New Haven

PRANKING, JAIL, AND MOVING?

“Are you done yet?” Dawn whispered to her older twin sister Dusk, from across the hideously normal principal’s office. Armed with live piglets that had chess pieces painted on their sides, Dawn and Dusk were just wrapping up a senior prank at their local high school. Even though the girls themselves were barely about to graduate from junior high they were already known throughout their small town as the go-to girls for such pranks. Their customers this time had been the high school chess team. They’d been hoping to go up the social ladder a little before graduating and thus enlisted the girls’ help for a modest fee.

Dusk, the oldest twin, could already feel her partner in crime getting nervous as she struggled to finish writing ‘Check Mate’ on the mother pig that Dusk had placed on the principal’s desk. Dawn, her little sister, had always been the lookout on their prank missions.

When Dawn asked Dusk again if she was ready to go, Dusk whispered back “no” to her sister. “And use the walkie talkie,” she said to Dawn, reminding her of the code word they had come up with as children. Dusk had meant for Dawn to speak with her ‘mental voice’.

You see, Dawn and Dusk had always been able to speak to each other without words. People always commented to them that it was just because they were twins. They told them that all twins were connected in some way, but they knew differently, better, you could even say. Dusk and Dawn were nothing like any other twins in the entire world. They had powers that would put the wonder twins to shame.

Dusk had black eyes and pale brown skin was an inch taller than her little sister, Dawn, who was beginning to become annoyingly persistent about wanting to make a break for it.

Now? Dawn thought to Dusk, looking outside the door for anyone coming down the hall. Dusk shook her head still facing away from Dawn. Now? Dawn pleaded again. Dusk finally turned to face her with a smile that quickly filled Dawn with reassurance.

Dusk stood back from her masterpiece to admire what she had done. The mother pig that belonged to their neighbor was now completely dyed to match the school’s colors. Dusk finished by placing a small pig pen in the room so the pigs could have food before they would be discovered in the morning. Dusk was, if nothing else, very animal conscious.

“That’s great, now can we get the hell out of here!” Dusk could hear the desperation in Dawn’s voice and knew her sister would ditch her any second now so, she joined Dawn outside of the office and together they walked, arms linked, down the darken high school hallway.

This is going to be freaking awesome, Dawn thought to Dusk.

Dawn had always had a brightness about her you could say. She even looked bright in the cat burglar costumes the girls had worn especially for the occasion. Dawn unlocked their arms and began to twirl her five foot three self down the hallway. Her long brown hair and olive brown skin beaming as she went. Dawn had suddenly become brave in their success. In typical Dawn fashion, she was a hyper mess before they did a prank, a panicked mess during, and recklessly brave after they had gotten away with it. Well, almost had gotten away with it. Dusk stopped where she was as she felt an all too familiar, presence hovering behind them.

“Gotcha!” Kyle Goddard, the night security guard said swinging his massive arms around Dawn, “Fun’s over girls.”

Kyle Goddard was one of the many night guards at the local schools. He had been hired to deal with everything from car racing to drugs on campus. Kyle Goddard had been there longer then the sisters cared to remember. He was constantly chasing them around, yet in the end, they always got away. Dawn tried to struggle against “Officer Goddard” but couldn’t seem to get away from him.

“We got trouble with the Nightingales twins again. Corridor three,” Goddard said into his walkie-talkie. He then took a look around the darken hallway as he noticed that the other sister was missing. “Okay Dawn where’d your other half run off to…” but before he could finish asking and getting Dawn into handcuffs, Kyle Goddard felt someone tapping on his shoulder. He turned around to find no one behind him.

“Is something wrong Goddard?” Dawn asked with a smile on her face.

“Come on...” he said starting to walk with Dawn but then stopped as he felt another tap on his other shoulder. As Godard turned to see who it was, Dusk slipped out from the shadows she’d been hiding in and stood next to her sister.

“I swear this school is haunted at night” Goddard said turning back to Dawn who was standing next to Dusk.

“What the…”

“Goodnight Goddard” Dawn said as she puckered her lips together and exhaled on Goddard’s face, sending him collapsing forward and to the side towards Dusk. Dusk reacted quickly and moved out of the way as Goddard fell forward and face planted on the floor. Dawn hugged her big sister then playfully punched her in the shoulder.

“Ouch!” Dusk said looking at Dawn. Dawn smiled at her sister.

“That’s what you get for totally ditching me,” Dawn said pleased at the outcome of events, “Couldn’t you have just shadow jumped the both of us before Goddard nabbed me” Dawn complained to her sister.

