DupliKate (7 page)

“No,” I said.

“Anything!” Rina declared again. She plunked down on the couch so that she was at my eye level and looked at me pleadingly.

I stared at her, completely unable to believe her nerve. She had just spent the morning deliberately impersonating me, quite possibly wrecking my relationship with my boyfriend and probably every single other aspect of my social life as well, and she thought writing a paper would make up for it?

“It doesn’t have to be homework,” Rina said. “I could…I don’t know, do your laundry for you, if that would save you some time, or I could clean your room, or—”

“Yes,” I said suddenly, sitting up. “Yes, there is something you can do.” I felt simultaneously sick to my stomach and delighted at the thought that had just occurred to me.

“What is it?” Rina asked eagerly. “Anything. I swear.”

I spit my words out quickly before I started thinking too hard about the possible consequences. “You can go to the school board meeting tomorrow afternoon,” I told her. “I’m the student rep for Colchester, but all I do is sit there. I don’t even take notes.” I took a deep breath. “So…what if
you
went and sat there instead? And then I’ll have an extra hour to write my English paper. My
own
English paper,” I added.

Rina’s eyes widened. “Oh my God. Yes!” she whooped. “Of course! I will totally do that. It’ll be so fun!”

I glared at her.

“Or…not fun?” she asked, in a slightly quieter voice.

“Not fun,” I answered. “Zero fun. You go, sit down, shut up, and come straight back. Okay? That’s all. No talking to anyone. No going anywhere else. ”

“Okay,” she said, nodding. An excited smile crept across her face again, and I intensified my glare.

“Don’t you dare have a good time,” I snapped. “It’s the least you can do after today. The absolute
least
.”

“I know,” she said, her smile abruptly disappearing. “And I’m sorry, again.”

Silence.

“Is there anything else I can do?” she finally asked, after a long, tense beat of both of us just sitting on the couch.

“Yeah,” I said. “Go in the closet and don’t come out for the rest of the day.”

Rina nodded, got up, and slowly went up the stairs.

TICK. TICK. SCCCRITCH-TICK. TICK.
I WAS SITTING
at the kitchen table late Sunday afternoon, listening to the messed-up second hand on the clock above the pantry door and typing my English paper on my laptop. Thanks to Rina taking the school board meeting off my hands, I felt calmer about schoolwork than I had in a while. But it was also a little hard to concentrate, given that I kept flashing back to Rina and Jake’s kiss. I’d talked to Kyla on the phone, but luckily she hadn’t heard any interesting gossip. Later I’d talked to Paul as well, and all seemed normal with him. Still, one word from Jake to the wrong person, and the story would be around school like wildfire.

“Hello?” called Rina’s voice from the front hall. She burst into the kitchen, threw off her coat, and sank into the chair across from me. “Those meetings suck,” she declared. “I mean, thanks for letting me go, but why do you even bother?”

“I’ll make a note of that for next time,” I said. She had a point, but I wasn’t really one to skip things I was supposed to be at. If I were, I would’ve started peacing out on school board meetings eons ago, not to mention National Honor Society and half my other extracurriculars. “Did anybody talk to you?”

Rina shook her head. “Cool,” I said, relieved. “Well, I’m either gonna work on my essay or do some SAT stuff until Paul gets here….” I trailed off as I tried to decide which.

Rina perked up. “He’s coming over?”

I gave her a warning glance. “Yes. For a study break.” I sighed. “Although I’ll probably still be studying, even while he’s here.”

“Then why invite him?”

“Well, we haven’t seen each other much lately and he’s starting to complain—”

“That’s so cute!” Rina exclaimed. “He misses you!”

“I know, I know,” I said, “and he’s totally right. But he sort of doesn’t get that this is, like, the busiest week of my whole life. He never has to study as much as I do, and right now I have to more than ever, so…” Rina nodded sympathetically and I realized I was rambling. Not that she minded. Or noticed. “Anyway,” I said. “I’m gonna go upstairs. Mom’s at the office till late, so do whatever.” I got up from the table.

“Cool, I’ll watch TV,” Rina said. “And I’ll make you some Euro flash cards.”

Sweet.

Half an hour later, I’d gotten zero wrong on an SAT math section. “Yay!” I said, then slammed the practice book shut, blowing some papers off my desk. I bent to pick them up. It was mostly scrap paper, plus some AP history handouts from last year and a Post-it from Paul that just said “hi” with a smiley face (note to self: clean desk more often). The last thing I picked up was the English take-home Rina had written for me. I was about to chuck it in the trash, but out of curiosity, I flipped past the cover page and started reading.

It was good.

In fact, it was better than the one I had outlined in detail and was planning on finishing tonight. If I were grading it, I would’ve given myself (well, Rina) an A already, and I was barely on page two.

