4.

Carly was on a roll. This Revolutionary War business was a cake-walk for her! She had researched the subject perfectly and she knew how to string words together. There really was no possible way for her to fail.

Tap, tap, tap, she finished another sentence, and turned slightly to the side, picking up a bowl from the counter. She scooped up a nice, small spoonful of ice-cream and closed her eyes as she brought it to her lips, in order to really savor the moment the taste hit her mouth.

Just as Carly was about to return to her work she heard a door opening and the soft toddling of feet. She turned to watch as Spencer slowly slouched his way across the almost dark living room and towards her at the kitchen counter. "Hey," she greeted him with a giddy smile.

Spencer still seemed half asleep. "Shouldn't you be in bed? It's two am," he muttered, rubbing his head lazily.

"I'm almost done," Carly quipped, turning to the screen and trying to find her train of thought again. Tea, taxes, Washington, Jefferson, the King of England... what else?

"What's she still doing here?" Spencer asked, nudging his head towards the living room couch.

Carly was slightly annoyed that she couldn't just finish this up and get some sack time, but in a good enough mood that she agreed to swirld around in her seat. "She's helping me stay awake," she said, taking in the sight of Sam sitting on the couch, her head flung back over the backrest, snoring very loudly.

Spencer looked confusedly at Carly, then Sam, and back at Carly again. "How?"

Carly squinted her eyes at her brother. "Do you really want to know?"

There was a brief silence while Spencer hesitated. "Mm-maybe," he then said.

"It's a little bit crazy."

Spencer nodded vigorously. "I like crazy."

"Okay, then," Carly said, leaning in conspiratorially, "Did you know that when dolphins and whales sleep, only one half of their brain is sleeping? Meaning that they're never really asleep. They can still do stuff, because the other half is awake?"

Spencer stared back at her mutely. Then slowly a wild gleam entered his eyes. "I did not know that," he whispered. "But it sounds pretty freaking awesome!"

"Shhh!" Carly quickly shushed him, taking a quick glance to make sure Sam hadn't awoken. "Well, earlier tonight, like around midnight, Sam figured out that our brains are linked like that! So only one of us has to sleep at a time, because we're brain twins!"

"That... doesn't make any sense," Spencer said, as the gleam died away.

"Yes, it does." Carly leaned back haughtily.

"No, it doesn't."

"Yesitdoes!" Carly screamed, no longer caring if Sam woke up or not, "I have to finish my homework!"

"Okay, let's assume for a moment we live in a coocoo world... How does it help you that Sam is sleeping? She's only resting her own brain, yours is still wide awake," Spencer said, poking a finger on her forehead.

"You," Carly said, repaying the favour by lightly flicking Spencer's nose, "Just don't understand how this brain twin deal works. See, Sam's not resting her brain, she's resting mine. While Sam's brain is in here," she tapped her head a couple of times, "doing all the work."

"So, in other words, Sam's brain is doing your homework?"

Carly's face fell. "Yeah... that's not very smart, is it?" she looked pitifully at her brother. "But she explained it so well..."

Spencer nodded sympathetically, and reached out a hand to stroke her hair. "And you also realise that everything you just told me was totally insane?"

"Well, of course it's insane!" Carly muttered angrily, grabbing the spoon from her ice-cream bowl, "It came from Sam's stupid head, didn't it?!" She directed her stare to the sleeping figure, and then flung the spoon towards it as hard as she could. It hit the girl on her temple and then bounced from there, falling on her lap. "Wake up, Professor Pucket!" Carly shouted when she noticed movement on the couch.

Slowly and unsteadily Sam seemed to be waking from her slumber. The girl leaned forward, lifting her hand to her temple and rubbing it in a circular motion. "I got an owie on my head," she whined, barely loud enough for Carly to hear. Then her eyes fell on the spoon on her lap, which she eagerly snatched and lifted in her smiling mouth. "Mmmm!" the girl groaned, this time from pleasure.

"Are you awake yet, Sunshine?" Carly tried to get her friend's attention. Sam was still moving pretty slow, though, and it took a couple of seconds before she turned to Carly. "So I can beat you unconscious with that spoon?!"

Sam sighed in deep. "What did I do now?" she asked in a voice that was easily as cumbersome as her movements. Then her eyes shifted to Carly's side, where Spencer was still standing, hands tucked in his bathrobe pockets. "Oh, hi, Spencer."