Dusk shook her head. Her pixie cut black hair moved like silk around her face. Dusk’s ability to travel through and between shadows had always seemed limited to her sister Dawn, “You know I can’t jump both of us at the same time and besides that, he already had you” she explained rubbing her arm, “But we still got away. I mean look at him,” Dusk said pointing to the security guard asleep, face first on the floor. Dusk looked at her sister, “And besides you handled yourself pretty well all alone.” Dawn smiled at her sister’s compliment knowing she was right as they heard the rest of the ‘cavalry’ running up the stairs towards them.

“There they are,” a guard said that appeared in front of a small group that had obviously come to the aid of their fallen ‘brethren’. Dusk looked at Dawn slightly panicked. Dawn, on the other hand, was all smiles.

Don’t you even dare think about it! They already know it was us. We’re busted Dawn. There’s no point in running. Dusk pleaded silently with her sister.

Who said anything about running? Dawn answered. Dusk looked at her sister and saw that it was pointless to argue.

Oh, why not. Dusk thought.

“It is so time for an action sequence,” Dawn said out loud as she turned and started running into a full on sprint.

“I thought we weren’t running,” Dusk said following after her sister.

“Hey. Stop right there.” They could hear the guards yelling and huffing and puffing, trying to catch up to them. Dawn was the fastest and most athletic out of the two girls. She was all- leagued everything in junior high. Dusk couldn’t help but laugh at the idea of a bunch of middle age school guards catching her. Dusk was a different story on the other hand when it came to athleticism. She was more the artsy type. Dawn decided to split up and make most of the guards chase after her. Dusk happily agreed. Only two had decided to waste any time following Dusk, but she quickly ditched them with some quick shadow jumping.

Dusk exited a nearby shadow on the upper-level window of the school. It was close to where she and Dawn had originally snuck-in through. Dusk hated using the term ‘broken in’ because technically, the window had been open. All of suddend Dusk was surrounded by new night guards that she didn’t recognize.

They figured out where we came in from. Wow! They got smarter. Dusk thought to herself as she raised her arms in surrender. “Congratulations you got me. Admit it; we had, some good times- Giving you boys something to do around here,” Dusk laughed uneasy as she slowly began backing up, trying to figure out her next move. Then she looked up and saw Dawn come up behind the small group of guards and Dusk relaxed, the feeling of relief filling her up like water for a dehydrated man.

“Wahoo. Over here boys,” Dawn whistled from behind the guards. They turned to look at Dusk. She stared back at them with her light brown eyes and shimmering pink cheeks. To the guards, Dawn had stars in her eyes.

“Now boys I think playtime is over don’t you?” she asked the guards in the sweetest voice. Dusk rolled her eyes at the spectacle of a group of grown men mindlessly nodding their heads in agreement to whatever a 14 year old teen girl was saying. Dusk crossed her arms and wondered what it was they saw when they looked at her sister. She looked at Dawn and saw nothing, but her sister trying to be cute.

“I think it’s time you all went night, night,” Dawn said and waved goodbye to the guards. They suddenly fell to floor in a wave of what always looked like euphoria. Dumb, happy, and smiling nearly to the point of unconsciousness. That was the look on the guards’ faces as they lay on the floor around Dusk. Then, in typical Dawn fashion, she jumped into the middle of the circle of fallen men where Dusk stood and did a wonder women stance as she said, “Fear me Bitches.”

“Oh, I do” Dusk said stifling a laugh. Dawn always did have a way with words, “Took you long enough.” Dusk told her as they climbed through the window together.

“Whatever! We can’t all be shadow jumpers. Some of us have to actually run away from trouble” Dawn complained.

“We wouldn’t have had to run in the first place if you would have just done that from the beginning” Dusk said commenting on Dawn’s ability of persuasion. They climbed down the side of the three-story building. Walked straight out to their stealthy golf cart they had spray painted black. Dusk had her keys in her hand, ready to hop into their golf cart and speed away. After being chased around the school, they had finally made it.

“Freeze right there girls.”

Damn! The cops, Dusk thought as she turned around and saw Kyle Goddard and some other guards. They had finally gotten smarter and called in re-enforcements. Kyle Goddard walked towards the girls taking the keys from Dusk’s hand and proceeded to wave them in front of her face saying, “I WIN,” with pride and a very large grin filling his face. Dusk and Dawn both put up their hands and turned to place them on the hood of the golf cart, they knew the drill already and waited to be handcuffed.

“Nightingale 2, Kyle Goddard 1 congratulation we’re both so proud of you. Come on Dawn. Tell him how proud we are,” Dusk said. Dawn looked at her sister, annoyance written clearly across her face. “Well see you next time,” Dusk said as the girls were seated in the back seat of the cop car “don’t forget to post this, I’ll like it on Facebook.” Kyle Goddard laughed as he slammed the cop door on the Nightingale twins.

