Times Squared (16 page)

“You're right,” I said. “The bottom line is I'm tired of feeling inferior to Ashlynn. I'm tired of her humiliating me, too.”

“That's not the bottom line, Payton!” Jazmine rolled her eyes. “It's not all about
you
, Payton. Ashlynn is going to humiliate all the Geckos! And we need to Take. Her. Down.”

Everyone cheered.

“Wait, wait,” Ox said. “That's a little extreme.”

“Ox is always the voice of reason.” Emma nodded approvingly.

“She kicks puppies, and us,” Hector said. “That's reason enough.”

“Don't get me wrong, I'm an animal activist,” Ox said.

“That's how he got his nickname ‘Ox,' ” Emma said. “His first campaign was in fourth grade, trying to save endangered oxen.”

“Awww . . . ,”
Tess and Hector and I said.

“Anyway.” Ox cleared his throat. “Taking people down is not what the Geckos are all about. We play fair. But that doesn't mean we should do nothing. We can just go on the defense, not the offense. Let's think of it in football terms.” Ox stood up and went over to the whiteboard. He picked up a dry-erase marker.

“In football there's defense and offense, right?” Ox said.

“No offense, but I don't have time to follow silly sports like football,” Jazmine said.

“Sports are not silly,” Emma said firmly. “Look at all of the leadership skills Ox is demonstrating right now! In fact, I think I should try a sport myself. I might excel in, perhaps, archery? Golf? Curling?”

“Maybe water polo,” Tess offered. “I noticed you got in a few good shots at the pool.”

“Just get on with this already,” Jazmine huffed.

“It's an analogy, Jazmine. I would think if you can follow the binomial theorem, you can follow a football analogy,” Ox said firmly.

“Yes, but how does this involve me?” Jazmine said. “And Hecky?”

“It's like a competition,” Ox explained. “And whose side are you on, Jazmine? Team Ashlynn, on the offensive side, who made you play a wicked witch onstage?”

We all looked at her.

“Or Team Gecko, on defense, who is just protecting their teammates?” Ox said.

“Team Gecko,” Jazmine said. Then she cleared her throat and spoke firmly.
“Team Gecko!”

Emma and I looked at each other in wonder. I could see why Ox was team captain.

“Ashlynn went on the offense,” Ox said. “She is trying to humilate all of us. But we're going to set up a defense. We'll block her every move. But we will do it, like my football coach says, with Good Gecko Class and Morals.”

“Jazmine. Hector. Tess. Nick. Payton. And Emma,” Ox said. “This is what we're going to do. . . .”

HOTEL ROOM

I was in the bathroom of our hotel room doing my postcompetition ritual. (Which included brushing and flossing my teeth. For some reason there were always bowls of candy at competitions and I couldn't resist the gummy ones. Sticky.)

“Emma,” Payton said, “are you finally finished getting ready for the theater?”

“Yes,” I grumbled, opening the door.

“Oh,” my twin said, looking at me.

“I know,” I said, looking at her.

Looking at Payton was like looking in a mirror.

Because, for once, we were dressed identically. Our
hair was fixed exactly the same. We even wore the same shade of lip gloss. (Kiwi Smoothie Lipshine—I'd recommended it after noting in a magazine that it complemented fair-skinned blondes.)

“You look . . . um.” I couldn't find the right words. Which was unlike me, as I had an extensive vocabulary.

“That bad, huh?” my twin said. She pulled me over to a mirror on the back of the door.

For a moment we just stared in silence.

We were both wearing the matchy dresses our mother had picked out. They were a hideous green.

“We look like twin green beans,” I groaned.

“Yep,” sighed my sister. “I wish I could wear my original theater outfit; it's so pretty. But there's no way I'm showing up wearing my Summer Slave dress.”

“Anyway, remember, we're doing this for The Plan,” I said, adjusting the itchy collar. “We have to look
exactly
alike.”

“Well, we've accomplished that,” Payton said. “Except I'm still one inch taller and my nose is bigger.”

“And my hair is shinier,” I teased. It was an old joke.

“Ooh! I just got a text from Tess!” Payton jumped.
“ ‘P & E—where R U2? Come to lobby ASAP.' ”

“What time were we supposed to meet everybody?” I asked Payton.

“I—um—thought Mrs. James said 4:four fifty-five,” my sister said. “Or was it four forty-five? Oh, you know I'm not good with numbers.”

“Identical on the outside,” I said, grabbing the hotel room key, “but
not
on the inside.”

“Yeah, well, we can't all be mathletes like you,” my sister said as we raced for the elevators.

“So true,” I said, pushing the down button three times. “I can't believe the mathletes competition is over already. I was in the math zone two hours ago, and then boom! It's over, gotta get to our next activity . . .”

“Yeah, the mathletes competition
was
pretty exciting,” Payton said, leaning against the wall. “Even to me.”

Ding!
The elevator doors opened.

I got in and punched L for lobby.

“Pay! What are you doing?” I said. She was twisting around in a weird position.

“My dress is caught up on something,” Payton said, tugging on it. She was still against the wall.

“Well, hurry!” The doors were closing. I tried to hit
the “doors open” button, but I didn't reach it in time. One minute I saw Payton, then the next I saw the inside of the elevator doors close shut.

Oops. Big oops.

Well, there
were
two elevators. She could catch the next one. On the ride down, I replayed some of the morning's competition in my head.

Ding!
The doors opened on to the lobby. I got out and saw through a large window a bunch of my classmates standing outside. Ox! Tess! Nick!

Ding!
I turned back. The second elevator had arrived at the lobby floor. I ran over to meet Payton.

