how they met." Aden tells Jake as they stop at the side of the driveway.
Jake nods. "And you're going to find out why they broke up."
"Gosh, do you really think this is going to work?" Aden asks, wringing his hands.
Jake sets his hands on Aden's shoulders. "You think that Mom's amazing, right?" Aden nods. "Well, I think Ma's amazing, so can you only imagine the two of them together?"
That fires something within Aden. "You're right."
"Then, we got this, bro."
"Aden Woods?" One of the camp counselors calls out, announcing his ride.
Aden looks at Jake. "That's you."
They share a quick hug and Jake begins to gather his things. "Give Ma a hug for me."
"Give Mom one for me." Aden replies. He watches as Jake's cab drives off. "Good luck," he whispers, hoping they're not in over their heads here.