This is not how we imagined our afternoon.

Susan Test rested her head in her hands, her bored stare shifting from her siblings to the table and back again. She absentmindedly drummed her fingers along the booth, her ears occasionally tuning in to the noise from Johnny's gamepad or Mary's cell phone. The silent conversation between Susan's siblings and their devices had so far been the only one since the trio had entered the ice cream parlor.

When Susan had thought up ways to combat the afternoon's boredom, she and Mary had initially thought of testing a new cologne they were developing. To think we were this close to finishing it. It would've done wonders in getting the attention of…Gil Nexdor.

And then their father had entered the lab with Johnny in tow. Even now, she could still hear those overly enthusiastic words regarding Hugh's idea…an idea that had poked a hole in the girls' own. "Why don't you two take Johnny and go get some ice cream?" their dad had suggested.

So, here the girls sat, waiting for a simple snack instead of waiting for Gil to fall madly in love with them. Susan's eyebrow twitched just thinking about it. It had taken two months for the girls to perfect the cologne and rule out any scent combinations that could cause an allergic reaction. Two months of progress, and now they would have to wait longer to test it. All thanks to an afternoon snack.

"What's taking so long?"

Johnny's impatient tone snapped Susan out of her mopey state. Her younger brother briefly set his gamepad aside, stealing a glance at the staff behind the front counter. "The sign out front said super-fast service," the boy groaned. "This is nowhere near super-fast."

"Maybe if you bothered to read more closely, little brother, you would have noticed the other sign," Susan smugly replied back. "The one that said, 'We have minimal staff right now.'"

"Besides, it's nice enough to sit here and relax," Mary added in, placing a reassuring arm around Johnny. "I'm sure we'll get our ice cream any minute."

"It's been plenty of minutes," Johnny pointed out, jerking his head towards the window. "Seriously, even Dukey's getting his food faster than we are right now."

As Susan craned her neck to check on the mutt in question, she could see the truth in her brother's words. Dukey leaned against the rack where the kids' bikes were parked, sipping a strawberry shake without a care in the world. With the mutt fully clothed and standing upright, anyone passing by would have mistaken him for an overly-hairy person.

"You might have a small point there," Susan reluctantly admitted, pulling the receipt out of her lab coat pocket. She slid the receipt in Johnny's direction. "Take this up to the counter, and ask the cashier about our order. No goofing off."

Johnny eagerly nodded his head and took the receipt. "Sure thing. Be right back."

Susan quickly grabbed the back of her brother's shirt, preventing him from breaking into a sprint. "We mean it when we say no goofing off, Johnny," she repeated, giving the boy a warning glance.

"Yeah, yeah," Johnny quickly responded, pulling his shirt out of his sister's grip. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a mint chocolate chip whirlwind calling my name." With that, the boy snatched his gamepad and trotted up to the front counter, barely stepping off to the side to avoid a collision with another customer.

Mary turned her gaze to Susan once Johnny was out of sight. "So…how long do you think it will take Johnny to cause a scene in here?"

Susan answered her sister's concerned tone with a confident stare. "Given the intensity of his craving for ice cream, his speed as he approached the counter, and his usual annoying attitude towards us, I'd say he's likely to cause a scene in, say, about two minutes."

As if on cue, an abrupt noise echoed from the front of the ice cream shop, followed by a surprised gasp. Susan let out a frustrated groan. "Better make that two seconds," she muttered, sliding out of her seat. "Let's go see what's going on."

"Whoops!" Johnny's voice stammered out, his tone matching the one he would normally use after angering the kids' father. "Sorry about that. Didn't see—hey! What're you—give it back—"

A harsh impact stopped Johnny from speaking further, causing the twins to quicken their pace. Susan and Mary could barely hold back gasps as they approached the scene. At least one patron stood off to the side, furiously scrubbing at an expensive-looking dress with some paper towels. One employee attempted to calm the woman down, while another mopped up the sloppy remnants of a vanilla milkshake.

