The Tension Twins

Chapter 13

Emily walked home exhausted. She raised another 20 dollars by going to 10 houses who gave her 2 dollars each. She wasn't very happy with the amount of money she managed to collect but it was just about 7pm. She saw Samantha and Ella talking and raced there.

"Sam!! Whatcha doing here?" she asked panting slightly as she put her money in the jar. Ella signaled something to Samantha.

"Ohh hey Em. I heard about your business and I wanted to try some lemonade. After all you are my best friend. But you weren't there and I wanted to taste some lemonade before the day ends," she said fiddling with her thumbs. Samantha wasn't the greatest liar. But Emily didn't seem to notice and poured a glass as Samantha put a dollar in the jar.

"Actually can we both have one? As a cheer? To celebrate?" Sam asked hopefully. Emily hesitated before pouring herself a glass too.

"Ok, but I have to warn you, most of my customers didn't like my lemonade," she said. Samantha signaled back something to Ella who freaked out a little. She didn't exactly plan what distraction to do. So Ella being Ella, started hopping on one foot and shouting pretending to be in pain. Emily turned around and started asking her what she was doing. Samantha took this moment to quickly switch her lemonade with Ella's and signaled Ella back. Ella looked relieved as she stopped and claimed she was fine.

Emily turned back to Samantha and rolled her eyes, "Get a load of that idiot" she said which caused Samantha to laugh and choke. After she topped she held up her cup and said,

"Ok, on 3 we drink to celebrate!" she said holding the cup to her mouth. Ella counted down,

"1... 2... 3!" she said as she watched Emily take a large sip of her lemonade. She watched as Emily's nose twitched, her mouth freeze and her face turned purple. Samantha backed up just in time before Emily spewed her drink out onto the sidewalk. She gagged and rinsed out her mouth with water.

Ella and Samantha tried to cover their giggles as they watched her frantically find something to get that taste out of her mouth.

She finally stopped and stared at her sister and her best friend,

"What did you guys do to my lemonade? It tastes awful now! How could you do this to me?" she said taking a bite of a scone and wiping her mouth. The girls were in shock.

"Us? This is your lemonade that you poured yourself! This is why everyone hates your lemonade, because it's sickening!" she exclaimed. Emily didn't believe her and then turned her head to Samantha.

"Sorry Em, but it's true! Your lemonade is disgusting! I'm sorry if it's true but you should've tasted your lemonade before selling it out to the world!" she said. Emily's face fell.

"How come you haven't spit your drink out if it's the same as mine?" she said angrily. Samantha picked up her glass and explained, "well, you were making a lot of people unhappy so we wanted you to try your lemonade before thinking it tastes good so while Ella was pretending to be hurt, I switched my glass with Ella's lemonade so i was actually drinking her lemonade."

Emily couldn't believe how her friend could have betrayed her. But then again, her lemonade was really awful. Still she had more questions,

"When mom and dad tried it, they didn't look as sick as everybody else did... how do i know for sure you guys didn't touch my lemonade?" she asked staring right into their eyes.

"Well for starters, you have no cooler and left your lemonade to rot in the heat all day. Second, I saw a couple of bugs die in your lemonade. And i think i saw some kids throwing dirt into it while you were gone," Ella said sheepishly. Emily sat down on the cleaner side of the sidewalk and tried to take it all in. Ella and Samantha sat beside her.

"So i basically poisoned our neighbourhood. Because I thought my lemonade was great. Why did i do something so stupid!" she said kicking a rock across the street. Samantha patted her on the back.

"Sometimes when we are too ambitious, these things happen. But don't worry, if you give all their money back, everyone would forget this ever happened!" she said as she checked her watch. Emily looked shocked.

"Give all my money back! No! I worked hard trying to make them pay me! If I give my money back then i would not only lose the challenge, I would have wasted my whole day for nothing!"

Samantha glanced at her watch again and stood up.

"Sorry Ella, I tried. But I have to get going now. My mom would be upset if she knows that I haven't finished my gardening!" she said but then paused when the twins stared at her, " No, my mom isn't THAT strict to force me to garden and not finish it. I chose to garden today. But my mom hates it when I start something but don't finish it. I have a bad habit of doing that. Once I wanted to make some soup but got distracted and the soup went rotten, not as bad as your lemonade Em!" she said as she ran off. 

Emily rolled her eyes.  "So Ella, even if my lemonade tastes like poop (to you), we agreed on whoever made the most money had the best lemonade. Not the taste. So let's count!" she said standing up. Ella glared at her and held up a glass of Emily's lemonade to Emily's mouth.

"Really? It only tastes like poop to me?" she said waving the glass to Emily. Emily gagged and put the glass down.

"Ok, ok sorry! It tastes bad to me too!" she said walking inside.

The twins sat in the den counting their money on their desks. Mom came in and watched the twins dump their money out. She was very surprised.

"GIRLS! That is A LOT of money! You made all of this?" She asked in surprise. The girls nodded. She looked toward Emily's stash and nearly fell over.

"Emily, you're joking. You did not make that much money with that disg-  uh unpleasant drink!" she exclaimed as she felt the money. Emily nodded but still felt offended,

"Actually yes, I did! Plus, it only became disgusted when I was outside since the heat destroyed it. When I made it and gave it to you, it tasted delicious!" she said sorting through her money. Ella facepalmed her face and Mom looked horrified,

"So how did you make this much cash if everyone hated it?" she asked worried.

"Well, everyone had bad taste but I made them pay me. Some paid me, didn't like it and walked away without even complaining. I have my ways.." she said smirking. Mom hurried out of the room before she heard anything more. The less she knew, the less the police could get out of her.

Emily finished counting her money which was a whopping 106 dollars. Boy did she make a lot! Ella finished counting her money and turned to Emily.

"Ok, we say our number on the count of three...

1

2

3!

"106"

"152" Ella said. Emily's face dropped and Ella smirked. She jumped up from her chair and screamed "I WON!" Emily didn't feel mad though. She knew Ella would win with her amazing skills. But the fact that Emily made this much money made her feel like her own winner. It's not like she had to do her sister's chores for a month. The only prize was the name of the best lemonade. She knew her was terrible anyway. Emily shook her sister's hand and went to her room to fill her piggy bank. Ella looked very shocked at her sister taking things so well.

"Em? Are you ok? You're very quiet and not mad. At least I think you aren't mad." she asked genuinely concerned. Emily smiled as she held her piggy bank.

"Ella, I knew you'd win. You always find a way to achieve the highest. But the deal was that the winner would win a title for the best lemonade. I don't have the best and I accept that. But I do have a lot of cash now and that alone makes me happy. I'm proud of myself even if I did it in a weird way," she said maturely.

Ella's mind exploded. This was the first time Emily said anything maturely in forever. Mom's right, she is growing up.

Ella hugged her twin tight and felt emotional. This is the Emily that I know. The one who is like me but different in other ways. The one who cares and her twin.