Chapter 18: New Years Bring Twinger Cheers

I got the next chapter done! Hooray. This one is literally the longest chapter I've written, so sorry about that. All right ready go!

The gang met up for a New Year’s party at Kakahi’s residence, which happened to be a rather large mansion they could see from their dorms all of them had been secretly admiring for quite some time. Apparently the Verdas were a very wealthy family, which partially, the others assumed, explained Kakahi’s acceptance to their school. The group was slightly different from the average, minus Gerda and Alec who were in their home countries and Austin who didn’t want to come. There were also a few additions to the group, including, in Austin’s place, her rowdy younger brothers Ewan and Evan, as well as Kendall’s brother, Kendrick. Kendall and Kendrick were twins, as were Ewan and Evan, though Evan and Kendall both claimed to be “older” than their respective siblings.

This fascinated Blue and Kakahi for a while (“Two sets of twins in the same place? Is that legal?”), until it was time for dinner. Everyone’s attention was taken up by the louder set of twins, Ewan and Evan, as they extravagantly performed a “dramatic reading” of some of Fred and George’s best scenes in Harry Potter as dinner theater. According to them, all the best identical twins happened to be gingers, like Fred and George or those twins from those Japanese books Blue couldn’t pronounce. Ewan and Evan both claimed that most identical twins were ginger as well, and Teddy began to say something about that not being true, that the actors who played Fred and George weren’t even ginger, but they cut him off.

As the group finished dinner they moved into Kakahi’s over stimulating basement, which had almost every type of entertainment one could think of, from a pool table to a DDR machine to a hot tub. Blue and Teddy ran off to play foosball against the twins, Blue claiming they were “brain twins” so they could take them. Ewan and Evan spoke fluidly during the game, the only way to tell they were switching speakers being glancing up. At least, as far as Blue was concerned, Teddy claimed Evan’s voice was just slightly lower in pitch than Ewan’s.

“You’re never going to be able to beat us.”

“It’s crazy that you’d even try, I mean, the two of you,”

“Have nothing on us, we’ve been in synch our,”

“Whole lives, so you should just give up right,”

“Now, there’s no way you can win.”

“Stop trash talking. Blue, focus!” Teddy ordered, as Evan scored the pair’s third goal.

“No, no, I can do this,” Blue insisted. “I’m great at trash talking…Just, um…,” she pulled her hands away from the table to think as the twins scored another goal. “You both…Um…You both are really smelly,” she said, as Teddy took over her set of bars. “Like bad smelly though. Like, you smell just like trash.”

Teddy laughed at Blue and stepped back from the game with the twins, “Give. You win, Blue sucks.” As Blue gasped and looked horribly offended, the twins joined Teddy in laughing.

“Some time we can play again.”

“Maybe if you get a better partner.”

“Blue can be your…”

“Official trash talker.”

“That sounds perfect for her,” Teddy nodded in agreement.

“So Teddy,” one of them said. Blue was in the process of trying to figure out which was which, but they seemed like the same exact person to her. It didn’t take her long to realize they were quite obviously clones of one another who shared brain waves. “Can you tell us apart now?” Teddy nodded.

“I’ve been studying,” he asserted. “You have different patterns of freckles on your faces. It’s easy to tell you apart with that simple fact alone, but if you’d like me to go on to explain the other differences I’d be happy to.”

Evan and Ewan glanced at each other with an unrecognizable look, obviously using their twin telepathy to discuss something. One of them spoke with their consensus, “We’d love that.”

“Well, you,” he said, pointing to the twin on the left, “you’re Evan. The easiest way to tell apart besides your freckles is the fact that you, Evan I mean, are slightly something called duck footed. Both of your feet turn outward somewhat, not in a concerning or overly noticeable way, but they do. It causes you to walk with a little more, uh, swagger than your brother. I couldn’t say why exactly you diverted your walking habits, but your posture is also slightly more slouched than Ewan’s as well. Evan, you lead more with your, er, pelvis when you walk than Ewan does…”

“It’s awkward cause you’re gay,” Blue interjected, causing both twins to shoot her appreciative laughs.

“You have different foot tastes, as well. Ewan likes a greater variety I’d guess. When Kakahi offered us Surströmming, which Gerda sent here, Evan had you, Ewan, try it before he was willing to.”

“He didn’t say that out loud,” Ewan quickly protested.

“It was routine, but clearly on purpose. You tried it then gave your brother a nonchalant, ‘Yeah, you should try it, but you won’t like it,’ shrug,” Teddy explained.

Evan and Ewan glanced at each other, and Evan wrinkled his nose, “It was disgusting.”

Ewan laughed, “Absolutely disgusting. I couldn’t go through that alone, though. Glad you went for it.”

“What was it again?” Evan asked Teddy. “Sur—Swedish word?”

“Surströmming. Fermented herring,” Teddy replied, and laughed as Evan and Ewan both shot him equally grossed out looks.

“Bird or fish?” they asked in unison before shooting one another cheery eye rolls.

“Fish,” Teddy stated, and the twins stuck their tongues out and gave the same twitchy repulsed mannerism in response. All the while Blue just stared in awe at Teddy’s deduction skills.

“Keep going,” Ewan urged. “Tell us more about what gives us away.”

“Are you going to use this to make it harder to tell you two apart?” Teddy asked suspiciously.

“Honest to God Teddy, we’re just impressed,” Evan stated.

