Orange Juice

Chapter Seventeen

 Lucinda Tucker was born on November 22 in the year 1956 just one hour after midnight and two hours after her twin brother Samuel Tucker.

 The moment the nurse had handed Bianca Tucker her beautiful newborn twins, she knew that they would grow to be her absolute pride and joy.

 Bianca had only had one child before her twins from her previously abusive husband who left her and his daughter Jenifer when Jenifer was merely just six years old.

 Hopelessly depressed and absolutely heartbroken, Bianca struggled to raise her daughter by herself for one year before meeting her true love and yet-to-be husband Herald Tucker. The two got happily wedded and raised Jenifer together, and after no more than a few months, Bianca announced that she was healthily pregnant with two baby twins.

 Everybody loved the twins; they were funny, playful, energetic, and creative. Not one relative would visit them without telling their parents how adorably beautiful their children were, wishing upon them successfully graceful lives full of love and eternal happiness.

 The twins were one mischievous pair. They grew up always pulling playful pranks at neighbors, throwing jokes on dinner tables, and staying up till midnight to play fighting with fake swords together and pop stars with a broom for a guitar and a brush for a microphone.

 But what most distinguished the twins was how inseparable they were; They sat together in the back seats of cars and always picked the chairs that were placed next to one another in restaurants. The teachers had to separate their desks in class because of how chatty they were and never would you see one of them in detention unless the other was there as well or trying to somehow get themselves into detention as well.

 They even shared the same friends and went out everywhere together. In most pictures, one of them always had a peace sign over another's head and their mother always scolded them for ruining the pictures with their teasing poses. When Lucy went to Ice Skating practice, Sam would often times be there watching on the bench, and when Sam went to boxing practice, Lucy would often be in the car with her mom or older sister Jenifer ready to pick him up afterward.

 Simply put; there was no Lucy without Sam, and there was no Sam without Lucy.

 Not only were the two adored back at home, but everyone at school had a thing for either one of them. All the boys had a crush on Lucy and all the girls fancied Sam. They were blond, pretty, rebellious, funny, and popular even though they did not score too well academically.

 Despite their high status at school, the twins never really exploited their position and always stood up for the less popular kids who were exposed to bullying, even going to the lengths of bullying the bully themselves. An example of the kids they defended would be Don Paulson who was the twins' cousin and dear friend.

  And he did not just love Lucy as the other boys did, he was obsessed with her. Even as early as childhood, Don had adored her so greatly that he had memorized every little tiny detail about her; he knew her favorite drink and how she'd drink it, what her favorite show was, and the names of every single cast member, her school schedules, what class she had each period, what brand of bubblegum was her favorite, how many a time she chewed to create a large bubble that impressed everyone around her. He knew every single thing that made Lucy herself. And he adored every single thing that made Lucy herself.

 But she never returned that level of love. She liked him as a friend and as a cousin and had always viewed him as such, unable to perceive him as anything else.

 At the twins' sweet sixteen party, Don told Lucy's father that he was madly in love with her and wished to ask her hand in marriage. Herald asked his daughter about her opinion and in return she refused, frustrated that Don would ask such a ridiculous question at her party.