Author's Note

Just to clear things up before you get started reading here: In the fourth paragraph of this chapter (including the one-liners), the bold text is what Indie has texted to Evelyn. The (normal text in parentheses) is Evelyn's unvoiced responses in her head to the text that Indie sent. All of the bold should be read as one big text, not little individual texts that Evelyn replied to every time with her own texts.

That was a little confusing, but I hope you at least got the idea of it. Enjoy the chapter!

If He Didn't Have a Twin
Chapter 10: Sesame Street Revisited

I just realized. Indie and I kind of abandoned the whole "refer to people we didn't like or that we want to talk about and all of that fun stuff as Sesame Street characters." You know, the thing we came up with because we were oh-so-cool and we could get away with stuff like that and people would never know what we were talking about. It would have been like we were top secret spies on a top secret mission except it was like the stupidest top secret mission on the planet because we're just talking about people.

Oh well.

Anyway, I sat there in my bed, wide awake now, staring at the screen on of my phone. I scrolled down to read the message that accompanied it. It read:

Can you believe this? (Believe what? And who the heck are you, mystery texter?) Oh, it's me, Indie, by the way. (Oh.) On John's phone. (Which John? You do realize there are a kazillion Johns in the world, correct?) John Costa (Ah, that John), my boyfriend. (WHAT?!) Ernie? Or Bert, I don't remember. Haha. (WHAT?! BOYFRIEND?!) We haven't used the Sesame Street things in a while… guess there's been nothing to talk about until now? (Boyfriend?!) And everyone was talking about Eric anyway (by the way, I'm still not talking about him. He's a bastard) so he didn't need a code. (I thought he was Kermit? Oh, just kidding. No one was Kermit. Wait, no, Eric was Kermit. Right.) Anyway. CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS? :))) (Boyfriend?! Where the hell did that development come from?!) This is so epically amazing. (I'll tell you what's amazing; that I didn't already know about this ahead of time!) We're dating twins! Every best friends' dream, right? That's what we said. (Actually, that's what I said.) And it's actually happening to us! Well, actually, the best friends' ultimate dream would be to start dating at the same time and have babies at the same times and things… but we won't get that far. Yet. ;) (…) Love you!

I repeated my last sentiment. What the hell. For one, that was the very first text Indie has ever sent me with a picture, and it was a picture of her hugging my boyfriend's look alike? (Quite literally, too. Hm.) And the guy was John. And John couldn't spell his own girlfriend's name right.

Girlfriend. Indie was John's girlfriend.

I actually didn't think it would actually happen, to say the truth. Really. I thought they'd just end up really good friends or something. I never thought they'd end up dating. It felt kind of weird.

Oh well. Be happy, Evelyn! (Yes, this is me talking to myself again. Weirdo. Shut up. No. Hehe. Sigh.) My best friend for life, from diapers to diapers, my favorite cousin (because, well…she's my best friend for life. Duh) had a boyfriend! And her boyfriend was my brother-in-not-law because I'm not married to James!

But he didn't even know how to spell her name, for crying out loud. Oh jeez.

You know what? Whatever. What. Ever. If Indie's happy, I should be happy. And I was happy for her. The next few months were going to be so much fun with her and James by my side. I looked forward to it.

Still, I'd have to tell John how to spell her name. That might help a little bit.

- - - - -

By the time school came around the next day, I had fully come to terms with the fact that Indie and John were now a couple, and that it was official. That fact didn't stop me from having a very odd dream last night about chickens dancing in the moonlight with the two of them hugging and prancing around a meadow. I had been standing off to the side playing a violin, and for some reason James's whole body had been buried in the ground except for his head, so I was talking to him about Thanksgiving while I was playing.

My brain was an odd thing. It freaked me out sometimes. Or more than sometimes.

"We need to get dresses," Indie said to me once she saw me at school. "Let's go tomorrow, or on Saturday, okay? I really want to get this one teal and yellow dress I saw at that one store whose name I can't remember in the mall. It is so gorgeous, and I want it!"

I grimaced, but not on purpose. "Teal and yellow?" I asked incredulously. "Do they even look good together?"

She wiggled her eyebrows at me and said, "You'll see," rather mysteriously. I frowned at her. I wanted to see now!

"James said that John asked you to the dance at the same time he asked you to be his girlfriend, right?" I asked her.

