Kate Ross watches her twin dance around their bathroom, whipping her hair and singing into a hairbrush. She rolls her eyes and shoves past her for a spot at the sink. "Aren't you tired of playing that song yet?" Tess had been playing the rock-pop Broadway song for nearly a month, with no obvious end in sight.

"Come on, Kate! We only have a limited time where this song will apply to us! Of course, I'm going to listen to it as much as I can!" Tess argues. "It's like listening to 'Dancing Queen' when you turn seventeen; it's a requirement."

"Never heard of that rule before," Kate remarks, putting toothpaste on her toothbrush.

"It's an unspoken rule," Tess says.

"Whatever," Kate rolls her eyes, mouth full of foam.

"The best, and the worst, and the most, and the least. And the crazy, and the scary and we're standin' on the edge!" Tess sings, her voice echoing in the bathroom. She continues the song as Kate brushes her teeth and spits.

Kate hums along to the lyrics she, sadly, knows too well. "No, you're not ready. No, it's not time yet. No, it's not right now. Wait until you're older." Kate sings under her breath, hoping her twin hadn't heard her.

"No, you're not ready! No, It's not time yet! No, it's not right now! Wait until you're older!" Tess continues, louder

"No, you're not ready! No, it's not time yet! No, it's not right now! Wait until you're older!" Kate finishes, bobbing her head, fully into the song.

"Homework!"

"Laundry!"

"Dishes!"

"Courses!" The twins shout, bouncing the lyrics between them.

"Just settle down and hold your horses!" They yell together, their voices echoing around the bathroom. And as the guitar riff- dance break starts, the sisters jump and dance around, their hair flying all over; giant smiles covering their faces. But the party is broken by the distinct chime of a message being sent on Facebook.

Kate and Tess had only recently, after months of constant begging, been allowed to open accounts on the social media platform. And both were using it in very different ways. Kate had loaded her feed with results from silly quizzes she had taken, and videos she thought were funny. Tess, on the other hand, was now able to keep up with all of her friends and talk to her multitude of crushes, including the one that had so rudely interrupted the sister's dance party.

Wes Mackenzie was the star of the Eighth Grade football team at Tess' school, all around popular guy, friendly to everyone, good student, and Tess Ross' number one crush since the two were in a theater class together the previous school year. They've been in the same circle of friends ever since.

"Oh!" Tess shouts, dashing back into her room and diving onto her desk chair. She squeals as it rolls a few to the right and spins around with the residual momentum. Righting herself, Tess pulls up to her computer monitor and reads the message. Kate had followed her twin and stood behind Tess, listening in on their conversation.

'Happy birthday, Hippo! Wanna meet up later so I can give you your present in person? ;)'

The teen squeals, hands covering her red face, and quickly opens another chat to her best friend Jasmine. Kate watches her twin bounce between the two conversations: reading the advice Jasmine was giving her on how to talk to the boy, and then actually typing words to her crush.

"I don't get it," Kate remarks, shaking her head. "What do you see in him?" All the jocks at her school were class-clown-jerk types who only cared about their specific sport and nothing else. Her confusion towards her twin's crush could also come from the fact that none of those guys had even looked in her direction their entire middle school career, so she assumed it was the same for her twin. And obviously, she was very wrong.

"He's cute and nice and he makes me laugh and we get along really well," Tess answers, smiling. After reading another message from Jasmine, Tess stands from her desk, leaves her room and goes to the top of the stairs. "Dad!" she shouts. "Can I go the mall with Jazz, Desi, and Braden?"

"Who's taking you?" Doug replies without pausing. He knew plans like that almost always involved him driving a group of teenage girls around and ended with him having a giant headache from all their talking and screaming.

"Jazmine's mom is going to drop us off."

"And who's picking you up?"

"I was hoping you could," Tess requests, her dad not seeing the tilt of her head or her toe digging into the hardwood landing.

"Find another way home, and then you can go," Doug says, not wanting any involvement in this plan, even on the twins birthday.

"Thank you!" Tess shouts, dashing back to her computer. After a minute, she calls through the open door, "Jasmine said her mom could pick us up too!"

Kate had retreated back to her room and missed her sister rummaging through her closet to find the perfect outfit, finally deciding on a long-sleeved black floral dress and black combat boots that were originally Kate's, but Tess had somehow ended up with. Tess adds her iconic black rune necklace - a representative of her favorite books series: The Mortal Instruments - and swipes on a deep burgundy lipstick to amp up her normally minimal makeup.

