All SKINS (2007-2013) Characters © Bryan Elsley, Jamie Brittain, E4, Paul Gay, etc.
Stonem Twins
Chapter 1: The First Morning
It is Stonem's household, Tina Stonem was woken up by her twin sister: Effy banging on my door, "Fuck off!" Tina groaned and buried my face into the pillow.
"Wake up Tina! You've got to be ready for college, first day remember?" Effy asked.
Effy yelled and whacked on my door once more. "We're leaving in half an hour, if you're not ready I have to go with Dad alone, he's in a shit mood. So you better hurry up."
Tina reluctantly gets out of bed and stumbles to the bedroom, then turns on the shower and waits for it to heat up. Whilst Tina did, she turned the cold tap on and cupped my hands together, splashing the freezing water onto her face to wake myself up. Her body tingles from the sensation and Tina dry her face with a nearby towel. Slipping out of her pajamas, Tina quickly hopped into the shower, humming the tune to some rock song she heard on the radio last night. Tina spot of my shower gel from the toiletry rack and gets a drop of it onto her hands.
"Tina?" Her twin sister Effy asked, her voice muffled from the running water and door between us.
"Yeah?" Tina says whilst rubbing the gel on her neck and underarms.
"Do you want me to pick you out an outfit? You always take ages to choose one." Effy questions, "Why is she being so nice? And once again, there's no way I'm sitting in that car on my own with him. And that's why.
Tina rolls her eyes and steps out of the shower, wraps a towel round her body and leaves her hair to air dry. As Tina opens the medicine cabinet, she notices a packet of condoms that weren't in there yesterday. Tina's entire being cringes at the thought of her aunt and uncle getting in on, shaking the disturbing thoughts off, she grabs her toothbrush and toothpaste.
"Tina?" Answer me!" Effy called.
"Hey! Just do whatever I don't care!" Tina shouted to her, putting the toothpaste on the bristles and dampening the brush. Suddenly, Tina felt a lot fresher as the mint escaped to the corners of her mouth, she spit it out and headed back into the spare bedroom which is basically mine from the amount of clutter. Clothes were scattered everywhere due to her twin sister, meaning Tina could barely see the floor anymore.
"Effy!" Tina sighs, putting her hand in her head. "You better fucking clean this up when we get home."
"Here." Effy smiles and walks out her room, oblivious to what Tina just said.
Tina stepped over the pile of clothes to her bed to see what she picked out of her, she chose a black mini-skirt paired with ripped tights, a red corset top. She must've lent Tina combat boots because they were nearly placed by her door. I'm going to look like a clone of Tina, which isn't my style at all. But there's no time.
Tina go to sit at her vanity and choose some makeup that'd compliment my outfit, spreading it all out on my desk. Then Tina assessed my appearance in the mirror. Her eyes bags were extremely dark from the lack of sleep she got last night. The thought of starting school with Effy really excited me, even though I'd never admit it to anyone. We were finally going to be at school together after 2 years of being separated, Effy got transferred to some shitty posh school after some night out that put us both in hospital. Her parents didn't really care who Tina hung out with so she got to stay at her old school.
Tina applied some concealer to her under eyes which instantly made a difference. Tina then brushed on some light pink eyeshadow over her eyelids, then added some neat eyeliner and added some cherry lip balm to her dry lips. The difference from her outfit to her makeup was something else.
"10 minutes till we're leaving, Tina!" Effy shouts from her room, Tina glances at her alarm clock. It was already 8:50. Shit!
Tina turned on my curling iron, scrambled to my bed, threw on my clothes and ruffled them up a bit to give it an effortless look, which definitely wasn't the case with the amount of effort Tina was putting in. Then, Tina ran back to my vanity and began curling my hair. She messes it up a bit and locks it in with some hair serum and hairspray. Tina shrugged as she stared at myself in the mirror, not my best work but it'll have to do. Tina let it slide as she only had half an hour.
"Effy, have you seen my layered necklace?" Tina asks her and barges into her room uninvited.
"Ever heard of knocking, spanner?" Effy rolled her eyes.
"No surprise, what is that?" Tina teased and searched her room for it.
"It's on my neck." Effy grinned and shoved it in her face, showing it off.
"You bitch." Tina huffed and went over to her drawers to raid her jewelry stash.
"This'll do." Tina shrugged as she pulled out a gold layered necklace, this looks way better than her one.
"Yeah." Effy said.
"What's surf and turf, Effy?" Tina asked.
"Sex." Effy said with a smile.
"Whoa. Are you sure?" Tina asked with a smile.
"Yeah." Effy said.
"Are you having sex with someone?" Tina asked.
"Maybe." Effy said.
"Sex in here to your home?" Tina asked.
"No." Effy said.
"Where?" Tina asked.
"Roundview College." Effy said.
"Whoa, wait, school?" Tina asked.
"Yes." Effy said.
"Hot." Tina said.
"Hmm. So, my piece of paper." Effy said.
