No teacher was ever more grateful for her class being over, except, perhaps, a few high school substitutes. These twins had turned an ordinary fingerpainting session into complete chaos! And they were only three.

Neil had leaped onto a table and thrown the paint set on it everywhere- in large handfuls. It hit the walls, the floor, the furniture, the screaming kids. Some of them had hidden, while others were wearing paper hats that had come out of nowhere and throwing paint as well.

Meanwhile, Adrian was underneath another table stealthily smearing paint onto other children's shoes. As a result, the whole room looked like an abstract painting, with multicolored splatters and footprints everywhere, and shrieks- including the occasional "PWAINT!!!"- echoed off the walls.

How on earth am I going to explain this to their parents? thought the teacher, as she desperately, and futilely, tried to get a large, egg-shaped blue spot off the wall. It's not as if this is common. I mean, I've had a few paint fights before, but this was paint war

Mrs. Patrinsky was standing in the doorway, looking mildly dissatisfied but not at all surprised. "Are you Ms. DeWitt?"

"That's me." She swallowed. "Which one is yours?"

"The twins." She directed a look at Neil- who now had blue-streaked hair and clothes that looked like they'd been tie-dyed- and Adrian, who had orange, green, and bubblegum pink stains all over his formerly white outfit.

"Very well, I'll just go and- ah- collect them."

With one hand keeping a firm but gentle grip on a twin's arm, she steered the two of them over to their babysitter. "Here you go."

"Thanks. I suppose I'll be seeing you again next Saturday," she called as the three of them walked away. The young teacher's insides turned cold. Next Saturday? They'll be here again? Oh $&...

As Jennifer Patrinsky buckled the twins into their car seats, she said, "I don't suppose you're going to tell me why the entire room was covered in paint? Including yourselves?"

The two of them remained completely silent. Neil gave the woman a 'you'll-never-get-anything-out-of-me' look.

"Have it your way, then." They drove off.

At the Patrinsky house, there was a fair amount of kid stuff, it being the home of three older children. However, the TV, computer, and stacks of video games didn't interest Neil and Adrian. They went straight for the cat, which was orange-furred and named Flash.

Flash yowled as Neil, fascinated by the creature, tried to pick it up by its tail. Mrs. Patrinsky swooped down on them. "Now, now, leave the cat alone."

The twins obediently backed away. Satisfied, Mrs. Patrinsky returned to her novel.

But, only about a minute later, they were watching Flash again. As the cat went to jump onto the TV, they surprised it by phasing into its path and appearing out of nowhere, clean again. Sure enough, they both got some cat scratches, and Flash was understandably freaked out.

This didn't seem to be enough for the little twins. They grabbed Flash and sat down on top of the poor animal.

"MRRREEEAOOOOWWWL!" yowled the angry cat, tying to get out from underneath them, with very little success. When Adrian turned to see if their babysitter had noticed it, Flash streaked out from under him, dumping Neil off.

"You shouldnta got up!" complained the boy, giving his twin a 'look'.

"I wasn' tryin' to!" Adrian pouted.

"You let it gedda way!"

"I just told you, I didn' mean to geddup!"

"Well, you did!"

"Boys! Boys! That's enough!" Mrs. Patrinsky had finally noticed them. "You shouldn't have been sitting on the poor cat in the first place!"

"Sorrwee." And, indeed, both twins looked sorry. Mrs. Patrinsky, thinking this was good enough, although curious as to how they had mysteriously become free of paint splatters, walked back to the table to continue her reading.

Ten minutes later, when both twins were sitting on the couch, Neil whispered in Adrian's ear.

"I tink we should scare the kitty 'gain."

"But Mittheth Patwinskee says dat's bad!" protested his brother.

"So? Mittheth Patwinskee noh' even lookin' at us."

"But we get in twoubwle! Why you wanna scare kitty anyways?"

"Cause kitty makes funny noises when it scared! You like da noises too!"

"Oh-kay... How we gonna scare kitty?"

Adrian listened attentively, followed by a grin, as Neil whispered into his ear.

Fifteen minutes after she'd deposited the Connor twins on the couch, Mrs. Patrinsky was startled into jumping about three feet off her chair at a sudden blast of music from the stereo. It looked as if poor Flash had suffered the same thing; he had shot up and across the room like a bullet and gone right under the table, on top of her feet. That was probably where he'd stay, until the twins went home.