“The way you said that sentence…,” Teddy trailed off, causing Ewan and Evan to tilt their heads at him before he mumbled the rest of his sentence, “it was like you called me God…Anyway! Where was I? Right! Your speech patterns and mannerisms are more or less identical, but that happens in cases where any group spends a great deal of time together. Blue here has started using some of my favorite words lately, for example. Otherwise…Ewan, you’re slightly more reserved than Evan but honestly neither of you is too reserved. For whatever reason, I suppose because you think you’re older, Evan, you habitually guide Ewan away from anything that poses even a slight amount of danger. Like the hot tub, apparently.” Teddy motioned behind him at the hot tub, where Kakahi, Estela, Kip and Kendall sat.

“The green haired girl is crazy,” Evan deadpanned back to Teddy. “And Ewan doesn’t like water…She would have gotten him.”

“You’re probably right about that,” Teddy laughed. “Should I continue, or are you two satisfied?”

“Oh you satisfied us for sure,” Ewan stated suggestively.

“Congrats. I don’t know what Austin’s problem is…We kind of sort of love you now Teddy,” Evan said, and the twins quickly gave him one collective hug. The blond laughed at their affection, but made sure his boyfriend wasn’t watching in jealousy. Pablo tended to get jealous, as it happened, but luckily he was distracted by a dance battle he and Rashida were having.

Blue pouted next to them and protested, “What about Blue?”

The twins glanced at one another thoughtfully, Ewan stating, “You’re on the list. You’ll have to prove yourself.”

“We don’t think you’ll disappoint,” Evan offered, causing Blue to crack a smile. In a near simultaneous motion, the pair patted either of Blue’s shoulders, just as Hakan bounded over to them.

“X challenged Malik Green to battle him in a zombie conquering competition but X was heartlessly turned down. Would Blue like to play against X instead?” Hakan shouted in question.

“BLUE WOULD LOVE TO!” Blue shouted, running off with Hakan to wherever the game in question was. Teddy trailed behind her as the twins ducked out of view of the group. While Teddy took note of this in moderate alarm, Malik called out to him.

“Teddy this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen come see it oh my God!” he shouted in one breath. With such an invitation Teddy obliged quickly, unable to ignore his best friend despite slight concerns about the twins’ ability to vanish. He was met with the sight of Malik giddily watching Kakahi’s younger brother perform songs from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time on a very legitimate looking ocarina. The kid was about ten years old, but he appeared to be an ocarina playing expert.

“I want him to marry me,” Malik whispered, sparking a laugh from Teddy.

“A little young, don’t you think?” his friend asked.

Malik shook his head, “I can wait. I can wait forever for this perfect child.”

“A little male, don’t you think?” Teddy questioned. Malik shrugged.

“I don’t care. I just don’t care,” he stated.

“You cared when…Haha! Old bitterness, forget about it,” Teddy trailed off. Luckily Malik was still too entranced by the child playing the Song of Storms in front of him to comprehend what Teddy was referring to. “All right, I’ll go let Blue know you found your dream person.”

“OK,” Malik mumbled. Teddy laughed as the kid finished the song, and he and Malik both clapped enthusiastically for the boy.

The kid, who looked remarkably similar to Kakahi, bowed and gave a lazy grin characteristic of the girl herself, “Thank you, thank you. You can call me Link.”

Malik’s face showed that he was overjoyed at the thought that the boy might actually be named Link, and he looked to Teddy for confirmation. A nod later, Malik fell to one knee in front of the ten-year-old.

“Link Verda, will you make me the happiest man in the world and be my lawfully wedded wife?” he asked. Link blinked slowly at Malik, as if weighing his options.

“Kahi says I probably don’t know whether I like boys or girls yet,” Link said to begin what promised to be a needlessly long “no,” and Teddy considered what Kakahi had told her brother carefully, “so, unfortunately, beautiful Malik of questionable race, I am but ten years old. I cannot know for sure whether I would be attracted to you in the future. I must also inform you, since you seem to not realize, I am a boy. The way my hair is cut is meant to indicate my gender to the world. I also dress in this way for that reason,” he motioned down at his clothes. Unlike his sister, Link dressed in a very upscale looking fashion, and even donned a scarf on the evening in question, but his outfit clearly read “male.” “So, for now I must turn down your offer of marriage. If I am still interested when I become of appropriate age I will be in contact.”

After such an eloquent refusal, Malik simply tilted his head in slight shock, as Link turned and headed out of the basement with no other words. Teddy grabbed Malik by the elbow then and pulled him off to the large screen TV in the “home theater” section of the basement. The screen read “feature presentation will begin in 30 minutes.” Kakahi hadn’t explained what the presentation was going to be, but she promised it would be “fantagastical” which was some combination of words none of them were quite sure about. In a hushed voice, Teddy began to quickly list every single thing that made Ewan and Evan different, earning him a very confused stare.

“Teddy, I have more important things to do, sorry…Why are you telling me this?” Malik asked.

“Just remember,” his friend insisted, as the twins popped up suddenly in the room.

“What are you doing Teddy?” Evan asked, stalking into the room and leaning against the couch Teddy and Malik were on.

Ewan leaned against the opposite side as he spoke, “You’re going to ruin it. We love you, and we’ll love you forever, but every person has to earn it on their own."

“Sorry,” Teddy muttered, “just trying to help.”

“Don’t sway the odds,” Evan warned. Eyes downcast, Teddy nodded.

“Warn me first, yeah?” he asked, earning a very confused glance from Malik’s direction.

