The Switch

Switching

*Raina's P.O.V*

I took a shaky breath as I looked around my room. I knew it would be a while before I saw this room again which actually was quite shocking to think about. I knew that I would eventually have left this room to go live somewhere else, if I managed to save up enough money and get extra schooling outside of what was normal. However me potentially moving out was years off seeing as I was only 14. Some girls were getting married at my age but that was usually because they had money and my parents were middle class citizens so no one wanted to marry me at the moment.

I knew that Anastasia was only a few months older than me which theoretically meant her family could try and marry her off. Anastasia felt the fact they wouldn't was cemented in the ground seeing as they hadn't tried it with her older sister and they had been gone for five years which meant that they weren't in a hurry to just ship her off to someone now that they were returning.

I sighed as I left my bedroom, shutting my door behind me as I crept down the short hallway. I was glad my parents had stayed asleep throughout the night instead of their usual routine of being up and down all night. I had decided to leave early when the sun hadn't even come over the horizon since it meant less of a chance of being caught in the crowds. Besides if I did get caught I could claim to be working with the horses as I normally did.

I padded through the cobble streets, my leather shoes making almost no noise except a soft scraping noise with each step. I took a deep breath as I entered the stable, my eyes landing on the stall towards the back. I headed towards it, leaning against the stall door as I smiled at the filly in there. "Well hello to you," I said softly. Promise had been the nickname bestowed upon her by me and Anastasia. She was a beautiful bay Arabian filly whose owner was a jackass to say the least. She had a great lineage for a battle horse but none of his horses did much besides pull carriages and end up dead from mistreatment.

Promise had been one of the one things I had longed for in my life. I gently reached out and stroked her face, watching as she instinctively looked for a treat. I reached over and fished out a sugar cube which I gave to her after a moment. I stroked her forehead with a soft sigh before I left and went to the tack room. I sat down against the wall, bowing my head as I felt myself start to drift off to sleep. I fell asleep rather quickly since there was nothing to keep me awake.

I woke up to a hand gently shaking my shoulder. I blinked tiredly as I looked up, smiling when I saw Anastasia. "Hey," she said, a tone of urgency in her voice. "Get up, we have to switch now," she stated, making me get up.

"What's the rush?" I asked with a small frown on my lips as I glanced at the door, noticing that it was locked.

"I convinced the guards to take me down here for a bit because my new governess decided to skip out and now my old governess is gone. But my family is still returning in an hour so we need to hurry up and switch," she whispered, making me nod. I stripped down to just my bra and pettycoat. She did the same thing, taking off her dress and corset before handing over her dress. I handed her mine before wriggling into hers.

"I'm gonna need help with the corset," I said as I slipped the corset on and turned around. She tied it up, tying it tight enough that it made me suck in a deep breath. "That's quite tight," I muttered, making her chuckle.

"I am not used to not wearing a corset. One of my governesses started me on wearing them when I was only 10 years old," she stated. "Can you type up the back of my dress?" she questioned me. I turned around and laced the dress up, making sure to not tie it too tight. She turned around and smiled at me before wrapping her cloak around me. I clipped it into place with a small smile.

"So I guess this is it? I'm now officially Princess Anastasia," I said as I did a small spin.

"And I'm now officially the peasant that is Raina," she said with a grin.

"How are we going to switch back? Won't your family notice the difference when we do switch back?" I questioned.

"I mean no, I doubt it. We look so alike and sure there are a few differences but they're just minor ones," she stated. "And um...what if neither of us don't want to switch back?" she asked.

"I mean I want to switch back eventually...I think," I muttered. "Do you not want to switch back?" I asked.

"There are some perks of being a princess but honestly to me they're not worth it. Being a princess is just way too overwhelming and to be honest I'm not sure I will ever want to go back to being a princess after living as a peasant for a few months," she said. "I mean, I guess we'll see in a few months," she shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess so," I muttered as I nodded my head. I gave her a quick hug which she seemed to appreciate before turning to the door. "Here goes everything," I said before pulling the hood up into place. I took a deep breath as I approached the door, pausing when I felt Anastasia grab my arm.

"Good luck and goodbye," she said before letting me go.

"Goodbye," I murmured as I heard her go hide behind the partial wall. I opened the door and stepped out, shutting it carefully behind me.

"Princess," I heard a guard call before I heard footsteps hurrying towards me. I looked towards the voice and tensed up when the guard stopped in front of me. "Princess, we're a bit behind schedule. We must return to the castle with due haste," he said before turning and walking back towards the entrance. I followed him quietly as I felt a small thrill go through me at the fact that this was working so far.

As soon as I exited the stables I was surrounded by guards on all sides, leaving me boxed in before they started walking back towards the castle. I let out a sigh of relief as I tugged my hood farther up to shadow my face even more. 'I think this is going to be great,' I thought to myself.