The Twaintet Twins

Claudia Twaintet

I, like, can't believe it. My turbo annoying older sibs are pretending to be sick. This should not, like, affect me. I should still be able to go to Faith's party. I shouldn't have to keep those "sick" dweebs company!

I groan as I sit on the couch. I'm in the sick room and listening to Brenna, Ben, and Abby vomit. The noise makes it impossible to focus on my makeup. It is, like, so annoying. I glance at the clock and drop my perfume. It makes Brenna vomit (again), but who cares? I'm FREE!!!

I run up to my room, grab my phone, and open up TikTok. I spend the rest of the night scrolling through TikTok and Insta.

I wake up and groan. I have to go to school today. Wait, today is a football game, and as a cheerleader, I need to be there. I stumble out of bed and remember something. Right after lunch, all cheerleaders and football players are going.

I pull on my cheerleading miniskirt and hop on the bus. Too late, I realize I'm missing my homework. I sigh. My lunch is back home, too.

As I head to Ms. Poledo's class, only two hours till I get to leave. I grab a Chromebook and start working on my project. I read essay after essay until "Time for lunch!"

When I have to step into the hot lunch line, I groan. Corn dogs. Again. I grab the lunch and go to my table. I wolf it down as they say, "Will Claudia Twaintet, Faith Healy, Beatrice Nolina, Emma Hersca, James Cosey, Jacob Darklow, John Canway, Michel Alvarez, Mikel Penfield, Jude Waler, Kieran Makeliana, Henry Solheit, David Marelkanaskata, Danny Goanrand, Brody Gauntelrall, Calvin Twaintet and Samuel Sastinga please report to the main office?" I stand up as the corndogs slosh uneasily in my stomach.

As I climb the linoleum stairs, surrounded by friends, I feel uneasy. My stomach is cramping, and I'm not sure I want to go on this trip. Instead of saying I am a cheerleader, I can say I feel sick. I can go home right now. Then I imagine Brody's dimple and tousled blond hair. And I think about how it would be for us to go to the JH dance together. And I climb onto the school bus.

I save Faith a seat, conveniently positioned to stare at Brody and wait. We giggle about how hot Henry looks and how Shanika puts a purple stripe in her hair. Then the bus starts moving. It is an old bus, therefore it is bumpy. And I was having trouble keeping my lunch down before. We start moving quicker, and as the speedometer creeps up, my lunch comes closer to a chunky rebirth.

We turn diagonal to talk to Brody and Henry when we go over a pothole. I feel the chunks of corndog slide up my throat and out of my mouth. It oozes down the wall behind the boys, and they are hit with the smell of vomit as I hit them with the sick. The world swims. I start sweating despite the overly air-conditioned bus. And I black out.