The Maze by Luciana Correa
Leah and Armadi had a beautiful family.
They lived in a small town, close to the woods of Montana.
Leah was an architect. She was very successful. Her love for nature together with her passion for the environment protection had given her most deserved fame in her field of expertise. She was the name everyone who wanted a house in the country thought of. In fact, any building located where nature needed to be preserved was a potential client for her.
Armadi was a geneticist.
They had met when Leah was attending a lecture. After the event, they talked and it had been love at first sight. They started to date and few months later the most amazing dinner ended with a proposal. Leah had become deliriously happy and accepted without a blink. They got married and went on their honeymoon.
They decided for a place where their passion for nature could be me fully. They went to the jungle in India.
The couple had many days of love and took thousands of pictures.
Armadi was a famous scientist. He had an amazing lab in the middle of the Amazon forest, in Brazil.
It was located on a property he had surrounded by nature. Exactly what they so much loved. It was in the farm house that he offered Leah a surprising possibility.
They were sitting in a wide swing on the porch. They loved to watch the sunrise and that’s what they were doing. Red and pink brushes were already coloring the blue sky.
Leah sighed happily. “I’m the happiest woman in the world. You are just amazing, Paul. Who else would invest in a house in such a paradise place like this?”
Armadi kissed her hair and whispered. “I’d love to have the perfect kids with you.”
Leah giggled. “We are amazing, love, but no kid is perfect.”
He shook his head. “I can make the perfect babies for us.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “You are very confident.”
He smiled widely. “It’s not what I meant.”
She snorted. “No? You have just let me down.”
He stood up and offered her his hand. “Stop kidding. Come along. I need to show you something.”
Armadi took his bride to the lab. After driving for some minutes into the forest they had to leave the car.
Leah was dumbfounded.
“Where are we going, Paul? We’ve never been this far into the forest.”
“The place I’m about to show you is a secret. It was built here so that I could work without running the risk of being asked lots of questions.”
Leah frowned. “Why would you be afraid of questions?”
“I’m a geneticist, Leah. I’m not bragging, but my name is one of the most famous in my field.”
She snickered. “Don’t tell me. I was attending one of your lectures when we met, remember?”
“Sure. Okay. Everything I do cause people to lift their noses to get a sniff.”
She was starting to understand. He helped her climbing a higher tree root and continued. “I’ve been working with things that can be very attractive to many people.”
Leah nodded. “I read you have been able to isolate genes.”
“It’s common ground for every geneticist that isolating them is just the beginning of the real work. I dedicate to studying their ability to make links with receptors.”
She hissed. “TMI”
Armadi laughed. “All right. So, it can attract the attention of military people.”
She stopped short. “I’d never known you were involved with them.”
He shook his head. “I’m not and I intend to keep it this way.”
The geneticist pointed at a large structure ahead of them. It was built like a hut. Nothing more than the average houses in the area. “We’re going there.”
They walked some more feet and Armadi stopped in front of a wooden door with no lock. “Ready?”
Leah shrugged. “Sure.”
They entered the hut. It had a simple decoration. There was a rugged table and two chairs were near it. A cot with clean sheets and a pillow on it was in a corner. There were a stove and a stack of wood piled beside it. Everything was clean but it was evident that the little house wasn’t used frequently.
Leah turned her eyes to her husband questioningly. “Do you come here to relax? I mean, when you need your alone time”
He looked around as if seeing the place for the first time. “I’ve never thought of using it for that. It looks the perfect place, though.”
She lifted an eyebrow.
Armadi chuckled. “Sorry. Let me show you what we came here for.”
He walked to the cot and Leah followed his actions suspiciously. Had she married a looney?
He had put his hand under the thin mattress lifting it a bit. He let it fall again just after. The scientist pulled out his cell phone from his pocket.
“You won’t have reception here, Armadi.”
“Oh, of course not.” He typed something and she heard a soft humming under her feet.
“Would you come here, love?”
Everything was making her nervous but nothing had prepared her for what happened.
The hut didn’t have a floor. It was a common thing to the poor houses in the forest area; it was simply the ground itself.
The humming she had heard got a bit higher and the ground seemed to collapse into the ground. She shrieked and put her hand over her mouth.
Leah wasn’t a single child. She had a brother but the age difference between them had never made possible an intimate relationship. Mark was a protector. He would die for her but they didn’t talk frequently. In fact, she had been taken from her feet by Armadi and had married and left for her honeymoon without telling her brother any of that. They would meet for Christmas and Leah had decided it was the best moment to introduce her husband to Mark. Nobody knew where she was.
The collapsed floor opened to bright light below. She started to tremble. “What is it Armadi? Why is it a secret? What do you do here?”
The scientist lifted an eyebrow. “You look frightened.”
She hissed. “Because I am! I don’t know you that much, to be true. You have a hut in the middle of nowhere whose floor collapses like a movie. As far as I know it could be anything.”
Armadi shook his head. “I love you. I’d never do you any harm.”
She winced. “No, I didn’t think you would. But I’m afraid of what you do there.”
He smiled. “It’s a lab. It’s where I work on my project. It’s hidden for the reasons I told you while we were walking here.”
It calmed her down a little. He had spoken about it indeed. “Okay. Perhaps, I’m overreacting.”
“No problem. I know it’s surprising. Come along.”
He offered her his hand and they went down the ladder to the lab.
It was an amazing facility. Big bucks had been invested in it.
Leah was agape. “It’s sci-fi.”
He shook his head. “No, it isn’t. It’s technology. It’s science, I can give you that, but there’s nothing fictional here.”
She walked around and finally turned to him. “Why did you bring me here? I know nothing of science.”
He took her hand smiling. “Nobody knows about this facility. People around here are cool about it. They don’t pay much attention to the crazy American scientist.”
Leah smiled. “Well, it’s in your land so you are entitled to do whatever you want here.”
Paul shook his head. “Not exactly. This lab is a secret and it must be a secret forever.”
Leah lifted an eyebrow. “Why is that so?”
“Because the possible outcome of my work is dangerous. If it ends in the wrong hands it will break the nature balance.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“First, because you’re my wife and I don’t want secrets between us, and that’s what it was until now.”
She grinned. “The right words, Professor.”
He kissed her knuckles. “Second, because I want to offer you my tough work of so many yea
rs.”
She looked into his stormy gray eyes and repeated his words, dumbfounded. “Offer me your work… What do you mean, Paul? You said it can be dangerous.”
“Let me explain things.” He waved his hand around. “The most of my work has never been published.”
She nodded slowly, urging him to continue with her head, and so he did. “I’ve developed a special technique. With that, I can join different characteristics to a receptor.”
“I don’t understand your jargon, Paul.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry. It’s quite simple to understand. I can take the best of other species and paste to the human gene string, creating someone new, perfect, with special abilities.”
She opened her mouth to speak but he interrupted her with a finger to her lips. “Listen to me, Leah. I can make sci-fi become science without fiction. I can create a baby better than any Spiderman.”
She remembered his words in the porch. “A perfect kid.”
He nodded. “No genetic disease, no hidden illness, skills of many different animals too. I can put the pieces together.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I want to have children with you. I WILL have children with you, but you can decide to have special children or ordinary ones. It’s up to you.”
Leah tilted her head and smiled. “I’ll love to have your babies.”
He grinned. “Yeah. Having girls just like you, with your chocolate brown eyes, your honey hair would make me the happiest man on earth.”
“I’d like to have boys just like you, Paul. Your black hair, your stormy eyes. Handsome and intelligent boys.”
“We can. I can draw them, the way you prefer.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
He shook his head. “No, it isn’t. The babies will be perfect.”
She hugged him and rested her head on his chest. “Okay.”
He pulled her away from him and bent his knees to be level with her eyes. “Are you sure of it?”
“I trust you with my life, Paul.”
Unhappily, things didn’t go that smoothly. The special kids demanded a lot of their mother’s body.
Leah got very sick. Her mind was mighty affected and she got a serious case of schizophrenia followed by amnesia. She wanted to run away. She convinced a servant of Armadi’s house to help her.
Her helper was a kind-hearted young woman who believed in Leah’s delusion. She believed Armadi was a monster, a killer. She agreed with helping her boss’s wife to escape.
Leah needed to take lots of medicine because of all the havoc the babies were playing in her body. She would die without the medicines and so would the twin babies in her womb. The drugs made her sleepy so, the woman helped her to stop taking them so that she could run.
Armadi didn’t know how badly his wife’s mind was affected. He understood it only when she jumped the bedroom window in a cloudy dark night and ran away.
He got desperate when the cook told him about the pills she had found in the maid’s bedroom. The woman had been collecting and hiding them so that no one noticed Leah was not taking the drugs.
It made him crazy of fear. His wife would die without them and so would the babies.
A mad run after Leah and the maid started.
The woman climbed a tree to hide from their persecutors and fell, breaking her neck and dying.
Leah’s understanding was so heavily affected that she didn’t get the woman was dead. She dragged the dead body to a hole near the river that ran in Armadi’s property and entered in the muddy shelter too.
It was the place where Armadi found her. Completely unaware of her surroundings, she passed out on him.
For months, he fought to save her and the twins. She wouldn’t come from her comatose state. Close to the babies’ birth time things started to change. Leah started to call Mark, her brother, and couldn’t stand Armadi’s presence.
She got terrified near him. In her mind, he was a stranger who could kill her.
She was haunted by nightmares where the events she couldn’t remember would become a totally different story that scared her.