“Oh, are you gonna use that? You should totally use that,” Rina said, suddenly poking her head in my bedroom door.

“Aaagh! Don’t sneak up like that!” I said, almost dropping the paper.

“Sorry.” Rina stepped into my room. “But are you gonna use that paper? Because technically…” She paused and smiled, her voice taking on a hint of deviousness. “It’s not like it’s actually cheating. You and I are the same person, and if I wrote it, that means you wrote it. Plus, I used all of your notes. See?”

“That logic is sketchy at best and totally evil at worst,” I said.

“Just sayin’.” She shrugged, the look on her face somehow blending innocence and “I dare you.”

“Tempting…very tempting,” I said, “but nope. I can’t do it.” I crumpled up the paper into a ball.

“The file’s still on your computer,” Rina singsonged.

“Only until I delete it,” I replied, parroting her tone of voice. I threw the wad of crumpled-up paper at her, and she giggled and went back downstairs.

A little later Paul rang the doorbell, and Rina dashed up the stairs to hide. “Hi!” I said, opening the door and stepping back so he could come in. He was wearing his letter jacket over a Celtics hoodie and carrying two large pizza boxes. He raised the pizzas in the air as I hugged him around the waist and dragged him down to the basement. I threw on the lights and we skittered over the cold cement floor near the stairs toward the carpeted section in front of the TV.

“Hello, stranger,” Paul said, putting the pizza boxes on the carpet and sitting down next to them. He smiled at me and leaned back against the couch, stretching out his long legs.

“Shut it,” I said. “It’s not my fault!” I sat down next to Paul, carefully studying his face for any signs that he’d heard something about Jake since the last time I’d talked to
him. Thankfully, there was nothing but his now-standard expression of slight exasperation at my overly busy schedule.

“Fair enough,” he said, putting a slice of veggie pizza onto a paper plate and handing it to me. “Some of it’s mine, and I apologize once again for bailing on Friday. How was the shopping? Did you get me anything?”

“Perhaps,” I said, looking around innocently. “Perhaps a supplement to a previously purchased gift or gifts.”

He grinned. “Awesome. But actually, what I really, really want for Christmas—”

“Do not say ‘threesome.’”

“—is more time with my girlfriend.”

“Awww, how sweet!” I said, before I realized the implications of the words
threesome
and
girlfriend
as they related to Rina being in my room that very second, and almost burst out laughing. My subsequent facial contortions drew a weird look from Paul.

“Sorry,” I said, shaking my head and trying to will the giggles away. “I’m just, um, stressed out. By the way, do you care if I study while we eat?” I pulled some flash cards out of my back pocket.

Paul’s hand, which had been on its way to his mouth with a slice of pizza, stopped in midair. “Seriously?” he asked, rolling his eyes.

“I just want to take advantage of every minute.”

Paul sighed. “What’s up with you lately? You used to manage your time so much better.”

“Oh, gee,” I answered, bristling at his insultingly frustrated tone of voice, “I’m so
sorry
that I’m trying to get into Yale with you.”

“Yeah, I know, but I didn’t think it would turn you into some sort of neurotic, study-all-the-time—”

“I mean maybe you didn’t realize this, but I can’t magically get straight A’s just by being alive, unlike some people—”

“Of course you can—you’ve been doing it for years.”

“No,” I said flatly. “I haven’t.”

Paul looked confused. “Huh?”

“I said, I haven’t been—”

The doorbell interrupted my oncoming rant. Paul raised an “are you expecting someone?” eyebrow. I shrugged, glad that what was about to turn into an argument had been headed off at the pass, and stood up. I went to the front door and looked out the window. Kyla and Anne were on my porch, and I could see Carmen’s car idling on the curb, with our other friends Tess and Laurin inside.

“Oh. Hey guys,” I said, as I opened the door. “What’s going—”

“Mandatory study break!” declared Kyla. She was wearing a corduroy mini and a puffy down vest over a black shirt that seemed to be made mostly of lace. I had no idea how she wasn’t freezing to death.

“What?” I asked.

“You heard the woman,” Anne said. Her blond hair was pulled back tightly as usual, and the tops of her ears were already reddening in the cold. “You fully said okay before, remember I texted you?” Oh. Ohhhh. Right. I dimly remembered scheduling hang time with the girls in my planner. I also remembered telling myself that I would cancel, but apparently I’d forgotten that part.

“All right then,” said Kyla, promptly interpreting the realization on my face in her favor. “You remember. So get your ass in the car or the car will back over your ass.”

Paul appeared behind me. “Ladies,” he said, pulling on his jacket and getting his car keys out of his pocket.