"Why are you asking me? If you're asking if John did do that, though, yeah, he did. The girlfriend thing was after he asked me to go to Winter Ball with him, because he wanted to know if I would say yes first. He totally copied what James did for you, though, except instead of the path in the thing of Christmas lights he just had a single path of flowers. Still pretty cute, if you ask me." She grinned at me, and I smiled back at her happily.

"Well, I'm glad you're happy. We'll definitely go to get our dresses this weekend…but I haven't seen any that I like yet. I've looked online and my mom showed me some dresses she found at the mall, but they're really just not my kind of thing, you know? Some are too kinky, some I'm too short to wear, some are too long, some are too poofy…"

"You're too picky with dresses, Evelyn. Live a little!" Indie said, giving me a light push off the sidewalk.

"Hey!" I tripped away from her, and glared at her from the middle of the road.

Toner pulled up next to me and raised his eyebrows. "What's this, Evvy? You can't be resentful of Indie's development, can you?" he teased. I sighed and laughed. Shaking my head, I told him that of course I wasn't resentful. That would be ridiculous.

Toner grinned. "Atta girl," he said, and drove away.

"He works at La Bamba," Indie said as I resumed my spot next to her. That was a pretty random statement, if you asked me. "I saw him there the other day. I think he just started."

"Really now? What does he do?" I wasn't really interested, but conversation was conversation.

She shrugged. "I don't know; just normal stuff. Should I apply to work there?"

I looked at her in surprise. "And see Landon every day? His dad owns the store, remember? I wouldn't set a toe in that back room if I knew he was in there. That kid isn't worth minimum wage," I scoffed at the thought.

"I don't know, Toner says that the pay is pretty good. Higher than minimum wage, at least. And he says he doesn't see the pest all that often. I talked to him about it yesterday online. I think I might do it; you know I love going there and things, so I might as well have a reason to. Plus I'd get employee discounts, you know?"

I quirked my mouth. "Alright, try applying," I encouraged. "But don't come crying to me when you get sick of it or when Landon gives you a hard time. Well, actually, if I'm frustrated with school or something, feel free to give me a ring. I'd probably be glad to beat someone up." I grinned at her.

"Yeah, yeah, like I can't take that pipsqueak," Indie said, taking on a fake rough boxer voice and holding up her balled fists. I laughed.

"Sweet, if you need someone beat up, you ask me. Don't do it yourself," John said, walking up to us.

(Guess what? I can finally tell the twins apart on first glance! Yay me! Hehe.)

Indie smiled up at her newly established boyfriend, while my own boyfriend of five-ish weeks now came after his brother and smiled at me. We greeted each other with a hug, and he twirled his keys around his finger before tossed them neatly into my hands. I looked down at the keys questioningly and then looked at his car. James's car was parked not very far away, and I studied it closely. It looked...different. Completely different, actually. My eyes traveled across the student parking lot, but I couldn't place where his bright yellow car was.

"What happened to you car?" I asked, my eyes roaming farther and farther across the parking lot. I had a rather confused expression on my face. He exchanged glances with John, and grinned sheepishly. He stayed silent though, not explaining himself. I looked at him suspiciously then glanced back at the cars in the parking lot. "Wait, your car's not even here, is it? Is it that yellow one down there? Oh wait, no, you wouldn't have a red heart shaped air freshener in your car unless Dori," Dori was his cousin that enjoyed ravaging his things with ridiculously girly things, "attacked it. Where's your car, James?"

He looked down at the ground, kicked his foot at nothing in particular, then looked at his wrist quickly, and said, "Oh, would you look at the time! We have to go to class!"

I looked at his wrist. He didn't have a watch on.

Figures.

I tapped his wrist with a finger. "You don't have a watch on, James. What happened to your car? Is it something bad? Is it something horrific? Did you kill someone in it? Is there a dead body in it? Is it all mangled and bloody and gross? Can I see?" I smiled sweetly at him and he laughed, throwing an arm happily around my shoulders and hugging me close to him.

"No, nothing like that, Ev," he said. I pouted and aww'd to myself. Too bad, huh? A dead body would have been fun. But rather disgusting. "But I can't tell you where my car is."

"Why not?"

He exchanged glances with John again. "I can't tell you that either," he said, still looking at John.

I huffed in indignation. What was so crazy cool (or crazy bad, or crazy awesome...or just crazy) that he couldn't tell me? What was it?! Why was I so interested? But why was he being so secretive?! (Stop talking to yourself and asking yourself such dramatic questions. You're just being stupid.)

(Shut up, self.)