Armadi took Leah to her brother, the only person she called. It had been the hardest decision of his life, but the scientist lacked choices. Her mind was shattered and he was afraid she would never be back to her own feet. Feeling guilty, he buried himself in the farm in the Amazon forest.
He went out of Leah’s life but he didn’t give up of their love and the family they wanted to build together.
Armadi would never risk Leah again, though. So, moved by the dream of having a family, he created an artificial womb where Emma and Olivia grew until their birth.
Far from Brazil and the Amazon forest, Leah gave birth to the twin boys. When Noah and Liam were born, Leah was afraid of her own babies but she didn’t know why.
They had been born the natural way. Almost, because it had been so fast that she didn’t even got to the hospital.
Leah’s brother Mark, and Anna, her sister-in-law, had been the surrogate parents for Liam and Noah since their birth.
Time made evident the twins had the special skills their parents had dreamed of.
Armadi had kept close surveillance of his wife and his sons. He was patiently waiting for her recovery.
When she was finally back to her life, five years had passed by, but she still had no memories of her husband, her decisions, and the dream life she had wanted to share with him.
Until the day when Armadi went to her.
He explained all the details her mind had hid from her for those five years and her amnesia finally subsided. She remembered everything and they could finally be joined as a family.
Olivia and Emma had been living with Armadi and met Leah for the first time when they were four years old. Noah and Liam met their father for the first time at five when the family was finally reunited.
Armadi had moved back to the US with the girls. The family was living together at last. Bursting with happiness and pride, Leah had drawn the perfect house for her perfect kids.
They were thicker than water.
However, nobody could know about the twins’ special abilities. It was dangerous. Armadi had never published his work either. The world would never know he was the best geneticist ever. He didn’t want the recognition. He was very afraid of the use of his work for military purposes so, he told no one.
He wanted a family and that he had. It was more than enough.
Armadi and Leah’s twins lived a rather ordinary life.
Noah and Liam, Emma and Olivia were part of the chess club of the school and the athletics team too. They had very strict rules to follow because of that. Nobody should get to know what they were able to do. Participating in the school activities was fine but only within the normalcy range.
Well, not really. They needed lots of physical activity and they loved the adrenaline.
Rafting, canoeing, rock climbing, parkour, tracking, hiking. They were the outdoorsy type. Their animals’ skills gave them extra strength, extra speed, extra sight and so many others they were yet to discover.
Armadi only smiled when they asked about the abilities. “Live and find out. That’s the most amazing side of all this.”
Leah would nod. “Every time you come home excited because of a new discovery I feel it was worth the effort.”
Liam always pouted. “Okay. We can go through the struggle to please you two.”
Emma would slap him. “Stop it, whining baby. I think the discovery is exciting.”
Noah would go for defending his twin. “You are nosey, sis. Checking things to find out stuff is your kick.”
Emma would shrug and Olivia would giggle. “That’s why she’s the school reporter.”
Leah and Armadi loved their ribbing.
Since the very first moment when the siblings met they had found they had lots in common. Strong friendship was born instantly. They were always supportive, helpful and made a closed front if the
y were to be grounded for any motive. Never just one. Rather the four going down would happen like always. It could make grounding them a bit of an extreme measure. Something Armadi and Leah rarely did.
They were excellent students, had very high grades and were popular. Nobody could ever guess there was something uncommon going on.
The point in living an ordinary life was unquestionable as nobody dreamed of becoming a test subject in a government facility.
Armadi had made it clear enough. Who would argue with a scientist about science matters? Nobody, of course.
Even if lab made, they were very different among themselves.
Emma was competitive to the most. She loved challenges and dares. You could count on her to turn a simple thing like eating breakfast into a competition.
Olivia was rational and had always the best insight of matters. She would never let you down. Whenever needed she could help everyone see things the right way. “Let’s look at this from another angle”, was her favorite sentence.
Noah was smart and frequently amazed his siblings with brilliant ideas. He was the right guy for puzzles and riddles. No one could match him.
Liam was the most warm-hearted. He was ready to help whoever needed at any time. He was also the first one to make a joke. He loved practical jokes. His siblings were his favorite targets but he was never mean. It was for fun and it usually ended with lots of laughter in the house.
In the school, everyone knew they were a single front. They had gotten into school at the same time because of Leah’s amnesia.
The twins studied together, practiced sports together, ate together and were always together.
Friends were shared and everyone loved them. They were the perfect babies turned into the perfect teens.
Really? Of course not! They were like any other teens! Their friends knew it, their family knew it, their teachers knew it. The only problem to those who spent time with them was that nobody knew who was who.
Liam and Noah crossed the large doors of the school smiling. Jill greeted them. “Hey, guys. Who is who today?”
They grinned mischievously. “Guess.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t fight lost battles.”
They chuckled. “Yeah. Don’t you even want to give it a try?
The girl snickered and shook her head. “Come off it! Tell me, please. Who is Noah and who is Liam?
Brian Holmes got to the small group. He passed his arm over his girlfriend’s shoulders. “They won’t tell you, Jill. Just see their clothes. Jeans, grey t-shirt, red sneakers.”
Jill sighed. “You’re right. Dressing alike, prank day.”
The twins snorted. “You take all the fun out of it, Jill. Try to guess, please.”
Olivia got near and slapped his head lightly. “He’s Liam.”
Jill snickered. “Thanks. And who are you?”
Everybody laughed. “I’m Olivia. Emma is already warming up for the track.”
Brian got excited. “She’ll make the state competitions. I’m sure of it!”
The twins exchanged glances. Noah shrugged. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
Jill lifted her eyebrows. “Hey, guy! She’s your sister. You should be rooting for her.”
“Oh, I am.”
Liam came to his twin help. “Don’t take him wrong, Jill. We all support Em.”
Olivia completed nodding. “Yeah, we do. The thing is we don’t believe she really wants it.”
Jill was agape. “Why! It’s bad news to the coach, you know?”
Olivia lifted a hand. “Just don’t spread the news. Let her tell him herself, will you?”
The girl shook her head. “I just don’t get Emma. Everyone is sure she wants to be an athlete.”
Brian chuckled. “Oh, you’re right Jill. She’s the most competitive person in the school.”
Noah didn’t like the comment. It didn’t sound like a compliment. He frowned and questioned Brian. “What do you mean, man?”
The other guy just shrugged. “She is always fighting to be the best and it doesn’t matter what the subject is.”
Noah deflated. He wouldn’t describe Emma better. “Okay, I can give you that.”
Liam added calmly. “It doesn’t mean she wants to be an athlete.”
“No, otherwise she would also want to be a writer, a scientist, a mathematician.”
Jill lifted a hand. “Okay, Liv. We all know you’re the best.”
Olivia blushed. “I didn’t mean to brag about anything.”
The couple shrugged. “See you in the field.” Brian waved and they left.
The twins exchanged glances. “Emma will let people down when she gives up the state competitions.”
“It’s something she has to do. We all know of it.”
Liam shook his head. “I don’t think it’s fair to the other girls. She wins everyone and when the moment for making the State comes she gives up.”
Olivia thought a little. “It sounds arrogant to me.”
Noah nodded. “People may believe she thinks herself so good that it doesn’t matter for her if she smashes other people’s dreams.”
Liam bent his head sadly. “I guess she’ll lose some friends.”
Olivia murmured. “She’ll break when it happens. She loves the girls of the tracking team.”
The two boys took Olivia’s sides and put their arms over her shoulders. “We’re here for her, Liv.”
And as a single front they walked to the field.
Every single morning they needed to tell people who each was. Once said, it would make things easier to everyone around them.
Noah and Liam loved to wear similar clothes and spend the day making people try to guess who was who as they had just done. It was their favorite joke. They couldn’t make it in the family, though. Their parents and siblings were never misled. So, when they pulled the prank, Olivia and Emma would spend the day helping people to see who each was. Even though it would make people laugh all day long.
They had chosen the competition day to do it because everyone was mixed together. The event pulled everyone out of their ordinary tasks and classrooms. It was nice.
Emma was with the other girls of the tracking team.
The twins found a place to sit. People greeted them like always. “Hey, peas.”
Noah hated it. “Peas in a pod.”
Liam chuckled. “They aren’t very creative, are they?”
The yelling and shouting and screaming of people pulled them to look at the track field.
Everybody was standing, to see the final steps of the fast track.
“Yeah!” Emma screamed and punched the air. She had just crossed the line but she didn’t seem a bit tired. Her honey hair was tied in a high ponytail. Some wisps had escaped from the scrunchie but she was much too excited to care.
Emma liked running but she didn’t see herself as a professional athlete. The girl was the best in the school’s tracking team. She was appointed for the State youth games because of that. It was cool, but not her life dream. Not to mention that her parents would never allow her to win in a way that could bring too much attention to the siblings.
“Too much exposition”, her father had said.
”Dangerous”, her mother added.
Emma didn’t mind a bit. She was fine with that.
She knew she wasn’t an ordinary teenager. She had been cool at telling the tracking team coach she didn’t want to go further in the athletics career. She had done it just before the track.
The guy had been devastated. “Emma, you must be kidding.”
“No, Coach. I’m not. I love running but it’s not my life dream.”
The second in the team had just snorted. “Nice of you to tell us now.”
Emma turned to the other girl. She was surprised. “I’m sorry, Helen. I didn’t know it would bother you.”
The girl stood and put her hands on her hips. “Listen, Miss Champion. While we were working hard you were laughing and making jokes
.”
