Double or Nothing with the Two and Only Kelly Twins

by Johanna Hurwitz

  Chapter One

  Who’s Who?

  Chapter Two

  Looking Different

  Chapter Three

  The Sleepover

  Chapter Four

  Poetry Lessons

  Chapter Five

  Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

  Whoever met Arlene and Ilene Kelly had a problem. They could not tell the two sisters apart. That’s because the girls were identical twins.

  They were the same height and weight. Their noses were shaped exactly the same. As infants, there had been only two days separating when Ilene cut her first tooth from when Arlene showed signs of hers. And six years later, just a week separated the loss of those same two teeth. So their smiles were exactly alike. They both had brown hair, the same length, almost always worn in pigtails. They both had brown eyes and even wore the same style eyeglasses to help them see. In all their seven years of life they had almost always dressed in matching clothes.

  “It’s not my fault that blue is my favorite color,” said Ilene.

  “I can’t help it if I like blue best, too,” said Arlene.

  No wonder almost no one knew one sister from another.

  Their parents could tell them apart, of course.

  “How do you do it?” the twins’ friends Joey and Monty once asked Mrs. Kelly.

  “I don’t know. I just do,” she replied, shrugging. “After all, Joey, your mother can tell you and your brother apart.”

  “But my brother is three years older than I am. He wears braces. His eyes are brown and mine are blue. There are lots of ways to tell us apart.”

  Mrs. Kelly nodded. “True. But I’ll bet your mother could still tell you apart even in the dark.”

  Arlene and Ilene did just about everything together. They both liked to do jigsaw puzzles. They both liked to paint pictures on their two-sided easel, and they liked to help their mother cook. They both especially loved baking cookies.

  Arlene liked to have bright pink polish on her toenails. “It makes me feel fancy,” she explained.

  “Nail polish on your toenails is silly,” said Ilene.

  Only in the summer, when they both wore sandals without socks, could people see the difference.

  In the end, it hardly seemed to matter if Joey or Monty could tell the twins apart. They all played together, rode bikes together, skated together, and walked to school together.

  At school the girls were in second grade but were not in the same classroom. The school had a rule that siblings should always be separated.

  “That’s a silly rule,” said Ilene.

  “Maybe they’re worried that a teacher would get confused,” Arlene said.

  “We could just wear name tags. Then a teacher could read our names and know which of us is which,” said Ilene.

  The sisters asked their parents to tell the principal about the name tags idea. “That way we could be in the same class,” said Ilene.

  “I’m sure there is more to it than that,” their father said. “It’s important for siblings, especially twins, to learn to be individuals.”

  “At least we can still walk to school together,” Arlene pointed out.

  “We can still eat lunch together,” said Ilene.

  “In the afternoon, we get to walk home together,” said Arlene.

  “See. You are hardly separated at all,” their father said.

  “But I still wish we were in the same class,” said Arlene.

  “Me, too,” said Ilene.

  Occasionally, one of the twins would wake up in the morning before the other and lie in bed thinking about the business of being an identical twin. Maybe I’m not Ilene, Ilene would think. Maybe I only think I’m Ilene and I’m really Arlene.

  Arlene admitted that sometimes she woke up wondering if she was really Arlene, so she’d look at her hands and examine each finger. If she could find the tiny scar on her pinkie from the time one of their pet ferrets had bitten her, it reassured her that she was Arlene.

  Anyone looking at X-rays of the two sisters could tell them apart because Ilene still had her appendix, but, not too long ago, Arlene had appendicitis. She ended up in the hospital and had to have her appendix removed. So the X-rays of the two sisters showed the difference. But people didn’t walk around carrying X-rays. And most people wouldn’t recognize an appendix if they saw one, anyhow.

  Ilene and Arlene almost always liked the same things. They both loved the same TV programs. They both adored French toast for Sunday breakfast.

  “I’m sure there isn’t a seven-year-old in this country who doesn’t love French toast for breakfast,” Mrs. Kelly said as she dipped the slices of bread into the egg mixture.

