Triple Trouble (18 page)

Everyone clapped politely.

“One of our chaperones has a special request,” MC Adam continued. “This song goes out to Counselor Case from Coach Babbitt.”

Everyone went “Oooh! How romantic!” and made smoochy noises. Coach Babbitt took Counselor Case and led her to the dance floor.

I recognized the song immediately.

“Hey, that's the song from
Grease
!” I blurted out.

“Yes, it's Counselor Case's favorite movie,” Jazmine James said behind me. “She even taught me the dance that goes with it. It's really hard, but I got it right away.”

“Same here,” I said.

Jazmine and I eyed each other. I might regret this, but I knew the one thing I could not do was back down from a challenge. Especially a challenge from Jazmine James.

“It's on,” we both said at the same time, as if we were identical twins. Jazmine marched out onto the dance floor, her tangerine dress shimmering. She slipped off her silver heels. I followed suit.

And we both started to hand jive.

Pat, pat.

Clap, clap.

Goofy hand movements.

And thumbs-up over the shoulders.

People who were jumping around the dance floor turned to watch us. Soon, a spot was cleared out as they circled around us. Clap, clap! Pat, pat! Jazmine went faster! I went faster than Jazmine! She narrowed her eyes and went even faster! Jazmine and I were having a dance-off!

“Go, Emma!” I heard Payton yell.

“Go, Jazmine!” Hector countered.

Who was winning? It was hard to say! I was keeping up with Jazmine! She was keeping up with me. And then—

Counselor Case came over and joined us!

“Go, Louise!” Coach Babbitt yelled.

Clap, clap! Pat, pat! Counselor Case was hand jiving right along with me and Jazmine. Her eyes squinted at us, and she went faster. And faster . . . and holy moley, she was doing it so fast!

Jazmine and I glanced at each other. Then we tried to keep up but . . . there was no way. I clapped when I was supposed to pat. Jazmine patted when she was supposed to clap.

Counselor Case owned both of us.

The dance ended and we all stopped and stood there panting with exhaustion.

“Yeah! Counselor Case!” everyone was yelling.

“You won that dance-off.” I held out my hand to Counselor Case. She shook it.

“I admit defeat.” Jazmine shook Counselor Case's hand. “Most impressive.”

Jazmine and I slunk off the dance floor. I glanced at her. She was glancing at me. Then we both started cracking up.

“We just got owned by Counselor Case,” Jazmine said, shaking her head.

I was still cracking up when I returned to where my friends and sister were standing.

“You were great out there,” Ox told me, handing me a cup of soda.

“Well, I faced my fear of dancing in public, I guess,” I said. “At least the hand jive. Don't expect any other fast dancing.”

“May I have your attention, Geckos! Hey! HEY!”

The music quieted down, and everyone turned to look at the stage where Sydney was yelling into the microphone.

“As you all know, I'm Sydney Fish!” Sydney's voice
filled the room. “Copresident of the dance committee!”

I started clapping. Payton raised an eyebrow at me and started clapping too. Hey, she had done a good job.

“I have an awesome surprise, arranged by me,” Sydney said. “Thanks to me, we are going to have a special performance by the hottest new band in town. Fresh off their tour at Multipalooza, it's . . .”

This I had to see! I motioned my friends to move closer to the stage before everyone else did.

“THE SUPERTWINS!”

Sydney climbed down the steps and stood in front of us.

Asher, Dexter, and Oliver strode onto the stage. Asher and Oliver were carrying their guitars. They all looked psyched—even Asher. Their performance must have gone well today.

“We are the SuperTwins,” either Dexter or Oliver said into the microphone. “And we want to play a song for our new school.”

“And I want to introduce our newest member of the band.” Asher leaned in. “Our lead singer, Cashmere.”

“Wait, what?” Sydney blurted out.

Yup, Cashmere strode onto the stage. Cashmere, in a black rocker-chick T-shirt, ripped jeans, and black boots.

“What is she doing up there?” Sydney swiveled her head around to see if anyone knew.

“Singing, I guess.” Payton shrugged.

That's right—Cashmere was a great singer, as we had learned on the double-decker bus in New York City.

“She's not only our new lead singer, she's also my date,” Asher said shyly. Cashmere came over and gave him a hug.

“HEY!” Sydney yelled out. “He's my date! You can't steal my date!”

“Oh, stuff it, you can have the other two,” Cashmere said into the microphone. “Here's a slow dance for all you people who can't fast dance.”

Like me!

Nick took Payton's hand and led her to the dance floor.

“Emma, would you like to dance?” Ox asked.

I nodded. As I held out my hand, someone tugged on my dress.

“Emma! Emma! Dance with me?” It was Jason. Mason was right behind him.

“No, me!” Mason said.

“Sorry, guys, I'm already asked for,” I said.

“I'd love to dance with you,” Tess said. “May I?”

“I'm first!” Jason said, and dragged her out there.

“Hey, Mason, there's someone who needs a dance partner.” I pointed toward the stage. Sydney was looking out sadly at the dance floor, since her two dates were playing.

“She's pretty,” Mason said. He ran up to her, and I watched to make sure she was kind to him. She shrugged and went out to the dance floor. Sometimes, Sydney could be okay. Not often.

Ox took my hand and led me to the dance floor. We passed Jazmine and Hector slow dancing. Quinn and Ahmad from VOGS. Counselor Case and Coach Babbitt. Principal Patel and . . . Mrs. Burkle? We moved away from them.

I put my arms around Ox's neck. Our first slow dance! This was so romantic! This was so . . .

“Did you know that a hybrid of our names is a patented health care diagnostic device?” I blurted out.

Cashmere's voice sang softly as couples swayed around. Ox looked down at me.