“Of course,” the twins replied, before running off again. Someone else walked into the room then, and Teddy immediately identified the person as Kendrick. Malik excused himself as soon as the confirmation was made. This was not surprising, considering he’d discovered that he couldn’t stand the boy two seconds after meeting him and being told, “Statistically, you’re the most likely terrorist in the room.”

“See you Teddy,” he bade, passing by the incredibly rude younger teen on his way. Teddy followed after Malik, but stopped in front of Kendrick, determined to practice “diplomacy” with him. When he greeted Teddy with a particularly derogatory word, he changed his mind.

“Why are you here?” he shouted.

“I have to watch the Nazis to get to know them better,” Kendrick countered.

“We’re Nazis?” Teddy asked incredulously.

“Definitely, Hitler was a gay, you know,” Kendrick stated. Teddy narrowly resisted a rare act of violence in response.

“Hitler killed gay people, actually,” he retorted snappishly. “Besides that, Malik, who I hear you called a terrorist, is the most decent dude I’ve ever met. You can’t talk to us this way, you weren’t even invited here. I will tell Kakahi what you’re saying and get you kicked out. My girl’s got security on the premises and you are a mental health security threat. Moreover, calling me that f word you just called me? It can and will get you kicked out of our school.” Kendrick blinked slowly at Teddy and looked just slightly ashamed of his words.

“I read those things on the Internet,” he protested, looking like he honestly didn’t know how ignorant he was being.

A sigh later, Teddy pointed toward the exit to the theater, and ordered, “Go. I’ll send you some decent website links to learn your facts from later.” Kendrick scowled on his way out, clearly going over his facts again and again in his mind to try to determine where he went wrong. The twins popped up again.

“We can take care of that,” Evan offered, motioning toward Kendrick’s fleeting figure.

“You know, if you’d like,” Ewan added. Teddy smiled at them.

“I just realized that I love you guys too,” he stated. “You’re very different from your sister, you know?”

“We know,” Evan said.

“So, what do you think?” Ewan asked.

“Don’t bother, he’s just a moron,” Teddy replied, and the pair shrugged.

“Only twenty minutes until green-haired-girl’s show in here,” Evan began with a gesture toward the screen, allowing his brother to finish.

“That means fifty minutes until midnight,” Ewan stated, and Teddy nodded.

“Not midnight,” Teddy gasped, and the twins cocked their heads in an identical manner.

“Not midnight?” Evan parroted.

“Whatever you’re planning,” he explained. The twins laughed and shook their heads.

“Morning,” they replied with matching cat-like grins. As quickly as they appeared they were gone, and Teddy traipsed away to see how Blue’s game with Hakan was going. Bouts of angry shouting greeted him.

“RIGHT THERE! Are you blind? The zombies are going to get us!” Blue shrieked as Hakan pointed a plastic gun at the arcade-like game in front of them. The game itself was on a large TV screen and hyper realistic. Teddy didn’t recognize it, but did recognize the technology present was top notch.

“X has it under control!” Hakan shrieked back at her. “Focus on your zombies, X will focus on X’s zombies!!”

The pair was notably, and surprisingly, doing quite well at killing hordes of zombies. In fact, if Teddy were going to hire someone to shoot zombies during a theoretical apocalypse, Blue and Hakan wouldn’t be last on the list. Malik was standing off to the side, focused on the game intently. Joining in with the observation, Teddy elbowed his friend and rolled his eyes in Kendrick’s direction as he explained what had transpired between the two of them. Malik explained what Blue and Hakan were attempting to do in exchange. Soon the pair was just as focused on the screen as Blue and Hakan, when Pablo sneaked up behind Teddy and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist.

“Ah, no!” Teddy gasped, flailing in Pablo’s grip as he lifted the smaller man completely off the floor. “Are you trying to kill me?” he gasped as the Asian teen laughed.

“You’re so adorable,” he mumbled as he lowered Teddy’s feet back to the ground. The blond flitted around to face Pablo in no time.

“I’m a giant!” Teddy countered in outrage. It was true that he’d overtaken Pablo in height since they’d started dating, but he wasn’t gaining much weight in the process. So, though he claimed to be “a giant” he was also still awkwardly thin.

“An adorable giant,” Pablo cooed as he grabbed both of Teddy’s arms and pulled him close. He laughed as Pablo raised his eyebrows repeatedly at him, but before they got the chance to flirt excessively Kakahi made a loud announcement.

“Five minutes until the show! You won’t want to miss it!” she shouted. “Please make your way to the theater room! I repeat, please make your way to the theater room!” This announcement sparked a slow but steady mass exodus toward the theater room, everyone curious as to what Kakahi planned to show to them. They sat on cluster of couches and waited as the screen flashed a countdown until the video in question started. Teddy and Blue started a shove fight, even though Malik sat between them. Eventually the middle man got tired of the fighting, some of which was literally in his lap, and stood up. His sudden rise caused both Teddy and Blue to fall to the floor, where they giggled. Pablo, who was on the opposite side of Teddy, rolled his eyes and offered hands to both with an amused smile. A sinister shared look later, Teddy and Blue were back on their feet and Pablo was launched into the still standing Malik, knocking the latter two to the floor. It was as Teddy and Blue were high fiving that the screen arrived at the final 5 second countdown. Scampering back into their seats, the devious duo situated themselves comfortably and eagerly awaited the show. Pablo and Malik were slower to get back into their seats, and each shot their significant others disapproving looks as a voice emanated from the large speakers all around the room.

