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  “No,” I said, my voice icy with anger, “That means he thinks I’m a girl who cheats on her boyfriend! And it also means that he thinks I like him! Do you not get it? What the hell part of this don’t you get?”

  Rina stared at me, wide-eyed. “Oh,” she said finally. “Right. I’m sorry.”

  “Not as sorry as I’m gonna be if—oh my God, what if he tells someone? Paul’s gonna break up with me!” I felt a moment of sheer, blind panic, and I frantically looked around the room as if help were magically going to arrive from somewhere, bursting out of the walls or materializing in the fireplace. “If anybody hears about this, they’re totally gonna tell, and it’s gonna get back to Paul somehow, and then he’s gonna—”

  “Nobody’s gonna hear about it,” said Rina. “Don’t worry.”

  “How the hell do you know? Jake could be telling half the world by now!” Oh my God, I had to text Paul. No, I had to call Paul. But what was I going to say? I opened my phone, saw the picture of Paul that I have as a background, freaked out, and closed it again and threw it onto the couch. No. No panic-texting, I told myself. That’s even worse than drunk-texting. Calm down. I just had to calm down.

  “Jake won’t say anything,” Rina said. “He just doesn’t seem like that kind of person, you know? You should know. Didn’t you used to be friends?”

  “You guys talked about that?”

  “Sure,” Rina shrugged. “We talked about a bunch of stuff. Did you know he wants to go to art school?”

  “Yeah, I think so,” I said distractedly. “He likes drawing.”

  “Painting too. He said he might want to be a storyboard artist for movies or something. Oh, and he drew this little cartoon of me. Or you.” She dug a Post-it note out of the couch cushions and held it out, a little ink drawing of a wavy-haired girl wearing a minidress and a cape, done vaguely anime style. It was super cute.

  Christ.

  I sank down onto the end of the couch that was farther away from Rina, hugged a throw pillow to my chest (both for comfort and to have it ready to chuck at her head if necessary), and closed my eyes.

  “Kate?” asked Rina in a small voice.

  “Yeah,” I answered flatly, keeping my eyes closed.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “You said that already.”

  “I know, but I really am,” Rina said. “I wasn’t thinking. I mean, it’s just—he was flirting with me, and—”

  I opened my eyes and sat up. “He was flirting with you? Because from what I saw, you were the one getting all up in his face.” I pasted on a goofy grin and twirled my hair in my fingers, imitating what I’d seen her doing.

  “Yeah, but he was all, you know, smiley and nice, so I figured—”

  “Smiley and nice? Jake is never smiley and nice,” I snapped. “He’s occasionally not a jerk, but it’s usually, like, grudgingly. Begrudgingly. Whatever.” Through my still-simmering rage, I mentally cursed Jake for not texting me before dropping off the robot specs. How rude was he, just swinging by my house like that? Or maybe it was my own fault. I should’ve made him set a specific time instead of agreeing to play it by ear. Then none of this would have happened.

  Wait, why was I blaming myself? This was all on Rina. “Why the hell did you open the door?” I yelled.

  “Maybe you should try being nicer to him,” Rina said, ignoring my question. “It was pretty mean of you to ditch him just because Paul thought he was a slacker.”

  “That is not how it happened.”

  Rina shrugged. “According to him it was. So I was like, yeah, sorry about that. And then he kind of warmed up and got friendlier….”

  “Yeah,” I snapped. “I saw.” I felt absolutely sick. The things Rina had said to Jake, Jake now thought I had said. And there wasn’t anything I could do about it. There was also nothing I could do about the image of them kissing—which was pretty much a visual of me and Jake kissing—that was now permanently burned into my eyeballs.

  Rina suddenly got up. “I know what’ll make you feel better!” she said, running upstairs.

  “You never coming back down because you’ve somehow disappeared?” I called after her.

  “Don’t be mean!” came her muffled reply. In a minute she returned with some papers in her hand. “Here,” she said, giving me the thin, neatly stapled stack. “I was saving it for tomorrow, but—”

  “What is this?” I asked. I looked at it. It looked like an English paper on The Sound and the Fury. I scanned through the pages. It was an English paper on The Sound and the Fury. It was due Monday, actually, for my take-home final, except I hadn’t written it yet.