  “Not as much as I do!” said Ilene.

  “Or as much as I do,” Arlene said.

  But sometimes, Ilene and Arlene had surprisingly different tastes. Arlene liked purple grapes and Ilene liked green ones better. Arlene liked Golden Delicious apples and Ilene liked Red Delicious ones.

  Ilene liked pink grapefruit and Arlene liked white grapefruit. Ilene liked her hamburgers well done and Arlene preferred hers a little juicier. Ilene liked white bread but Arlene preferred whole wheat.

  Both girls loved chocolate ice cream. However, Ilene liked hers with chunks of extra chocolate in it while Arlene liked hers smooth, without lumps.

  Sometimes at night, as they were getting ready for bed, the two sisters stood in front of the bathroom mirror and stuck out their tongues. Just like their faces, their hair, and their height, their two tongues were identical. They were both the very same shade of pink.

  “How come my tongue likes different things than your tongue?” asked Ilene.

  Arlene shook her head. She had no answer.

  “Dad likes coffee ice cream,” said Ilene, “but I think it tastes like smoke.”

  “And Mom’s favorite flavor is strawberry,” said Arlene.

  It was a big mystery. Bigger than telling which twin was which. No matter. Forever and ever, Ilene would be Ilene and Arlene would be Arlene. Thank goodness for that, Ilene thought.

  One Monday morning in early November, the Kelly family overslept. There had been a brief power failure during the night. As a result, Mrs. Kelly’s alarm clock didn’t go off. It was just habit that eventually woke Mrs. Kelly, half an hour late.

  “No time for cereal this morning,” Mrs. Kelly shouted upstairs to her daughters apologetically. The girls were getting dressed as quickly as firefighters. It was too bad they didn’t have a pole to slide down into the kitchen.

  They each ate a granola bar while Mrs. Kelly combed their hair into pigtails.

  The girls were old enough to comb their own hair, but they still had trouble putting on the elastic bands that held their pigtails in place. Having their mother do it that day was quicker.

  “Hold still, honey,” said Mrs. Kelly. Ilene was trying to tie her shoelaces as her mother was combing her hair.

  “Don’t forget your lunches,” said Mrs. Kelly as the girls grabbed their backpacks. Luckily the lunches had been packed the night before.

  “What’s for lunch?” asked Ilene.

  “Tuna fish,” said their mother. “And an apple and a box of raisins.”

  “I wish they were peanut-butter sandwiches,” called Ilene over her shoulder as she rushed out of the house.

  At the corner of their street they met up with their friends Joey and Monty to walk to school.

  “Do you like peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches?” Ilene asked the boys.

  “I love them,” Monty said.

  “Me, too,” said Joey, smacking his lips.

  Then Joey sto
pped and paused, looking at the twins. Then he said, “You look different today.”

  “Different from what?” asked Arlene.

  “Different from each other,” Joey said.

  “How?” Ilene asked.

  Joey shrugged. “I don’t know. You just do.”

  “I think we look just like we always do,” said Arlene. “Ilene looks just like me and I look just like her.”

  “Joey’s right,” said Monty. “I can’t explain it either, but you do look a little bit different today.”

  By this time they had reached the next corner, where the safety guard waved them to cross the street.

  “I don’t feel different,” said Ilene.

  “We slept late,” said Arlene. “I didn’t have time to wash my face. Maybe that’s why I look different.”

  “But I didn’t wash my face either,” said Ilene. “So that doesn’t explain it.”

  “You’re wearing matching clothes and matching shoes. Your backpacks are the same color. Your hair is combed exactly the same. But something is different,” insisted Joey.

  “You’re just saying that to confuse us,” Ilene said.

  “Wait a minute. Your shoelace is untied,” Joey said to Ilene.

  “See,” said Monty, smiling. “That’s one way you’re different.”

  The girls looked down at their feet. Ilene’s shoelace had come undone.

  Ilene bent down and retied her shoe.

