Her Evil Twin (4 page)

“I haven’t seen Dory around here in a while,” Anna’s mother remarked that evening.

They were in the kitchen, washing up after dinner. Anna rinsed a frying pan under running water and handed it to her mother. “Yeah, I guess we haven’t been hanging out much,” she replied carefully.

Anna’s mother looked at her as she ran a dishcloth over the pan. She had eyes like Anna’s — big and dark, with long eyelashes. “Did you two have a fight or something?”

“No, Mom,” Anna huffed, blowing her bangs out of her eyes. It was the truth. She’d never actually had a fight with Dory. She’d just sort of stopped hanging out with her, without ever explaining why.

“It’s not like I have to do everything with Dory,” she added. “I have other friends, too, you know.”

“Of course,” her mother said lightly. “I just wondered, that’s all.”

“In fact, I made a new friend at school,” Anna went on. “Her name is Emma.”

“That’s a pretty name.” Mrs. Dipalo’s lips curled in a tiny smile.

“What’s so funny?” Anna asked.

“Oh, it just reminded me of something,” her mother said as she dried a serving spoon. “You had an imaginary friend named Emma when you were little. Don’t you remember?”

Anna shook her head.

“It was a long time ago, before Dory moved into the neighborhood. All the kids on our block were older, and I think you missed having someone to play with.”

Mrs. Dipalo paused with the spoon in midair, remembering. “Although she was more like your partner in crime. You were always getting into trouble and blaming it on Emma. Like the time you poured juice on your father’s laptop. Or the time you pulled the heads off all our neighbor’s roses.” She laughed. “That one I’ll never forget. Mrs. Knox
was furious. When I asked you why you did it, you said, ‘I didn’t do it, Mommy. Emma did!’”

“That’s funny.” Anna furrowed her brow. “I don’t remember doing any of those things.”

“Well, I’m not surprised. It was a long time ago,” her mother said. “But I’ll tell you, I was glad when Dory came along. We didn’t hear too much about Emma after that.”

As they finished up the dishes, Anna’s mother seemed to be thinking about something.

“I’m glad you made a new friend, sweetie,” she said, after a moment. “But don’t forget the old saying.”

“What saying?” asked Anna as she handed her the last pot to dry.

“ ‘Make new friends, but keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold.’”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Mom, that’s
so
corny.”

“Corny, maybe,” her mother replied. “But true.”

Anna unplugged the sink then dried her hands on a clean dishtowel. “Are we done here?”

Mrs. Dipalo looked around the clean kitchen. “I guess we are. You are released from duty.”

“Good,” said Anna. “ ’Cause I’ve got homework.”

By the time she’d climbed the stairs to her room, her mother’s words had already faded from her
mind. She was too busy thinking about the fun she’d had with Emma that day, and wondering what new adventures the next day would bring.

Now that she spent all her free time with Emma, Anna hardly ever saw Dory. The only class they shared was science, and since Anna had moved to Benny’s lab table, they no longer talked there, either. If she saw Dory coming down the hall, she usually ducked the other way. Anna didn’t like confrontation. If she could have, she would have gone on avoiding Dory forever.

But, as it happened, the very next day Dory caught her at her locker as Anna was putting her books away. “Hey, Anna!” Dory called, striding over.

Anna groaned inwardly. She glanced up and down the hall, wondering if she should pretend to have to rush off somewhere. But it was too late. Dory had already reached her.

“I haven’t seen you for a while,” Dory said a little too brightly. She was breathing fast, as if she’d hurried to get there. “Want to come over after school today? I’m working on a new video starring Hester and Harold. It’s going to be
Romeo and Juliet.”

Hester and Harold were Dory’s pet hamsters. Dory loved to film movies with them in the lead roles. There was a time when Anna would have thought doing
Romeo and Juliet
with hamsters was a hilarious way to spend the afternoon. But that time was over since she’d met Emma.

“Sorry, I can’t.” Anna pretended to search for something in her notebook, hoping Dory would take the hint and leave.

But Dory just stood there. “Are you mad at me?” she asked suddenly, the brightness gone from her voice.

Anna sighed. “I just think,” she mumbled, without quite looking Dory in the eye, “maybe we just shouldn’t hang out anymore.”

Dory stared at her. “Why not?”

At that moment, Anna caught sight of Emma coming toward them through the crowded hallway.
Thank goodness,
she thought. Anna smiled and waved to her. But although Emma seemed to glance in her direction, she walked past without stopping.

“Who are you waving at?” asked Dory, following her gaze.