  “I wrote it for you!” Rina said cheerfully. “I saw in your planner that it was due Monday, and you’ve been so stressed, so yesterday I looked at your notes from class, and the stuff you highlighted in the book, and then I wrote it for you!”

  “What? Why the hell would you do that?”

  “You’re stressed,” she repeated. “I thought it would help you out. You know, like the flash cards.”

  I flung the paper aside. “No! I mean, I can’t. Flash cards are one thing, but a whole paper is just…sketchy.”

  “Then let me help you some other way,” Rina insisted. “Please? I know I screwed up, so if there’s anything I can do, seriously, anything—”

  “No,” I said.

  “Anything!” Rina declared again. She plunked down on the couch so that she was at my eye level and looked at me pleadingly.

  I stared at her, completely unable to believe her nerve. She had just spent the morning deliberately impersonating me, quite possibly wrecking my relationship with my boyfriend and probably every single other aspect of my social life as well, and she thought writing a paper would make up for it?

  “It doesn’t have to be homework,” Rina said. “I could…I don’t know, do your laundry for you, if that would save you some time, or I could clean your room, or—”

  “Yes,” I said suddenly, sitting up. “Yes, there is something you can do.” I felt simultaneously sick to my stomach and delighted at the thought that had just occurred to me.

  “What is it?” Rina asked eagerly. “Anything. I swear.”

  I spit my words out quickly before I started thinking too hard about the possible consequences. “You can go to the school board meeting tomorrow afternoon,” I told her. “I’m the student rep for Colchester, but all I do is sit there. I don’t even take notes.” I took a deep breath. “So…what if you went and sat there instead? And then I’ll have an extra hour to write my English paper. My own English paper,” I added.

  Rina’s eyes widened. “Oh my God. Yes!” she whooped. “Of course! I will totally do that. It’ll be so fun!”

  I glared at her.

  “Or…not fun?” she asked, in a slightly quieter voice.

  “Not fun,” I answered. “Zero fun. You go, sit down, shut up, and come straight back. Okay? That’s all. No talking to anyone. No going anywhere else. ”

  “Okay,” she said, nodding. An excited smile crept across her face again, and I intensified my glare.

  “Don’t you dare have a good time,” I snapped. “It’s the least you can do after today. The absolute least.”

  “I know,” she said, her smile abruptly disappearing. “And I’m sorry, again.”

  Silence.

  “Is there anything else I can do?” she finally asked, after a long, tense beat of both of us just sitting on the couch.

  “Yeah,” I said. “Go in the closet and don’t come out for the rest of the day.”

  Rina nodded, got up, and slowly went up the stairs.

  Dear Diary,

  Guess where I am right now. AT A SCHOOL BOARD MEETING! This is so cool that I get to be out of the house! And you know what’s even cooler? Kate let me take her car! Okay, so she made me practice up and down the street first because she didn’t believe me when I said I could drive (and she was right, actually—I’d never done it before). But guess what, turns out I’m an awesome driver! Who kn
ew how much you could learn from reading and watching TV?

  And this meeting is so exciting!

  Okay, actually it’s boring, but I mean, you know, the idea of it is exciting. Getting to be out of the house and stuff.

  Okay, actually, no. Now it’s just really boring.

  Kate’s really gotta find a better way to spend her time.

  Love, Rina

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9

  TICK. TICK. SCCCRITCH-TICK. TICK. I WAS SITTING at the kitchen table late Sunday afternoon, listening to the messed-up second hand on the clock above the pantry door and typing my English paper on my laptop. Thanks to Rina taking the school board meeting off my hands, I felt calmer about schoolwork than I had in a while. But it was also a little hard to concentrate, given that I kept flashing back to Rina and Jake’s kiss. I’d talked to Kyla on the phone, but luckily she hadn’t heard any interesting gossip. Later I’d talked to Paul as well, and all seemed normal with him. Still, one word from Jake to the wrong person, and the story would be around school like wildfire.

