Chapter 7

The next day passed by so fast, the two girls wouldn't have been able to believe it if they'd stopped talking to examine the time. The only things that had kept them in any kind of order at all were the bells for mealtimes and for lights out.

Not that Lottie and Mia had gone to bed right away. They'd moved the cots closer together to talk first, and had ended up talking long into the night.

And they were continuing their newfound friendship and sisterhood into the next day, going over photographs that they hadn't managed to go through the day before.

"Here's my house," Lottie tapped a photograph of a large Edwardian-looking townhouse. "Right in the middle of London."

Mia took the photograph to take a better look, and she began to smile.

"It's really pretty!" she said. "It looks really old."

Lottie shrugged a little, "I guess it is - but there are other houses around that are a lot older. Did you pack a photo of your house?"

Mia picked through her own selection, and brought out what her sister (she still couldn't believe she could say that!) had asked for. She pointed and showed her the New York mansion that she shared with her mother, and in the picture a younger Mia was sat on the steps leading up to the front door. She was beaming broadly, and had her arms around what looked like a small, tan-coloured puppy.

Lottie gasped quietly, "You have a dog?!"

Mia nodded, "Yeah, Chester II."

"Oh," the knowledge that he was the second of his name seemed to disappoint Lottie. "What happened to the first Chester?"

"He was my Mom's, he was heading for old when I hit three," she explained. When I was old enough and after Chester had been gone a while, we decided to get."

She looked at the picture nostalgically, and sighed. To think, back then she wasn't even aware that she had a sister! She was just focused on her Mom, and the new happy resident of their house, who wanted to wander out of shot and explore his new neighbourhood.

Mia looked up at Lottie again, forcing a smile, "Have you got any pets?"

Lottie shook her head as she continued to go through the many pictures Mia had taken out of her box. "Nope. We had a cat a few years ago, but he ran away. Dad always says we are going to get a new one, but we never do."

Mia couldn't help the small chuckle, "Yeah, Mom's like that with Disneyworld. We went once, and ever since she's dreaded it. I keep asking her to go back and she always puts it back."

"It seems that both our parents have similar strategies to deal with us," said Charlotte, laughing too. "Although I've never been to Disney myself."

Mia's eyebrows raised, "You've never been to Disney?! Isn't there one in Paris?!"

Lottie nodded, but she also shrugged, "Well, yeah. But I've never been. Dad works a lot, and prefers to take holidays in England. He always says that while he was over here, he missed it. But he says it with a kind of...sad look on his face. I don't ask him about it any more than that."

Mia frowned thoughtfully. She couldn't help wondering why her dad felt so sad every time he mentioned vacationing - they were supposed to be fun, weren't they? If it had been her living with him, then she'd probably have asked him already.

Her mom always told her that if she wanted to know something, she should do what she could to find out. And in this case, there couldn't have been too much trouble in asking, could there?

She might've not felt right about Lottie not asking, but if her sister hadn't done it then she wasn't going to get any answer. There was nothing she could do apart from uneasily move on.

"Oh," she said, biting her lip. "But he let you come here, to this camp?"

Lottie nodded, "Mm-hm. But it wasn't easy – it took me the better part of a year to convince him, and only after my Mémé intervened did he let me come."

Mia's eyes widened a little. She knew what having to beg for things was, but usually her grandparents either stayed out of it or saved her the trouble by giving her what she asked themselves. It had taken some work to get her Mom to send her to Camp Walden, but overall it hadn't been that difficult.

She knew she wanted her to be happy, and at the end of the day, if going to the camp made Mia happy, then why would her Mom refuse? All she'd had to do was give it a little bit of thought.

Deep thought, because she had worried as well. But it hadn't stopped Mia from being enthusiastic, and seeing her daughter so excited at the thought had made her cave in.

But one thing didn't entirely make sense about that. If her Mom was so concerned with Mia's happiness, then why had she kept it from her that she had a sister, and only told her the basics about her dad? Didn't she think they'd make her happy, or that knowing about them would make her happy?

Knowing that Lottie was her sister had made her the happiest girl in the world already! She was a thousand percent sure that knowing more about her dad would make her feel the same way!

Perhaps she needed to intervene for her Mom, and convince her that it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world...

Well...maybe there was a way of tricking her into it? Her Mom was always telling her how good she was at pranks, and that she used to pull them all the time! It wouldn't be any different than that!

And it would be the first prank she and Lottie had played together...

"You've just given me a great idea, you know?"

Lottie cocked her head to one side, staring quizzically at her sister, "I have? How?"

"You said that your – our – Mémé intervened!" Mia began to explain. "I think we should intervene and get our parents to agree that we can stay in contact, and meet the parents that we've missed our whole lives!"