"Hellou," he replied quietly, then added with a smile, "Dolphin brain."

"Whaa..." Sam frowned and shook her head, clearly lost.

"Oh, so you don't remember?" Carly asked, rolling her eyes.

"Remember what?"

"How you tricked me!" Carly shouted back. She was tired, embarrassed and a little bit furious. "Your brain-twin theory?" she went on, when Sam still wasn't connecting the dots, "It's complete bullcrap! You just wanted to go to sleep!"

Finally a light seemed to go on in Sam's head, and a wicked grin grew on her face. "Oh, yeah," she said, sounding pretty satisfied with herself. "I can't believe you bought that one, Carly." Sam started laughing.

"Oh, shut up," Carly mumbled under her breath. She swung back around to the counter, glancing at Spencer, who was observing the whole situation silently with his eyes half closed, on the way. She picked up the ice-cream bowl before realising something was missing. "Bring me my spoon," she said, not looking back, but lifting an open hand up to her shoulder level.

The laughter started to move closer at first, before dying away a few feet away from her. "Here you go," Sam said, coming up behind Carly and slapping the spoon on her palm. "Brain twin," she whispered quietly directly in her ear.

Carly snorted out a thoroughly unattractive laughter, before glancing at Sam over her shoulder. There was an equally amused expression on the blonde's face. Only Sam had the ability disarm her so easily, when she was doing her damnedest to stay mad at the girl. No one else would've gotten a pass so quickly. Of course, the fact that she was dead tired also meant her defences were at an all time low.

Still staring into Sam's beaming eyes, she was struck by an incredibly powerful affection for the girl. "You are the greatest thing ever to happen to me. You know that, right?" she whispered back.

Sam kept grinning back, and then brought up her hand and tussled Carly's hair. "Aw, are we feeling mushy?" the blonde said flippantly. Her hand went from the hair and towards the bowl still in Carly's hands, "Can I have some of that?"

Carly snapped out of her trance just in time to protectively cradle the bowl to her chest. "No way, get your own," she said. Turning away from the girl, she took a big scoop of ice-cream in her mouth and pretended to read her essay on the computer screen.

"Carly..."

"No."

"But yours is so deliciously gooey," Sam kept at it, "You know how I love gooey, melted ice-cream."

"Tough luck."

"Just a little bit. You have so much and I have none."

"Look, you're not getting any of this, so just give it a re..."

Carly swung her head to Sam, fully intending to stare the girl down, but as soon as she came face to face with her Sam again snuck a kiss on her mouth. This one was just a quick peck, like the first one, but it still froze Carly up all the same. She could only stare in confusion how Sam smirked winsomely and stole the bowl from her. In fact, she was still staring when the blonde started lapping up the ice-cream right in front of her with a smug expression on her face.

This was definitely becoming a nuisance, Carly's brain recognised, while she was slowly recovering her motor functions. That Sam could totally hypnotise her with a kiss was intolerable, not to mention inconceivable. And unacceptable. Worse, the girl had no inhibitions about performing her stunt in front of people, putting god only knew what thoughts in their heads...

Suddenly Carly was shocked back to her senses as she remembered her brother was standing right behind her. "It's not what you think, Spencer!" she yelped, jumping to her feet and facing him.

"Relax, he's sleeping," Sam mumbled through a mouthful of ice-cream.

"Huh?" Carly uttered, glancing at Sam and then at her brother again. Sure enough, his eyes were closed and he seemed totally out of it. But he was still standing right there, hands in pockets! "How can he sleep standing up?" she asked from Sam, but the girl only shrugged back. "Spencer?" she said uncertainly, poking him in the shoulder lightly.

As soon as Carly touched Spencer, his body went limb and he fell to the floor. Carly startled back and watched how he just got back on his feet. At least his eyes were open now. "I'm going to bed," he muttered and started stumbling away, towards his room.

Carly stared quietly after Spencer for as long as it took him to disappear out of sight. "You have to admit, that'd be a pretty sweet skill to have," Sam said from beside her.

Still speechless, Carly turned to Sam and took in the ice-cream smeared face. "Gimme that," she said curtly, frowning as she snatched the bowl back.