Chapter 13
1022 Words
Esther stared up at the ceiling in the darkness from her bed with only one thought in her mind.
"We got yelled at."
Eli rolled over on his side and peered at his sister. "Is that still bothering you?" He hadn't given the incident much thought since he didn't think she would still be so hung up over it.
"Of course, it's still bothering me." She also rolled over on her side to look at Eli. "We've never been yelled at before! Neither in this life or our previous one."
Eli sighed, "Yeah." Thinking back on it, he wondered if they would have turned out a little differently in the past had they been scolded by their parents once or twice.
Ms. Dunley hadn't been pleased with the situation at all when she called the twins to talk to her individually to figure out what could have happened between Cheryl and Bryce. They were able to tell she was in no mood for games.
But despite knowing that, they couldn't help her understand when they didn't even understand what had caused the argument.
Ms. Dunley had spent the rest of recess and nearly all of class switching back and forth between the four of them.
Eventually, she seemed to have come to a conclusion and scolded the twins for their lack of understanding.
"How are we supposed to understand when situations like that never occurred to us before?!"
Eli could hear his sister mutter and grumble in the dark. He tried his best to console her. "It's okay, it gives us room for growth." He tried to get back into a comfortable position. "Growth is always a good thing, isn't it?"
Esther didn't respond, but Eli wasn't worried about it. A few minutes later, she meekly answered, "I guess so."
"I know I'm right about it," Eli said as he rolled back over. "You'll see, growth is a good thing."
When Esther didn't answer again, he assumed she was satisfied and closed his eyes to go back to sleep, but seconds later, he felt the edge of his bed sink in and felt someone crawling up to him. When he felt her flop down beside him, he said tiredly, "What are you doing?"
"I'm sleeping here tonight."
"Why?"
"If you can do it, so can I."
"Right," Eli replied through his drowsiness. He reached over Esther and pulled the covers up over her. "Good night."
"Good night," she said stubbornly.
* * *
The next morning, they thought they could solve Bryce and Cheryl's problem, but they hadn't been prepared to face the fury of a child's grudge.
It was the weekend, so they thought by inviting them outside to play, they could force them to get along.
Cheryl arrived first, and soon, Bryce did too. The twins had prepared a speech to give them before they played, but before they could utter a single word, the two children began fighting like cats and dogs.
'Eli, what should we do? They aren't getting along at all.'
'Our tactics aren't working.'
'Should we just start the game?'
'I don't think they'll play even if we do.'
They couldn't take their eyes off the two.
'They aren't paying attention to us even a little bit,' Eli finally finished.
'Right?' Esther wondered what they should do to remedy the situation. 'I think we should. . .' She sighed aloud and slowly began to speak up. "You guys should stop-"
A voice that wasn't hers loudly spoke above her. "Stop it."
Esther turned to look at her brother, who at that moment, looked a little more mature than before as if he had returned to his adult self.
"If you guys don't stop fighting right now, we won't be friends with you anymore."
Esther wanted to retract her thoughts. He was still childish, after all.
However, admittedly or not, Eli's childish words had worked, and Cheryl and Bryce stopped fighting to look at him. He had their full attention now.
"You won't be our friend?" Bryce asked with a puppy dog-like expression.
"Ever again?" asked Cheryl.
"Yes," Eli responded foolishly. "Ever again."
Silence flooded the area; two were silent because they were so shocked, and the other was silent because she was petrified because of her brother's sudden actions.
'Eli!' she hissed. 'What are you saying right now?'
'What I'm saying is perfectly normal,' he responded. 'After all, my body is a child's.'
'Still,' Esther replied bitterly. 'It doesn't mean you have to act like one.'
'What can I do when my mind became young too?'
Esther wasn't satisfied with any of her brother's responses. She felt like he could help it if he truly wanted to.
Before she could give another rebuttal, Eli said, 'Esther, look, it's working.'
When she turned to see the children looking at Eli with such intensity, she knew he was right, and she couldn't argue about it anymore.
"Y-yeah," she said, walking closer to Eli and crossing her arms. "We won't play with you ever again if you guys can't stop fighting."
With a wide grin on his face, Eli said, 'Who's acting like a child now?'
'Shut up.'
'Whatever you say.'
Despite hearing the chuckle in Eli's voice, the twins continued with their plan to get Cheryl and Bryce to quit bickering.
Eli held up his finger. "Now," he said sternly. "We are all going to play a game. Hide and seek. Cheryl and Esther will hide, and Bryce and I will seek. We will switch teams as the game continues, but the second you start arguing again, the game is over, and everyone will go home."
"Does that sound fair?" asked Esther.
They barely gave any thought to it before agreeing to the twin's terms and starting the game.
The game lasted for a long time, and everyone took great pleasure in participating. No one even thought about fighting anymore; the twins had succeeded in their plan to get Cheryl and Bryce to get along.
Perhaps their plan had been too great for their own good since after that marked the beginning of their long-lasting group play dates.
- Writer