“Emma!” Counselor Case and the trouble twins got out. “How are you doing?”

No time for small talk.

“Have you seen Payton?” I asked.

“Nope,” Mason said.

“We'll wait down here while you find her,” Counselor Case said.

“Thanks,” I jumped into the elevator and pressed 8 for our floor. Just before the doors shut, Jason jumped in with me.

“What are you doing?” I asked him.

“I wanted to make sure you were okay,” Jason said.
“I mean, about the competition results. I thought you'd be upset.”

“That's really nice of you.” I smiled down at Jason.

“I know
I'd
be really,
really
upset,” Jason continued.

Ding!
Saved by the bell.

We got out on floor eight. No sign of Payton. “Quick, get back in,” I said, pushing Jason into the same elevator. I hit L. The elevator started moving.

“Why are we going up?” Jason asked.

“Aack! We're not supposed to be,” I told him. At floor ten, two businessmen got on. Then we started going back down again.

Ding!
Floor 8. I leaned out of the elevator and yelled, “Payton!” just in case she was still on that floor.

“Emma!” I heard a small voice say. “Where are you?”

Our elevator doors closed. The two businessmen ignored Jason and me.

“I think Payton was yelling from the other elevator,” I said. “Good, we'll meet at the lobby.”

At the lobby, Counselor Case grabbed Jason's arm and said, “Stay.”

“Where's Mason?” I asked, looking around.

“He went up with Payton when she decided to go
back up to get
you
.” Counselor Case shook her head. “I couldn't stop either of them.”

I turned to look out the large glass window that separated me from the rest of the Geckos. Why were Tess and Ox laughing? Like, hysterical laughing?

“Emma!” Payton said, jumping out of the elevator.

“Jason!” Mason said, doing a badly executed cartwheel into the lobby.

“Sheesh, finally,” my sister said, and we quickly headed toward the exit, leaving the twins' mother to deal with them.

Yay! A revolving door! I got in and pushed. Payton got in on the next turn. And then Mason and Jason got in one together and
pushed
.

Yikes! The door sped up, and I stumbled trying to keep up with it. The boys kept pushing, so I missed my chance to exit. I was going around again. And so was Payton!

“Stop pushing, boys!” I screamed. “Let us get out!” I was practically jogging to keep up.

The boys stopped pushing.

Bam!
I ran smack into the door that suddenly halted in front of me.
Ow!

Bam!
I heard what I guessed was Payton hitting the glass just like I did, only one compartment back.

I gently pushed enough to get out of the revolving doors of torture. My sister got out next.

“Whoa, I'm dizzy,” I told her.

“Me too,” Payton said.

“I don't think I'm injured,” I said. “Just a little sore.”

“Me too,” said Payton again.

Together we wobbled over to Tess, Ox, and Nick, who were standing together.

“We're all here, Coach Babbitt!” Ox shouted into the crowd. Then he burst out laughing. Tess and Nick cracked up too.

“It's our dresses,” Payton whispered to me.

“Hey, are you guys making fun of our outfits?” I came right out and asked. “Because they're the only identical things we had to wear.”

Immediately the three of them stopped laughing.

“We're not laughing at your outfits,” said Tess. “That's not it.”

“No.” Ox looked at me (Me!). “You look really pretty.”

“You both look nice,” Nick said a little shyly.

So the boys didn't recognize ugly dresses . . . that was kind of nice, actually.

“We're walking to the
theatah
now!” Mrs. Burkle announced. “Chaperones, is everyone accounted for?”

There were some grown-up yeses.

And we were off! Walking down the sidewalks of New York City. Payton and I formed a small group with Tess, Ox, and Nick.
Wait . . .

“Tess, Ox, Nick,” I said, frowning. “So what
were
you laughing about back there?”

“You twins,” Ox said, “on the elevators. One comes out and goes back in with one smaller twin . . .”

“Then an identical one comes out of the other elevator, then goes back on with the
other
boy . . . ,” Tess continued.

“And it's like one comes down, then goes up, and the other one comes down, and goes up . . . and you kept missing each other.” Nick looked like he was trying not to laugh as he talked.

“And just when you thought it was done, you two get stuck in the revolving doors going around and around . . .” Tess snorted.

“Hey,” Payton whined. “That last one hurt.”

“Oh, sorry.” Tess blushed.

“Are you okay?” Nick asked anxiously. (Ooh . . . he really
likes
her. . . .)

“I'm fine,” my sister admitted.

“But we have both bruised our dignity,” I concluded.

“Instant replay,” Ox said to Nick. “Emma down, then back up plus one, Payton down, back up with twin two, both switching elevators, going left then right and left and right again.”

“Then round and round . . .” Nick laughed.

“So how about our Gecko mathletes?” I shouted as loud as I could.
Complete change of topic necessary.

“Cheers to our top individual scorer!” Ox yelled. “Miss Emma Mills!”

The crowd around us was now paying attention. They cheered loudly.

Suddenly Jason pushed his way next to me, dragging his mother, who was holding hands with his brother.

“It's not fair!” he wailed. “You were supposed to be the winner! Number one!”

“You know, Jason,” I said, “that was tough competition we were up against. I am perfectly happy with being number three.”

“And I'm happy, because number three is with me,” Ox said, more quietly. And he held my hand! (Eeeeeh!)

“Well, I think number eight is pretty great.” I smiled at Ox, who had come in eighth.

“Our school had four people in the top ten,” Tess
said. “That's pretty amazing, with Nima number nine and Jazmine in fourth place.”

Jazmine looked up when she heard her name.

“Whatever,” she said. “The spelling bee and geography competition are coming up. I'll be winning competitions soon enough. Probably States and even Nationals.”