When Jasmine's text message signaling her arrival comes through, Tess grabs the new purse she had received for her birthday and dashes downstairs and outside to join her friends.

Kate waits another few minutes after she heard her sister leave before venturing downstairs. She stops in the doorway of her dad's office and watches him type on his computer, looking between paper articles and digital text. "You know why Tess went to the mall right?" Kate asks.

"Yeah: to hang out with her friends," Doug answers, not meeting his daughter's eyes.

"She's meeting a boy," Kate corrects, leaving the office and her stunned and confused dad for the living room. With her mom and sister out running errands, her twin off hunting her crush, and her dad buys with work and the knowledge of Tess' actual plans, Kate finally has the TV all to herself and she plans to enjoy every second of it.

[][]

Tess returns home a few hours later, heralded by her younger sister's shouts. "Good, Tess is home. Can we go eat now?"

"Are you hungry, Tess?" Carol asks, looking over the couch at her daughter. "Can you eat?"

"Sure," Tess shrugs. And a few minutes later, the entire family is in the car and on the way to Kate and Tess' favorite restaurant. Sitting next to each other in the backseat, Kate tries to get information out of her twin, because judging by the flighty, far-away look on Tess' face, the meeting with Wes went well. "I'll tell you later," Tess whispers, smiling at her sister. She had so much to tell.

They didn't have to wait long to be seated, and Addison and Tess rushed to claim the two seats next to the ocean-side window. The birthday girls were treated to virgin cocktails and anything they wanted off the menu.

Addison gets the conversation flowing with stories from her rehearsals for The Nutcracker which dissolves into Kate's question of the whole point of the ballet; how it doesn't make sense that a wooden toy could come alive. By the time their food arrives, the family is wrapped up in a spirited discussion, and Kate even asks their waiter his opinion on the show. The young man explains he's never seen it, but the music is pretty cool. Which then leads the family down the rabbit hole of which modern music could be used to update the play.

Dessert, accompanied by a few of the restaurant staff singing the twins a birthday song, ends the night. Everyone digs into the brownie-ice cream goodness, teasing Addison when she spills a bite down the front of her shirt. But the night truly ends when Carol knocks over a full cup of water, drenching the entire table and her lap. All three Ross children tease their mom on the way out, and they squeal with giggles as she pinches their sides as rebuttal for it.

[][]

When they arrive home, Kate is quick to grab her twin's hand and drags them both upstairs, bursting to know what happened at the mall that day.

"Okay, spill," Kate says once they pass the threshold of Tess' room, closing the door behind them.

"Oh my god! It was amazing!" Tess exclaims, smiling. She lays across her bed on her stomach, toeing off her shoes and crossing her feet in the air. "Well when we got there, Jazz and I just walked around waiting for Wes and his friends to get there. And so when they got there we hung out a bit with everyone."

"Okay," Kate prompts.

"Well then when everyone was looking in Spencers, he took my hand and we kinda snuck off," Tess says, hiding her red face in her blankets.

"You snuck off?" Kate gasps. "What did you do?"

"We just walked around. He told stories. Like did you know Wes' grandfather fought in the Korean War? Or that he's already memorized the verse he's reading for his Bar Mitzvah?" Tess was smiling wider now and had flipped to her back. She was playing with her hands, trying to dispel the energy coursing through her. "So then we found the pet store and he convinced the guy there to let us pet the puppies. And he was so cute! I have never seen a boy look like that with a puppy before!" She smiles, covering her face, elated at the memory. "And then-" she pauses, looking up at her twin hanging off her every word, "he kissed me."

"What!?" Kate shouts.

"Be quiet! Mom and dad are gonna hear you!" Tess says, sitting up.

"I know! But oh my god! What was it like?"

"It was nice," Tess smiles. "We were standing outside the pet store again, and he told me how cool it was hanging out with me. He said I was just chill and he didn't have to put on an act with me. And then he kissed me. It was kinda quick, but his lips were soft and I got all these butterflies in my stomach.

"Wow," Kate sighs, happy for her sister.

"Yeah," Tess agrees.

"So what now?" Kate asks. Her twin shrugs, going for her computer.

"We'll find out at school tomorrow."

"Well then: I wish you luck with that," Kate says, squeezing her sister's shoulders and retreating to her bedroom.

Sitting on her bed, Kate realized something felt not quite right. Sure. she felt happy for her sister. Tess had been crushing on Wes for months and finally got somewhere with him. But Kate felt something else.

Jealousy? Maybe. But it was something else; something she couldn't describe.