“Soon a new year will begin!” Link’s voice cheered, but then he suddenly seemed realize he was supposed to be more serious and changed his tone. “So in looking at this New Year, my big sister Kahi has asked me and our other sister, Gizmo…”

“That’s me!” a young female voice chimed.

“…To make a video for her. Let’s begin!” A picture of what was undoubtedly Kakahi as a baby flashed across the screen, and a voiceover courtesy of Link and Gizmo began. “Kakahi Emmett Verda was born on a dark September 17th in a super duper secret year. In her early life, she did lots of silly things.” The video cut from the baby picture to a home video, wherein an approximately three-year-old Kakahi was playing a very small violin. Something about the video was meant to be funny, but it mostly served to prove that Kakahi was apparently a genius violinist.

In the middle of the song, however, she simply stopped playing, dropped the violin and declared in baby talk, “Done! Pudding now?” The screen faded into various old pictures as the voiceover continued.

“She didn’t have any friend when she was little,” Gizmo’s voice stated. “Cause she was a loser. Then the best thing ever happened and when she was four years old…Her super-duper cool new sister, Bridgette Gizmo Verda was born.” The screen flashed pictures of Gizmo as a baby, and proceeded to a video of a four-year-old Kakahi sitting next to the baby from the picture.

“Her is little!” the mini Kakahi declared. Baby Gizmo gave her an outraged look, and the screen changed to a picture of the pair later on. Gizmo looked to be around two, and had make-up all over her face, courtesy of Kakahi’s make-up artist skills. The younger girl did not look amused.

Link spoke again as a new image appeared on the screen, of a baby that was undoubtedly him, “Then two and a half-ish years after Gizmo the nerdiest baby ever was born, the coolest baby ever, Link Curie Verda, was born. Kakahi had never known someone so awesome!”

A third home video started up then, with a six-year-old Kakahi poking at a young looking baby. “I don’t want a brother. I want sisters. Can we trade him for another baby?”

Kakahi’s father stated then, “No, this is your little brother, your mom and I very happy to welcome a boy to the family.” She made a “gross, boys” face, as her father continued, “Your daddy is a boy. He’ll be kind of like Daddy. Aren’t you happy to have him?”

Kakahi gave a particularly expressive contemplating look. Finally she stated, “Long as I can still do his make-up.” A picture with a delighted Kakahi, a completely clean looking Gizmo, and a heavily make-upped Link flashed across the screen then.

“Even though these two brilliant, fantastic, amazing people came into her life, Kahi was still sad cause she had no other friends,” Gizmo said solemnly as pictures of what appeared to be Kakahi’s birthday parties from that year on flashed by, with large tables with no one filling the seats sat. The trend repeated as Kakahi aged, until she appeared the way she did in the room, green hair tips and all.

“Kahi didn’t have friends for a long, long time, but then she met someone named Blue. She told me and Gizmo about this weirdo, but soon she changed what she was saying and talked about more people. On behalf of our weird older sister, thank you all for becoming friends with Kahi. She needed friends,” Link stated, as he handed the description off to Gizmo.

“So, without further ado, the thing many of you performing arts kids will love, a tribute to you, the friends of our weirdo, Kahi. Treat her well,” Gizmo warned, as a video of Blue began.

Link introduced her quickly, “This is Blue Berkowitz, who met our sister while wandering unsupervised outside.”

“New Year’s Resolution?” she echoed, after having been asked the question. “Ummm…Teddy, what’s my New Year’s Resolution?” Teddy appeared next to her on the screen and shrugged. The pair was in the basement, wearing exactly what they had on at that very moment. Link had spent most of the evening interviewing them in such a manner, but had no indication of a camera, which was attached to his thick black glasses and hidden. The video had been streaming directly to Gizmo upstairs, who quickly edited it. Teddy glanced at Kakahi, who was looking over toward her siblings in the back of the room with pride. Not sure how he had missed it, Teddy finally realized each child in the family seemed to be a genius in their own right. It would be a lie to say he wasn’t impressed.

After a long pause Blue finally responded, “I resolutionize…resolution…”

“Resolve,” Teddy offered.

Blue nodded, “Ohhh! OK, I resolve to not cut my hair the whole entire year!”

Teddy tilted his head to the side and glanced at Blue, before addressing Link, “I don’t think she understands how New Year’s Resolutions work.”

The camera moved up and down as if Link was nodding, and a voiceover by Gizmo stated, “Theodore "Teddy" Albrecht. We hear he’s a genius.”

“What about you?” Link asked, turning toward Teddy.

“Oh I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. I mean…maybe I resolve to stop growing. I’m a giant now,” he stated seriously.

“OK!” Link declared. The camera flashed to Ewan and Evan next, and the voiceover went to Link again. “Ewan and Evan Connelly, Kahi invited their sister and these two showed up instead for some reason.”

Link questioned the pair about their resolutions, and they glanced at one another, and one of them spoke, “New Year’s Resolution…”

The other picked it up as if struck with a thought, “We’re going to make friends!”

Pablo and Rashida were just beginning what ended up being a very long dance battle.

Gizmo’s voice over stated, “Pablo Martinez. We’re not sure why he has a Hispanic name.” Once again Link asked for New Year’s Resolutions, and Pablo glanced at Rashida in his pondering.

“I resolve to, uh…tone it down…Teddy says I need to tone it down…,” he trailed off. The camera turned to Rashida.

Link attempted an explanation of Rashida next, “This is Rapidash Okaykay. Wait, uh, wait…What’s her name again?”

Gizmo replied, “Uh, Ra…Radisha? Rashida! Rashida Okeke.”

