The little twins were due to begin art classes next week, at the community center. But, before it could happen, Mrs. Connor had to make arrangements with the neighbors. Which wasn't easy, due to the things that'd happened around the neighborhood ever since she brought the two of them home.

She had to ask five different neighbors before she came to Mrs. Patrinsky, a mother who lived about a block away. But she didn't have kids. All she'd have to deal with, besides the twins, would be her cat.

"Relax, Laurelynne!" she'd said. "They're only a pair of three-year-olds! How bad can they be?"

Every member of the Connor family could have answered that. But Laurelynne just forced a smile and said, "I'm sure you'll handle them."

The day of their first class, you could tell the twins knew something involving them was going on. They were as excited as anyone else- with the possible exception of their seven-year-old sister, who was jealous.

And it showed. At breakfast, they'd barely eat their cereal. Actually,Neil managed to drop his bowl off his high chair's tray, getting Cheerios and milk all over the floor. Luckily, it was tiled, so it didn't take too long to clean up.

They also refused to wear anything easier to clean than their usual white outfits, even though, as Lilluai unhelpfully put it, "they're like paint magnets." This resulted in two voices asking, curiously, "Pwaint?"

"PWAINT! PWAINT! PWAINT!" they shrieked.

Linnelly moaned. "Look what you've done."

"All I said was paint-"

"PWAINT!!!!"

As she parked her minivan, Mrs. Connor turned to the twins. "You're sure you won't wear smocks?"

"Is sure."

"Well, just try not to get your nice clothes dirty, okay?" Privately, Laurelynne thought this was about as likely as them staying dry while swimming, but she'd keep her opinions to herself. She didn't even bother correcting their grammar.

"Okay, Mommy." They smiled angelically up at her.

"Oh, look!" said the arts-and-crafts teacher, as Mrs. Connor walked the little twins into the classroom. "Now, let's see..." She flipped through a few pages on her clipboard. "You'll be Adrian and Neil Connor?"

The twins, and their mom, nodded.

"Alrighty then. You're in this class. I'm Jenna DeWitt, by the way." She steered the little boys towards a short, vivid blue table.

Jenna turned towards Laurelynne. "Mrs. Connor, did you have to dress them like... that... today? They're going to be fingerpainting! And do they have to be dressed alike? I don't have the slightest hope of telling them apart."

Mrs. Connor sighed. "They refuse to wear different clothes. It's hard enough getting them out of those outfits to wash them."

"Well... all right then..." She ushered the Connors' mother from the room.

"Hi!" exclaimed a little girl with dark pigtails, about the same age as they were, as the twins sat down at the blue table. "I'm Emma. What're your names?"

"We're Adrian and Neil."

"Oh, cool! You're twins! I never seen twins before." She looked closer at them. "Why're you wearing sunglasses? It not sunny in here."

"We like dem."

"Oh." Emma turned away, and then held up a big sheet of paper. "We finger-pwainting tooday."

"Pwaint?"

"Pwaint!"

Jenna came over to them. "Now, children, before I hand out the paint, I want to go over a few rules," she said smoothly.

"Keep the paints on the paper and your hands. Don't wipe your hands on your clothes. Don't wipe your hands on other children's clothes, either."

Attentive nods from around the classroom.

"No eating the paint. It's not good for you."

More nods.

"If you want to get the paint off your hands, you can use the little sink at the back of the room, and the towel next to it AFTER you rinse off your hands."

Nods again.

"Don't paint on anyone else's paper."

Yet more nods, becoming almost robotic in appearance.

"Do you understand?"

"Uh-huh," answered the class.

"Good. I'll hand out the paint."

Five minutes later, Adrian and Neil were engrossed in the finger-painting. "This is Mommy,"Adrian said to his twin as he made a large smear on the paper.

"Dat doesn't look like Mommy. Where's her head?"

"Over here." He pointed to a different part of the drawing.

"Ohhh. Where's Linny?"

"Here."

This continued for about fifteen more minutes beforeNeil got bored. Dipping his finger into the bright purple paint, he made a smeary streak across the painting of Sarah, who sat next to him.

She shrieked and flung her hand up. "MISS JENNA,HE SMEARED MY PICTURE!"

The young teacher came hurrying over. "Oh, Sarah, it's not that bad. Look, you can turn it into a..." –she cast her mind around wildly- "a purple cat!"

Sarah grinned, and dipped her own finger into the paint. Both twins were snickering. It made her mad, so instead of putting hand to paper, she dumped the whole baby-food-jar of paint over Neil's head.

In the first couple of seconds afterwards, he was so shocked he just sat there and blinked. But, instead of the bawling Jenna expected, he looked angry, and,in retribution, picked up the jar of green paint and threw it at the girl. He missed, and the jar hit the wall four feet away, but most of the paint landed on her anyways.

Unfortunately, he'd gotten other class members as well... including the teacher. She looked as shocked as he had when he had the paint dumped on his head.

About half a minute later, she came to her senses and said, "Well, Neil, that was very bad, and you've still got purple all over you! Let's go clean you up." "She dragged him off to the washroom.

The three-year-old boy looked sorry at first, but when the teacher's back was turned, he grinned and winked at Adrian. He wasn't really sorry.