“Do they even have a f*******:?” Kyle pondered to himself out loud.

The girls got home early the following morning. They spent the night in jail because their parents thought that it would help ‘straighten’ them out. Honestly Dusk really didn’t know how much it would help. They had been frequent visitors to the county jail and it wasn’t the most intimidating place to be for them anymore. They spent this particular night playing cards with the bailiff and Delicious, their town’s only Lady of the night if you know what that means. As soon as they got through the door of their cramped little two bedroom apartment, their mom Sara went straight into the kitchen and put on her cleaning gloves. Sara always cleaned when something was on her mind or when she was stressed. As a direct result of their mom's coping mechanism with stress and her having two teenage daughters of the same age, their constant visits to the local jailhouse, their apartment was always squeaky clean. Sara wasn’t their birthmother but she had been the only mother they had ever known. Sara had been the girls’ mother since they were babies and they loved her as much as any daughters could love their mother.

“Girls sit.” David, their dad, said resting his arms on the table. He didn’t look upset or bothered by their latest mess. Dawn looked very hesitant on whether or not it was safe to sit down in their little Dinning room. Dusk looked over to her and nodded that it was okay so she sat down in one of the empty chairs very slowly. Dusk on the other hand just stood and her dad didn’t say anything about it. He already knew Dusk wasn’t going to sit down.

“Are you going to scream?” Dawn asked. Their dad just looked at them and then leaned back into his chair.

“I got a promotion at work,” David said smiling up at them. Dawn and Dusk were both taken by utter surprise. They loved their father to pieces, but he exactly wasn’t the brightest apple in the bunch. His lack of success at work had been the real reason for their current accommodations. He was always being passed over for promotions to younger people. They just smiled at each other and then congratulated their dad, silently thanking the Lord for the change of subject.

“That’s really great Dad,” Dawn said in her most sincere voice. With that proclamation the atmosphere seemed to lighten up right away, they both kissed their dad on the forehead.

Dusk’ smile faded as she stared at her father’s expression, “there’s more isn’t there” Dusk asked as Dawn pulled away from her and sat back down.

“I haven’t agreed to it yet, but if I agree to the promotion it’ll be a lot of money” David said and then sighed, “But it means that we would have to move.”

“Move,” Dawn said looking toward Dusk who stood there with wide eyes. Dusk looked toward the kitchen where their mother was still cleaning.

“Where would we be moving too?” Dusk asked. Dawn turned and stared at her sister.

What are you saying? Dawn thought angrily to Dusk. Dusk looked back at Dawn, “Hypothetically speaking if we were to move,” Dusk looked back at her father, “Where exactly would we be moving to?”

“California” David said with a smile, “We’d be moving into a three bedroom house right next to the beach.”

Dawn’s eyes lit up at this new information, “Wow! We’re going to be right next to the beach?”

David nodded and then turned, “Dusk?” he asked.

“What about our friends, school, the graduating class field trip?” Dusk said looking at David. Everyone in the house knew how long she had been saving up for the class trip, “you know the one we go to before we start high school.” She reminded David, “the trip to Washington D.C?”

Dawn looked at David, “We can still go right, I mean, its next week” she said, “If you agree to this, hypothetically speaking of course, when would we have to leave?”

“I have to give the company my answer by tomorrow. We would have to leave in three days.” The girls exchanged panicked looks.

Dusk smiled with no humor and walked out of the living room straight upstairs to her room with Dawn following close behind her. A few minutes later David was knocking at their door.

“Can I come in?” he asked walking in and closing the door behind him.

They sat there in silence, “three days time… uh. I’m assuming they have a house or something waiting for you in California” Dusk said not looking at her father but knew he was nodding his head, “I think I saw some boxes behind that Chinese restaurant on First Street.”

“I think I hear mom calling me in the kitchen,” Dawn said and exited the room.

“I really am sorry about your trip kiddo. I really am but it’s a great opportunity and not just for me but for us as a family. We would be closer to your mothers’ family which would make her really happy. You know how she misses them” Dusk nodded as David continued, “Maybe change of scenery wouldn’t be too bad for you girls either. Maybe if you had more productive things to do and more space to explore you wouldn’t get into so much trouble. Maybe a bigger town is just what you guys need.”

“They better be offering a hell of a lot of money,” Dusk said smiling up at David from Dawn’s bed. David smiled back at his oldest daughter nodding his head, “A hell of a lot of money, kiddo” He said using her own words. They both started to laugh as Dawn walked in, “So what’s the verdict?” she asked looking at both of them.

David looked at Dawn and then motioned to Dusk who sighed defeated, “Watch out California” Dusk said as Dawn jumped up and down for joy.