Link spoke again, “Ra…What was it?”

“Rashida Okeke,” Gizmo repeated.

“Uh…Rash…Uh…Rapidash Okaykay is a Pokémon,” Link finally said after giving up on pronouncing her name properly.

Rashida stated her resolution solemnly, “Move on, I guess. It’s harder than I hoped…”

Next the screen flashed to Kendrick, and Gizmo spoke, “This is Kendrick Driessen. Once again, not invited, but his sister was. We’re not as happy about his presence as the twins’ presence. He is a meanie.” The video showed Link asking him for resolutions, but then the picture froze and Link spoke.

“Kendick, which is how I renamed him, not a slip of the tongue, said something really stupid and mean for his New Year’s resolution,” the ten-year-old stated.

“This is why we came up with a different New Year’s resolution. A much better one,” Gizmo explained, as the video started playing again.

Kendrick’s words were muted, and Link spoke in his place, doing his best to imitate someone who had already gone through puberty and had a much lower voice, “I resolve to get pregnant with five babies. They will be from five different fathers but still somehow be quintuplets.” Gizmo laughed in the background of the recorded sound as they moved on to Malik and Kip, who at this point were both debating what they wanted to do for the evening.

“Malik Green. Seems like the perfect guy on the surface and Kahi says he more or less is,” Gizmo recited. Teddy and Blue glanced at Malik on the couch next to them to see his reaction to his description, and watched as he sighed and rolled his eyes.

His resolution, however, only furthered their claims, “I want to volunteer more. I resolve to volunteer five hours per week.”

“Kip Marvin, a thinly disguised nerdy alien,” Link stated, “but we love aliens and nerds, so we like him.”

His resolution followed the introduction, “I will…Improve my grades! And, you know…get over Rashida…Sometime…”

Next they found Hakan, who was shouting in Kakahi’s general direction about how awesome her basement was. Gizmo voiced, “We’re not entirely sure of his actual name, but he goes by X. He thinks he’s pretty extreme, and has a mullet.”

Hakan’s eyes lit up when he was asked for his resolution, and he stated with a fist pump, “This year I’m going to be five times more extreme!” He finished by making an X with his arms, running over to a wall and attempting to run up it. The camera panned away as he was falling, and a subtle “Oof,” could be heard as Link headed toward Kakahi and Estela.

“Estela Hernandez, the best thing that’s ever happened to our sister. We like her cause she plays Smash Bros with us. She’s not very good. We like that about her,” Link said. Estela turned away from her girlfriend and smiled thoughtfully.

“My resolution is the same as always,” she stated, “live, laugh, love…I know how it sounds, but it makes life fantastic.” Smiling at the little boy, Estela then turned to Kakahi, tilting her head and asking if she had any New Year’s resolutions.

Kakahi grinned and spoke without any voiceover introduction, “I will be sooo happy this year with all my new pals.”

The video ended with a compilation of pictures which were likely stolen from Facebook, then a quick message from Link and Gizmo.

“Be nice to our sister,” Gizmo warned.

“And have a great new year!” Link added, as they both grinned and waved goodbye. After the screen became black the group applauded, and Kakahi called for them to each get a drink of the non-alcoholic (cause Kakahi is a good girl who doesn’t want to get in trouble by offering alcohol, despite an affinity for a smoking a particular green substance) "champagne," and each filled their glasses as they waited for the countdown to midnight. As the group sat around, counting down together, the twins appeared behind Teddy.

“I wouldn’t drink the Kool-Aid,” Evan whispered.

“If you know what we mean,” Ewan added. The blonde’s face fell as he stared at the champagne in his hand and, when the clock struck midnight, he masterfully dumped the champagne into a nearby plant. Soon everyone grew tired, to their confusion, and fell asleep all around the basement. A few hushed voices could be heard amidst the passed out folks.

“Drugging people, really? Is this safe?” Teddy asked. The twins shrugged and grinned at him.

“We have on good authority that everyone will be fine,” Ewan insisted.

“So don’t worry my dear,” Evan said. “Just let us do what we do.”

“OK,” Teddy mumbled. “I don’t know why I’m not stopping this…But, be kind to them. They’re morons, in general. You haven’t met the two smartest friends we have. Well, I use the term friends liberally; Gerda is a friend, Potts is an acquaintance at best. I’m going to…Find a place to sleep for the night, I guess.”

“Wait, we made you a bed, Teddy!” Evan exclaimed as he grabbed the other teen’s arm. Ewan joined him on Teddy’s other side as they escorted him to a room with what he could only assume was a pile of stolen cushions. It looked as if a great deal of care had been taken to create this “bed” so Teddy simply smiled and thanked the pair.

“Good night,” they said at the same moment, before pulling Teddy into another simultaneous hug. Each kissed one of his cheeks, pulled back, grinned, and said, “Good bye.”

“See you in the morning,” Evan added, and Teddy found himself shooting the pair an amused eye-roll as he settled into the bed they’d made for him.

When Blue woke up in the morning, she was utterly confused. In a room all by herself, she glanced around in alarm before spotting Ewan and Evan. The twins grinned as she woke up.

“Blue! Good morning,” Ewan said. Or was it Evan? Blue tried to remember what Teddy told her about the differences between them as she stretched and sat up from the rather uncomfortable ground.

“Hi,” Blue mumbled, tilting her head to the side to question her circumstances.

“You may be rather confused at this point, Blue Berkowitz, oh ye who is named after a color,” one of them stated.

