Go! Fight! Twin! (11 page)

They sat in silence, sipping their drinks. Ava fiddled with the little accordion-scrunched paper from her straw and racked her brains for something to say. Then finally she thought of something.

“So did you see how PJ had twenty-five completions?”

While at the exact same time, Jack said, “I think Jeff Coolidge rushed for over a hundred yards.”

“Sorry, what?”

“Sorry, didn't mean to interrupt.”

Ava took another sip of her soda and saw that out of the corner of her eye, several of Jack's friends were making goofy faces at him from their table. Could this be more awkward?

Just when she thought it couldn't possibly, the door chime tinkled and someone walked into the restaurant. Glad to have a distraction, Ava turned to see who it was. Her jaw dropped.

It was Charlie. Her sort-of boyfriend from back in Massachusetts.

Alex was in mid-sip of her drink when Charlie Weidner walked into Sal's. She nearly spewed soda all over the table.

“Are you okay?” asked Emily, slapping Alex on the back several times.

Alex managed to stop coughing enough to gasp that she was fine, that she'd just swallowed a sip the wrong way.

Charlie hadn't seen her yet. He stood near the door, scanning the crowd. A few kids looked up at him curiously. Despite her shock, it struck Alex that it really was obvious when someone showed up who wasn't from Ashland. She couldn't put her finger on why—Charlie wasn't dressed in
different clothes or anything. He was still the same freckled, red-haired kid she remembered, although he seemed to have grown at least two inches since she'd last seen him. But somehow he looked like he wasn't from around here.

She glanced over at where Ava was sitting with Jack. Ava had definitely seen Charlie walk in, because she'd picked up the huge menu no one ever looked at—everyone always ordered the specialty, pizza margherita—and had it propped up in front of her. She was clearly hiding behind it. Alex saw her sister's eyes peek out over the top of the menu, and she could tell that Ava was completely freaked out.

“Do you know that kid?” asked Lindsey, looking curiously at Charlie.

“Yes,” said Alex. “That's . . . Charlie.”

Corey looked up sharply from where he was sitting, farther down the table. Everyone was now staring from Alex to Charlie and back again.

“I thought you said you'd broken up!” hissed Emily under her breath.

“We did,” Alex responded weakly.

“So he came all the way from Boston to beg you to come back to him?” asked Emily. “Wow. That is so totally romantic.”

Alex stood up. “Be right back,” she said to her friends, and she hurried over to where Charlie was standing.

“Charlie? Oh my gosh! I can't believe it!” she gushed, giving him a huge bear hug.

“Hey, Alex,” said Charlie. He half hugged her in return, patting her awkwardly on the back.

“What are you doing here?”

“Surprise, ha-ha. How's it going? What happened to your chin?”

“Oh, I fell. You know me, I'm a total klutz! But—” Her eyes flicked to Ava's booth. She was still hiding behind the menu. “But what—how—how did you—”

“I'm here with the whole family,” said Charlie. “We have a week off at school and we're heading to Mexico. But our connecting flight doesn't leave until midnight tonight, so my mom and your mom are having dinner. And Isabel and I told her not to tell so we could surprise you guys. Izzie's got a temperature, so she's with my dad, but she told me to be sure to say hi to you. She's really upset she doesn't get to see you.”

“Wow, that's awesome! Except the part about Izzie being sick, that's not awesome,” said Alex, blinking rapidly, trying to think. She needed to
look happy to see him, for his sake, but not too happy, because she was aware that an entire table full of her friends was watching how she interacted with this pretend ex-boyfriend, the guy she'd told everyone in the whole school she'd recently broken up with.
And then what do I do about Ava?

“So where's Ave?” asked Charlie, looking around.

“Ave?”

“Ava.”

“Ava?”

“Yeah. Your twin sister?”

“Oh! Ava! Why she's, uh, well, let's see. Where is she?” Alex was madly stalling for time. She prayed that Ava would have the sense to crawl between the tables and get to the bathroom. Then she could shimmy out an open window and escape down the water pipe.

“Charlie!” It was Ava. She'd set down her menu and was calling to him and waving from across the room.

Alex closed her eyes and inhaled a long, cleansing breath. She couldn't believe this was happening.

Charlie gently moved past Alex to head over
to Ava, who was now standing up and walking over to them. Jack stood up too and was looking at Charlie with serious confusion. Ava had a fake frozen smile on her face, as though she were into the third hour of cheerleading tryouts. This time, though, her face was as white as paper.

Alex briefly contemplated running, but then turned and followed after Charlie.

“Hi!” said Ava when she reached Charlie and Alex. She gave Charlie a quick hug, and then they both jumped backward. “What—what are you doing here?”

Charlie explained quickly.

“Oh. So that explains the mysterious date our mom had with an old friend,” said Ava. “She was weird about not giving any details.”

“Yeah,” said Charlie. “We thought it would be cool to surprise you guys.”

“Ha-ha, what a surprise,” said Ava. It was a hollow laugh. The conversation faltered, and then ground to a standstill. The three stood in awkward silence.

Alex looked from one to the other, wondering what to do. Finally, when the silence between Ava and Charlie became intolerable, she blurted, “So, Charlie. See that guy over there that Ava
was sitting with? He's on the school paper. And he's interviewing Ava. About being the only girl on the football team. It's not like a date or anything. Right, Ava?”

Ava's mouth fell open. She looked over her shoulder at Jack. Then she turned back to Charlie.

Jack must have seen the look and interpreted it as an invitation to come join them, which he then did.

“Jack! This is Charlie. Charlie, this is Jack,” said Alex desperately.

“Hey, Charlie,” said Jack with an easy grin. “I've heard a lot about you.”

“You have?” asked Charlie.