“Emma,” Anna replied distractedly.
What was that all about?
she wondered.

Dory’s brow wrinkled. “Who’s
Emma?”

“My friend. She’s right —” Anna broke off. Emma had disappeared.

“Well, maybe we could all hang out sometime.” Dory tried a smile, but her voice quavered.

Stop being so pathetic!
Anna wanted to shout. “Look,” she said sharply. “I just don’t think we have anything in common, Dory. Okay?”

Before Dory could reply, Anna slammed her locker shut and hurried away. She had to find Emma and make sure that nothing was wrong.

Anna looked for Emma by her locker, but she didn’t find her there. She checked everywhere else she could think of, even going up to the third-floor bathroom to see if the window was open (the sign that Emma was on the roof), but it was shut tight and locked from the inside. Emma didn’t seem to be in any of her usual places.

It wasn’t until Anna had given up and was leaving school that she spotted Emma. She was standing at a maple tree in front of the school, leaning against its trunk. She made no move to greet Anna as she hurried up.

“I’ve been looking all over for you,” Anna said. “Why didn’t you say hi to me in the hall?”

“What were you and Dory talking about?” Emma asked coldly.

“Nothing!” Anna said. Was
that
what Emma was upset about? “She just wanted to know what I was doing after school.”

“I thought you said she wasn’t your friend anymore.”

“She’s not. We were just talking,” Anna explained, confused. Why was Emma acting so strange?

Emma said nothing, but her eyes pierced Anna coldly. Anna shivered and tugged at the zipper of her windbreaker. After the long stretch of Indian summer, the weather had finally taken a turn. Now, heavy clouds filled the sky like piles of wet cotton, and the sharp smell of burning leaves hung in the air.

“We were just talking,” Anna repeated. “Let’s forget it, okay?” She tried a smile. “So, what should we do today? Want to go back down by the river? I think there’s still some paint left. Or we could go to the park….”

Emma pushed herself off the tree. “Not today. I have something to take care of.”

Without any more explanation, she turned and walked away.

Saturday morning, Anna awoke to the sound of the phone ringing. She rolled over in bed and checked her clock. It was just after seven thirty.
Who would call so early on a Saturday?
she wondered with irritation.

Anna flopped back on her pillow and closed her eyes, but she couldn’t go back to sleep. Finally, she climbed out of bed. She pulled on jeans and a sweater and went down to the kitchen.

Her mother was standing in the middle of the room holding the cordless phone. She had a funny look on her face. “That was Dory’s mother on the phone,” she told Anna.

“Oh, yeah?” said Anna. She got a box of cereal down from the cupboard and poured herself a bowl, then went to the refrigerator to get milk.

“Something happened at the Welches’ house last night,” Mrs. Dipalo said.

Anna paused with her hand on the refrigerator handle, waiting for her mom to go on.

“Their property was vandalized,” her mother told her. “Someone wrote on the lawn in spray paint.”

Anna’s mouth fell open. “What did they write?” she asked.

Her mother cleared her throat, as if she wasn’t quite comfortable saying it out loud. “ ‘Dorky Dory.’”

“That’s awful!”
It had to have been the Jackals,
Anna thought.
They’re getting back at her for walking out on their stupid trick. Poor Dory.

“Do they know who did it?” she asked her mother, wondering if she should say something about Jessamyn.

Mrs. Dipalo’s worried eyes burrowed into Anna’s. “Dory says it was you.”

“What?”

“Dory told her mother that she heard something in the middle of the night. She looked out the window and saw you running down the street.”

“It’s not true!” Anna exclaimed. “She’s lying.”

“Why would she say something like that?” her mother asked.

“She’s just jealous because I’ve been hanging out with Emma. And now she’s trying to get back at me.” Anna yanked open the refrigerator door and grabbed the milk. “I can’t believe she would say that! You believe me, right? You know I would never do something like that.”

“That’s what I told her mother.” Mrs. Dipalo looked relieved. “I knew it couldn’t have been you.”

Anna sat down at the table to eat her cereal. She spooned it into her mouth, chewing furiously, but she didn’t taste a thing. She was so mad she could hardly think straight.

The nerve of Dory, trying to get her in trouble like that! The sympathy Anna had felt for her just moments before had vanished.

When she’d finished eating, Anna prowled around the house, looking for something to do, but she was too worked up to focus on anything. Every time she thought about Dory, she felt angry all over again.

Finally, Anna put on her sneakers and her jacket, got her bike out of the garage, and pedaled the few blocks to Dory’s house.