Susan's eyes widened as she took a good look at her brother. The eagerness Johnny had shown earlier had vanished entirely, replaced with a horrified look that he would only show whenever the girls used him for their more painful experiments. The younger twin would have missed it if she blinked, but she swore she could make out a tear sliding down the boy's cheek.

She couldn't even open her mouth to ask what happened before Johnny bolted, scrambling out of the shop and brushing past a surprised Dukey. The boy hastily grabbed his bike and took off, leaving his dog and two siblings—and the rest of the shop's customers—standing in awe.

Mary reacted first to the chaos, turning to face her sister. "Dukey and I are going to follow Johnny," she said, her tone leaving no room for arguments. "I'll try to ask him what happened."

"I'll meet up with you once I'm done here," Susan answered, turning her attention back to the chaos her little brother had caused. As the girl began to approach the front counter, she found herself tripping over something. Susan caught herself on the counter, eyes widening further as she picked up the object she'd nearly slipped on. Johnny's gamepad lay next to the receipt the boy had dropped, its frame and multiple screens held together by a few wires. Two of the screens flickered with static, showing the cracks inflicted on the surface. What happened here?

"I swear, that kid's an asshole!"

Six words. Six words caused Susan's head to swivel back to the woman frantically scrubbing at her dress. The customer glared at the broken gamepad in Susan's hand. "What was that?" the girl asked, her voice carrying an icy edge.

"That kid's a total asshole!" the woman grumbled, showing the state of her dress to the twin. "No common sense whatsoever! Didn't even bother watching where he was going. He got food all over my new dress!"

Susan's eye twitched at the comment. The gamepad, the spill, and the woman's furious tone all seemed to paint a picture in Susan's head. She turned to the man behind the counter. "What's going on here?"

"Some kid sprinted up to the counter just as she was about to leave," the worker replied, pointing to the woman. "He crashed into her and wound up spilling a shake all over the floor."

"And my dress," the woman complained, crossing her arms over her chest. "I ought to call the cops on him."

The worker's eyes narrowed angrily at the customer. "Lady, we're already calling the cops on you!" the man fired back, before addressing Susan again. He pointed toward the gamepad. "She snatched that gamepad of his and smashed it on the ground. We've got the whole thing on camera."

Susan's face paled. It all began to make sense. The look on Johnny's face, the way he sprinted out of the shop. "This kid, did he have hair that looks like it's on fire?" she asked the worker.

The employee nodded. "Yeah. You know him?"

"He's my brother," Susan sheepishly responded.

A scoff erupted from behind Susan, turning the girl's attention back to the furious customer. "Clearly, you should've watched him better," the woman retorted. "You give an empty-headed freak like that free reign to run around, obviously he's going to cause a problem."

Red began to creep into Susan's vision. The twins' studies at Porkbelly MIT had taught them the spectrums of different emotions, and the ways in which to healthily deal with them. Even so, it still took more effort than Susan realized to suppress the rage boiling in her blood. Annoying as Johnny can get sometimes, there's no excuse for anyone to call him that.

"That freak, as you put it, has a name," Susan shot back, her hands balling into fists. "You disrupted my afternoon, smashed my sibling's personal property…and now you have the audacity to say that about my little brother? He's a kid!"

"And that's supposed to make this all better?" the woman ranted, glaring daggers at Susan. "I spent over a hundred dollars on this dress, and now it's likely ruined because of him."

"Believe me, I've been there," Susan retorted, her mind flashing back to the times where Johnny would get on her nerves. She still couldn't completely let go of the numerous instances where Johnny had broken some of the girls' inventions, purposefully or otherwise. The "Keep out, Johnny" sign on the lab door existed for a reason, after all. "You didn't have to make things worse by smashing his gamepad. I mean, did you even give him a chance to apologize?"

"That's a bit hard to do when he sprinted out the door like a bat out of hell," the woman replied, the glare unwavering.

"If a crazy banshee like you screamed at me, I would've done the same!" Susan yelled, mirroring the customer's heated stare. "It was one mistake! One mistake, and you're acting like he ran at you with a butcher's knife. How about we all calm down, and move on with our lives? I'm tired, I'm bored, and I'd very much like to eat some ice cream sometime this afternoon."