“Oxemma,” he said. “I know.”

“You do?” I asked, moving my left foot, then my right foot in my best slow-dance move.

“Yeah,” he said, and blushed. “I mashed our names on Wikipedia and found it.”

I felt my face turn pink too.

We slow danced some more.

“Oof.” Someone backed into me.

“Hey, Emma!” It was Mason. “Watch my smooth skills.” He tried to twirl Sydney around. She had to duck under their hands awkwardly.

“Just don't dip me, shrimp,” Sydney said, and they danced away.

“Cute hybrid,” remarked Ox. “A shrimp and a fish. A crustaceanfish.”

I got it. Because Sydney's last name was Fish. And I smiled. Because Ox got
me
. And he liked me anyway.

“You look really pretty,” Ox said shyly.

“So do you,” I said back shyly. “Handsome, I mean.”

Ox bent down, his face coming closer to mine. Was he going to kiss me? He wasn't going to kiss me, was he? Not now! Not in front of all these people! I mean, it was all romantic and Ox was awesome, but I was only twelve, and I wasn't quite ready and . . .

“Emma,” Ox said into my ear.

Oh! He was just going to say something to me.

“Did you know that an Emmox is a hybrid of intelligence and fun?” he said.

“Really?” I said. “I didn't know—”

Then I got it. Our own private mashup name.

“Oh . . . definitely,” I said happily. “That's the coolest hybrid of all.”

As the song ended, people started clapping around us. I stared into Ox's eyes.

“Dip me,” I said in my most confident, competition-challenge voice.

And although I didn't know what I was doing, Ox gently leaned me back over his arm and dipped me.

And as he held me in his strong, muscley arms, I saw—upside down—Payton and Nick smiling at us and clapping. I smiled back and mouthed, “Squee!”

“Woot, Emma!” my twin said and punched the air.

I closed my eyes and smiled. Best. Romantic. Moment. Ever.

MONDAY AFTER SCHOOL

We all huddled around the television monitor in the VOGS room.

“Good morning, Geckos!” Ahmad, the VOGS anchor, said on the television. “It's Tuesday, and we have a lot of news today.”

It was actually still Monday, and it was after school. Mrs. Burkle had let us stay for a sneak preview of the VOGS cast that would be shown tomorrow morning at school.

“First,” Ahmad reported, “it's Pasta Feasta day in the cafeteria, so come get your noodle on!”

I fidgeted in my chair.

“Are you so excited, Payton?” Tess asked. “Your first VOGS story on your own?”

“Excited, but also nervous and bracing myself,” I said. “This has the potential to be very embarrassing.”

I looked over at Emma. She was leaning on Ox's legs, peeking through her fingers.

“I can hardly look,” Emma said.

“Nick, reassure us,” I said.

“I promise you that the worst of it was edited out,” Nick said. “Beyond that, no promises.”

I smacked him lightly, and he grinned. We watched a segment about the new fire alarm system and then . . . There we were! Emma and me, in our colorful jackets!

“Squee!” I said. “And eek!”

Emma leaned forward. We both watched intently.

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

“Emma!” Emma was on-screen now. “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.”

The camera panned across the crowd. Suddenly, a now-familiar zombie face jumped up and started waving wildly at the camera.

“Tate!” Emma laughed. “I didn't know we were video-bombed by Tate!”

“And if you
haven't
wondered that,” I was saying on camera, “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.”

Emma and I both groaned.

“I can't look,” I said. I buried my head in my arms and then peeked out.

“That's right—we have challenged Dexter, Oliver, and Asher, otherwise known as the SuperTwins, to a Multipalooza competition,” Emma said.

And there we were!

First, at the Dizzy Plooza!

“Ohhhh!” Everyone in the room laughed and groaned and laughed. Mostly, I groaned. Embarrassing, painful—but excellent television.

Then there we were at the Multipaloo-Trivia. We all cheered as Emma hit buzzer after buzzer and won the game for us.

“We redeemed ourselves,” Emma said.

Then the triplets zooming past us in the Three-Legged Race, as Emma and I fell flat on our faces.

“We unredeemed ourselves,” I laughed.

Then the Tug-of-War! Nick got hilarious close-up shots of our ridiculous team—Mason and Jason with lizard face paint, the zombie kids, and us, trying so hard against the other team.

“That's painful!” Quinn said.

But then a shriek! And Mascot the Gecko had jumped on Dexter's head, and we all started howling with laughter! We were laughing so hard that Nick had to hit pause.

And then, the final Tug-of-War, where we all worked together on one team.

“Go, Geckos!” we all cheered at the end.

Then the scene shifted, and just Emma and I were on camera together. We had changed outfits.

“Ugh,” I groaned. “This is when we have to do our wager because we lost. This is painful.”

“I am wearing a T-shirt that says ‘Triplets Are Three Times as Awesome,' Emma said, with a fake smile on her face.

“Mine says ‘Triplets Rock!' Because Asher, Dexter, and Oliver really rock,” I said. “SuperTwins rock.”

“Triplets rule over Twins,” Emma and I recited stiffly.

Suddenly a caption scrolled across the screen:
These statements are the result of a wager. They may or may not
represent the views of VOGS anchors or staff.

“Who did that?” Emma asked. I shrugged.

“Well, I figured it was journalistic integrity to be truthful,” Nick said, and shrugged. “The viewers had a right to know.”

We all laughed. I leaned over and gave Nick a hug.

The scene changed back to the middle of the festival. We saw faces of different people, people who looked alike and were dressing alike to celebrate being twins.

On-Screen Me began talking: “So let's find out what it's like to be an identical! There are over a thousand identicals here today, but I'll start by asking my own twin.”