When she got close, she slowed down. Dory’s older brother, Drew, was out front, mowing the lawn. He ran the mower back and forth across the grass, but Anna could see that it wasn’t doing much good. The bright red letters
DORKY DORY
were still clearly visible in the green grass. It would be days, or even weeks, before they faded.

Anna rode past slowly, making sure to stay on the far side of the street so Drew wouldn’t notice
her. As she glanced up at the house, she thought she saw a curtain move, but no one appeared in the window.

Was it Dory?
Anna wondered. She imagined Dory sulking behind the curtains, waiting for her to come up the front steps and apologize.

Well, she can wait for the rest of her life, because it’s never going to happen!
Anna thought, pedaling away. As far as she was concerned, her friendship with Dory was over. For good.

The rest of the weekend dragged by. Anna tried to call Emma several times, but she always got a message saying the number was disconnected. She figured Emma hadn’t paid for her minutes again. With nothing else to do, Anna spent the weekend moping around the house and plotting what she’d say to Dory when she saw her at school on Monday.

But on Monday Anna didn’t see Dory at her locker, and in science class, Dory’s seat was empty.

“Did you hear about Dory? Or, I should say, ‘Dorky Dory,’ “ Anna overheard someone say at the next table. It was Krystal, the biggest gossip in the seventh grade, gabbing to her lab partners as usual.

If Krystal was talking about Dory, Anna knew that meant everyone in school had heard about
what had happened — or soon would. For as long as she was at Wilson, no one would ever say Dory’s name again without adding “Dorky” to it.

Well, she deserves it,
Anna fumed as she stared at Dory’s empty seat.
Serves her right for trying to get me in trouble, the little backstabber.

“Hey, hello out there.” Benny waved his hand in front of her face. “Earth to Anna.”

“Huh?” Anna blinked at him.

“Phew!” Benny feigned relief. “For a second there, I thought you’d donated your brain to science.”

Anna giggled. Benny’s jokes were kind of dumb, but they always made her laugh.

“So,” he said, “are you going to help me on this experiment or what?”

Thoughts of Dory slipped from Anna’s mind as she and Benny turned to their assignment.

To Anna’s relief, they’d moved on from frog anatomy and now they were studying cells. That day, they were supposed to classify different cell drawings on a worksheet. But Benny wasn’t being much help.

“This looks like a pepperoni pizza cell,” he joked, pointing to one of the drawings. “And this is clearly a deep-dish sausage and onion cell.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Are you
hungry
by any chance?”

“Starving,” said Benny. “I’d give anything for a slice right now.”

“Well, try not to drool on the worksheet,” Anna joked. “Lunch is in twenty minutes.”

Benny made a face. “Who wants gross cafeteria pizza? I’m jonesing for Moxie.”

Anna gave him a blank look.

“You don’t know
Moxie?”
Benny looked shocked. “It’s only, like, the best pizza on the
planet.
You do eat pizza, right?”

“Obviously,” said Anna.

“You haven’t
lived
unless you’ve had Moxie pizza,” Benny told her. “I’m going there after school today. You should come.”

Anna’s smile froze.
Did Benny just ask me out?
she wondered.

Benny seemed just as surprised because he started to stammer. “Y-you don’t have to. I mean, it’s no big deal. I’m just going with a few of my friends and —”

“It sounds fun,” Anna interrupted. “I’d like to come.”

“Really? That’s cool. Okay, so I’ll see you there
after school. Wow. Okay. Cool,” Benny babbled. He seemed almost relieved when Mr. Cooper yelled at them to stop talking.

When the bell rang, Benny quickly scooped up his books. “Meet you there at three fifteen!” he told Anna, and rushed out of the room.

Anna slowly collected her things and floated out the door, humming to herself. She had a date with Benny!

Well, not a date,
she reminded herself.
We’re just hanging out with a bunch of kids. But I think maybe he likes me. Wait till I tell Emma!

But when she did see Emma, moments later, Anna lost the nerve. Emma was leaning against Anna’s locker, with her arms folded across her chest. “Where have you been?” she asked accusingly. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

“I was in class.” Anna was surprised at her friend’s strange behavior. She seemed so cold and bossy lately.

“Whatever,” Emma huffed. “Come on. I’m hungry. Let’s go to lunch.”

Anna glanced out the window, which was spattered with rain. “I guess the roof is out today. We’ll have to eat in the cafeteria.”

Emma gave her a look of disdain. “You mean, the barfeteria? No thanks. I’ve got a better idea. Let’s go to the diner on Fifth Street.”

