Chapter 1: We Built it Up
"You can stop staring at Kimi," someone whispered in my ear.
"Go eat mudpies, Lillian," I snapped in reply, absentmindedly jabbing my twin in the arm with a pencil. I looked again at the girl two rows up before turning my gaze back to my look-alike sister, Lil.
"I said, leave me alone," I replied angrily.
"Mr. and Miss DeVille, is there a problem?" asked our study hall teacher, Mrs. Gamble, from her desk.
"No ma'am," Lil and I recited. Lil waited until Mrs. Gamble had reopened her book and settled down before whispering, "You'd better get her now while you can, Phillip. Z may have moved, but Kimi can be outgoing when she wants to, and you and I both know she's not ugly."
I rested my head face down on the desk for a moment before facing Lil. "That may be so, but who says I like her?"
"Everyone knows you do but her. Do you realize that ever since Z moved, Chuckie's been breathing down your back whenever you're near her? He hasn't been keeping an eye on you for no reason."
I sighed. Lil was right of course, per usual. If I didn't move now, someone was going to stop me. Yet...
Lil also had a point about the whole Chuckie thing. I didn't want to ruin my lifelong friendship with Chuckie (and possibly Tommy if he took Chuck's side) over a girl – especially his own sister.
Isn't there some girl code rule against that? Dating your brother's best friend? Or is it dating your best friend's brother? Or both? It makes my brain hurt.
The bell rang, and in the rush, Lia Pearson knocked half of Kimi's things off her desk. Lia and her friends Melanie and Nicole snickered, and the three of them walked away.
"You'd better do something now, Philly," Lil muttered in my ear before sweeping out of the room to her lunchtime Student Council meet (the only one this month that's during the lunch period). And would you believe my luck? Chuckie was President with Lil Vice President and Tommy had some weird thing – I think the student council's school newspaper? – with Dil, so it was just Kimi and I together for lunch. That is, if she would sit with me. You can never tell with girls.
Reacting to Lil's command, I gave a small 'what the heck?' shrug and hurried forward, crouching down to help Kimi pick up her things.
"Thanks Phil," she said, giving me a small smile.
"No problem," I replied, grabbing my things off a desk.
We walked down the hall to our lockers. There was only one in between ours – Chuckie's. The school sorted us first by grade and then by last names. Would you believe no one in our grade has a last name that starts with E? Just D, then... F. I think there may have been one or two E's last year, but they moved. Okay, just ignore my rambling.
I stuffed my things into my locker slowly, making up for the time Kimi took to organize her books and fix her hair, and other stuff girls like to do before lunch.
She closed her locker so I quickly closed mine and waited for her to say something.
"What, do you think I'd leave and forget my happy camper Philly Willy?" she asked me with a giggle. "Let's go!"
"I was hoping you wouldn't forget, I figured you'd want you're little hairbrush you keep in your locker," I replied as we started down the hallway.
"He's only my second best buddy," Kimi answered.
"Does that make me your first?"
She nodded. Wordlessly, she linked arms with me. "So, Dr. Phil, I have a problem. Should I get vanilla or chocolate ice cream today?" she asked in a dramatic voice.
"Get chocolate, and give it to Phil," I replied in my best imitation of a southern accent.
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We had just sat down next to each other and the only ones at the table.
"So, Dr. Phil, here's that ice cream," said Kimi, picking up her styrofoam cup of ice cream.
"Oh, awesome!" I said, lifting my spoon. Before I could react, Kimi shoved the ice cream cup into my nose.
"Nice," Kimi giggled. "I hope you like snot flavored ice cream."
I grinned. My brain was in over-drive. Flirt with Kimi. Do what you can to flirt with Kimi.
"Awesome!" I took a swipe at my nose and swabbed some ice cream out of my nostril.
"Eww!" said Kimi, though she really didn't look very grossed out.
Before I knew it, Kimi had taken a swipe at my nose and wiped off a dab of ice cream from the bridge of my nose. "Phil, you missed a spot..." She grabbed a napkin and lightly wiped my upper lip. "A big spot."
I swear our faces were an inch apart when Chuckie suddenly appeared and plopped down between both of us.
He shot me a nasty look before taking a spoonful of his mashed potatoes and waving Dil, Tommy, and Lil over to our table.
Chuckling, Lil sat down, followed by the Pickles brothers. I noticed they were all soaking wet. "Pangborn's tie got caught in the furnace and caught on fire and the sprinklers went off!" she said. "Chuckie's the only one who isn't soaked because he dropped his pencil and his shirt got caught on ABC gum under the table."
Pangborn came into the cafeteria wearing a black tie that was smoldering; half of it was burnt off and his eyebrows looked frazzled.
"At least his tie was already black, it didn't do much damage, did it?" said Kimi.
"His tie was orange," said Dil. He and Tommy broke into sidesplitting chuckles.
"So, Kimi, what did you and Phil do?" asked Lil, a smirk playing on her lips. Dil and Tommy stopped laughing. Chuckie froze, his fork hovering near his mouth, daring to spill the mashed potatoes and gravy it was holding.
"Well..."
"We... uh..."
Kimi itched at her ear. I rubbed at the back of my neck.
"Well, we left class and put our stuff in our lockers and we came down here and got lunch. Oh, and Kimi shoved ice cream in my face," I said. And I wasn't lying; I just conveniently left the part about us almost kissing.
Chuckie seemed satisfied. He hopped up to grab an orange juice and Kimi whispered, "Quick save!" in my ear.