Triple Trouble (14 page)

“Okay, okay,” I said. “My bad. Maybe we should practice first. I'm Payton, and this is my twin—”

“Emma.”

We both said it at the same time.

“I thought
I
was supposed to say Emma,” Emma said.

“You did say that,” Lakiya from tech crew nodded.

“Ack, I'm so nervous, I keep screwing up!” I said. “Why am I so nervous?”

“You're nervous because you care,” Nick said. “This is not only your first VOGS cast as a traveling correspondent, but the first on-site VOGS cast ever.”

“And I want to be great!” I said. “I want this to be the best, most fun, greatest segment on VOGS ever!”

“Besides our big fight,” Emma added. “Broadcast live in front of the whole school.”

“That
is
a classic,” Lakiya said nodding.

“See, I'm willing to humiliate myself again for the cause of a good VOGS cast!” I wailed.

I was startled by somebody clapping behind me.

“Brava!
Bravissimo!
” It was Mrs. Burkle. I didn't know she was there. “I love the commitment, the intensity of emotion, the willingness to put yourself out there for the sake of our viewers on VOGS. Nice start, Payton.”

“Oh,” I said. “Um, thanks.”

“Now, I don't want you to go too far,” Mrs. Burkle said. “This isn't a reality show for television invested in embarrassing people for the sake of ratings. However, a dramatic VOGS cast is welcome.”

“We're planning a competition,” Emma told Mrs. Burkle. “The triplets are out scouting locations right now. That should bring some drama.”

“Carry on!” Mrs. Burkle said happily.

“That should make you feel good,” Nick said, smiling at me. “Plus, remember, we'll edit later. Okay, you're on in five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . .”

“We're live from Multipalooza! A festival for twins, triplets, and multiple identicals! I'm Payton, and this is
my
identical twin . . .”

“Emma!” Emma said. “Have you ever wondered what's it like to have an identical twin or triplet? We'll be asking some of these thousands of people here.”

Nick swung the camera out toward the crowd, then back toward us.

“And if you
haven't
wondered that,” I said, “perhaps you'll enjoy watching your fellow students humiliate themselves! Because I think that's going to happen today! Emma and I are challenging three of our newest Gecko classmates to an identicals competition.”

The triplets sauntered over to us and waved, saluted, and grinned at the camera.

“We're the SUPERTWINS!” they said.

“SuperTwins are like twins, but better because . . .”

“ . . . there's three of us.”

“Later, we'll be performing onstage here at Multipalooza, but first we need to take down the twins who AREN'T super.”

The camera panned to Emma and me.

“You can't talk to Emma and Payton like that!” an unexpected voice shouted out. Mason and Jason ran in front of us and got in the triplets' faces. “TWINS RULE!”

“Guys,” Emma whispered. “It's okay. It's just for fun.”

“GO, SUPERTWINS!” Sydney and Cashmere waved their signs around. “TRIPLETS RULE!”

“Multipalooza Twins Versus Triplets,” I said loudly, “begins now.”

“And . . . cut!” Nick said. “That was great!”

“Very dramatic!” Mrs. Burkle said.

“Great. Moving forward, we have fifteen minutes before our first competitive event,” Emma said.

Emma had agreed to be in charge of our schedule, for obvious reasons. We'd had a quick discussion with the
triplets about which events we would compete against each other in. (We each had veto power over one event. We'd used ours to rule out Multipaloo-Karaoke; they'd used theirs to rule out Multipaloo Spelling Bee. Thankfully. Obviously that was Emma's suggestion.)

“Let's interview some multiples, then,” I decided. We walked into the main area, and there were hundreds! Thousands! Jillions! Of us. Where would I even start? It was overwhelming.

“I guess just ask someone if you can interview them, and I'll be ready with the camera,” Nick said. “I'll stick close to you.”

Hee hee hee. The thought of Nick sticking close to me was also a little overwhelming. He was so cute and—focus, Payton! Okay.

I went up to twin girls who looked about my age. They had black curly hair and were wearing matching outfits—but in different colors!

“Hi,” I said. “May we interview you for a school video?”

“Okay,” the girls said.

“Can you introduce yourselves and tell me why you came to Multipalooza?”

“I'm Gia,” one said.

“I'm Ria,” the other said. “We're here because it's amazing to see all of these people who look alike, like us.”

“Sometimes we feel like freaks, but not here!” Gia laughed. “That moment when people see two of you and their eyes get wide and you know they're thinking, THREE of those crazy girls?”

Wait. Three? Sure enough, a third identical came over to them.

“Oh!” I laughed. “Surprise triplets.”

“Who's she?” The third eyed me up and down. “Is this for TV?”

“Um, no, for our school video,” I told her.

“Waste of time,” the third one scoffed. “Let's go.”

Gia and Ria both mouthed “Sorry!” and followed her away.

“Gee, can you tell who's the Dominant Twin there?” Emma said. “Yowch!”

The next twins, boys who were there all the way from Texas, were way nicer.

Then I interviewed other twins, triplets, and even quadruplets!

“We have time for one more interview before we head to our event,” Emma said.

I looked around for unique people and—

“Over there.” I found some I definitely wanted to interview. They were two girls and a boy around Mason and Jason's age. They stood out not only because of their bright red hair but because they were dressed up in costumes. Not identically, but definitely a theme: zombies. They agreed to be interviewed.

“You guys stand out in the crowd,” Emma said on camera. “Tell us about yourselves.”

“We're triplets. I'm Tate,” one of the girls said. She had long, wavy red hair, white face makeup, and fake blood the same shade of red dripping down her face. “I'm a zombie. I want your
braaaiiinnns
.”