Susan's anger began to simmer as the woman furiously stomped off, and she found the courage to turn back to the employee. "The only reason my brother came up here was to check on our order," she explained, handing the receipt to the worker.

The employee nodded his head in understanding. "I'll get right on that," he reassured, glancing between Susan and the woman. "But it might be best if you stay away from her. The cops will be arriving soon, and I don't want you to get caught in that."

Despite every fiber of her being itching to punch the rude woman square in the mouth, Susan reluctantly turned away from the scene. I need to get our food and head back home. Dad's probably worried sick, and I need to check on Johnny. The girl took another look at the destroyed gamepad. The girls had tools at the lab that could repair most of the damage. Susan wished the same could be true for whatever damage the angry customer's outburst had done to Johnny. The boy's terrified face flashed through Susan's mind, and she shuddered. I hope Mary and Dukey got a chance to talk to him.

"Order up!"

The voice drew Susan's attention back to the counter, where a set of frozen treats awaited them. Susan's own mouth watered as she spotted the lemon smoothie she had ordered for herself. Putting her own hunger aside for a moment, she stuffed the remains of Johnny's gamepad into a larger pocket on her lab coat. The bell dinged as Susan exited the shop with the ice cream in tow. She easily spotted her bike, securing the frozen treats in the front basket before climbing on. I need to get home fast. Mom and Dad are probably forming a search party for me at this point. The twin turned back, inwardly smirking at the sight of a police car pulling into the shop's parking lot, before she began to pedal her way back home.

The early afternoon sunlight cast a glare in Susan's glasses, forcing her to pedal carefully. She glanced down at the ice cream. I just hope this doesn't all melt before I make it back.

Susan let out relieved sigh as her home came into view. She carefully parked the bike on the front lawn, retrieving the frozen treats from the basket and strolling towards the front door. Susan took a deep breath to calm her nerves before entering the house. As expected, she found her parents sitting on the couch. The parents' worried faces matched Susan's own.

"There you are!" Hugh spoke up, hints of concern slipping through his frustrated tone. "Where were you? We were about to call the police!"

"We were both worried sick when Mary told us you didn't come home with her and Johnny," Lila added in.

"I'm fine, thanks for asking," Susan replied, her voice weary with the afternoon's events. "Where's Johnny? I need to talk to him."

Hugh shrugged his shoulders in response. "He bolted upstairs the second he walked in," the father answered. "If you're heading up there, could you somehow convince him to clean his room? He won't even open the door for me or your mother."

The anger Susan had been feeling back at the ice cream shop threatened to resurface. The younger twin reluctantly pushed it down, instead reaching for the drink carrier containing the trio's ice cream. "I'll talk to him." Susan quickly climbed the stairs, rounding the corner to find Mary outside Johnny's bedroom door.

"Hey," Susan greeted, offering her sister a small smile. "Any luck getting Johnny to come out?"

Mary sadly shook her head. "I wish. Dukey went in a short while before you got back, and even he couldn't find out what was bothering Johnny."

"I think I have an idea of what happened." Susan reached into her lab coat, fishing out the destroyed gamepad. "Some crazy lady smashed this right in front of Johnny. Apparently, he spilled a milkshake on this woman's dress, and she took it personally." She handed the device to Mary. "Do we have any tools in the lab that can fix this?"

"You're kidding, right?" Mary deadpanned, her eye twitching as she examined the device. "I've seen inventions of ours that were in better shape than this. I'll see if we can fix it up, but I can't make any guarantees."

"Do what you can," Susan replied, turning her gaze to her brother's bedroom door. "I'm going to try to talk to Johnny."

Mary offered a supportive smile, taking her raspberry smoothie and heading toward the lab. With the gamepad in Mary's capable hands, Susan gently knocked on her brother's bedroom door. "Johnny?" she tentatively asked.