Lottie's eyes widened, matching Mia's, "What?! How?!"

Mia stopped and thought, biting her lip, "I… I don't know. We'll have to trick them somehow, though, or they probably won't agree. What do you think?"

Lottie pursed her lips, "Dad is good at tricks – it'd have to be something he couldn't guess."

"Mom is good at them, too – but I'm sure she'll be fooled if it's good enough," Mia rested her chin in her palm and tapped her cheek with one finger. The longer she thought, the more she began to smile to herself. "Dad likes pranks, too?"

Lottie smirked, "He's practically the king of them! If Mum is good at them too, it sounds like they had a lot in common..."

Mia nodded sadly, "Yeah...sounds like it..."

The more she thought, the sadder she felt about her parents not being together. Most of her friends' parents were married, in love and totally happy.

She knew her Mom wasn't happy. Not in the whole lovey-dovey way, anyway. She didn't date (ever, after a few attempts Mia didn't quite remember because she'd been so small), and the only permanent sign of a man around the house now was the one photo of Niles that, until Mia had found it, had been kept hidden in a box...

Wait a minute. If her Mom didn't miss him, then why had she kept it?

Mia looked up at her sister, "Dad really doesn't ever talk about Mom?"

Lottie shook her head, "He gets sad when he tries."

"Does he have any more pictures of her? Like, apart from the one you've already showed me?."

That appeared to be a whole different story.

"A few – he keeps them locked in a drawer in his desk. And, I...um..." Lottie then lowered her voice, as though she'd get in trouble. "I went in there one day. He doesn't just have pictures…"

Mia leaned in, intrigued as to what her sister could be about to reveal.

"He has a ring, too. A real, proper engagement ring!"

Mia gasped. Their Dad kept a ring with pictures of their Mom?! Surely that could only mean he was in love with her, right? He wouldn't keep some old ring or the photos if he didn't!

"Lottie, that's great!" Mia exclaimed. "If they both keep photos of each other and Dad still has a ring, then they clearly still miss each other! And if they miss each other, we can get them back together!"

Lottie was gobsmacked, "You're serious?!"

"Dead serious!" Mia replied. "You do want them back together, right?"

"Well, yeah...!" Lottie answered immediately.

"And we're going to try and trick them into letting us meet the parent we've never met, right?"

"Yeah..."

Mia grinned at her sister, "Then why don't we combine the two and make that our plan?!"

Lottie gaped for a second, and then began to beam, "Mia, you're a genius!"

Mia stuck out her chest, which was puffed up with pride, "I know, I know..."

But as soon as the feeling had come, it was gone. A major part of their plan was still missing.

Mia slumped, her chin returning to her palm, "But we'll never convince them if we just come out and ask them to meet up! We still need to come up with a plan that'll fool them!"

"Like the Marvas confusing us," Lottie said aloud. "They need to be as fooled as that!"

And suddenly, it all clicked in Mia's head. The Marvas had been fooled – they couldn't tell them apart!

Practice a couple of accents and hope their parents didn't even suspect the other twin was there, and it was fool proof!

"That's it!" she cried, briefly hugging her sister and releasing her. "You're a genius! We'll pretend to be each other!"

Lottie's eyes widened, "You mean, pretend to be each other as in swapping lives?!"

"Mh-hm," nodded Mia, grasping Lottie's forearms, "They won't be able to tell, and then, when we finally reveal our brilliant scheme, they'll have to meet again, face to face!"

The excitement made Mia shake her twin a little, a bright beam stretching from ear to ear. This was genius! It was foolproof!

Or so she thought.

Lottie, however, didn't seem entirely convinced.

"Mia, even though it is a good plan, there are too many loose ends!"

"Like what?" asked Mia, releasing Lottie to cross her arms.

"Well, to start with, we are two different people! We have completely different lives, personalities, habits – even accents!" protested Lottie.

Mia, however, was ready to fend off her sisters fears.

"Well, we'll teach the other how to act and behave! It isn't like we are going home tomorrow. We have six weeks to learn how to act like the other! Besides, I am great at imitating you—" Mia pouted her lips, affected a sneer and then spoke with a fake British accent, "Would you care for a spot of tea?"

Lottie cringed, screwing up her face and covering a brief amused smile. Not even their Dad said that, or sounded completely like it, and he had the poshest accent she'd ever heard in real life!

Luckily they had time to practice. To get out all the little slang words and phrases that might come up (and those that wouldn't, unless you went to a grandmother's house) Mia could do a really good imitation if she tried hard, Lottie was certain of it, and she knew she could fake an American accent...