The other picked it up, “But fret ye not! Answer us but one question and you will be free to go.”

Blue nodded an OK, and the pair glanced at one another. “Who am I?” one of them asked. Blue blinked and looked at him carefully, once again trying to wrack her brains for Teddy’s words from the previous night. Finally a thought struck her.

“Will you guys walk for me?” she asked, and they glanced at one another and shrugged. Each took a few steps forward, and Blue grinned at them. “You’re Evan,” she said, pointing at said twin, “and you’re Ewan.”

“Congratulations Blue!” Evan cheered.

“Welcome to our friendship,” Ewan said, offering the girl his hand to help her stand.

“Hooray!” Blue cheered, as the twins escorted her to the room where Teddy still slept. At around 2:00 am, the twins returned to find Teddy still awake, and ended up playing games with him late into the morning. For this reason, Teddy was asleep at the time Blue was escorted into the room, and the twins warned her to respect his sleeping form. She nodded as they left with no explanation as to where they were going. After ten minutes of nothing happening, Blue got bored and crawled next to Teddy, falling back to sleep as she snuggled up with him. Few others joined them in the room by noon, when the twins apparently decided they would give up on those who didn’t pass the test. Besides Blue and Teddy, only Kakahi (to nearly everyone’s surprise), Estela, and Kip joined them in the room. Kip’s presence, as it happened, surprised Teddy more than Kakahi’s. At exactly noon, the twins told the group, who had started playing cards, that they would be top priority best friends to them. They turned them loose, and Blue and Teddy ran out to find and ridicule their significant others, while everyone prepared to leave.

“Just face it,” Blue said, arms crossed as she leaned against a wall and spoke with Malik, “I’m way smarter than you. Teddy says I’m almost a genius!”

Malik glared and rolled his eyes, glancing to Teddy, who shrugged as if to say, “Yeah, I actually did say that to her.”

As part of the group headed out the door to walk back to the dorms, they waved to Kakahi, Estela, Gizmo, and Link, and Kakahi called out to them. “Happy New Year!”

“Happy New Year!” a faction of the leaving party called out. Another group had left earlier, which consisted of everyone but Blue, Teddy, Malik, Pablo, and the twins. Blue called out to the twins as they walked, and the pair quickly fell into step with one of their new buddies.

“Do the two of you have a name?” Blue asked, and they gave her confused looks in response. “I mean like, together? Like a together nickname. Cause I thought of a really good one.”

“All right,” Ewan replied, and the twins glanced at one another and used telepathy again.

“Lay it on us,” Evan requested.

“Twingers!” Blue declared with delight.

“Oh you brilliant weirdo you,” Evan replied.

“That’s perfect, thank you,” Ewan stated, and the twins side hugged her as they walked. Eventually they arrived next to a car that the twins claimed was their ride, and Blue and Teddy bid farewell to their new pals.

“See you later,” Blue said sadly.

“You’re weirdly likable,” Teddy stated bluntly. The twins laughed at the pair and pulled them into a group hug, before backing away toward the car.

“Goodbye, Blue, Teddy,” Ewan said.

“See you in class next Monday,” Evan said, causing Blue to wrinkle her nose and stick her tongue out at them at the thought of class.

As they climbed into the car, she frantically bid them another farewell, “Bye! Happy New Year, Twingers!”



There we go. :D

Chapter 17: Winter is for Presents and Murder Mysteries

Welllllll...This is pretty late. That extra chapter I mentioned probably won't happen for now...This chapter is kind of short and not too awesome. But it's done, so hooray!

The next day, Blue and company sat in Malik's room, where Blue whined about having to go home early in the morning when her parents picked her up. Malik and Teddy had an early flight as well, so they weren't going to get to speak the next day. This meant they needed to make the most out of their last day together for a while, which they planned on doing in a way they weren't quite sure of yet.

During the middle of the morning, Teddy ran out of the room (Kip and Malik’s, Kip was out with some of his other friends) at a moment Blue thought was random, but when she glanced at Malik he didn’t seem surprised. Teddy claimed he was going to meet Pablo somewhere, but Blue suspected something else.

“So,” Malik mumbled, “I know a lot hadn’t really changed since we became a couple officially, other than some kissing and snuggling and hand holding, our relationship is basically the same. We’ve been dating close to three months now, and I just…I know you don’t celebrate Christmas, and I don’t, exactly, either, but…I got you a gift. Like Hanukah I guess, right? Um…Here.” Blue grinned as Malik pulled a small package out from under his bed and handed it to her.

The package was wrapped with extreme care, and Blue managed to admire it for a moment before tearing the wrapping apart. The small box contained a bracelet with a single charm on it. Blue lifted it up and inspected the charm, which was a blue-green stone. She tilted her head and looked to Malik to explain, and he stumbled over his words nervously.

“It’s a-aquamarine,” he mumbled. “U-um, because blue plus green equals aquamarine, and, I just…I thought, it was like, well…Like you and me together, you know?” Blue nodded.

“It’s amazing, Malik,” she said, and her boyfriend’s breath hitched in his throat as he looked at her. Every so often when the two of them were alone Blue would act like a normal girl and speak to him incredibly sincerely; apparently this as one of those moments. “I love it Malik. It’s perfect. And I can get other charms for it, too?” Malik nodded. “I love it. Malik, I…,” Blue grinned, shook her head and covered her face in embarrassment before declaring, “I love you.”