She had never been Emma’s friend, not really, but so much envy was shocking.
Phyllis Jones stood up from the bench. “Take it easy, Helen. She is energetic and good humored. It doesn’t mean she was not taking things seriously.”
“Energetic, you said? Come off it! She likes to laugh at our efforts!”
Emma was agape. “It’s not true. I know it’s hard work for you.”
Helen pointed at her and looked around searching for the faces of the other girls. “Did you hear what she said? Hard work FOR US. It isn’t hard work for you, right? Just for the ordinary people much below your prowess.”
Sophie touched Helen’s arm lightly and tried to appease her friend. “She’s the best, Helen. If she steps out you are in. Why are you so bothered?”
The girl was furious. She pulled her arm out of Sophie’s reach and growled. “I don’t want to be her substitution! I’m good enough.”
Phyllis tried to talk her out of her rage rampant. “Absolutelly. You are more than enough, Helen.”
The girl turned angry eyes at the other. “Shut the trap. You’re her doormat. I don’t need your pity.”
The Coach was so out of his game because of Emma’s announcement that he couldn’t really notice the huge problem bubbling high and high just below his nose. Suddenly he blinked twice and woke up from his reverie. “Stop it. We’ve bagged prizes for our school. We are all a good team.”
The other girls nodded.
The coach clapped his hands. “Okay, girls. “We’ve got something important to do today. Go there and do your best!”
It was a short track. Emma loved the adrenaline and the feeling. She didn’t even think about the jealousy and envy surrounding her.
Once more she won.
She was glad she had announced she was not going to the State games. Helen could have her place in the team. Emma was really done. It would dust the edges or not, but she couldn’t stop the other’s bad feelings. That was something Helen herself had to work on.
Emma’s passion was of another kind. She loved investigating, interviewing, being nosey, as her brother Noah liked to say. She was okay with his teasing. It was not far from the truth and she was honest enough to accept some good-natured critics.
The girl’s schoolmates cheered and hooted for her victory. She was enjoying the adrenaline and that was all. She had won for just a bit. She had to control her body every second of the track to keep their secret. That was her real challenge. Winning was not that important.
Emma showered, said goodbye to her team mates and went for her siblings.
The girl’s family always attended Emma’s competitions.
That specific day, Armadi was out of town and would arrive just after. Leah was at home giving the last touches on a project.
Only the twins had been there to back her up.
They could never know what had happened before the competition though.
Olivia was polishing her nails looking bored. Noah was texting on his cell phone and Liam was attentively watching the girls jump with a smile.
The twins were always nonchalant at Emma’s demonstration of speed but the always charming Liam just loved to be among his sisters’ friends. ‘Good for the eyes’, he said.
Noah took his attention from the cell phone and chuckled at Olivia. “You are the only girl who isn’t jumping and screaming.”
Olivia lifted her eyebrows. “Really? Am I supposed to? Just tell me why? You know that any of us could…”
Liam’s easygoing stance changed quickly. “Shut the trap, sis.”
The girl opened her mouth to argue but thought better. “Yeah, whatever. How long will we have to stay?”
Liam waved at the people gathered around them. “Are you done with taking pictures?”
Noah nodded. “Aren’t you supposed to?”
“I’ve already taken many. It’s my duty as the school’s paper reporter.”
Liam repeated pompously. “It’s my duty as the school paper’s reporter.”
Olivia would always take pictures of everything at her lenses’ reach. Her camera was her best friend. (Her own words!) It wasn’t an obligation. Photography was her passion.
Noah giggled. “What a sacrifice!”
“Poor thing. I feel like holding her hand, Noah.”
She scrunched her nose. “So funny! I’m about to die of laughter.”
The boys chuckled. She was the photographer and Emma was the reporter. Liam was the editor. People loved reading his texts, always full of funny passages. Nobody in the school would take it from them. They were simply the best team ever! Poor Noah was always chosen to carry stuff. The twins were always together, just like that.
Liam asked curiously. “Are you making one of your photo books on the event?”
Olivia had photo books piled up in her room. She would develop only the best pics. Each book had a cover title.
“Nope. It’s not for me. I’m preparing a photo book as a surprise gift for Emma. All the best photos since she started tracking.”
“Wow! She’ll love it!”
“I know it, right.”
Noah winced. “What happened to you? You are the rudest ever.”
Olivia squinted her eyes. “You know it.”
The two boys exchanged glances. Liam tried to change topics. “What about the pics of our last trip to Brazil?”
Talking about their yearly trip to the Amazon forest was not the twins’ favorite topic, though.
The girl nodded slowly. “I have some pics to develop. The most amazing scenes from our hiking in the forest.”
“It was fun!”
Liam chuckled. “Those monkeys loved you dearly, Liv.”
“They were just curious about the camera. You made them follow me because you had put those funny berries in my backpack and they smelled them.”
Liam shook his head. “Oh, no, sis. Do not belittle yourself! You’re a lovable irresistible girl. The tiny guys stood no chance against your charm.”
Olivia couldn’t help chuckling. “You know what? I totally agree with you.”
The siblings started to laugh.
Everything was just common banter among youth.
Armadi had made them into extraordinarily skilled people but they were teens. The twins were the final product of his awesome work. Genes from different animals had been assembled to Armadi and Leah’s genetic material to grant their children a healthy life. The scientist was careful to keep them under close observation. Just the follow-up, but essential nonetheless.
Armadi had his mind to protecting his family and nobody should know how special his four children were. As a science scholar, he knew pretty well how dangerous it could be to the kids if their uncommon characteristics were opened to curious eyes. Emma’s tracking was carefully monitored.
The scientist’s children lived the commonest of lives, like any other teenager, but going to the Amazon forest once a year was unavoidable. Armadi and Leah needed to be sure their babies were doing fine.
Noah had seen some of the pics Olivia had taken and they were amazing indeed. Going home to develop them should be an itch the girl needed to scratch. He shrugged. “Okay. Let’s go home. There’s nothing else to see, anyway.”
They stood to leave but were stopped by Maribelle Atkins. The girl was intent on having a date with one of the twins.
She was a beautiful girl. Lean limbs, beautiful blond hair, electric blue eyes. She was always wearing the last fashion and her father was a famous lawyer.
Maribelle was one of the most popular girls of the school and she couldn’t understand how the most popular boys didn’t want to be among her faithful followers. At least that was Emma and Olivia’s light-hearted opinion.
The truth was the teens were as interested in going out with her as they were in going through the annual tests their father forced them to perform. I mean, not at all! They used to say she was too perfect for their liking. “Boring”, Noah had said once.
/> Maribelle got closer to Noah with a syrupy smile and ran her long red nails on his arm. “Emma is the best. Goes in the family, right?”
Behind the girl’s back Olivia pretended to gag. Liam mouthed “Oh, love”, batting his lashes.
The girl continued. “You’re the best in everything you do. I’m your fandom president of honor.”
Liv rolled her eyeballs. The girl was going hard.
He made an effort to respond to the compliment and mumbled. “Uh, thanks?”
Noah was totally uneasy. His siblings’ faces weren’t helpful at all.
He was having a hard time trying to focus on the beautiful girl in front of him.
Behind her, Liam had taken Olivia’s arm and they were pretending to walk down the aisle in a goofy wedding ceremony, performing the funniest geese walk. Olivia was pretending to cry and dab at her eyes.
He felt his belly cramp with the effort to hold up. Having a fit of laughter on Maribelle’s face wasn’t cool at all. Although it was bubbling, pressing to come out.
Finally, Noah’s siblings won the unspoken challenge.
They had him unable to control himself another single second. He exploded in laughter. He bent at the knees and shook his head, trying to hold up. He shouldn’t mind trying. His body insisted on shaking hard and the trembles kept on. Laughter resounded and many who were leaving turned at the sound.
People only smiled. Some even scoffed. The twins were quite well known. Their clothes pointed at prank day. It was a rule if they were dressing alike. It was just a matter of waiting to laugh. People smiled knowing it was always good hearted and never mean. They were funny and everyone enjoyed it.
Offended, Maribelle slapped him on the shoulder. “Are you crazy? Why are you laughing like that? I didn’t say a funny word at all!”
He watched Noah getting hold of himself and only then she recalled how the twins were wearing. “It’s prank day!” She shouted and turned fast.
The only thing she saw was Olivia knelt on the large step tying her sneakers while Liam texted on the cell.
She turned to Noah, puzzled. “I can’t see anything. Are you laughing at me?”
He shook his head. “Never. I’m laughing with you, not at you. I’m happy, that’s all. My sister just won. Maybe she gets to the state games. It’s a moment of happiness for the family.”
Maribelle smiled, a little appeased. She loved Emma. She could relate with happiness at her victory. “Yeah, it’s true. Are you going out to celebrate?”
Olivia mouthed to Noah. “You owe me one”,
She tapped on Maribelle’s shoulder. “Excuse me.”
The girl turned smiling “Sure, Liv. What’s up?”
“We have an appointment with the Doctor.”
She wasn’t lying. At least, not much. They truly had to get home to meet their father, who was a Doctor, so a little white lie wasn’t a big fat lie, right?
Maribelle held Noah’s arm asking worriedly. “Are you feeling bad, Liam? Do you need help?”
The real Liam poked her other shoulder. “I’m Liam. He’s Noah.”
The girl blushed. She giggled, self-conscious. “Oh, I’m sorry. I never know who is who between the two of you.”
“Would it make any difference for you?” The acidic comment had come from a recently showered Emma. She was standing behind the group with a mischievous smile on her face.