They'd have the right sound for their new roles yet!

"You're getting there," she told her sister politely, nodding. But some of it still isn't right. If it's going to work, we need to make sure they don't question the accent at all."

Mia nodded, a little put out but understanding, "When do we get started?"

Lottie smiled, "How's today sound? We've also got to work on what you think British people say on a daily basis!"

Mia stuck her tongue out at her sister, "Everything about tea is a common phrase and you know it, sister."

Lottie rolled her eyes at Mia and got to her feet, ushering for her sister to follow suit. "That is so not true!"

"It so is," teased Mia back, "You have the tea you drink and afternoon tea. Everything is tea over there—"

"You forgot evening tea," said Lottie, sticking Mia with an unamused stare. Though it didn't stay in place for long – the confusion on her sister's face was proving to be a rather entertaining sight.

"Evening tea...?" asked Mia, quirking an eyebrow, "Is that even a thing?"

Lottie looked at her, a self-satisfied smirk spreading across her features. She was planning on leaving it for an almost agonisingly long amount of time but she got too impatient for the punchline.

"It's what we call dinner sometimes."

The hilarity mounted and she burst out laughing at the look on Mia's face. The shock and horror was all too much to stop herself!

"Dinner...?" she asked weakly. "Evening tea is what you call dinner...?!"

"Yeah," Lottie spluttered, before pointing at her playfully. "You are gonna have so much fun learning all our names for things!"

Mia looked dubious, "Am I gonna regret asking?"

Lottie shrugged, "Depends on if you want to sound British or not."

Mia rushed to her sister's side eagerly. She so wanted to get this right! She wanted to meet their Dad, and for Lottie to meet their Mom! Getting it perfect was a huge step towards that!

"I do!" she cried. "I really wanna know!"

Lottie smiled, "Alright, then. We'll get started on some easy ones that are usually said in people's houses and in day to day conversation - everything from brolly, to bicky, all the way down to wellies at the end of the alphabet! Oh, that reminds me, you'll also have to learn to say some letters the way we do - "zed", not "zee", for example."

Mia's face fell again. There was so much to remember! And so very little of it made any sense! Why were they having tea with dinner? How could the alphabet sound different? What the heck did "bicky" mean?!

But, at the same time, she had her mother's determination in her. She knew what she wanted, and she wasn't going to be stopped from getting it just because Lottie was telling her things for kicks.

Her sister was just having fun. She wouldn't blow the whole plan!

So, instead of getting confused or scared over whatever her British twin could possibly say next, she squared herself up. She was gonna tackle this head-on and come out of it even stronger.

Her mother would be so proud, if she'd known...and if they were doing this to someone else...

"Alright, I can do that," she said with an affirming nod. "Anything else I should know? Like how to tell the Royal Family apart from like their birthdates or something?"

Lottie scoffed, "Not quite that bad. But you will need to know the main one's names. And some famous sites around London, like the Tower. You know, we have to keep five ravens there to stop the kingdom from being destroyed?"

Mia couldn't believe she'd heard her right at first, but the look on Lottie's face told her that she hadn't misheard. It was then her turn to screw up her face.

"You people are weird..."

Lottie laughed again, "We're not weird! We just have our traditions!"

"Like keeping birds so your country doesn't go kaput?" Mia asked teasingly. "I've got news for you, my twin – that's weird!"

Lottie folded her arms, "It might be one of our...odder ones, but it's not like America doesn't have its own weird traditions! And I'll expect you to tell me how they work, otherwise this is all gonna fall apart."

The discussion went on for well over an hour, telling each other little facts about their countries that the other might find useful. As they did, they both began to practice speaking like their twin, repeating the facts given to them in the other's voice.

Even just starting up felt good. It felt like progress towards an unbelievable and overwhelmingly joyful goal. If they pulled it off, they'd have their parents back! Two people who hadn't seen each other in so long, but were clearly still so very much in love...

Mia wondered what it would be like when they saw each other again for the first time. She doubted it would be as romantic or perfect as the movies, but maybe it could be cute in an awkward way? Like they'd approach each other carefully, maybe shuffling their feet. One would clear their throat before starting up conversation and slowly the awkward would melt away...

She couldn't wait for it to happen. She couldn't wait to have the family she'd always wanted, with her sister and her reunited, in love parents. She could tell that Lottie couldn't wait, either - she knew it was because obviously they'd both be excited about getting their parents back together, but Mia liked to think it was partially one of those secret twin things, too, where one could tell how the other was feeling or what they were thinking...

It would make sense as to how they were both learning so much already!

And, (as it just so happened to turn out) they both thought happily about how their plan was still only at the beginning.