  “Hello?” called Rina’s voice from the front hall. She burst into the kitchen, threw off her coat, and sank into the chair across from me. “Those meetings suck,” she declared. “I mean, thanks for letting me go, but why do you even bother?”

  “I’ll make a note of that for next time,” I said. She had a point, but I wasn’t really one to skip things I was supposed to be at. If I were, I would’ve started peacing out on school board meetings eons ago, not to mention National Honor Society and half my other extracurriculars. “Did anybody talk to you?”

  Rina shook her head. “Cool,” I said, relieved. “Well, I’m either gonna work on my essay or do some SAT stuff until Paul gets here….” I trailed off as I tried to decide which.

  Rina perked up. “He’s coming over?”

  I gave her a warning glance. “Yes. For a study break.” I sighed. “Although I’ll probably still be studying, even while he’s here.”

  “Then why invite him?”

  “Well, we haven’t seen each other much lately and he’s starting to complain—”

  “That’s so cute!” Rina exclaimed. “He misses you!”

  “I know, I know,” I said, “and he’s totally right. But he sort of doesn’t get that this is, like, the busiest week of my whole life. He never has to study as much as I do, and right now I have to more than ever, so…” Rina nodded sympathetically and I realized I was rambling. Not that she minded. Or noticed. “Anyway,” I said. “I’m gonna go upstairs. Mom’s at the office till late, so do whatever.” I got up from the table.

  “Cool, I’ll watch TV,” Rina said. “And I’ll make you some Euro flash cards.”

  Sweet.

  Half an hour later, I’d gotten zero wrong on an SAT math section. “Yay!” I said, then slammed the practice book shut, blowing some papers off my desk. I bent to pick them up. It was mostly scrap paper, plus some AP history handouts from last year and a Post-it from Paul that just said “hi” with a smiley face (note to self: clean desk more often). The last thing I picked up was the English take-home Rina had written for me. I was about to chuck it in the trash, but out of curiosity, I flipped past the cover page and started reading.

  It was good.

  In fact, it was better than the one I had outlined in detail and was planning on finishing tonight. If I were grading it, I would’ve given myself (well, Rina) an A already, and I was barely on page two.

  “Oh, are you gonna use that? You should totally use that,” Rina said, suddenly poking her head in my bedroom door.

  “Aaagh! Don’t sneak up like that!” I said, almost dropping the paper.

  “Sorry.” Rina stepped into my room. “But are you gonna use that paper? Because technically…” She paused and smiled, her voice taking on a hint of deviousness. “It’s not like it’s actually cheating. You and I are the same person, and if I wrote it, that means you wrote it. Plus, I used all of your notes. See?”

  “That logic is sketchy at best and totally evil at worst,” I said.

  “Just sayin’.” She shrugged, the look on her face somehow blending innocence and “I dare you.”

  “Tempting…very tempting,” I said, “but nope. I can’t do it.” I crumpled up the paper into a ball.

  “The file’s still on your computer,” Rina singsonged.

  “Only until I delete it,” I replied, parroting her tone of voice. I threw the wad of crumpled-up paper at her, and she giggled and went back downstairs.

  A little later Paul rang the doorbell, and Rina dashed up the stairs to hide. “Hi!” I said, opening the door and stepping back so he could come in. He was wearing his letter jacket over a Celtics hoodie and carrying two large pizza boxes. He raised the pizzas in the air as I hugged him around the waist and dragged him down to the basement. I threw on the lights and we skittered over the cold cement floor near the stairs toward the carpeted section in front of the TV.

  “Hello, stranger,” Paul said, putting the pizza boxes on the carpet and sitting down next to them. He smiled at me and leaned back against the couch, stretching out his long legs.

  “Shut it,” I said. “It’s not my fault!” I sat down next to Paul, carefully studying his face for any signs that he’d heard something about Jake since the last time I’d talked to him. Thankfully, there was nothing but his now-standard expression of slight exasperation at my overly busy schedule.

  “Fair enough,” he said, putting a slice of veggie pizza onto a paper plate and handing it to me. “Some of it’s mine, and I apologize once again for bailing on Friday. How was the shopping? Did you get me anything?”