  “Those are neat socks,” said Monty, admiring the striped socks that peeked out from the bottom of Ilene’s pants. They were red, green, yellow, and blue. “My socks are pretty boring.”

  “I love these. They make me feel like dancing,” Ilene said.

  “Do you have them, too?” Joey asked Arlene.

  Arlene showed them her socks. They were solid blue. “Socks are socks,” she said. “Most of the time, no one even sees them.”

  “Maybe that’s why we look different,” said Ilene. She stood up so that her pants hid her fancy socks. “Do we look the same now?” she asked.

  The boys shook their heads. “You should but you don’t,” said Joey.

  By now they had reached the school and they saw Mr. Harris, the school librarian. He was carrying a big armload of books.

  “Hi, Mr. Harris,” Arlene called out.

  “Well, look at that. It’s my favorite identical twins,” Mr. Harris greeted them.

  “Did you read all those books last night?” Ilene asked in amazement.

  “I bet you have to read every book in the whole library,” said Arlene.

  “Yep. I read these over the weekend,” he admitted.

  He looked at Ilene and said, “And did you lose your tooth last night or over the weekend?”

  “Which tooth?” asked Ilene, but even as she spoke her tongue was searching the inside of her mouth. “Oh, no!” she said.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Arlene.

  “I lost another tooth and I didn’t even notice.” A horrified expression crossed Ilene’s face. “I must have swallowed it.” Was it going to start jumping around in her stomach? Would it chew food from inside?

  “Yuck,” said Arlene. “Do you think it happened when you were sleeping? Or maybe it fell out when you were chewing that granola bar.”

  “Here today and gone tomorrow, as they say,” said Mr. Harris. “But you’ll have a new tooth growing into that space in no time.” He shifted the pile of books he was holding. “Well, I’ll see you later,” he said, and turned to go into the school.

  “Are you worried that the tooth fairy won’t come to your house tonight?” teased Joey.

  “Puh-leeze!” said Ilene and Arlene in unison.

  “Well, at least we solved the mystery,” said Monty. “Now we know why you two don’t look exactly the same this morning.”

  Arlene checked that all her teeth were still in place. Sure enough, she could feel a tooth moving a little bit. It was getting ready to fall out, too. It wouldn’t be long before she and Ilene had identical smiles once again.

  “My sister and I have an idea,” Claudia Best said to Arlene one Thursday morning as they were hanging up their jackets in the back of their classroom. “We think we should all do a sleepover on Saturday night.”

  Claudia was a triplet. Claudia’s sister, Roberta, was in Ilene’s class. Their brother, Simon, was in still another second-grade class.

  The two Best girls were identical, but they never dressed the same and they wore their hair in different styles. They almost didn’t seem like real twins to Arlene and Ilene. All four girls were good friends.

  “Great!” Arlene said. She knew her parents would say yes. “Will you come and sleep over at our house?”

  “Sure!” said Claudia. “I think it will be fun to sleep in your room with the ferrets.” The ferrets, Frannie and Frankie, were Arlene and Ilene’s pets.

  “I know we’ll have so much fun, but what will Simon do?” asked Arlene.

  “Simon joined the Cub Scouts and they’re going on a camping trip this weekend,” said Claudia.

  Arlene wished it was lunchtime because she couldn’t wait to tell Ilene about the Saturday sleepover.

  But Roberta had already told Ilene about the Saturday sleepover idea. Ilene loved the plan.

  So when it was lunchtime, the four girls sat together and got busy making plans. “There are so many games we could play,” said Ilene.

  “And we can borrow movies from the library,” said Roberta.

  “Let’s get a scary one,” said Claudia.

  “I like funny movies better than scary ones,” said Ilene.

  “Me, too. Funny is better,” said Arlene.

  “How about pancakes for breakfast on Sunday morning?” said Roberta.

  “We love pancakes,” said Ilene. “Those are our absolute favorite.”

  “Unless we have French toast,” said Arlene. “That’s our other absolute favorite.”