I grabbed a hold of his arm and pouted up at him, pleading him to pleeeease tell me what was going on. He only smiled down at me, enjoying the view of my innocent expression and Bambi eyes. He laughed, and then said to John, "I should hide fun stuff from her more often. I like the attention. Look, she hasn't taken her eyes off me for what, five minutes now?"

John laughed too, putting an arm carefully (and albeit a bit awkwardly) around Indie, who smiled a bit uneasily at the action. (Ah, new couples. They're so awkward it's hilarious enough to want to do the hula around them just to see what they would do. Okay, no, not really. If I did the hula around them when they're a new couple it would be very weird and strange. Actually, if I did the hula around anyone at all it would be very weird and strange. As it would if I started talking about cheese or something. But who said anything about cheese? What? What?)

(Now I run away.)

"Seems like she really wants you to tell her, James. Do you think she can take the suspense any longer? Can you?" He asked Indie, who giggled.

"No!" I said loudly in response, partly because I was indignant, and partly because I was so surprised to hear Indie—yeah, Indie, of all people—giggle. James and John burst out laughing. I stomped my foot and glared at them angrily. "Dobles! What the hell! I want to know! Tell me!"

Indie was just staring at the three of us arguing (well, actually, that's just me) with one another and laughing (that would be James and John, of course. Not me) and quirked her mouth just a little. She shrugged one shoulder at me when I made eye contact with her; she didn't know what was going on either. After ducking out from under James's arm, I grabbed her and pulled her out from under John's nose. I started on my way to class with her in tow. "Hey--" Indie said, and then righted herself as I continued plowing ahead through the wind that was blowing my hair all over my face. I probably looked like some weird form of Medusa on a mission. Fun!

The twins ran up behind us both, then, and covered our eyes. We screamed in surprise, not expecting them to do that. We both just thought that they would run up to us, apologize, and tell us where the hell James's car was. Okay, maybe that was just me. I'm not a mind reader, after all. We were propelled forward by them. Or, at least, I was propelled forward by James. No clue what was happening to Indie.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" I asked James, who was still walking me forward. "James, please? Tell me!" I asked him. I wanted to know what was going on, I really did.

We walked a little further, stopping abruptly. I felt the edge of the sidewalk at the tip of my shoe. "James?" I asked. "Indie?"

"Here," I heard her say. James finally uncovered my eyes, and then turned me around to face the parking lot. "I got a new car," he said finally. "John and I didn't want to tell you so we can surprise you two later when we take you out or something, so I didn't want to point it out… but you were being so stubborn, Ev," he said as he tweaked my nose. I crinkled it at him. "It's there," he said, grinning, and pointed at a deep black sports car.

A deep black BMW, to be precise.

!!!!

"You got a BMW?!" Indie and I asked in unison. I looked at her and gave her a strange look. I hadn't even known that she was looking at the car with me. She gave me the look back, then stuck out her tongue. I scoffed, smiling, and shook my head. I guess we'd been hanging out with the twins for too long; we were starting to inherit their little twin connection thing. I love my best friend slash cousin.

John laughed. "No, it's that ratty one next to the BMW," he said. My face fell. John stuck out his tongue playfully. "Or it could be the beamer."

My mouth fell open again. I didn't know what to say. It was…it was…

"That's effing retarded." A voice drawled from behind us. I whipped around, causing my hair to whip back against my face. I "ow"ed in dismay, then went back to glaring at Landon Skeeter. "I can see that the famous Doble twins are spoiled brats and show offs. Well, I can't say that I'm surprised. I just never knew you had it in you to actually brag about it, of course. Shows what I know, right?" He smirked in a know-it-all fashion.

James growled at him (and yes, I did look at him in surprise if you're wondering. Growled?!), and John was glaring. They didn't move forward or anything, so Landon just smiled meanly at them and walked away.

"Don't pay attention to him," I said to James. I put a hand on his arm. "He's not worth it. It's just Landon Skeeter; it's not like it's George or Ian or something, or someone else you're cool with. Skeeter is no one you care about. Or, well, no one you should care about."

"Yeah," Indie chimed in, sticking her arm into the loop of John's. "Don't get worked up over someone like him. Not worth it, babe." She stood on her tippy toes to kiss his cheek, and stepped back and blushed right away. "Sorry," she muttered.

