“Come on Katie, let’s GO!” Barbra yelled from across the hall, “We’re gonna be late!” Katie rolled her eyes and pulled the covers over her head. Every morning was the same: Katie will hit the snooze button, sleep for 3 minutes past what she should, and suddenly she and Barbra, her twin sister, are gonna be late to school. After a few minutes of feeling sorry for herself, Katie groaned and yelled back, “Fine! I’m up. But I get the bathroom now, not in 15 minutes, when we have to leave.
Barbra laughed, “That is so not going to happen.”
“Sure it will. If I don’t get in there now, I’ll just stay in bed. Maybe we don’t need to be on time today”
This time it was Barbra that groaned. A few seconds later, she appears in the doorway, her still soaking-wet strawberry-blonde hair dripping onto her new purple-and-white sweater. She glared at Katie. “I hope your happy.”
Katie grinned. “You know I am.” She jumped off the bed, grabbed her clothes, and ran to the bathroom before Barbra could argue.

“You are not-I repeat, not- wearing that to school to day!” Barbra exclaimed when Katie reappeared in the doorway of the bedroom in her school athletics uniform- black gym shorts and a gray shirt with the words ‘Lion Athletics’ in orange letters on it. “I get that you’re on the basketball team, but if you keep showing up in that I’m going to deny knowing you.”
Katie rolled her eyes again. “I’m bringing another set of clothes for after athletics, so can I still be your sister?” She help up an orange-and-white striped shirt and blue-jeans. After a fake pause of consideration, Barbra agreed. “But not before gym.” She said as she walked past Katie and left the room. Katie, for the fourth time this morning, rolled her eyes and followed her sister out of their bedroom.

“Mom, can you please drive us to school today?” Barbra asked Mrs. Livingston, her mother, faking a sweet tone, then taking a bite of her eggs in front of her, “Oh! And these eggs are delicious!” While she was chewing slowly, pretending to savor her food, she winked at Katie and Katie grinned. The sisters fought about almost everything, but they agreed on two things: they both hated the bus and they both hated their mom’s cooking.

Mr. Livingston laughed, “Barbra, your mother and I let you and your sister pick one day per month that we’ll drive you to school and you already picked the 13th.”
“That’s so unfair!” Katie and Barbra both exclaimed at the same time.
“The 13th’s our birthday, we should get a free-day then!” Katie said.
“And besides,” Barbra added, “Jessica is meeting me at the front of the school, and I can’t be seen getting off the bus.”
Katie got up to rinse her plate, “Please Barbra, why do you even care what Jessica thinks? She’s just a wanna-be “popular girl” that only cares about how she looks.”
“Katie!” Mrs. Livingston scolded, “Why would you say something like that? And besides, y’all should have brought this up earlier if you wanted 2 days. You’ve missed your change.”
Reluctantly, Katie and Barbra grabbed their backpacks and glanced at at each other. It was obvious they were both thinking the same thing, “Parents.” Suddenly the twins heard the screeching of one of their parents’ chairs. They turned around to see both of their parents smiling down on them. Their parents looked at each other, and Barbra and Katie started getting nervous.
“Before you girls go, we have something to give you.” Mr. Livingston said, “As you know, your mom and I will be gone because of work on your birthday, so your grandmother will be driving you to school and everywhere for a week.”
Katie groaned, “But she never lets us go anywhere! Once I asked to go to Alex’s house to study for a big science test and she said no!”
Mrs. Livingston continued for her husband, pretending Katie didn’t say anything, “We just got word that we have to leave 3 days early, which means we’ll be leaving tomorrow. So, we have your birthday presents now.”
Katie and Barbra grinned and high-fived behind their backs where their parent’s couldn’t see. Then, both of their parents pulled small sparkling silver boxes from behind their backs and handed them to each of the girls.

To Be Continued…

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