“Man,” intoned Kyla, deepening her voice to match (or at least get closer to) his. Anne giggled, then her eyes flicked from Paul to me and back to Paul again. I got a weird feeling that she could feel the whisper of tension between us, so I was relieved when Paul pulled me into the kitchen, out of sight of the front door.

“I thought you were supposed to ditch your friends before me,” he said, his voice barely audible.

“I know, and I meant to, but I forgot to tell them,” I whispered back as quickly as I could. “I didn’t realize they were actually going to show up. I’m sorry. Like you said, I’m totally disorganized lately….”

Paul sighed. “Well, whatever. You might as well go. But
call me later.” He kissed me, then edged his way past the girls on the porch and jogged out to his car. Anne and I both watched him leave.

“Okay, so, boyfriend time over, friend time begins,” said Kyla. She looked at me impatiently, and I could see that she wasn’t about to let me bail. But my English paper was waiting, as was my personal statement, and I knew that a half-hour coffee break would turn into an hour, and then into three. There was no way in hell I could go.

Then it hit me: Rina could.

Oh my God. I’d been killing myself to get everything done and keep everyone happy and I had this identical twin doing absolutely nothing upstairs.

Rina could go in my place!

“I’ll be down in five minutes,” I told Kyla.

“You’d better be!” she said cheerfully. “We’ve almost forgotten what you look like. Which, by the way, is terrible. Maybe
more
makeup during these stressful study times, not less.” She grinned and walked back toward her car. Anne followed her, and I shut the door, sprinted upstairs and found Rina in the closet.

“Feel like going out with my friends?”

“What?” she practically shrieked.

“Shhh,” I said. “They’re all outside. Paul just left, but I forgot to tell them I didn’t have time to hang this weekend. You wanna go grab coffee with them? Pretend to be me?”

“Oh my God, yes!” Rina said.

“Okay, quick, switch clothes,” I said, and we both threw off our shirts and pants so we could trade. My hair was up, so I grabbed Rina a ponytail holder, and while we were changing outfits I tried to give her a nutshell rundown of my friends. “You’ve seen all these girls in the pictures, so you should be fine, but really quickly: Kyla’s the redhead. Laurin’s the tallest. Tess has dark brown hair; she’s the really buff one. Anne’s the sort of uptight blond. Carmen’s wearing her glasses today, so—”

“Doesn’t she always wear them?” asked Rina. She put her hair in a ponytail.

“What?” I asked.

“Carmen,” said Rina. “You just said she’s wearing her glasses today like it’s a weird thing, but in the pictures, she’s always wearing them.”

“Oh,” I said. “Right. Yes.” I generally think of Carmen as a no-glasses person because she always puts her contacts in for volleyball, but Rina was actually right. Since the season ended, she’d been rocking the librarian frames every day.

“Okay, well, anyway,” I said, as Rina plucked my watch off my wrist and put it on her own, then fixed her hair once more, “that should cover you. If there’s something you don’t know, just act spacey and plead exhaustion, because frankly that’s how I feel now anyway.” I was slightly worried that
Rina wouldn’t be able to pull off a convincing impression of me in front of so many people at once, but I also realized the advantage of sending her out in the field, so to speak, to listen for any inklings that the Jake story had gotten around. And if they did notice something was off with me, it wasn’t like they’d guess that I’d sent my SimuLife twin out in my place.

“Okay!” she said, just as Kyla, in the driveway, started leaning on her car horn. “How do I look?” She was now in the navy blue waffle-weave shirt and jeans I’d just been wearing, and I was in her workout pants and a long-sleeved gray thermal.

“Just like me,” I said, smiling. “Thanks for this! Have fun, and if my mom is home by the time you guys get back, I’ll sit by the living room window and you can tap on it and we’ll figure out a way to sneak you in.”

“Got it!” Rina waved and sprinted down the stairs, grabbing one of my coats and shrugging into it on her way out the door. I peeked out the window as she ran outside and got into Kyla’s car. The little white Jetta pulled out into the dark, followed by Carmen’s Prius, and I suddenly realized that I should’ve given Rina some money. I turned to the dresser, and saw that my bag was tipped over, my half-empty wallet spilling out of it. Oh. I guess Rina had thought of everything.

I breathed a sigh of relief and turned to my computer,
where my
Sound and the Fury
take-home final was waiting on the screen. For the first time in forever, I felt like I could handle everything. I didn’t have to worry about letting my friends down. I didn’t even have to worry as much about studying for finals, thanks to the piles of flash cards and color-coded outlines Rina had left on my desk. Sure, she’d created some problems—the Jake thing still made my stomach twist nervously. But she was also saving my ass.

I turned to my English paper, poised my fingers over the keyboard, and started typing.