She was wearing her favorite jeans, a white t-shirt and her red backpack was hanging from her shoulder. Her earphones were around her neck and the enhanced hearing of the twins could hear the same song she had been listening all month long. Emma was crazy for the band and their last success had become her only song.
Emma loved teasing Maribelle. No special motive. The beautiful girl was Emma’s friend and she was usually able to take it with laughter.
Emma was also foxy and her always good results at the tracking as well as her good grades made her one of the popular girls in the school, too. She had no reason to be jealous. It was just because. A funny play between two good friends.
Maribelle knew Emma was a friend you could trust. She would never be mean on purpose. That specific subject was a little sensitive though.
The girl was really interested in the boys, but like everyone else she had a hard time to catch who was each.
The result of Emma’s teasing was not funny.
Maribelle was opening and closing her mouth doing the best impersonation of a goldfish ever. Emma’s crude comment had taken her out of her game. Her eyes were misty.
Emma felt really bad. “Good job, Emma. Hurting another one and it’s just morning”, she berated herself. She lifted both hands and frowned. It had become clear her friend couldn’t deal with the joke that time. “I’m sorry I sometimes put my foot in my mouth.”
Noah passed an arm around Maribelle’s shoulders and winked at Liam. “It doesn’t matter, we really don’t care. Liam was just saying. We know it’s hard for someone outside the family. Come. I’ll walk you to the gate.”
He left with Maribelle. The twin girls exchanged glances.
Emma was the first to ask. “What was that?”
They were in protection mode. Both girls crowded their remaining brother.
Olivia squinted her eyes at Liam but Emma was the most suspicious. “What a sudden change of mind, isn’t it?”
Liv nodded. “Isn’t she boring and blah-blah-blah?”
They both loved Maribelle and they didn’t trust their brothers when girls were the topic.
Olivia poked her brother’s large chest. “You are not going to do what I think you’ve just set.”
Liam whispered with rounded eyes. “I have no idea of what you are talking about.” He made his better impersonation of 'I'm offended’.
Emma snorted and leaned towards him. “Let me help you with that. Phyllis Jones and dad.”
Olivia added helpfully. “That beautiful girl who has wavy brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. And a body to die for, according to your own words. Can you remember her?”
Emma exchanged glances with Olivia and completed. “Yes, that girl who used to be our best friend.”
Olivia growled. “Because she isn’t our friend anymore, thanks to you and Noah.”
Liam made puppy eyes at his sisters and put his hand flat on his heart. “I’m hurt. I’ve learned my lesson, sis.”
Olivia shook her head. “I pretty much doubt it.”
Emma nodded. “So do I. But I’m feeling generous today so let me remind you. The last time you two,” she made quotes in the air, “shared” a girlfriend, dad grounded you so hard that you nearly got crazy.”
Liam winced. “I do my best to leave bad moments behind but you always come with them. Whenever I’m about to forget them for good BLAST! There you come. Bad of you, Em”
Emma snorted. “Do you want me to feel sorry for you? You must be kidding.”
Olivia had no pity on the frightened face of her brother either. She had lifted a hand and was enumerating slowly, counting on her fingers. “No running in the evening, no climbing the training walls, no swimming in the lake, no rope course…”
Emma blew the mercy shot. “No video games for a month.”
Liam shuddered. “Dad can be very cruel. And you two can be very mean.”
Emma shook her head. “Nope. You two were the mean ones. Liv and I helped you, if I can recall. Your situation could have been pretty worse if we hadn’t talked Phyllis’s bro out of punching your noses. You would have taken the punching like two little lambs because dad would never leave you out of the house if anyone even got a little suspicious about your real strength.”
Olivia clicked her tongue. “Yeah. And it would spread so fast in the school. Be thankful. You owe us that.”
“Yeah. It was supposed to be two months without video games. The exact time of your little dating game with our poor friend.”
Emma started to go down the steps. “Liv is right.”
“Of course I am. Phy
l stopped talking to us when she discovered your bad.”
“What else could be the outcome? She never believed we didn’t know it.”
“How could she? We’re always together.”
“You two are a deceitful pair.”
“You did something bad, really bad.”
Liam’s smile was mischievous. “She was right. You did know, remember?”
Emma turned, shooting daggers at his brother. “How can you have such a poker face, Liam? You two told us the story mere five minutes before she barged into our house with her brother thirsty for blood.”
He lifted his shoulders apologetically. “I didn’t say you knew since the beginning.”
Olivia was getting irritated too. She was always the one to talk Emma out of her nerves, but not that time. “Come off it! You two didn’t want to face dad alone and put us in the mix.”
Liam waved his hand.”Stop whining. We cleaned your bedroom for a month after that.”
Emma's voice was sarcastic. "Oh, yes, you did.”
“But only when the girls were there to help you and drool all over you two.”
Emma snorted. “Remember Anna Anderson?”
Olivia impersonated the other girl’s voice and mannerisms. “Oh, poor Liam. Can I help you? You look so confused among this girlie stuff!”
Emma nodded definitely. “You two are gonna find a girl to play you like a violin one day."
Liv clapped her hands. "I'm gonna be on the first row for the show."
Emma high-fived her sister. "You can count me in! Just beside Phyl."
Liam's eyes were open wide. "You're a crazy bunch of revengeful chicks! Mom and Dad are not gonna like it."
Liv lifted one eyebrow. "Who's gonna tell her? You, Mister let-me-kiss-you-just-after-my-brother-did-it?"
Emma had a mischievous look on her face when she winked at her sister. “Let it go, sis. He's entitled to be the big brother helping mom to discipline us." She tilted her head and was smiling when she shot. "You tell mom, Liam. I’m telling Maribelle and all the girls in the school what you did to Phyllis.”
Liam looked really afraid. “You can’t do that! We won’t find any date! ”
The two sisters high-fived. “That’s the spirit!”
They left the field walking side by side, arms wrapped and chuckling. Liam was just after them, begging. "You can't do it. Come on, Think better. Phyl preferred to let it go. She didn't want all the school knowing she had dated two guys at the same time. You're gonna hurt her feelings."
Liv turned to Liam and poked his shoulder, angrily. "You and Noah hurt her feelings and we lost a good friend.”
Emma was really mad at her brother. “How can you say such a thing, Liam? She never dated two guys at the same time.”
Olivia was spitting fire. “She was trapped into your cheating faces because you two are just like two drops of the same weak water.”
Liam stopped short, offended. “Are we the weak water? Can you tell me why, please? We are siblings. If we’re weak, so are you!”
Emma and Olivia grinned.
Emma just tapped her lips with her forefinger, tilting her head to the side. “Make an effort to remember who couldn’t stand the water tank test?”
Liam opened his mouth wide. “We could stand! We just didn’t feel like staying in that boring tank any longer!”
Olivia and Emma exchanged glances and chorused. “You two left the water and we stayed there for two more hours! Mom took us out to eat. We could have stayed there forever. Weaker than us, that’s what you are!”
The girls started to walk again and he was hot on their heels. “Okay, whatever. Just don’t tell the girls, please.”
Emma said curtly. “You two have it coming."
Yet to convince his sisters not to ‘disgrace’ them, Liam was ready to beg and grovel. “Come on, sis. Be nice. I’ll clean your bedroom this week.”
The girls only chuckled and shook their heads. “Try harder, Liam. I’m sure you can be a bit more convincing.”
Outside, a smiling Noah was waiting, leaning on their double cabin truck. Armadi had bought it to the twins on their sixteenth birthday. He offered the possibility of two cheaper cars but they declined. “We’re always together, dad. It’s better a beautiful truck where we can put the bikes, the boats, all the stuff we need you to carry for us.”
Armadi nodded. The idea had merit. The teens were in many different kinds of extreme sports and the girls as well. Until they turned sixteen, the boys would be the girls’ sure ride, so it was a very nice idea indeed.
The truck was cobalt blue. It had high wheels and soft leather seats. They loved the big vehicle.
Noah slapped his twin’s back. “We have a date tonight, bro.”
Liam shook his head swiftly. “No, Count me out.”
Emma and Olivia high-fived and got into the car chuckling. It was their intention since the very beginning. They lowered the window to watch the show.
Noah was standing in front of Liam. He frowned. “Are you okay?
Liam lifted both hands. “I’m fine. I’m better than fine. I feel a million dollars today.”
Noah shook his head. “I don’t think so. Because I thought we had an agreement.”
“Agreement? I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Noah was agape. “What’s going on with you?”
His twin grimaced. “There’s nothing going on right now.” He glanced swiftly at the car where the two girls were watching their conversation attentively.
Noah nodded his understanding. “I see. Can you help me with that?”
Liam lifted his fingers and repeated their sister’s words counting on them. “Phyllis Jones and dad."
Noah blushed and glanced at the girls. “Not a good memory.”
Olivia and Emma didn’t even pretend they weren’t paying attention to their conversation.
Emma pointed a finger at Noah. “I bet you were about to do it again.”
Olivia put her head outside the window. “Maribelle Atkins has a date with you.”
Her twin added angrily. “She didn’t apply for a promotion.”
Olivia nodded. “Set a date with one and get two.”
Liam glared at his twin. “I totally agree with you, girls. She’s all yours, Noah. Only yours.” He jumped into the truck and Noah walked around it to get to the driver’s seat.
They had an agreement about the car. Each teen would drive it every other week. That one was Noah’s.
Emma and Olivia were still chuckling when they arrived home.