“I'm Hadley,” the other girl said. Her curly red hair was under a sparkling crown. Fake blood dripped down her face and pink princess dress. “I'm a zombie princess. I also want your
braaaiiinnns
.”

“I'm Jasper,” said the boy with short red hair and extra fake gore to go with his fake blood on his face and arms. “I'm a zombie, too.
Braaaiiinnns
.”

“May I ask why you dressed up today?” I tried not to laugh.

“Dressed up?” Tate asked. “I don't know what you mean. We're zombies who specialize in eating twins, and triplets' brains. Can we have yours?”

“Um, no,” Now I did laugh. I thanked them.

“Mason and Jason would love those kids,” Emma said. “Okay, I think we definitely got enough unique interviews for now. It's time for our first Twins Versus Triplets Challenge!”

COMPETITION TIME

“GO, Twins!”

“GO, SuperTwins!”

I could hear our fans and our nemeses chanting as Payton and I were in the girls' bathroom. We were getting ready to compete in our first Multipalooza event. Since we'd been wearing our VOGS blazerly attire, we needed to change. Fortunately, we'd brought track pants so we'd be comfy for the ride home.

“Here you go, girls!” Mrs. Burkle's voice echoed in the ladies' room. “Courtesy of Multipalooza and the triplets' aunt, who was working at the T-shirt booth! Catch!”

A red T-shirt flew over the top of the stall. I unrolled it and pulled it on over my tank top. I looked down and read the white letters:

MULTIPALOOZA!

It was time for a competition! I needed a competition. It had been too long since I felt that feeling in my veins, in my brains. It was time to challenge myself and win, win, win!

As I gave myself my pep talk, I did my deep-breathing exercises. I did my yoga focus pose. I stretched.

“Emma, are you ready?” Payton called out, still in the stall.

“I've given myself a pep talk, I did my deep-breathing exercises, I did my focus yoga pose, and I stretched,” I answered. “Yes, Payton. YES! I AM READY! Woot! Let's do it!”

I gave a little fist pump in the air.

“Um, I just meant are you ready, as in are you dressed?” Payton asked.

“Oh,” I said. “Yes. Yes, I am.”

“Then can you help me?” she said. “My earring is caught in my tank top.”

I pushed the stall door open and—

“Ack!” Payton said, her head sideways. She jerked her head up and rrriiip! I watched as the earring ripped the strap of her tank top.

“I didn't know you were just going to bust in here!” she said.

“Well, you asked for help,” I said indignantly. “I thought that meant help me by entering, not by mental telepathy outside the stall. Okay, hang on.”

“I
am
hanging on,” Payton said, pointing to her hand holding her tank strap.

I could take care of that. I reached into my tote bag and into the zipped-up case of supplies. There it was! Duct tape! And safety scissors.

“Did you know that duct tape was first invented in World War Two to help the American military?” I asked Payton as she wrapped her strap.

“Yes,” Payton said. “Because you told me that. And do you know
when
you told me that?”

I suddenly remembered.

“The Janitor's Closet!” we both said at the same time.

“The start of my middle school career.” Payton sighed. “Fortunately, it got better. And fortunately, my tank top is better too! Yeah!”

She pulled on her red T-shirt. She went over to the mirror and pulled her hair up in a high ponytail just like mine. I stood next to her. We stood side by side, dressed exactly the same.

“If I shrunk down to be one inch shorter,” Payton said, slouching down, “we'd be pretty much exactly the same.”

“And if your hair were less shiny,” I responded.

“Hey!” Payton swatted me.

“Shiny, shiny—” I started.

“—double the shiny,” she finished. “Hmmm, is that our rallying cry?”

“No,” I said. “It's . . . go, GECKOS!
Twin!
” I punched the air. And added a little jump.

Time to go show those triplets what the Mills Twins can do!

“Emma,” Payton said. “We will soon be on film. Please don't do that again. It's embarrassing to both of us.”

“Okay.” I shrugged. “If you think my team spirit is embarrassing, perhaps you might want to know you have yellow duct tape sticking out of your T-shirt.”

“Eep!” Payton shoved it back in the neck of her shirt.

“I have an idea. Let's
both
try not to embarrass ourselves or each other,” I said, checking the schedule. “Although now that I see our first challenge, that could prove difficult. It's called Dizzy Ploozy.”

“What the heck is Dizzy Ploozy?” Payton asked.

Challenge #1: Dizzy Ploozy

It turned out that Dizzy Ploozy involved putting our foreheads down on a Wiffle ball bat and walking in a circle around and around the bat fifteen times. Then running across the field to the finish line blindfolded.

“O-kay,” I said, then geared myself up for the competition.

“Be careful of your vibulator issues,” Payton said with a smile.

“That's vestibular,” I told her. “And now I can prove to everyone that I don't have any.”

A girl with a Multipalooza staff T-shirt brought us each Wiffle ball bats and blindfolds. Other staffers handed out supplies to all the multiples who were competing.

There were a lot of them.

“We're in it to win it,” I reminded my twin. “Or at least to beat those triplets.”

“Ready.” Payton looked determined. We pulled the blindfolds over our eyes.

A man announced the rules over a microphone. The winning team would be the first team to have two of its members cross the finish line.

“On your marks . . . get set . . . ,” the announcer said. “Go!”

I rested my forehead on the bat and started circling.

“One! Two!” the crowd started counting. The loud crowd. A lot of people were watching us.

I used my calm, centered, focused attention and breathed steadily in and out as I went around and around.

“Fourteen! Fifteen!”

And I was off! Off balance, that is. I hesitantly took a step. And another. Whoa. I was in a world of darkness that rotated rapidly.

I soldiered forth. Another step. And then I heard people yelling.