"Where is your piece of paper?" Tina asked.
"My locker in school." Effy said.
"How many?" Tina asked.
"Eight to one piece of paper." Effy said.
"Okay, but can you tell me more please?" Tina asked.
"To do: Smoking. Alcohol. Drugs. Arson. Porn. Teacher abuse. Sex in school. And Glue." Effy said.
Tina was surprised and excited.
"Sex in school. No way." Tina said happily.
"Yep." Effy said happily.
"Ha ha ha, oh, girl. Sex at school." Tina said.
"That's good." Effy said.
"School rooftop, locker room, swimming pool, school bathroom, or shower room, Effy?" Tina asked.
"No." Effy nodded no.
Tina walked, thought to her head and turned around to her twin sister.
"Nurse's office?" Tina asked.
"Yes." Effy nodded yes.
Tina was excited and happily.
"Wow. That's awesome." Tina said.
"You're right." Effy said.
"You is sex with someone in the nurse's office." Tina said.
"Yeah." Effy said.
Tina does up the clasp behind her neck and lets it fall onto her chest, sorting it out in Effy's mirror. even though it'll look weird again by the time i get out of the car. Tina wanders back into her room without saying a word to her twin sister, grabs her phone, money and a couple cigarettes and places them onto her bed. Then Tina chose a jacket, she decided to go with a plain leather one to match the look her twin sister gave me.
Placing all her items out on her bed into the pockets, Tina grabbed her boots and rushed downstairs to greet her parents: Anthea and Jim Stonem who were in the kitchen.
"Morning Dad." Tina smiled which was wasted because all she got was a mere grunt from him. He didn't even look up, charming.
"Morning my love." Anthea beamed, holding a plate of toast in her left hand then embracing her with a side hug and a kiss on the forehead.
"Morning Mum. thanks for letting me stay here, again." Tina smiled, sitting down at the table.
"That's okay my sweet, I think it's for the best right now. don't you?" Anthea was referring to her mum.
"And besides, you and Effy are like sisters anyway! So I was more than happy." Tina sent her a quick grin, not opening my mouth as it was full of toast.
"Morning." Effy said quietly, instantly making her way to the coffee machine.
"Morning sweet." Anthea smiled at her, now washing some dishes.
"Oh yeah, morning." Jim grumbled, still looking at his newspaper.
Tina butter her a piece of toast to save some time, and by the time her coffee was done she finished making her breakfast.
"Here." Tina pushed the plate towards her.
"Thanks." Then we both ate in silence, not daring to start an argument with Jim. This was a regular routine in the Stonem household, don't start an argument with Jim in the mornings because he won't shut up.
After about five minutes we'd both finished up our food and were placing our plates in the sink for Anthea to clean. she shooed us out of the kitchen before we could say anything.
Tina gets in the back seat and Effy gets in the passenger seat. Jim begins to talk to us about how much he hates his job and starts chatting some shit about his colleagues. Tina thought he realized that we weren't interested when he saw Effy lighting a cigarette and Tina put my headphones in, so we just drove in silence.
Roundview College, Tina remembers her brother: Tony would tell Effy and Tina back when we were in year 10. Those were the good times, he would tell us about how he was so high in his psychology class. and how his teacher had to escort him out due to him screaming about Sid Jenkins and Anwar Kharral flying around the classroom. From what it sounded like, roundview was a really shit college where you could get away with almost anything, and that sounded just fine to me.
As we get closer to college, Tina sees what looks like a bike in the middle of the road. Tina thinks Effy sees it too because she tries to warn her father about it. but of course he thinks he knows best and ignores her, then we drive right over it. causing us to crash into a bollard, Tina let out a small laugh to myself as Jim gets out of his car and begins sweating profusely. looking in the front mirror, Tina see Effy had a smirk plastered on her face, knowing she was right and he should've fucking listened for once.
Tina looked out my unrolled window and saw three boys starting over in our direction, whether they were looking at Tina or Effy was unknown but, maybe it was a good thing Tina did put in some effort into my appearance. Tina looked in the side mirror and saw Effy eyeing them up too, but once again she wasn't sure if it was all of them or just one. A tanned boy with a scar in his chin caught my attention, he was just my type. the boy in the middle with curly hair whispered to him and pointed directly to me, making me look away.
"Right, Effy. ready?" Tina asks whilst she gets out of the car.
"Yeah sure." Effy shrugged and got out too, leaving me and wandering off to one of the boys who were previously sitting at the table. He now had ketchup on the side of his face and was arguing with her father.
Tina decided to go to where his friends were, not saying a word. just took his seat before they could say anything.
"Excuse me, but it seems to appear that you're sitting in my friend's seat." The curly haired boy said, looking nervous and confused.
"So?" Tina retorted. "He seems a bit busy with my twin sister over there, you know the one you were staring at? I doubt he'll be coming over just yet."
The boy with the skateboard sat opposite me, trying to figure out the best way to approach me. his eyes were scanning all over my body, from my arms onto my exposed chest.