Noah had spent all his skill to try to convince Liam. He hadn’t managed that so far. A very serious Liam only repeated, “Count me out!" to an increasingly frustrated Noah.
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They lived in a small town, close to the woods of Montana.
Leah was an architect. She was very successful. Her love for nature together with her passion for the environment protection had given her most deserved fame in her field of expertise. She was the name everyone who wanted a house in the country thought of. In fact, any building located where nature needed to be preserved was a potential client for her.
Armadi was a geneticist.
They had met when Leah was attending a lecture. After the event, they talked and it had been love at first sight. They started to date and few months later the most amazing dinner ended with a proposal. Leah had become deliriously happy and accepted without a blink. They got married and went on their honeymoon.
They decided for a place where their passion for nature could be me fully. They went to the jungle in India.
The couple had many days of love and took thousands of pictures.
Armadi was a famous scientist. He had an amazing lab in the middle of the Amazon forest, in Brazil.
It was located on a property he had surrounded by nature. Exactly what they so much loved. It was in the farm house that he offered Leah a surprising possibility.
They were sitting in a wide swing on the porch. They loved to watch the sunrise and that’s what they were doing. Red and pink brushes were already coloring the blue sky.
Leah sighed happily. “I’m the happiest woman in the world. You are just amazing, Paul. Who else would invest in a house in such a paradise place like this?”
Armadi kissed her hair and whispered. “I’d love to have the perfect kids with you.”
Leah giggled. “We are amazing, love, but no kid is perfect.”
He shook his head. “I can make the perfect babies for us.”
She lifted her eyebrows. “You are very confident.”
He smiled widely. “It’s not what I meant.”
She snorted. “No? You have just let me down.”
He stood up and offered her his hand. “Stop kidding. Come along. I need to show you something.”
Armadi took his bride to the lab. After driving for some minutes into the forest they had to leave the car.
Leah was dumbfounded.
“Where are we going, Paul? We’ve never been this far into the forest.”
“The place I’m about to show you is a secret. It was built here so that I could work without running the risk of being asked lots of questions.”
Leah frowned. “Why would you be afraid of questions?”
“I’m a geneticist, Leah. I’m not bragging, but my name is one of the most famous in my field.”
She snickered. “Don’t tell me. I was attending one of your lectures when we met, remember?”
“Sure. Okay. Everything I do cause people to lift their noses to get a sniff.”
She was starting to understand. He helped her climbing a higher tree root and continued. “I’ve been working with things that can be very attractive to many people.”
Leah nodded. “I read you have been able to isolate genes.”
“It’s common ground for every geneticist that isolating them is just the beginning of the real work. I dedicate to studying their ability to make links with receptors.”
She hissed. “TMI”
Armadi laughed. “All right. So, it can attract the attention of military people.”
She stopped short. “I’d never known you were involved with them.”
He shook his head. “I’m not and I intend to keep it this way.”
The geneticist pointed at a large structure ahead of them. It was built like a hut. Nothing more than the average houses in the area. “We’re going there.”
They walked some more feet and Armadi stopped in front of a wooden door with no lock. “Ready?”
Leah shrugged. “Sure.”
They entered the hut. It had a simple decoration. There was a rugged table and two chairs were near it. A cot with clean sheets and a pillow on it was in a corner. There were a stove and a stack of wood piled beside it. Everything was clean but it was evident that the little house wasn’t used frequently.
Leah turned her eyes to her husband questioningly. “Do you come here to relax? I mean, when you need your alone time”
He looked around as if seeing the place for the first time. “I’ve never thought of using it for that. It looks the perfect place, though.”
She lifted an eyebrow.
Armadi chuckled. “Sorry. Let me show you what we came here for.”
He walked to the cot and Leah followed his actions suspiciously. Had she married a looney?
He had put his hand under the thin mattress lifting it a bit. He let it fall again just after. The scientist pulled out his cell phone from his pocket.
“You won’t have reception here, Armadi.”
“Oh, of course not.” He typed something and she heard a soft humming under her feet.
“Would you come here, love?”
Everything was making her nervous but nothing had prepared her for what happened.
The hut didn’t have a floor. It was a common thing to the poor houses in the forest area; it was simply the ground itself.
The humming she had heard got a bit higher and the ground seemed to collapse into the ground. She shrieked and put her hand over her mouth.
Leah wasn’t a single child. She had a brother but the age difference between them had never made possible an intimate relationship. Mark was a protector. He would die for her but they didn’t talk frequently. In fact, she had been taken from her feet by Armadi and had married and left for her honeymoon without telling her brother any of that. They would meet for Christmas and Leah had decided it was the best moment to introduce her husband to Mark. Nobody knew where she was.
The collapsed floor opened to bright light below. She started to tremble. “What is it Armadi? Why is it a secret? What do you do here?”
The scientist lifted an eyebrow. “You look frightened.”
She hissed. “Because I am! I don’t know you that much, to be true. You have a hut in the middle of nowhere whose floor collapses like a movie. As far as I know it could be anything.”
Armadi shook his head. “I love you. I’d never do you any harm.”
She winced. “No, I didn’t think you would. But I’m afraid of what you do there.”
He smiled. “It’s a lab. It’s where I work on my project. It’s hidden for the reasons I told you while we were walking here.”
It calmed her down a little. He had spoken about it indeed. “Okay. Perhaps, I’m overreacting.”
“No problem. I know it’s surprising. Come along.”
He offered her his hand and they went down the ladder to the lab.
It was an amazing facility. Big bucks had been invested in it.
Leah was agape. “It’s sci-fi.”
He shook his head. “No, it isn’t. It’s technology. It’s science, I can give you that, but there’s nothing fictional here.”
She walked around and finally turned to him. “Why did you bring me here? I know nothing of science.”
He took her hand smiling. “Nobody knows about this facility. People around here are cool about it. They don’t pay much attention to the crazy American scientist.”
Leah smiled. “Well, it’s in your land so you are entitled to do whatever you want here.”
Paul shook his head. “Not exactly. This lab is a secret and it must be a secret forever.”
Leah lifted an eyebrow. “Why is that so?”
“Because the possible outcome of my work is dangerous. If it ends in the wrong hands it will break the nature balance.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“First, because you’re my wife and I don’t want secrets between us, and that’s what it was until now.”
She grinned. “The right words, Professor.”
He kissed her knuckles. “Second, because I want to offer you my tough work of so many yea
She looked into his stormy gray eyes and repeated his words, dumbfounded. “Offer me your work… What do you mean, Paul? You said it can be dangerous.”
“Let me explain things.” He waved his hand around. “The most of my work has never been published.”
She nodded slowly, urging him to continue with her head, and so he did. “I’ve developed a special technique. With that, I can join different characteristics to a receptor.”
“I don’t understand your jargon, Paul.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry. It’s quite simple to understand. I can take the best of other species and paste to the human gene string, creating someone new, perfect, with special abilities.”
She opened her mouth to speak but he interrupted her with a finger to her lips. “Listen to me, Leah. I can make sci-fi become science without fiction. I can create a baby better than any Spiderman.”
She remembered his words in the porch. “A perfect kid.”
He nodded. “No genetic disease, no hidden illness, skills of many different animals too. I can put the pieces together.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“I want to have children with you. I WILL have children with you, but you can decide to have special children or ordinary ones. It’s up to you.”
Leah tilted her head and smiled. “I’ll love to have your babies.”
He grinned. “Yeah. Having girls just like you, with your chocolate brown eyes, your honey hair would make me the happiest man on earth.”
“I’d like to have boys just like you, Paul. Your black hair, your stormy eyes. Handsome and intelligent boys.”
“We can. I can draw them, the way you prefer.”
“Isn’t it dangerous?”
He shook his head. “No, it isn’t. The babies will be perfect.”
She hugged him and rested her head on his chest. “Okay.”
He pulled her away from him and bent his knees to be level with her eyes. “Are you sure of it?”
“I trust you with my life, Paul.”
Unhappily, things didn’t go that smoothly. The special kids demanded a lot of their mother’s body.
Leah got very sick. Her mind was mighty affected and she got a serious case of schizophrenia followed by amnesia. She wanted to run away. She convinced a servant of Armadi’s house to help her.
Her helper was a kind-hearted young woman who believed in Leah’s delusion. She believed Armadi was a monster, a killer. She agreed with helping her boss’s wife to escape.
Leah needed to take lots of medicine because of all the havoc the babies were playing in her body. She would die without the medicines and so would the twin babies in her womb. The drugs made her sleepy so, the woman helped her to stop taking them so that she could run.
Armadi didn’t know how badly his wife’s mind was affected. He understood it only when she jumped the bedroom window in a cloudy dark night and ran away.
He got desperate when the cook told him about the pills she had found in the maid’s bedroom. The woman had been collecting and hiding them so that no one noticed Leah was not taking the drugs.
It made him crazy of fear. His wife would die without them and so would the babies.
A mad run after Leah and the maid started.
The woman climbed a tree to hide from their persecutors and fell, breaking her neck and dying.
Leah’s understanding was so heavily affected that she didn’t get the woman was dead. She dragged the dead body to a hole near the river that ran in Armadi’s property and entered in the muddy shelter too.
It was the place where Armadi found her. Completely unaware of her surroundings, she passed out on him.
For months, he fought to save her and the twins. She wouldn’t come from her comatose state. Close to the babies’ birth time things started to change. Leah started to call Mark, her brother, and couldn’t stand Armadi’s presence.