Malik blinked at Blue in momentary shock, never expecting the girl to beat him to those particular words. This didn’t bother him in the slightest as he whispered, “I love you too.” Blue leaned into Malik and gave him a tender kiss before the young man helped her secure the bracelet to her wrist. Blue crawled into his lap and sat there for a while, completely happy in that moment as she sat in his arms.

Teddy and Pablo walked into the room after a polite knock not too long after that, hand in hand. “He gave it to you?” Teddy asked with a surprisingly sweet grin, and Blue nodded, holding her wrist out on display for all to see. Pablo and Teddy seemed impressed, and Malik watched proudly. To Blue’s surprise, Teddy and Pablo each handed her a small gift as well. Blue opened these gifts, and saw two more charms to add to her bracelet; one a rainbow and one a turtle. All four occupants of the room shared smiles, and Teddy managed to express to her during the contagious tears that once again made their way through Blue to Teddy how grateful they were that Blue had decided to come to their school. Pablo and Malik both somehow ended up crying as well, and they shared a group hug for a little too long.

After all of them were sufficiently happy with what they’d said to each other, Blue asked, “So you two really aren’t having a secret affair, are you?”

Malik and Teddy glanced at each other, knowing she was referring to the two of them, “Of course not.” Teddy spoke in Malik’s stead, “I know sometimes people think we might be, but even though I’m obviously gay and Malik doesn’t constantly assert his masculinity, we’re just friends and that’s all we’ll ever be. I’m happy with Pablo, and Malik adores you.”

“I thought that once too,” Pablo mumbled to Blue, “but we’re being kind of…Judgmental and part of the problem when we do that, I think.” Blue nodded in understanding, and the pair asked Teddy and Pablo where they'd been, so they recounted their relatively short tale.

“So, Teddy,” Pablo said, as they sat in his room where Teddy met him, “I got you something.”

“I got you something too,” Teddy replied. They exchanged a pair of gifts, one overly bedazzled and the other looking like it was wrapped by a toddler. Teddy laughed at the copy of Zoo Tycoon (complete with the dinosaur version and the sea life version as well) he held in his hands, and put on a very cute rabbit hat immediately. Pablo gave Teddy a look that jokingly asked, “And what is this?” as he held up a strange item. Teddy explained it as a “spinny paint art maker thing” and helped Pablo to set it up. They spent a time making designs with the machine, which quickly rotated a piece of paper so when they squirted paint onto it it made fun patterns. For a while they used this machine and were fascinated by it, until they quit and snuggled up to play Zoo Tycoon. After unleashing some dinosaurs onto trapped zoo patrons, they laughed and started a new game. This game dissolved into kissing, which they spent the rest of their time doing until they realized they were supposed to go back to Malik's room.

Blue decided to hand out her gifts then, so Teddy gave her a second gift as well as she handed each member of the room a poorly wrapped gift. Each opened their gift at the same time. Malik got a picture of himself and Blue, and a note that says, “I sat still for this, remember? Teddy took it and I asked him for it and stuff. Now put it up in your room!” Malik laughed and gave Blue a light kiss as he realized there was another picture underneath, with himself, Blue and Teddy.

“I love them,” Malik stated, and Blue grinned. Teddy received drawings of Uni and Blue, Malik and Pega, and himself and what looked like a lamp. Teddy contained his giggles as he tried to figure out what it was, and he finally settled on a unicorn with wings or a pegasus with a horn. Pablo got a CD, with instructions for him to choreograph a dance number for himself and Blue to dance along to them. The other couple thanked Blue for the gift, and pondered what they should do for the rest of the day. Luckily, when they couldn't settle on anything, Kip bounded into the room.

“Emergency last minute our old class plus the extra people we've accumulated along the way meeting!” he shouted, before running out of the room. He called back, “In the lobby!” The set of people in the room headed to the lobby immediately, where they met with their friends and speculated about what they'd been called together for. Suddenly, in the front of the group stood Hakan, a grin on his face, with Gerda by his side.

Gerda spoke up, “Hakan and I would like to invite you all to partake in the activity we have planned. We have reserved the gym, please follow Hakan there.” The group, which included Alec, Kendall, Jenny, Pablo, Estela, and Kakahi besides the regular group followed along. Blue chatted with Teddy on the way, while Pablo ran off to talk to Estela and Kakahi about something nonspecific and Malik talked to Kip.

“What are they doing?” she asked, and Teddy shrugged.

“I don’t know,” he replied, and Blue gasped overly dramatically.

“Teddy doesn’t know something!” she shouted in alarm, but the blond quickly covered her mouth and shushed her.

“Shut up, Blue, don’t tell anyone. Of course I know,” he insisted, waving away the smirk Alec sent him. The two were silent for a moment as Alec slowed his pace just to continue smirking at Teddy. Finally Teddy glared and declared in exasperation, “Oh, like you know what’s exactly going on, Potts!”

“Of course I do, Albrecht,” Alec replied with a smug laugh. Teddy snorted in anger and ran off to catch up to Gerda and Hakan to figure out what they were planning for the evening.