  As the twins hoped, Mr. and Mrs. Kelly agreed that the four girls could have a sleepover at their house on Saturday. “You should let your guests sleep in your beds,” Mrs. Kelly said. “You girls can use your sleeping bags on the floor.”

  Arlene and Ilene grinned at each other. Lying on the floor in a sleeping bag was fun.

  “It will almost be like we’re on a Cub Scout sleepover,” said Arlene.

  “I’m glad we’re going to sleep in a house and not in the woods,” said Ilene.

  “Me, too,” said Arlene.

  Saturday morning, Ilene and Arlene straightened up their bedroom and cleaned out the ferrets’ cage. The sleepover would begin at five p.m. “That way we can all have dinner together,” said Ilene. “Plus we’ll have lots of time to play before we go to sleep.”

  Mrs. Kelly made her daughters’ favorite meal. The girls helped her make cupcakes for dessert, but they left them unfrosted so that the four girls could decorate them themselves.

  At ten after five, the doorbell rang. It was Claudia, Roberta, and Mrs. Best. Claudia had a canvas tote bag in her hand.

  The girls all danced together with excitement.

  “It’s nice to see how well our girls all get along,” Mrs. Kelly said to Mrs. Best.

  “Yes,” agreed Mrs. Best. “Of course they have each other, but one can never have too many friends.”

  Roberta suddenly stopped dancing around and looked at the sisters. “Which of you is Ilene?” she asked, grinning.

  “I am,” said Ilene with a giggle. The other girls laughed, too.

  The four girls ran upstairs.

  When they got to Ilene and Arlene’s room, Roberta said to Ilene, “Isn’t it funny that you’re going to be sleeping over at my house tonight and half the time I still can’t even tell you apart from your sister?” she said.

  “What do you mean? I’m not sleeping at your house tonight,” said Ilene. “You’re sleeping at my house.”

  “No. Don’t you remember? We planned it out,” said Roberta. “You’re coming to my house. And Claudia is staying here at your
house with Arlene.”

  Arlene had been petting one of the ferrets. She put him down and turned to Claudia. “Wait a minute, aren’t you and Roberta both sleeping over?”

  “That’s not what we said,” said Claudia. “We just said we’d have a sleepover.”

  Roberta nodded. “We meant all four of us on the same night, but split two and two.”

  “But Ilene and I always do everything together,” said Arlene.

  “Well, sometimes my sister and I like to do things separately,” said Roberta. “Don’t you ever feel that way?”

  Ilene and Arlene shrugged. Mostly they liked doing everything together.

  “Why?” asked Roberta and Claudia together.

  “That’s just the way we do things,” said Arlene.

  “I never said I’d go to your house,” said Ilene. “Not tonight.”

  “Please come,” Roberta begged Ilene. “You’d only be away from home for a short time. Just one night and breakfast tomorrow. I know we’ll have fun. I promise.”

  “I’ll miss you,” Arlene said to her sister. “But it might be fun to do something separately for a change.”

  Ilene took her ferret out of the cage and held it close. “Would you miss me, Fannie?” she whispered into the ferret’s little ear. Ilene had never ever been separated from Arlene except when Arlene had her appendix out and stayed for two nights in the hospital. She had missed Arlene very much. Still, she had been glad that she didn’t have to stay at the hospital to keep her sister company. It would be much better to be parted from Arlene during a sleepover than to stay at a hospital.

  “What’s the problem, girls?” asked Mrs. Kelly, coming upstairs. She was followed by Mrs. Best.

  “Ilene doesn’t want to come to our house,” Roberta told her mother sadly.

  “It’s just that I thought we were all going to stay here!” said Ilene.

  “Calm down,” said Mrs. Kelly. “I’m sure you’d have a really good time if you went.” Then she turned to Mrs. Best. “I’m afraid there was a misunderstanding. My girls thought the four of them would all be here tonight. And that’s always a possibility. But why don’t you come back down to the kitchen with me,” Mrs. Kelly suggested to Roberta and Claudia’s mom. “Maybe the girls can work this out together.”