“Yep. Alex has talked about you a lot.”

“Alex has?”

“Oh, you know my sister,” said Ava, jumping in quickly. “Always the chatterbox.”

“Um, yeah,” said Charlie. “So are you and Jack still talking, or do you have time to hang out?” Charlie asked Ava.

Ava turned bright pink.

Charlie turned to Jack. “I'm impressed you don't need to write anything down. I would never be able to remember what people said.”

Jack looked puzzled. “Write it down?”

Ava pulled her phone out and looked down. “Oh, wow, it actually looks like I have to go, you guys,” she said. “My brother's texting me and he really needs my help with a, um, a situation, and I'm going to catch a ride back with the Cahills over there, who look like they're heading out. Sorry, Jack. Gotta go. Bye! So awesome to see you, Charlie!”

And she fled.

Alex shot her a reproachful look, but Ava was already on her way out the door. Alex stood there awkwardly between Charlie and Jack, conscious of the fact that Corey and Lindsey and Emily were all looking curiously at the three of them from the long table across the restaurant.

“So, uh, Jack,” said Charlie, “Alex says you're an ace reporter for the paper. That's awesome.”

Jack looked at Alex and raised an eyebrow.

Alex looked at him and pleaded with her eyes for him to go along with this.

He seemed to understand, because he turned to Charlie and grinned. “Oh, yeah, well, thanks. I try.”

Alex felt a surge of gratitude toward Jack.

“Well, Alex, our moms are having dinner
together right down the street at a place called the Pain or something.”

“Le pehn,” Alex corrected him automatically, pronouncing it the French way. Yes! A way out! “Why don't I walk you there?” she suggested. “We can talk on the way, and catch up and stuff.”

Charlie nodded, and after saying good-bye to Jack, Alex led Charlie out. She turned toward the table where her friends were sitting and gave them what she hoped was a look that said,
I'll try to let the poor guy down easy
, before they walked out the door.

As soon as the Cahills had dropped Ava off, she raced inside and discovered with relief that no one was home yet. Moxy started running in circles around Ava the second she stepped into the house.

For twenty minutes Ava sat on the floor, petting Moxy, who, pleasantly surprised to be given such attention, rolled onto her back with all four paws in the air, the better to allow Ava to stroke her tummy. Ava was lost in thought. She still couldn't believe Charlie had shown up at Sal's. Just as she'd finally decided she would break up with him once and for all. Was it a sign of some sort?

Ava was still sitting on the floor with Moxy
when she heard a car door close quietly and Tommy's voice saying thank you to Luke.

Moxy bounded to her feet, and the two of them went to meet him as he came in through the side door.

He tiptoed quietly into the room and looked warily around. “Hey, Ave,” he whispered. “Anyone else home yet?” He was dressed in very un-Tommy-like clothes: a dark shirt, a sport coat, and blue jeans.

Ava shook her head. “You better change out of those clothes, though, before they get here,” she said.

“Yep, and I should be lying down in my room anyway,” he said. “Come up and talk to me in a minute. I'll tell you how it went.”

When Ava went upstairs, she found Tommy under the covers of his bed, propped up on his pillows. She went in and sat down.

“So, how was it?”

His dark eyes danced. “It was brilliant, Ave. We won the contest! We totally stole the show! The three of us—Jackson on drums, Harley on bass, and me—each had a solo improv, and we killed it.”

“Aw, Tommy, that's so great,” said Ava. “But
what are you going to say to Coach?”

“Nothing, I hope,” he said. “I'll just say I've been home throwing up but now I feel better.”

Alex and Mrs. Sackett were the next to arrive home, followed soon after by Coach. Ava wasn't in the mood to hear about Charlie from Alex, so she pretended to be asleep. She heard her parents go in to check on Tommy, and then she heard the murmur of his voice, sounding weak and sick. She heaved a sigh of relief. It looked like Tommy had gotten away with skipping out on the second half of the game.

“Well, it looks like you got away with it,” snapped Alex as she came into Ava's room the next morning without even knocking. She dropped into Ava's comfy chair and crossed her arms, eyeing her sister with extreme annoyance.

Ava was still in bed, but she'd been awake for a while. She closed her phone. “Got away with what?”

“Oh, brother,” snorted Alex. “With being on a date with a guy and having the other guy you've been going out with show up at the same exact
time? Thanks to me, anyway. I covered for you, even though you were zero help in this whole thing, thank you very much.” She sat breathing heavily, her nostrils flaring.

“Al, it's not like I asked for this date with Jack,” Ava pointed out. “May I remind you that you were the one who said yes, posing as me?”

“Okay, well, whatever,” said Alex. “I am totally and completely exhausted from all the excitement of these past few days.”

“I just texted Jack,” said Ava quietly. “I apologized for running out like that. Told him maybe we should stick to playing basketball together. He was pretty decent about it.”

“Wait. So you broke it off with Jack?”

“Well, it's not like there was anything to break off,” Ava pointed out. “We weren't actually dating. But now I'm conflicted about Charlie again. I don't know what to think about the fact that he came all that way, just to see me.”

Alex shifted uncomfortably. “Hey, Ave. Have you been on his Buddybook page recently?”

“No. You know I don't go on Buddybook nearly as often as you do.”

“I know. That's why I'm mentioning this,” said Alex. “See, it looks to me like Charlie might
kind of have a girlfriend. Remember Caroline Blatz from last year?”

“Caroline the volleyball star?”

Alex nodded.

Ava sat, contemplating. “She's okay, I guess. Still, it's weird. You finally decide you're going to break up with someone, and then find out they were about to break up with you, and it feels, well, bad. But I'm glad for him.”

Alex watched Ava open her phone and send a text. Soon after, her phone buzzed, and then she sent another.