"Why are you sitting here?" He asks, now not looking at me and checking the griptape on his skateboard that seemed to be peeling off.
"Can I not sit here?" Tina retorted. taking the remainder of a beverage and drinking it all down. beer. Tina forgot how much she hated beer, it was too bitter.
"That's his beer. you owe him a new one." The boy with braces says to me, whilst pointing at the skateboard boy.
"It's fine, mate. don't worry i wasn't gonna drink it anyway." He shrugged whilst leaning back in his chair. "Anyway, where you heading-"
"Come on!" Effy yelled, waving over to me. "We need to go, Pandora's waiting."
"Such a shame this chat was cut short. anyway, laters." Tina says before walking up to Effy.
What stood in front of us was the next two years of our lives, Roundview College. Ashley just didn't think such a new experience would turn so sour.
Effy rolled her eyes and walked up to the boy, dragging her thumb through some of the ketchup that was near the corner of his mouth and sucking the sauce off her thumb.
"Sweet." Effy replied, with a smile, while Tina was gasping.
"Ketchup? Smart." Tina raked her eyes over the boys before linking arms with Effy.
"You whore." Effy muttered making the two girls laugh, Tina turned around to face the boy who was now accompanied by two more boys. She smiled seductively and turned back to Effy who was chuckling at her cousin's boldness when it came to guys (or girls).
"Taught by the best huh?" Tina raised her eyebrow at Effy who shook her head.
"Oh please, you were getting boys dropping to their knees for you by the age of twelve. If anything you taught me." The two joked the rest of the way to college knowing that the boys were definitely watching them walk away.
"Sweet." Tina laughed.
"That's funny." Effy replied, as she rolled her eyes.
Tina turns to the boy, who has a red shirt.
"Who's that?" Tina asked, as she turned to Effy.
"I don't know." Effy replied.
"She is with the other girl. Who's that other girl?" The boy in the red shirt asked.
"I don't know. She was her sister." The curly haired boy said.
"She has a sister." The brown haired boy said.
"Yeah." The curly haired boy said.
"You saw the other girl?" The boy in the red shirt asked.
"Yeah." The curly haired boy said.
"She is now." The boy in the red shirt said.
Pandora Moon looked around wildly, her signature eyeshadow plastered on her eyelids and her hair up in bunches. "Effy! Tina! Over here!" She shouted over to us, showing us both a spare bench she'd clearly been saving for us.
We walked towards her leisurely, whilst took a long pull from my spliff we wandered past the beauty school students and finally got over to panda. "Hey Panda Pops." Tina smiled, taking a seat. Knowing that Pandora would probably get pissy at me, she hated that nickname.
"Tina! I told you to stop calling me that! We're in college now, remember?" Pandora groaned, looking at Effy and waiting for her to agree. But she was too busy looking somewhere else. "Anyways, you both ready for college?"
"I guess." Tina shrugged, just hoping that someone would give me a good laugh today. First days are always the worst because everyone wants to make a good first impression, so nobody is actually themselves.
Tina decided to look at what Effy was so intrigued at. A group of hair and beauty students surrounded a red-headed girl who just got out of a car belonged to a footballer. Probably her boyfriend. I decided to turn out whatever was being spoken about, most likely nothing of interest.
"Bonkers!" Tina jumped at Pandora's sudden outburst. "What's surf and turf, Eff?"
"Sex." Effy smirked, blowing smoke from my spliff out of her mouth.
"Wow! We'll have a whizzer time at this college, Eff! I'm definitely going to have surf and turf, ASAP. Mum says boys only want one thing so my plan is give it to them, lots of times. That way I'll get good at it, be really popular and maybe my toes will stop throbbing." Pandora replied.
"Bye! Christ's sakes, Ems." The redhead girl said to someone. "Come on, you loser! Oh... What's wrong with you? You're always lagging behind me. Why can't you wear decent clothes? Right." She walked away to reveal her twin, someone who dressed the complete opposite way. She glanced over at me and flashed a small smile before following her sister through the main doors.
"You hated her." Effy said.
"Who do I hate, Eff?" Pandora asked.
"I'll let you know." Effy said.
"Cool." Pandora said.
"She seems like a bitch." Effy says, talking about the first girl. Tina nods in agreement before taking one last pull from the spliff and throwing on the ground. "So what do you think is gonna happen this year? Are we gonna get into some massive falling out over a lad?" She nudged her arm teasingly.
"You disgust me." Tina cringed. "You know we're better than that."
"Let's get this party started." Effy dragged her twin sister by her arm into the college, leaving Pandora to trail behind us.
"You want a lollipop?" Pandora asked.
"No." Effy said.
Roundview may be big, but it was really easy to navigate. That may be because of all the parent-teacher meetings they used to put Tony in, when you have a brother who gets in deep shit all the time. You tend to remember where you keep getting pulled to every week. We led Pandora to the Main Hall where they were holding the first part of induction.