John laughed. "Sorry? You call that a sorry moment?" He swept her off of her feet (kind of literally… what I mean to say is, he leaned her back in his arms, old movie style) and slapped one on her (also not literally… what I mean to say is, he kissed her. Like. A lot). I aww'd appreciatively while James pretended to gag, and John lifted her back up and set her back on her feet. "Sorry," he said, grinning widely. Indie was speechless, but she was smiling. They both ignored James.

The warning bell rang, signaling three minutes before class started. And we were still standing in the parking lot. "Shit!" Indie yelled, while John shouted an expletive that was a bit stronger. I hopped forward, grabbed Indie's and James's arms, kicked John lightly in the shin, and started running off to class, laughing all the way.

- - - - -

"Good of you to show up, Miss Fitzgerald," Mr. Henning said from the front of the classroom as I walked in late to my second period class. I smiled a tiny smile, waved my office note at him, and went to my seat in the back of the class.

"Well done," Toner whispered loudly to me. I stuck my tongue out at him. I'd been held up when I was called down to the counseling office! There was nothing wrong with that, was there? What else did anyone need?

"Let's get back to the lesson, now that the show is over and we're all paying attention again. If you please, kids, this," he said, holding up a copy of The Scarlet Letter, "is a book." A low murmur of laughter arose from the class. "I want you all to get a copy of it by Thursday next week, alright? That should be plenty of time to get your everything together. Don't skimp on me, and take out your journals. It's a journaling period today; you're not the only ones who need a break from your yammering. Now get to it."

Toner threw a note at my head as soon as Mr. Henning was seated at his desk. I scoffed and crumpled up the note, stuffing it into my pocket indifferently. He gaped openly at me, and stuck out his tongue. I laughed under my breath.

"Open it," he mouthed at me.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine, fine," I whispered. I pulled the crumpled paper out of my pocket and crinkled it open.

So what's with you and Costa man? And with Indie and other Costa man? I come early to school one day and he's hugging her to his chest like he's freaking got her on a rubber band leash. What happened to my little free spirited petunia?

I laughed aloud, and clapped my hand over my mouth when Mr. Henning glared at me, already mad at me for coming into class late. I smiled at him nervously. "Still writing," I said quietly to him. "Still writing." He rolled his eyes at me and waved me away.

Free spirited petunia? I wrote back to Toner. Since when has Indie been a free spirited petunia?

Since forever, silly! He replied. Spill the beans, pleaseeee.

"I'll tell you later," I whispered to him. When later would be, of course, I didn't know, considering I only had one class with Toner… but later would come eventually.

I want banoffee pie. He wrote. I mouthed at him to shut up and threw the paper at his head.

"Erman!" Mr. Henning said sternly from his desk. "Fitzgerald! Stop fooling around and get back to this quiet journaling period, please. Unless you, Miss Fitzgerald, would prefer a detention for coming late and disturbing the class, I suggest you stop talking now."

Toner and I both jumped in our seats, exchanged glances of fear, and buried our noses in our journals while the rest of the class snickered at the outburst we'd just experienced from our English teacher. My cheeks burned, and I bit my lip at just the thought of detention. I had never--in all my days of being at school--gotten a detention before. I wasn't about to let my boyfriend, his twin, and my cousin get rid of that tradition. No sir. Absolutely not.

But it's not like I hadn't seen it coming. The threat for detention, that is. My day was getting weirder by the second.

After class, Toner walked me to my locker while I told him the whole cadoodle (or what I knew of it). We commented and laughed on the events that had taken place after he had driven off the scene. I was telling him how Landon was being a whiny jerk, even though his dad owned La Bamba and everything, when—

"Evelyn, watch ou—Oh no."

I looked up dazedly to see a blond head looming above me. I shook my head a little to clear it, and looked up again, now seeing the person I had run into plainly. My eyes widened, and I gulped.

"Oh. Hi."

Author's Note

Sorry this chapter took so long in getting out! I was gone last weekend and couldn't post this chapter then. Hopefully you can expect the next chapter to come out next week, but since I have now run out of my pre-written chapters they might take a little longer. I'll try to keep it at two weeks max that you'll have to wait!

Also! I have a poll on my profile page, so check it out! I'm going to start a "story" in which each chapter is an interview with a character so that you guys can learn more about the characters you want to learn about. :) Check out the poll to tell me who you want interviewed first!

I have a new story up, too. It's strictly for fun and does not go above IHDHaT on my priority list, but I'd really like to see some reviews telling me what you guys think. Thanks! :)

loves&hugs.. kte-wonderful