Lizzie and Miranda had just gotten off the bus with Gordo at his house. The girls had promised to help him with a toothpick castle he was working on for a science project.
"Gordo, how did you come up with this idea?" Miranda asked.
"I've suddenly become interested in the Middle Ages, and I thought something like this would stick out for me," he responded.
"Toothpicks instead of sand, though?" Lizzie asked.
"I don't want to be all messy with sand like that. I'm afraid I'll make too much of a mess."
Gordo was halfway finished with the castle. He needed assistance with the rest of it. He had used water for the moat, but had trouble getting the toothpicks to stay.
They went on to accomplish more than ¾ of the castle until the telephone rang. Gordo answered it. It was Miranda's mother. She had to go home because there was a special guest at her house. Miranda left, leaving Lizzie and Gordo to finish the castle by themselves.
When Miranda got home, she was in for a surprise.
"Miranda, don't you remember me?" asked a girl, who was Miranda's size, had long blonde hair, green eyes and spoke with a Boston accent.
"No," Miranda replied, dumbfounded.
"This is your sister, Amanda," said her mother.
"Sister?!" Miranda was utterly confused.
"She was born three years ahead of you. You haven't seen her because she has been in Boston for as long as you can remember because she was at boarding school. Her school has been closed indefinitely because the school is flooded from a pipe burst. She decided to be kind enough to visit," her father explained.
"Okay, dad," Miranda said.
Friday, October 29, 10:05 P.M.
Amanda had been sleeping in the living room, but the couch had broken, so she moved into Miranda's room. There was no other bed, and the floor was a total mess. So they were forced to share a bed.
A light lamp was left on. Amanda turned it off. Miranda instantly woke up screaming. She turned it on again.
"What? Why would you sleep with a lamp set as bright as possible?" Amanda asked.
"Because when I was younger, I would constantly get nightmares in late October because of Halloween. The bright lamp gives me good dreams."
"Whatever," Amanda scoffed as she turned on a tape in a boom box next to her. Owls hooted in the tape, waking Miranda up.
"What---Owls?" she stammered.
"It's a tape called The Boston Suburb Night Sounds. I got it for my birthday last year."
"When is your birthday, by the
way?"
Miranda sighed and closed her eyes, trying to ignore the tape, but the sounds took a different tone, opening Miranda's eyes again.
The sound of cows mooing and crashing into someone's house could clearly be heard on the tape. Also people shouted and argued, and when the sound of a fire being lit on the tape was heard, Miranda had enough of it. She leaned over and turned off the tape. She saw that Amanda had fallen asleep. She gave her a nudge on the shoulder, waking her up.
"Yes?" she asked sleepily.
"How could you fall asleep to
that?" Miranda asked, appalled
"Hey, here's something you should know. A glass of milk puts me to sleep, not the cows that produce the milk," she said pointing to the boom box. "But, hey. My birthday is the 21st of next month. Maybe November is a much better month to be born in than March.
Amanda jumped up in anger. "What did you just say?"
"You heard me."
"Well, let's both get a cup of water, and go to sleep."
They did that.
Sunday, October 31. 7:31 P.M.
Lizzie and Gordo were helping each other with their Halloween costumes. Lizzie was a black cat. Gordo was a knight. They were taking Matt trick-or-treating with them. He was a pirate. They knew Miranda couldn't come because of family purposes.
When they left the house, Matt ran in front. Lizzie told him not to go too far ahead. When he was in safe range from them, Gordo and Lizzie took hands. They felt like not only they should protect themselves, just to be sure for each other.
Later that night, Matt dumped all the candy he collected from trick or treating, and divided it to share with Lizzie, Gordo and himself.
"Thanks, Matt," Lizzie and Gordo said at the same time.
"No problem," Matt said, admiringly. He thought and hoped he was improving his behavior around his big sister.
Tuesday, November 2. 1:38 A.M.
Speaking of sisters, Miranda was still having trouble with hers. She and Amanda sat on the bed, not looking at each other and sulked. There was no school for Miranda that day because of a teacher's professional day.
"You asleep, yet?" Miranda asked irritably.
"What do you think?" Amanda snapped back.
"I don't know how you can live this life of yours! You treat it like sludge. Plus you talk in your sleep, too. You know that?"
"Now come on, Miranda. I have been tested by doctors, and I don't talk in my sleep. So, back off."
"Wanna bet?" Miranda turned on a tape, and Amanda heard herself say on the tape:
"I'm gonna walk to Dallas for a rodeo show. A walk from Boston to Dallas isn't so bad, now is it? My ventricles have stopped, someone revive them please."
Amanda checked out the tape. "Wait a minute! This was my sound tape. What did you do to it?!"
"I taped it over, what do you think?"
"You should feel ashamed of yourself, Miranda. If you don't, you are a stupid, arrogant, good-for-nothing witch!"
"If you want to be a silly goose in
the first hours of the morning, I have nothing to do with it."
Miranda got so irritated at that point that she grabbed Amanda's arm and took her down on the bed.
Later that day, Gordo and Lizzie were watching a movie at the McGuire residence. They were watching Rush Hour on video.
They were up to the part when Carter met Lee at the airport when Gordo turned it off.
"This is too violent for us. Wouldn't you say?" Gordo said.
"Sure is."
"What can we do though?"
"Let's pretend were in a Shakespeare movie."
"Great idea."
They pretended they were in their own version of Romeo and Juliet. When they came to a kissing part, they held the kiss for more than 25 seconds for some reason.
"That was cool," Gordo said.
"I agree," Lizzie said.
They kissed again, fiercely this time.
Meanwhile, Miranda and Amanda were still fighting.
"You come to L.A., you come in my room, you turn out my light, and you take advantage of my hospitality!" Miranda yelled as she tried to pin Amanda.
"So what? You taped over my tape, so why should I have any remorse?" Amanda screamed.
"You should learn to respect other people."
"Do you like the way how you were raised?"
"You bet I do."
"I did. But there was one thing I didn't like."
"What?"
"I win!" Amanda yelled triumphantly.
"Idiot," Miranda said under her breath.
Saturday, November 13. 5:11 P.M.
"Amanda we'll miss you," said Mrs. Sanchez, as her daughter headed on her plane back to Boston.
"I'll miss you too."
"Get out of here, and don't come back," Miranda scolded.
"Speak for yourself," Amanda snapped back.
Mr. and Mrs. Sanchez gave Amanda a big hug and a kiss before she left.
"I'm glad she's gone," Miranda said.
"I'll miss her," said her parents, not realizing what her daughter just said.
Wednesday, November 17. 2:21 P.M.
"How did things go with you and Amanda?" asked Lizzie, when they walked home from school.
"Awful. We shared a bed, fought, and she saw a picture of Ethan Craft, and went head-over-heals."
"I'm sorry to hear that," said Gordo, holding Lizzie's hand. Noticing this, Miranda went into brief interrogation.
"Why are you two holding hands?" she asked.
"We're pretending we're in a Shakespeare movie," Gordo explained.
"And we love each other in it," Lizzie added.
"Okay, whatever," Miranda said as they headed for their homes.
