The day when Jen and bubbles swapped lives

It all started with a very sparkly shooting star.

I was cuddled up in bed, Bubbles the hippo tucked under my arm, when I whispered, “I wish you could see what it’s like to be me for just one day.”

Bubbles, half-asleep and dreaming about pineapple pizza, murmured, “And I wish you knew how tiring it is to be a magical stuffed animal who’s secretly alive.”

Suddenly, a flash of light burst through the window — ZING! The room sparkled like it had been dusted with glitter, and everything went quiet.

When I opened my eyes, I wasn’t in bed anymore. I was… on the shelf. Fluffy. Small. Made of fabric.

I tried to scream, but all that came out was a soft “Mmph!”

Meanwhile, Bubbles sat up in my bed. Only it wasn’t Bubbles anymore — it was Me-Bubbles.

He stared at his hands. “FINGERS?! I HAVE FINGERS!”

I, now a hippo, flopped off the shelf. “This is weird! I can’t even blink! And I don’t like being this soft!”

Bubbles, in my body, ran to the mirror. “Look at my hair! Look at my teeth! Wait… HUMANS EAT BISCUITS!”

And so began the most ridiculous day ever.

At breakfast, Bubbles (as me) poured orange juice into his cereal and then tried to put a shoe on his hand. My mum looked confused.

“You feeling okay, love?”

“Just… trying out new fashion trends,” Bubbles said confidently.

Meanwhile, I (as Bubbles) was stuck at home, trying to move my tiny hippo legs to get to the TV remote.

“I’m bored! And you can’t even scratch your own nose as a hippo!”

At school, Bubbles caused chaos. He answered every question with “Pineapple pizza,” tried to nap in maths class, and insisted he didn’t need to go to the toilet “because stuffing doesn’t wee.”

Back home, I had managed to push a crayon across a bit of paper with my snout and left a note:

“HELP. BEING A STUFFED TOY IS HARD.”

That night, both of us were exhausted.

“I don’t want to be human anymore,” Bubbles said.

“And I don’t want to be you!” I squeaked.

We both looked up at the sky and whispered together, “I wish we could go back.”

ZAP! The sparkle returned. A puff of glitter. A yawn. And when we woke up…

I was in my bed, hugging Bubbles once again.

Bubbles wiggled slightly and whispered, “Let’s never do that again.”

I smiled. “Deal. But you were really bad at being me.”

“You tried to eat a sock as me!” Bubbles grumbled.

We both laughed. And from that day on, we definitely appreciated each other a lot more.

(Though Bubbles still refused to eat biscuits.)