Blue was left next to Alec, by that time entirely comfortable with their companionable silence. To her surprise, he spoke to her, “Since we won’t be roommates in the spring,” he said, causing bafflement in Blue’s part, “I thought I would give you this.” In his hand sat a very small box, wrapped nearly perfectly in chrome colored wrapping paper with a silver bow on top. Handing it to Blue with a rare smile, the girl could detect faint blushing on his face. He sped up so as not to watch her open the gift, but she found herself unable to open it while walking anyway. Teddy faded back in the group to Blue’s side, with a particular look on his face she didn’t understand. Before he addressed whatever it was he wanted to, they arrived at the gym, where a dining room table, fully set, with name cards was set up. The group glanced all around, and Teddy laughed at Alec’s confused quirk of his eyebrow. They were quickly seated, Teddy next to Blue, but on either side of the pair sat Estela and Rashida rather than their significant others. Kip and Kendall sat directly across the table from each of them. Gerda informed them all they would be served something called “Risgryngrot” which was rice porridge, and whoever found an almond would be getting married in the coming year. They ate, playing along happily with Gerda’s game, and Kendall found the almond. Blue showed Teddy the gift Alec had given her, earning her a glare from Alec, and Teddy opened it for her with the use of a fork. Inside sat a small button, which was attached to a battery. Under the button sat a very short note that read, “Push the button if there are monsters or you need my help with anything else. PS Don’t trust Albrecht!” She also told him what Alec had said about no longer being roommates, and Teddy scowled deeply.

“So it’s true…,” he mumbled, and Blue tilted her head to the side.

“What’s true?” she asked, but of course an interruption happened at that very moment. The lights flashed out and then flashed back on. Gerda screamed and pointed at a not very realistically dead Hakan lay strewn out across the floor. Teddy grinned at Blue, and the pair glanced around the room. Blue looked legitimately terrified while Teddy laughed, and Gerda began a rehearsed speech.

“God Jul to all!” she declared, causing Blue to ask “What?” loudly before she went on, “Or as you say here in the America, Merry Christmas! As you can see, my beloved Hakan has been murdered! What you must do on this evening is figure out who the murderer is! It is someone in this room. You have two hours to figure it out. You have been paired with the person sitting to your left. Anyone could be the murderer, however, so don’t rule your partner out! OK, let the holiday festivities begin!” Gerda laughed brilliantly, sparking laughter only to be described as maniacal from both Teddy and Alec, and subsequently, to feel included, Blue and Kakahi. Hakan laughed, too, but tried his very best to cover it up. As soon as Gerda’s laughter cut off, quite abruptly, Teddy’s and Alec’s did as well. Blue and Kakahi looked utterly confused and let their laughter patter off, but Hakan just continued occasionally snorting with laughter.

“A Christmas murder mystery!” Teddy said with a grin, grabbing Blue to go off to investigate Hakan’s body. Some of the other pairs moved much more slowly, and Teddy quickly noted Alec had been paired with Kakahi. This put them on relatively equal footing as far as Teddy was concerned, and thus the great contest began. Clues were strewn about the room, and it became quickly obvious the competition was solely between Teddy and Alec, but everyone hoped their “baggage” (Kakahi and Blue) would drag them down. Malik was paired with Pablo, which was strangely tense considering how much time they’d recently spent together by association. In passing, Teddy and Blue each took turns making fun of their awkwardness as they ran by, tracking clues in a frenzied hurry.

Blue was skipping as Teddy tugged her along, and Kakahi waved at her as Alec rolled his eyes at his partner. Kip and Estela followed the brilliant strategy known as “hanging on to genius coattails” and stalked Teddy and Blue around. Jenny and Rashida followed the same method with Alec and Kakahi. While all of this was happening, Kendall and Austin sat in a corner of the room, Kendall listening to Austin describe exactly why she hated every single person in the room they were in (including Kendall, of course) and how she was not going to play along with this stupid game.

Interviewing everyone in the room while finding clues wherever they happened to be Teddy and Alec sent their partners to do most of the physical work. The clues, scrawled neatly in Gerda’s handwriting, led them on a path of increasingly difficult physical challenges Gerda would do very well at but the two young men and their partners were not quite as expert at. Due to this reason, competition slowed down for a while, and it was Pablo who finally managed to get a clue stored at the top of a climbing rope. For a short time Malik was overjoyed that his team may actually win, but Pablo not only accidentally knocked down a second copy of the clue that Alec pounced on, he simply gave the one he grabbed to Teddy. Pablo’s blond boyfriend presumably promised him something to get it, since he whispered in Pablo’s ear and gave him a suggestive smirk. This caused the clue to be handed over in mere seconds after Pablo had returned from the top of the rope, and put Teddy and Alec’s teams at the front of the contest again. After possessing the last set of clues, Alec and Teddy realized who the culprit was at the exact same moment and sprinted off to tell Gerda their discovery.

Teddy and Alec, with trailing partners who were reciting song lyrics to one another by this point, arrived in front of Gerda and spoke simultaneously, “I know who the—it’s you!”

Gerda pouted and nodded, followed by a smile. “Congratulations! It was never a competition with the others, but between the two of you. Would you like your prizes now?” Teddy and Alec glanced at one another, a quick evaluation of the situation and suggestion of multiple prizes seeming to point to the fact that Gerda had predicted this result. While both were unsettled by this, they still waited patiently for Gerda to produce the prizes they’d been promised. Soon both were holding gift cards to spas, and the Swede in front of them mumbled something about winning these gift cards in a contest but not wanting them.

Teddy laughed, but Alec looked offended. Despite Alec’s mumbling that Gerda had shortchanged them, the rest of the group headed back to their dorms and settled in the TV lounge, watching a movie together for the last time in that year. The next day was filled with tearful goodbyes, as Blue’s parents picked her up and Teddy and Malik headed to an airport together. The last thing Blue and Teddy shouted at one another, as Blue got in her parents car was, “I love you! See you at New Years!”

Yep. So there you go. Done.