The lack of a response fueled the girl's concern. She turned the doorknob, gently opening the door and looking around. True to Hugh's word, Johnny's bedroom looked a mess. Clothes hung over the hamper, and Johnny's homework lay in a pile on his desk. Susan winced as she spotted a small pile of Lego bricks strewn throughout the room. As painful as the events of the past few minutes were, nothing will ever compare to the pain of stepping on a Lego. Susan set the ice cream down on Johnny's nightstand, before kneeling and gathering every visible Lego piece into a neat, tidy pile.

With the hazard dealt with, Susan continued to look around the room for any signs of her brother. Okay. If I was an eleven-year-old boy living in a dumpster pile, where would I hide?

A muffled sob echoed from the closet, answering Susan's question for her. The girl retrieved the ice cream from the nightstand before strolling to the door. "Hey, Johnny?" she asked. "Are you in there?"

"You're supposed to knock!"

The angry response caused Susan's eyebrow to twitch. "I did," she responded. "You wouldn't answer. Could you please come out here?"

"Leave me alone!" Johnny hollered back, a hint of distress peeking through the anger in his voice.

Susan let out a frustrated sigh, reaching for the doorknob. She didn't make it two steps into the closet before an object smacked her in the face. Susan recoiled as her forehead throbbed with pain, casting an annoyed glare at the shoe that had hit her. She glanced up in time to duck as Johnny hurled his other shoe at his sister. "I said leave me alone!" Johnny shouted, his eyes brimming with tears despite his angry stare.

"Look, I know what happened earlier," Susan said, her face softening slightly. "I thought maybe you would want to explain your side of things." She reached for the ice cream and stepped into the closet, carefully sitting next to her brother. "And it's like you said. You've got a mint chocolate chip whirlwind calling your name."

Johnny shifted away from Susan as she offered the ice cream to him. "I'm not hungry," he muttered, hugging his knees close to his chest.

The response caused the gears to turn in Susan's head. He's upset about something, and I don't think it's just the incident from earlier. She placed a comforting hand on her brother's back. "Mary and I can fix your gamepad," she offered, inwardly hoping her words would evoke a positive reaction from Johnny. "We've got tools in the lab that can make it good as new. Is that what's bothering you?"

Johnny shook his head.

"Well, what's going on then?" Susan asked, a hint of concern slipping through her tone. "It's not like you to be this bummed out, is it?"

Johnny opened his mouth to reply, only to clamp it back shut.

Susan inhaled sharply through her nose. "Okay, fine then," she said, taking her lemon smoothie and inching closer to her brother. "How about I sit here until you're ready to talk?"

The boy beside her didn't acknowledge Susan's decision, instead taking a pitifully small bite of his ice cream. The younger twin sipped her own frozen snack, wishing the sweet taste would do more to distract her from her brother's unusual behavior. She could pick up the faint tick of the clock in Johnny's room, but Susan didn't count the seconds as they ticked by. She found herself counting the time and materials she and Mary would need to fix the broken gamepad. We'll need a couple new screens for sure, and some metal alloy to reinforce the gamepad once it's fixed.

"Is that woman right?"

Johnny's question snapped Susan out of her thoughts. "What?" she asked, her hopeful tone encouraging Johnny to continue.

"Is she right?" Johnny asked again, more tears escaping his eyes. "Am I…am I a—"

"No!" Susan hastily interrupted, looking her brother in the eye. "No, you're not."

"But I screwed up…" Johnny whispered, running his hands through his hair. "I…I goofed off, and I know you told me not to, and…I screwed up anyway. Sometimes…I don't know, sometimes it feels like all I do is screw up."

Susan didn't reply at first, instead watching the tears sliding down her brother's face. It wasn't hard to see some truth in Johnny's words. She'd lost count of the inventions Johnny had either broken or misused for his own selfish purposes. I think he can get a bit annoying sometimes…but he didn't deserve all that crap he went through today.

"Yeah," Susan responded, placing an arm around the boy. "You do screw up sometimes. But that doesn't give anyone the right to hurt you the way that woman did."

Johnny shrugged his way out of his sister's grasp, pulling his knees close to his chest. "You're just saying that."

"No, Johnny, I'm not," the redhead insisted, looking the boy in the eye. "I won't lie to you. You're stubborn, you're in need of an attitude adjustment sometimes, and you always find ways to break into the lab and drive me and Mary crazy."

