Chapter 8
Party preparations were in full swing at the DeVille residence. Tommy, Chuckie, and Dill were on decoration duty and working hard on transforming the living room into party central. Mr. and Mrs. DeVille and Mrs. Pickles were in the kitchen taking care of the food.
Phil sighed as he lay in bed listening to the sounds of productivity below him. He could smell sugar in his father's secret hand-frosted one-of-a-kind Chocolate Duckies Supreme 16th Birthday Cake waiting for him and Lil. He wasn't supposed to know about it, but last night he had seen the "secret" recipe and accompanying drawing stuck on to the fridge. He thought about how Samantha would react to the childish cake and shuddered.
He had made up with Samantha by getting her to agree to a compromise. The duckies stayed, but she could spice them up, make duckies cool. The challenge appealed to her trend-setting side.
He had to do some pretty fancy talking to convince Lil to go along with the changes. His twin had given him a weird look as if he had betrayed her or something. Phil sighed. Looks were all he was getting from his twin. Lil still refused to talk to him.
The phone rang causing Phil to wince unconsciously. Samantha had been calling him several times a day to talk about the party. Somewhere around the 80th call she had stopped calling him Philip in favor of Phil. He hated it. He cringed just thinking of her calling him Phil.
Thankfully the call was for Chuckie. "So you ready to turn the big 1-6?"
---:::---
Meanwhile, down the hall Kimi was helping Lil get ready.
"Don't you think this has gone on long enough?" Kimi asked. "It's kind of getting weird around here with you not talking to Phil."
"He started it." Lil wasn't really in the mood to discuss it, but since she wasn't talking to Phil had to talk to someone, that someone might as well be her best friend.
Taking her cue from Lil, Kimi carried on, "But you guys are brother and sister. Twins even."
Lil was sprawled out on her bed much the same way her brother was in his room. "Exactly. Twins don't keep secrets from each other."
"What about the secret you are keeping from him?" Kimi asked as she walked over to the bed and sat down.
"What secret?"
"I don't know, what about the fact that you spied on him?"
"That's different. He started it."
Kimi shook her head. This was going nowhere. She hoped the guys were having better results with Phil. This plan to reconcile the twins had better work or it was going to be one awkward birthday party.
---:::---
The Party was going as well as anyone could expect under the circumstances. Friends of Lil were on one side of the room, while those from Samantha's guest list were hanging out by the buffet.
Someone had turned up Emica to hide the lack of conversation between to the two sides.
Kimi, cautiously inched her way Lil, and made her way to the middle of the room where Tommy and Chuckie were attempting to hold the party together. "Tommy, any luck with Phil?"
"Nope"
"What do we do now?"
"Time for Plan B"
"What's Plan B?"
"You'll see. I added a few extra features to their birthday present. Com'on let's go drag the birthday twins outside."
"I hope this works."
"So do I."
Lil tried to wrench her hand free from Kimi's. "Hey, where are we going?"
"Tommy, Chuckie, and me want to give you your birthday present."
"Chuckie, got me a birthday present?" Lik asked, blushing a little. The blush turned to a hint of rage when she spotted Phil being dragged around the house by Tommy. "What's he doing here?" she asked menacingly.
Before Kimi could answer, Phil spotted their present.
"It's the Pickle Mobile!"
"Not anymore, the whole Pickle Mobile thing was just a cover," Tommy revealed, as Chuckie pulled the car up to the curb.
"Yeah," Chuckie added as he stepped out of the car. "Your parents provided the cash and we provided the labor."
"This baby is now christened the DeVille Demon."
Thinking the same thing at the same time, make a dash for the driver:s door. Phil who was standing closer managed to get into the driver's seat and slam the door, before Lil even got there.
Grudgingly, Lil walked over to the passenger side and got in.
"So are you going to test drive this baby, or not?"
Phil looked at Lil and Lil looked at Phil. This was the closest they had been the whole night. Since they weren't talking to each other, the proximity was very awkward and uncomfortable.
Couldn't get out of the car fast enough, wanted to put more distance between them. Both encountered the same problem. The doors would not open.
"What's going on? Why won't these blasted doors open?"
"Child safety lock," Tommy announced through the crack in the window. "The doors can only be opened from the outside."
Lil reached for window
"Yeah, if you two want to get out you're going to talk and make up."
"What do we do know?"
When she couldn't stand the silence any longer, Lil broke her vow never to speak to her errant twin. "Since we're stuck in the car, we might as well go for a spin."
"Okay then, one spin around the neighborhood coming right up," Phil quipped as he started the car and backed out of the driveway.
The comment lightened the atmosphere. Sounded like the old Phil, Lil could not help thinking.
She was beginning to get into the mood. "If you get to drive, I get to choose the tunes." She reached down to turn the radio on. The station was playing Avril Lavigne's "Complicated".
---:::---
"Uh huh, life's like this
Uh huh, uh huh
That's the way it is.
Cuz life's like this
Uh huh, uh huh
That's the way it is"
Phil:
Chill out what ya yelling for?
Lay back it's all been done before
And if you could only let it be
You would see
Lil:
I like you the way you are
When we're driving in the car
And you're talking to me one on one
But you've become somebody else
Around everyone else
Watching your back, like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool, you look like a fool to me
Tell me
Phil:
Why did you have to make things so complicated?
Lil:
I see the way the way you're acting like someone else gets me frustrated.
Phil:
Life's like this and you'll
Fall and you crawl and you break and you take what you get
And turn it into...
Lil:
Honesty. Promise me
I'm never going to find you fake it.
Phil:
No no no
Lil:
You leave the house
Dressed up like you're something else
Where you are & where it's at you see
You're making me, laugh out
When you strike a pose, take off
All your fancy clothes
You know you're not fooling anyone
When you become
Somebody else, round everyone else
Watching your back, like you can't relax
You're trying to be cool, you look like a fool to me
Tell me
Phil:
Why do you have to make things so complicated?
Lil:
I see the way the way you're acting like someone else gets me frustrated.
Phil:
Life's like this and you'll
Fall and you crawl and you break and you take what you get
And turn it into...
Lil:
Honestly, promise me,
I'm never gonna find you fake it
Phil:
No, no, no
---:::---
"Sorry, I don't know what came over me?"
"Kimi says it's the Change."
"The what?"
"That's what I said – never mind. I'm just glad you're back to being you."
"No one like the Phil My—ster."
Half a second later Lil's punch landed on his arm, but there was a smile on her face.
---:::---
a/n: sorry for the long wait between chapters....blame it on a ridiculous class schedule, but hols are here, so hopefully, I'll get "in too deep" done before school starts again. Later days.