“I can’t,” Anna said. “I don’t have enough money.” She had only a few dollars in her pocket, and she wanted to save them for Moxie. “Anyway, I brought my lunch today.”

“Don’t worry about the money. I’ve got us covered.”

Anna opened her mouth to object, then changed her mind. She didn’t think she’d win an argument with Emma.

Outside, the rain was slashing down. They pulled up their hoods and sprinted the few blocks to the diner. Even so, they were soaked when they came through the door.

A waitress walking past with a pot of coffee glanced at them and pursed her lips. She pointed to a booth in the corner near the door.

“Perfect,” Emma said. She slid across the yellow vinyl seat, streaking it with rainwater.

After a moment, the waitress came over and dropped a single menu on their table. She had on thick blue eye shadow, and her curly hair was piled
like a haystack on her head. “Something to drink?” she asked them tiredly.

Emma ordered coffee, and after a moment’s hesitation Anna did, too. She never drank coffee, but it sounded sophisticated. Not to mention warm. She was shivering in her wet clothes.

The waitress sloshed coffee into two cups that were already on the table. Emma ordered a turkey sandwich for them to share. The waitress wrote their order down on a little pad, stuck her pen behind her ear, and shuffled off to the kitchen.

“Nice service,” Emma said with a snort.

Anna didn’t say anything. She’d just taken a sip of the hot, bitter coffee and scalded her tongue. She fanned her burning mouth with one hand and pushed the cup away with the other.

Emma leaned back in the booth, kicking her dirty sneakers up on the seat next to Anna. “Isn’t this great? Way better than eating in that lame cafeteria.”

Anna glanced around the room. There were a few people in business suits sitting at the counter, staring into space as they chewed their sandwiches. In the booth across from Anna, a lonely-looking old man was spooning cottage cheese into his mouth.

The diner didn’t seem so great to Anna. At least at school, there were other kids.

“You know, maybe we should cool it for a while. Cutting school, I mean. We’re going to get caught one of these days,” she said.

Emma waved a hand as if that was of no concern. “So today, I was thinking we’d —”

Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of the waitress, who plunked their food down, slapped a check on the table, and headed off to wait on some other customers.

“I can’t hang out today,” Anna said when she was gone. “I’m meeting Benny Riveras.”

Emma was dumping packets of sugar into her coffee, but she glanced up sharply. “Benny? What for?”

Anna explained how Benny had invited her to Moxie for pizza. “You can come, too,” she said quickly. “He said a bunch of kids are going.”

“I can come, too? Gee,
thanks
for the invitation,” Emma sneered sarcastically.

“I thought you’d be happy for me,” Anna said, feeling hurt.

Emma made a face. “Happy that you’re hanging out with that
twerp?”

“Benny’s not a twerp. He’s nice. And funny. And I think he likes me.” What was wrong with Emma? Why was she being so mean?

Emma shrugged. “Fine. Go hang out with him if you want. Just don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Anna asked. But Emma wouldn’t explain.

Anna nibbled at her sandwich, but she didn’t feel hungry. This lunch had turned out horribly. She just wanted it to be over.

But once she was done eating, Emma dawdled. She kept glancing over at the waitress. Anna had the feeling she was waiting for something.

When the waitress disappeared into the kitchen, Emma suddenly stood. “Let’s go!” she hissed.

“You haven’t paid the bill yet,” Anna pointed out.

“Haven’t you ever heard of dining and ditching?”

“But you said you were going to pay!” Anna couldn’t believe what Emma was pulling.

“I said I had it taken care of,” Emma said. “I didn’t say I’d pay. I don’t even have any money. Now come on, we have to go
now.”
Without waiting for Anna, she dashed out the door.

Anna jumped up from the table so quickly she made the coffee cups rattle. A couple in the next
booth looked up from their food. Halfway to the door, though, Anna stopped, frozen with indecision. She saw the kitchen door swing open and the waitress come out carrying a tray of food.

At the last second, Anna darted back to the table, pulled a few crumpled dollar bills from her pocket, and dropped them on top of the check. It wasn’t enough to cover the bill. But it was all she had.

“Won’t she come after us?” Anna gasped when she’d caught up with Emma.

“No way! Did you see that hairdo? She’d never risk getting it wet.” Emma laughed nastily. “She was a horrible waitress. Did you notice how she only brought us one menu? We really got her back.”

Anna didn’t laugh along with her. All she could think about was how tired the waitress had looked. For the first time ever, hanging out with Emma didn’t seem like that much fun.