She got terrified near him. In her mind, he was a stranger who could kill her.
She was haunted by nightmares where the events she couldn’t remember would become a totally different story that scared her.
Armadi took Leah to her brother, the only person she called. It had been the hardest decision of his life, but the scientist lacked choices. Her mind was shattered and he was afraid she would never be back to her own feet. Feeling guilty, he buried himself in the farm in the Amazon forest.
He went out of Leah’s life but he didn’t give up of their love and the family they wanted to build together.
Armadi would never risk Leah again, though. So, moved by the dream of having a family, he created an artificial womb where Emma and Olivia grew until their birth.
Far from Brazil and the Amazon forest, Leah gave birth to the twin boys. When Noah and Liam were born, Leah was afraid of her own babies but she didn’t know why.
They had been born the natural way. Almost, because it had been so fast that she didn’t even got to the hospital.
Leah’s brother Mark, and Anna, her sister-in-law, had been the surrogate parents for Liam and Noah since their birth.
Time made evident the twins had the special skills their parents had dreamed of.
Armadi had kept close surveillance of his wife and his sons. He was patiently waiting for her recovery.
When she was finally back to her life, five years had passed by, but she still had no memories of her husband, her decisions, and the dream life she had wanted to share with him.
Until the day when Armadi went to her.
He explained all the details her mind had hid from her for those five years and her amnesia finally subsided. She remembered everything and they could finally be joined as a family.
Olivia and Emma had been living with Armadi and met Leah for the first time when they were four years old. Noah and Liam met their father for the first time at five when the family was finally reunited.
Armadi had moved back to the US with the girls. The family was living together at last. Bursting with happiness and pride, Leah had drawn the perfect house for her perfect kids.
They were thicker than water.
However, nobody could know about the twins’ special abilities. It was dangerous. Armadi had never published his work either. The world would never know he was the best geneticist ever. He didn’t want the recognition. He was very afraid of the use of his work for military purposes so, he told no one.
He wanted a family and that he had. It was more than enough.
Armadi and Leah’s twins lived a rather ordinary life.
Noah and Liam, Emma and Olivia were part of the chess club of the school and the athletics team too. They had very strict rules to follow because of that. Nobody should get to know what they were able to do. Participating in the school activities was fine but only within the normalcy range.
Well, not really. They needed lots of physical activity and they loved the adrenaline.
Rafting, canoeing, rock climbing, parkour, tracking, hiking. They were the outdoorsy type. Their animals’ skills gave them extra strength, extra speed, extra sight and so many others they were yet to discover.
Armadi only smiled when they asked about the abilities. “Live and find out. That’s the most amazing side of all this.”
Leah would nod. “Every time you come home excited because of a new discovery I feel it was worth the effort.”
Liam always pouted. “Okay. We can go through the struggle to please you two.”
Emma would slap him. “Stop it, whining baby. I think the discovery is exciting.”
Noah would go for defending his twin. “You are nosey, sis. Checking things to find out stuff is your kick.”
Emma would shrug and Olivia would giggle. “That’s why she’s the school reporter.”
Leah and Armadi loved their ribbing.
Since the very first moment when the siblings met they had found they had lots in common. Strong friendship was born instantly. They were always supportive, helpful and made a closed front if the
They were excellent students, had very high grades and were popular. Nobody could ever guess there was something uncommon going on.
The point in living an ordinary life was unquestionable as nobody dreamed of becoming a test subject in a government facility.
Armadi had made it clear enough. Who would argue with a scientist about science matters? Nobody, of course.
Even if lab made, they were very different among themselves.
Emma was competitive to the most. She loved challenges and dares. You could count on her to turn a simple thing like eating breakfast into a competition.
Olivia was rational and had always the best insight of matters. She would never let you down. Whenever needed she could help everyone see things the right way. “Let’s look at this from another angle”, was her favorite sentence.
Noah was smart and frequently amazed his siblings with brilliant ideas. He was the right guy for puzzles and riddles. No one could match him.
Liam was the most warm-hearted. He was ready to help whoever needed at any time. He was also the first one to make a joke. He loved practical jokes. His siblings were his favorite targets but he was never mean. It was for fun and it usually ended with lots of laughter in the house.
In the school, everyone knew they were a single front. They had gotten into school at the same time because of Leah’s amnesia.
The twins studied together, practiced sports together, ate together and were always together.
Friends were shared and everyone loved them. They were the perfect babies turned into the perfect teens.
Really? Of course not! They were like any other teens! Their friends knew it, their family knew it, their teachers knew it. The only problem to those who spent time with them was that nobody knew who was who.
Liam and Noah crossed the large doors of the school smiling. Jill greeted them. “Hey, guys. Who is who today?”
They grinned mischievously. “Guess.”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t fight lost battles.”
They chuckled. “Yeah. Don’t you even want to give it a try?
The girl snickered and shook her head. “Come off it! Tell me, please. Who is Noah and who is Liam?
Brian Holmes got to the small group. He passed his arm over his girlfriend’s shoulders. “They won’t tell you, Jill. Just see their clothes. Jeans, grey t-shirt, red sneakers.”
Jill sighed. “You’re right. Dressing alike, prank day.”
The twins snorted. “You take all the fun out of it, Jill. Try to guess, please.”
Olivia got near and slapped his head lightly. “He’s Liam.”
Jill snickered. “Thanks. And who are you?”
Everybody laughed. “I’m Olivia. Emma is already warming up for the track.”
Brian got excited. “She’ll make the state competitions. I’m sure of it!”
The twins exchanged glances. Noah shrugged. “I wouldn’t count on it.”
Jill lifted her eyebrows. “Hey, guy! She’s your sister. You should be rooting for her.”
“Oh, I am.”
Liam came to his twin help. “Don’t take him wrong, Jill. We all support Em.”
Olivia completed nodding. “Yeah, we do. The thing is we don’t believe she really wants it.”
Jill was agape. “Why! It’s bad news to the coach, you know?”
Olivia lifted a hand. “Just don’t spread the news. Let her tell him herself, will you?”
The girl shook her head. “I just don’t get Emma. Everyone is sure she wants to be an athlete.”
Brian chuckled. “Oh, you’re right Jill. She’s the most competitive person in the school.”
Noah didn’t like the comment. It didn’t sound like a compliment. He frowned and questioned Brian. “What do you mean, man?”
The other guy just shrugged. “She is always fighting to be the best and it doesn’t matter what the subject is.”
Noah deflated. He wouldn’t describe Emma better. “Okay, I can give you that.”
Liam added calmly. “It doesn’t mean she wants to be an athlete.”
“No, otherwise she would also want to be a writer, a scientist, a mathematician.”
Jill lifted a hand. “Okay, Liv. We all know you’re the best.”
Olivia blushed. “I didn’t mean to brag about anything.”
The couple shrugged. “See you in the field.” Brian waved and they left.
The twins exchanged glances. “Emma will let people down when she gives up the state competitions.”
“It’s something she has to do. We all know of it.”
Liam shook his head. “I don’t think it’s fair to the other girls. She wins everyone and when the moment for making the State comes she gives up.”
Olivia thought a little. “It sounds arrogant to me.”
Noah nodded. “People may believe she thinks herself so good that it doesn’t matter for her if she smashes other people’s dreams.”
Liam bent his head sadly. “I guess she’ll lose some friends.”
Olivia murmured. “She’ll break when it happens. She loves the girls of the tracking team.”
The two boys took Olivia’s sides and put their arms over her shoulders. “We’re here for her, Liv.”
And as a single front they walked to the field.
Every single morning they needed to tell people who each was. Once said, it would make things easier to everyone around them.
Noah and Liam loved to wear similar clothes and spend the day making people try to guess who was who as they had just done. It was their favorite joke. They couldn’t make it in the family, though. Their parents and siblings were never misled. So, when they pulled the prank, Olivia and Emma would spend the day helping people to see who each was. Even though it would make people laugh all day long.
They had chosen the competition day to do it because everyone was mixed together. The event pulled everyone out of their ordinary tasks and classrooms. It was nice.
Emma was with the other girls of the tracking team.
The twins found a place to sit. People greeted them like always. “Hey, peas.”
Noah hated it. “Peas in a pod.”
Liam chuckled. “They aren’t very creative, are they?”
The yelling and shouting and screaming of people pulled them to look at the track field.
Everybody was standing, to see the final steps of the fast track.
“Yeah!” Emma screamed and punched the air. She had just crossed the line but she didn’t seem a bit tired. Her honey hair was tied in a high ponytail. Some wisps had escaped from the scrunchie but she was much too excited to care.
Emma liked running but she didn’t see herself as a professional athlete. The girl was the best in the school’s tracking team. She was appointed for the State youth games because of that. It was cool, but not her life dream. Not to mention that her parents would never allow her to win in a way that could bring too much attention to the siblings.
“Too much exposition”, her father had said.
”Dangerous”, her mother added.
Emma didn’t mind a bit. She was fine with that.
She knew she wasn’t an ordinary teenager. She had been cool at telling the tracking team coach she didn’t want to go further in the athletics career. She had done it just before the track.
The guy had been devastated. “Emma, you must be kidding.”
“No, Coach. I’m not. I love running but it’s not my life dream.”
The second in the team had just snorted. “Nice of you to tell us now.”
Emma turned to the other girl. She was surprised. “I’m sorry, Helen. I didn’t know it would bother you.”
The girl stood and put her hands on her hips. “Listen, Miss Champion. While we were working hard you were laughing and making jokes
She had never been Emma’s friend, not really, but so much envy was shocking.