Johnny lowered his head, a disappointed sigh falling from his lips. Susan gently rubbed her hand along the boy's back before continuing. "But…" she spoke up, the intentional pause in her words catching Johnny's attention again. "You're also enthusiastic, you're an amazing friend to Dukey, and you're always the person I always go to when I need to get Eugene off my back." The mention of Bling-Bling's name caused Susan's skin to crawl. "Seriously, if there was a pop quiz on methods to stop Bling-Bling, you'd ace it on the first try."

Johnny let out a small chuckle, his lips parting into a smile for the first time since the incident.

"That mistake you made at the ice cream shop is just that," Susan said. "A mistake. We all make mistakes from time to time. Even I do. I mean, you remember that fiasco with those coupons of yours, right?"

Johnny nodded his head and stifled a laugh. Mary did her best to keep her own laughter at bay as she recalled helping her brother race down the steepest hill in Porkbelly. To this day, she still had trouble deciding which circumstance had been crazier: the fact that the headwinds' strength had ripped away the boy's extensive protective gear, or that the girls' correct calculations had been the only barrier between Johnny and a lengthy hospital stay.

"I…" Johnny started, taking a shaky breath before continuing. "It's just…you and Mary always try to avoid those mistakes. That's…that's not me. It's just not who I am."

"I get it," Susan replied, lowering her gaze to the carpet. "More than you realize…I know what it's like to feel…different." The statement carried more truth than Susan would willingly admit. While most girls would ask for a dollhouse for Christmas, Susan could still recall leaping with joy when she and Mary unwrapped a microscope set one year. The microscope set been the catalyst for the twins' interest in the world of science…and the first step in building the lab from the ground up. "At the end of the day, though, I'm still a human being, and so are you."

"So…" Johnny stared at his ice cream as he processed his sister's words. "Is all forgiven, then?"

"For me, yes," Susan answered, a frown crossing her face for a moment. "For that woman you spilled a shake on, I can't say for certain."

Johnny let out a bigger laugh, a sign that the sadness plaguing the siblings was beginning to fade. "You probably don't hear this a lot from me, but…you and Mary really are the best sisters a brother can have," Johnny said, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.

Susan playfully ruffled her brother's hair. "I know."

"Susan? Johnny?"

The sound of their father's voice caused Johnny and Susan to jolt. "Are you two okay in there?" Hugh hollered.

"We're fine, Dad!" Susan hollered back, reluctantly finishing her smoothie before standing up. She offered a hand to help Johnny to his feet. "We should get out of this closet. I'd rather not spend the next day or two smelling like your dirty laundry."

Johnny scoffed. "You think I smell bad?" he challenged as he opened the closet door. "That misty spray you're working on makes it hard to breathe without gagging."

Susan's eye twitched as she read between her brother's words. Oh, for the love of…he wasn't supposed to test it yet! "Johnny," she scolded. "We needed that cologne! How are we going to get Gil to use it if you wasted it all on yourself?"

"Hey, I did not use it all," Johnny shot back, raising his hands defensively. "And if you ask me, I did Gil a favor. It smells like burnt marshmallows, and not the good burnt marshmallow smell, either."

Susan raised an eyebrow. "I thought you liked burnt marshmallows."

"Yeah, but not when I'm breathing it in constantly," Johnny elaborated, taking another bite of his ice cream. "All I'm saying is, there's a difference between the smell of toasted marshmallows on smores, and the burnt-to-a-crisp smell of that…what was it called again?"

As Susan followed her brother downstairs, she resisted the urge to roll her eyes. A small smile sneaked onto Susan's lips as Johnny continued to ramble on about his disdain for the burnt marshmallow scent. Yep. There's the annoying little brother who drives me and Mary crazy.

No matter how much Johnny annoyed her, however, Susan couldn't see herself trading it for anything.

First upload of the year. Woohoo!

I've had this story in my files for a couple months now, so I figured I'd finish it and share it with you all. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the story, and I hope you have a great day!