  “Perhaps,” I said, looking around innocently. “Perhaps a supplement to a previously purchased gift or gifts.”

  He grinned. “Awesome. But actually, what I really, really want for Christmas—”

  “Do not say ‘threesome.’”

  “—is more time with my girlfriend.”

  “Awww, how sweet!” I said, before I realized the implications of the words threesome and girlfriend as they related to Rina being in my room that very second, and almost burst out laughing. My subsequent facial contortions drew a weird look from Paul.

  “Sorry,” I said, shaking my head and trying to will the giggles away. “I’m just, um, stressed out. By the way, do you care if I study while we eat?” I pulled some flash cards out of my back pocket.

  Paul’s hand, which had been on its way to his mouth with a slice of pizza, stopped in midair. “Seriously?” he asked, rolling his eyes.

  “I just want to take advantage of every minute.”

  Paul sighed. “What’s up with you lately? You used to manage your time so much better.”

  “Oh, gee,” I answered, bristling at his insultingly frustrated tone of voice, “I’m so sorry that I’m trying to get into Yale with you.”

  “Yeah, I know, but I didn’t think it would turn you into some sort of neurotic, study-all-the-time—”

  “I mean maybe you didn’t realize this, but I can’t magically get straight A’s just by being alive, unlike some people—”

  “Of course you can—you’ve been doing it for years.”

  “No,” I said flatly. “I haven’t.”

  Paul looked confused. “Huh?”

  “I said, I haven’t been—”

  The doorbell interrupted my oncoming rant. Paul raised an “are you expecting someone?” eyebrow. I shrugged, glad that what was about to turn into an argument had been headed off at the pass, and stood up. I went to the front door and looked out the window. Kyla and Anne were on my porch, and I could see Carmen’s car idling on the curb, with our other friends Tess and Laurin inside.

  “Oh. Hey guys,” I said, as I opened the door. “What’s going—”

  “Mandatory study break!” declared Kyla. She was wearing a corduroy mini and a puffy down vest over a black shirt that seemed to be made mostly of lace. I had no idea how she wasn’t freezing to death.

  �
�What?” I asked.

  “You heard the woman,” Anne said. Her blond hair was pulled back tightly as usual, and the tops of her ears were already reddening in the cold. “You fully said okay before, remember I texted you?” Oh. Ohhhh. Right. I dimly remembered scheduling hang time with the girls in my planner. I also remembered telling myself that I would cancel, but apparently I’d forgotten that part.

  “All right then,” said Kyla, promptly interpreting the realization on my face in her favor. “You remember. So get your ass in the car or the car will back over your ass.”

  Paul appeared behind me. “Ladies,” he said, pulling on his jacket and getting his car keys out of his pocket.

  “Man,” intoned Kyla, deepening her voice to match (or at least get closer to) his. Anne giggled, then her eyes flicked from Paul to me and back to Paul again. I got a weird feeling that she could feel the whisper of tension between us, so I was relieved when Paul pulled me into the kitchen, out of sight of the front door.

  “I thought you were supposed to ditch your friends before me,” he said, his voice barely audible.

  “I know, and I meant to, but I forgot to tell them,” I whispered back as quickly as I could. “I didn’t realize they were actually going to show up. I’m sorry. Like you said, I’m totally disorganized lately….”

  Paul sighed. “Well, whatever. You might as well go. But call me later.” He kissed me, then edged his way past the girls on the porch and jogged out to his car. Anne and I both watched him leave.

  “Okay, so, boyfriend time over, friend time begins,” said Kyla. She looked at me impatiently, and I could see that she wasn’t about to let me bail. But my English paper was waiting, as was my personal statement, and I knew that a half-hour coffee break would turn into an hour, and then into three. There was no way in hell I could go.

  Then it hit me: Rina could.

  Oh my God. I’d been killing myself to get everything done and keep everyone happy and I had this identical twin doing absolutely nothing upstairs.

  Rina could go in my place!

  “I’ll be down in five minutes,” I told Kyla.