Phyllis Jones stood up from the bench. “Take it easy, Helen. She is energetic and good humored. It doesn’t mean she was not taking things seriously.”
“Energetic, you said? Come off it! She likes to laugh at our efforts!”
Emma was agape. “It’s not true. I know it’s hard work for you.”
Helen pointed at her and looked around searching for the faces of the other girls. “Did you hear what she said? Hard work FOR US. It isn’t hard work for you, right? Just for the ordinary people much below your prowess.”
Sophie touched Helen’s arm lightly and tried to appease her friend. “She’s the best, Helen. If she steps out you are in. Why are you so bothered?”
The girl was furious. She pulled her arm out of Sophie’s reach and growled. “I don’t want to be her substitution! I’m good enough.”
Phyllis tried to talk her out of her rage rampant. “Absolutelly. You are more than enough, Helen.”
The girl turned angry eyes at the other. “Shut the trap. You’re her doormat. I don’t need your pity.”
The Coach was so out of his game because of Emma’s announcement that he couldn’t really notice the huge problem bubbling high and high just below his nose. Suddenly he blinked twice and woke up from his reverie. “Stop it. We’ve bagged prizes for our school. We are all a good team.”
The other girls nodded.
The coach clapped his hands. “Okay, girls. “We’ve got something important to do today. Go there and do your best!”
It was a short track. Emma loved the adrenaline and the feeling. She didn’t even think about the jealousy and envy surrounding her.
Once more she won.
She was glad she had announced she was not going to the State games. Helen could have her place in the team. Emma was really done. It would dust the edges or not, but she couldn’t stop the other’s bad feelings. That was something Helen herself had to work on.
Emma’s passion was of another kind. She loved investigating, interviewing, being nosey, as her brother Noah liked to say. She was okay with his teasing. It was not far from the truth and she was honest enough to accept some good-natured critics.
The girl’s schoolmates cheered and hooted for her victory. She was enjoying the adrenaline and that was all. She had won for just a bit. She had to control her body every second of the track to keep their secret. That was her real challenge. Winning was not that important.
Emma showered, said goodbye to her team mates and went for her siblings.
The girl’s family always attended Emma’s competitions.
That specific day, Armadi was out of town and would arrive just after. Leah was at home giving the last touches on a project.
Only the twins had been there to back her up.
They could never know what had happened before the competition though.
Olivia was polishing her nails looking bored. Noah was texting on his cell phone and Liam was attentively watching the girls jump with a smile.
The twins were always nonchalant at Emma’s demonstration of speed but the always charming Liam just loved to be among his sisters’ friends. ‘Good for the eyes’, he said.
Noah took his attention from the cell phone and chuckled at Olivia. “You are the only girl who isn’t jumping and screaming.”
Olivia lifted her eyebrows. “Really? Am I supposed to? Just tell me why? You know that any of us could…”
Liam’s easygoing stance changed quickly. “Shut the trap, sis.”
The girl opened her mouth to argue but thought better. “Yeah, whatever. How long will we have to stay?”
Liam waved at the people gathered around them. “Are you done with taking pictures?”
Noah nodded. “Aren’t you supposed to?”
“I’ve already taken many. It’s my duty as the school’s paper reporter.”
Liam repeated pompously. “It’s my duty as the school paper’s reporter.”
Olivia would always take pictures of everything at her lenses’ reach. Her camera was her best friend. (Her own words!) It wasn’t an obligation. Photography was her passion.
Noah giggled. “What a sacrifice!”
“Poor thing. I feel like holding her hand, Noah.”
She scrunched her nose. “So funny! I’m about to die of laughter.”
The boys chuckled. She was the photographer and Emma was the reporter. Liam was the editor. People loved reading his texts, always full of funny passages. Nobody in the school would take it from them. They were simply the best team ever! Poor Noah was always chosen to carry stuff. The twins were always together, just like that.
Liam asked curiously. “Are you making one of your photo books on the event?”
Olivia had photo books piled up in her room. She would develop only the best pics. Each book had a cover title.
“Nope. It’s not for me. I’m preparing a photo book as a surprise gift for Emma. All the best photos since she started tracking.”
“Wow! She’ll love it!”
“I know it, right.”
Noah winced. “What happened to you? You are the rudest ever.”
Olivia squinted her eyes. “You know it.”
The two boys exchanged glances. Liam tried to change topics. “What about the pics of our last trip to Brazil?”
Talking about their yearly trip to the Amazon forest was not the twins’ favorite topic, though.
The girl nodded slowly. “I have some pics to develop. The most amazing scenes from our hiking in the forest.”
“It was fun!”
Liam chuckled. “Those monkeys loved you dearly, Liv.”
“They were just curious about the camera. You made them follow me because you had put those funny berries in my backpack and they smelled them.”
Liam shook his head. “Oh, no, sis. Do not belittle yourself! You’re a lovable irresistible girl. The tiny guys stood no chance against your charm.”
Olivia couldn’t help chuckling. “You know what? I totally agree with you.”
The siblings started to laugh.
Everything was just common banter among youth.
Armadi had made them into extraordinarily skilled people but they were teens. The twins were the final product of his awesome work. Genes from different animals had been assembled to Armadi and Leah’s genetic material to grant their children a healthy life. The scientist was careful to keep them under close observation. Just the follow-up, but essential nonetheless.
Armadi had his mind to protecting his family and nobody should know how special his four children were. As a science scholar, he knew pretty well how dangerous it could be to the kids if their uncommon characteristics were opened to curious eyes. Emma’s tracking was carefully monitored.
The scientist’s children lived the commonest of lives, like any other teenager, but going to the Amazon forest once a year was unavoidable. Armadi and Leah needed to be sure their babies were doing fine.
Noah had seen some of the pics Olivia had taken and they were amazing indeed. Going home to develop them should be an itch the girl needed to scratch. He shrugged. “Okay. Let’s go home. There’s nothing else to see, anyway.”
They stood to leave but were stopped by Maribelle Atkins. The girl was intent on having a date with one of the twins.
She was a beautiful girl. Lean limbs, beautiful blond hair, electric blue eyes. She was always wearing the last fashion and her father was a famous lawyer.
Maribelle was one of the most popular girls of the school and she couldn’t understand how the most popular boys didn’t want to be among her faithful followers. At least that was Emma and Olivia’s light-hearted opinion.
The truth was the teens were as interested in going out with her as they were in going through the annual tests their father forced them to perform. I mean, not at all! They used to say she was too perfect for their liking. “Boring”, Noah had said once.
Behind the girl’s back Olivia pretended to gag. Liam mouthed “Oh, love”, batting his lashes.
The girl continued. “You’re the best in everything you do. I’m your fandom president of honor.”
Liv rolled her eyeballs. The girl was going hard.
He made an effort to respond to the compliment and mumbled. “Uh, thanks?”
Noah was totally uneasy. His siblings’ faces weren’t helpful at all.
He was having a hard time trying to focus on the beautiful girl in front of him.
Behind her, Liam had taken Olivia’s arm and they were pretending to walk down the aisle in a goofy wedding ceremony, performing the funniest geese walk. Olivia was pretending to cry and dab at her eyes.
He felt his belly cramp with the effort to hold up. Having a fit of laughter on Maribelle’s face wasn’t cool at all. Although it was bubbling, pressing to come out.
Finally, Noah’s siblings won the unspoken challenge.
They had him unable to control himself another single second. He exploded in laughter. He bent at the knees and shook his head, trying to hold up. He shouldn’t mind trying. His body insisted on shaking hard and the trembles kept on. Laughter resounded and many who were leaving turned at the sound.
People only smiled. Some even scoffed. The twins were quite well known. Their clothes pointed at prank day. It was a rule if they were dressing alike. It was just a matter of waiting to laugh. People smiled knowing it was always good hearted and never mean. They were funny and everyone enjoyed it.
Offended, Maribelle slapped him on the shoulder. “Are you crazy? Why are you laughing like that? I didn’t say a funny word at all!”
He watched Noah getting hold of himself and only then she recalled how the twins were wearing. “It’s prank day!” She shouted and turned fast.
The only thing she saw was Olivia knelt on the large step tying her sneakers while Liam texted on the cell.
She turned to Noah, puzzled. “I can’t see anything. Are you laughing at me?”
He shook his head. “Never. I’m laughing with you, not at you. I’m happy, that’s all. My sister just won. Maybe she gets to the state games. It’s a moment of happiness for the family.”
Maribelle smiled, a little appeased. She loved Emma. She could relate with happiness at her victory. “Yeah, it’s true. Are you going out to celebrate?”
Olivia mouthed to Noah. “You owe me one”,
She tapped on Maribelle’s shoulder. “Excuse me.”
The girl turned smiling “Sure, Liv. What’s up?”
“We have an appointment with the Doctor.”
She wasn’t lying. At least, not much. They truly had to get home to meet their father, who was a Doctor, so a little white lie wasn’t a big fat lie, right?
Maribelle held Noah’s arm asking worriedly. “Are you feeling bad, Liam? Do you need help?”
The real Liam poked her other shoulder. “I’m Liam. He’s Noah.”
The girl blushed. She giggled, self-conscious. “Oh, I’m sorry. I never know who is who between the two of you.”
“Would it make any difference for you?” The acidic comment had come from a recently showered Emma. She was standing behind the group with a mischievous smile on her face.
She was wearing her favorite jeans, a white t-shirt and her red backpack was hanging from her shoulder. Her earphones were around her neck and the enhanced hearing of the twins could hear the same song she had been listening all month long. Emma was crazy for the band and their last success had become her only song.
Emma loved teasing Maribelle. No special motive. The beautiful girl was Emma’s friend and she was usually able to take it with laughter.
Emma was also foxy and her always good results at the tracking as well as her good grades made her one of the popular girls in the school, too. She had no reason to be jealous. It was just because. A funny play between two good friends.
Maribelle knew Emma was a friend you could trust. She would never be mean on purpose. That specific subject was a little sensitive though.
The girl was really interested in the boys, but like everyone else she had a hard time to catch who was each.
The result of Emma’s teasing was not funny.
Maribelle was opening and closing her mouth doing the best impersonation of a goldfish ever. Emma’s crude comment had taken her out of her game. Her eyes were misty.
Emma felt really bad. “Good job, Emma. Hurting another one and it’s just morning”, she berated herself. She lifted both hands and frowned. It had become clear her friend couldn’t deal with the joke that time. “I’m sorry I sometimes put my foot in my mouth.”
Noah passed an arm around Maribelle’s shoulders and winked at Liam. “It doesn’t matter, we really don’t care. Liam was just saying. We know it’s hard for someone outside the family. Come. I’ll walk you to the gate.”
He left with Maribelle. The twin girls exchanged glances.
Emma was the first to ask. “What was that?”
They were in protection mode. Both girls crowded their remaining brother.
Olivia squinted her eyes at Liam but Emma was the most suspicious. “What a sudden change of mind, isn’t it?”
Liv nodded. “Isn’t she boring and blah-blah-blah?”
They both loved Maribelle and they didn’t trust their brothers when girls were the topic.
Olivia poked her brother’s large chest. “You are not going to do what I think you’ve just set.”
Liam whispered with rounded eyes. “I have no idea of what you are talking about.” He made his better impersonation of 'I'm offended’.
Emma snorted and leaned towards him. “Let me help you with that. Phyllis Jones and dad.”
Olivia added helpfully. “That beautiful girl who has wavy brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. And a body to die for, according to your own words. Can you remember her?”
Emma exchanged glances with Olivia and completed. “Yes, that girl who used to be our best friend.”
Olivia growled. “Because she isn’t our friend anymore, thanks to you and Noah.”
Liam made puppy eyes at his sisters and put his hand flat on his heart. “I’m hurt. I’ve learned my lesson, sis.”
Olivia shook her head. “I pretty much doubt it.”
Emma nodded. “So do I. But I’m feeling generous today so let me remind you. The last time you two,” she made quotes in the air, “shared” a girlfriend, dad grounded you so hard that you nearly got crazy.”
Liam winced. “I do my best to leave bad moments behind but you always come with them. Whenever I’m about to forget them for good BLAST! There you come. Bad of you, Em”
Emma snorted. “Do you want me to feel sorry for you? You must be kidding.”
Olivia had no pity on the frightened face of her brother either. She had lifted a hand and was enumerating slowly, counting on her fingers. “No running in the evening, no climbing the training walls, no swimming in the lake, no rope course…”
Emma blew the mercy shot. “No video games for a month.”
Liam shuddered. “Dad can be very cruel. And you two can be very mean.”
Emma shook her head. “Nope. You two were the mean ones. Liv and I helped you, if I can recall. Your situation could have been pretty worse if we hadn’t talked Phyllis’s bro out of punching your noses. You would have taken the punching like two little lambs because dad would never leave you out of the house if anyone even got a little suspicious about your real strength.”
Olivia clicked her tongue. “Yeah. And it would spread so fast in the school. Be thankful. You owe us that.”
“Yeah. It was supposed to be two months without video games. The exact time of your little dating game with our poor friend.”
Emma started to go down the steps. “Liv is right.”
“Of course I am. Phy
“What else could be the outcome? She never believed we didn’t know it.”
“How could she? We’re always together.”
“You two are a deceitful pair.”
“You did something bad, really bad.”
Liam’s smile was mischievous. “She was right. You did know, remember?”
Emma turned, shooting daggers at his brother. “How can you have such a poker face, Liam? You two told us the story mere five minutes before she barged into our house with her brother thirsty for blood.”
He lifted his shoulders apologetically. “I didn’t say you knew since the beginning.”
Olivia was getting irritated too. She was always the one to talk Emma out of her nerves, but not that time. “Come off it! You two didn’t want to face dad alone and put us in the mix.”
Liam waved his hand.”Stop whining. We cleaned your bedroom for a month after that.”
Emma's voice was sarcastic. "Oh, yes, you did.”
“But only when the girls were there to help you and drool all over you two.”
Emma snorted. “Remember Anna Anderson?”
Olivia impersonated the other girl’s voice and mannerisms. “Oh, poor Liam. Can I help you? You look so confused among this girlie stuff!”
Emma nodded definitely. “You two are gonna find a girl to play you like a violin one day."
Liv clapped her hands. "I'm gonna be on the first row for the show."
Emma high-fived her sister. "You can count me in! Just beside Phyl."
Liam's eyes were open wide. "You're a crazy bunch of revengeful chicks! Mom and Dad are not gonna like it."
Liv lifted one eyebrow. "Who's gonna tell her? You, Mister let-me-kiss-you-just-after-my-brother-did-it?"
Emma had a mischievous look on her face when she winked at her sister. “Let it go, sis. He's entitled to be the big brother helping mom to discipline us." She tilted her head and was smiling when she shot. "You tell mom, Liam. I’m telling Maribelle and all the girls in the school what you did to Phyllis.”
Liam looked really afraid. “You can’t do that! We won’t find any date! ”
The two sisters high-fived. “That’s the spirit!”
They left the field walking side by side, arms wrapped and chuckling. Liam was just after them, begging. "You can't do it. Come on, Think better. Phyl preferred to let it go. She didn't want all the school knowing she had dated two guys at the same time. You're gonna hurt her feelings."
Liv turned to Liam and poked his shoulder, angrily. "You and Noah hurt her feelings and we lost a good friend.”
Emma was really mad at her brother. “How can you say such a thing, Liam? She never dated two guys at the same time.”
Olivia was spitting fire. “She was trapped into your cheating faces because you two are just like two drops of the same weak water.”
Liam stopped short, offended. “Are we the weak water? Can you tell me why, please? We are siblings. If we’re weak, so are you!”
Emma and Olivia grinned.
Emma just tapped her lips with her forefinger, tilting her head to the side. “Make an effort to remember who couldn’t stand the water tank test?”
Liam opened his mouth wide. “We could stand! We just didn’t feel like staying in that boring tank any longer!”
Olivia and Emma exchanged glances and chorused. “You two left the water and we stayed there for two more hours! Mom took us out to eat. We could have stayed there forever. Weaker than us, that’s what you are!”
The girls started to walk again and he was hot on their heels. “Okay, whatever. Just don’t tell the girls, please.”
Emma said curtly. “You two have it coming."
Yet to convince his sisters not to ‘disgrace’ them, Liam was ready to beg and grovel. “Come on, sis. Be nice. I’ll clean your bedroom this week.”
The girls only chuckled and shook their heads. “Try harder, Liam. I’m sure you can be a bit more convincing.”
Outside, a smiling Noah was waiting, leaning on their double cabin truck. Armadi had bought it to the twins on their sixteenth birthday. He offered the possibility of two cheaper cars but they declined. “We’re always together, dad. It’s better a beautiful truck where we can put the bikes, the boats, all the stuff we need you to carry for us.”
Armadi nodded. The idea had merit. The teens were in many different kinds of extreme sports and the girls as well. Until they turned sixteen, the boys would be the girls’ sure ride, so it was a very nice idea indeed.
The truck was cobalt blue. It had high wheels and soft leather seats. They loved the big vehicle.
Noah slapped his twin’s back. “We have a date tonight, bro.”
Liam shook his head swiftly. “No, Count me out.”
Emma and Olivia high-fived and got into the car chuckling. It was their intention since the very beginning. They lowered the window to watch the show.
Noah was standing in front of Liam. He frowned. “Are you okay?
Liam lifted both hands. “I’m fine. I’m better than fine. I feel a million dollars today.”
Noah shook his head. “I don’t think so. Because I thought we had an agreement.”
“Agreement? I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Noah was agape. “What’s going on with you?”
His twin grimaced. “There’s nothing going on right now.” He glanced swiftly at the car where the two girls were watching their conversation attentively.
Noah nodded his understanding. “I see. Can you help me with that?”
Liam lifted his fingers and repeated their sister’s words counting on them. “Phyllis Jones and dad."
Noah blushed and glanced at the girls. “Not a good memory.”
Olivia and Emma didn’t even pretend they weren’t paying attention to their conversation.
Emma pointed a finger at Noah. “I bet you were about to do it again.”
Olivia put her head outside the window. “Maribelle Atkins has a date with you.”
Her twin added angrily. “She didn’t apply for a promotion.”
Olivia nodded. “Set a date with one and get two.”
Liam glared at his twin. “I totally agree with you, girls. She’s all yours, Noah. Only yours.” He jumped into the truck and Noah walked around it to get to the driver’s seat.
They had an agreement about the car. Each teen would drive it every other week. That one was Noah’s.
Emma and Olivia were still chuckling when they arrived home.
Noah had spent all his skill to try to convince Liam. He hadn’t managed that so far. A very serious Liam only repeated, “Count me out!" to an increasingly frustrated Noah.
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